Product Description

Originally published in 1967, Ngugi's third novel is his best known and most ambitious work. A GRAIN OF WHEAT portrays several characters in a village whose intertwined lives are transformed by the 1952-1960 Emergency in Kenya. As the action follows the village's arrangements for Uhuru (independence) Day, this is a novel of stories within stories, a narrative interwoven with myth as well as allusions to real-life leaders of the nationalist struggle, including Jomo Kenyatta. At the centre of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As events unfold, compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed and loves are tested.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21272 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o is the author of WEEP NOT CHILD (1964), THE RIVER BETWEEN (1965), and PETALS OF BLOOD (1977). Ngugi was chair of the Department of Literature at the University of Nairobi from 1972 to 1977. He left Kenya in 1982 and taught at various universities in the United States before he became professor of comparative literature and performance studies at New York University in 1992.

Customer Reviews

One of Africa's Finest
This is perhaps one of the greatest books by an African author that I have read. It tells the story of a Kenya reaching for Uhuru (freedom). It takes an original structure weaving skilfully between past and present as more and more of the plot is revealed. This is a book without heroes; we see the story from many angles and men whose actions seem heroic from one perspective will often deconstruct the actions when it comes their turn to tell the story. It tells of men who imprisoned in concentration camps for many years with only the thoughts of their wives to keep them going, who come out only to find their wives pregnant by other man. It tells of what price is freedom worth, and whether people actually wish to pay it. The plot revolves around the betrayal of a freedom fighter, Kihika and on one level the book is a quest to find who betrayed him. Mugo, a solitary loner thrust into the spotlight by his heroic actions and resolute silence in the face of British torture is the unwilling protagonist who tries hard to avoid the action. Reminiscent of Camus' Meursault (the Outsider) Mugo is a man who sees little meaning in the struggle, his silence from torture more a feature of his almost existentialist view of life than any belief in Uhuru. Mugo contains dark secrets whose content is gradually revealed to us as the book progresses. The other main character is Gikonyo, and we see his relationship to his wife, how he feels her betrayal and ultimately their story more than any other symbolises Kenya's path to freedom.

From a literary point of view this book is without fault. However the author is a nationalist at heart, he now writes in his native tongue and whilst the anti-colonial resonances are to be expected in novel of this theme, his passing negative references to the East African Indians was a little harsh. Thiongo is a black nationalist (as well as a Marxist) but his black nationalism not the laudable sort that Steve Biko propagated, Thiongo's has racist overtones in it. However even if we left the politics out of the book it would still be a book worth reading for the beauty of the prose and the captivating storyline.

A revealing story
Centered on the pre-Independence Kenyan struggle between the Mau Mau liberation fighters and the British colonial government, A GRAIN OF WHEAT gives a portrayal of the struggle that few writers have ever depicted. One gets a good picture of the Mau Mau fighters, the attitude of the Colonialists, their the detention camps, the nature of the war, the bloody encounters, the ruthlessness of some of the soldiers of Colonial army and the direction to independence for the African continent. Betrayal, hopes and dreams, horrors and loss are all parts of the story.
Like TRIPLE AGENT DOUBLE CROSS, WHEN VICTIMS BECOME KILLERS, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST, we learn that the tragic nature of this story reveals the futility of conflicts which in the end produces no winners, because humanity loses when the majority of the people emerge from a war scarred for life, having lost the innocence that epitomizes the freedom of the soul.

Challenging Narrative of Kenya's Independence
In A Grain of Wheat, Ngugi challenges the reader by using different voices within the narrative as different characters relate their views of the story, though the controlling narrative is in the form of the omniscient third person. What is really striking here is the dislocated chronology of the novel. Though at its centre it has Kenyan Uhuru, or Independence Day, the narrative repeatedly switches to different moments in the past. The narrative, though, gives no direct indication that the time focus is changing, as it does not only between chapters but also between paragraphs, which can sometimes leave the reader momentarily disorientated. This demands an alert reading, which pays rewards as at times the same event is returned to from a different angle at a different place in the novel, or the reader's response to event is coloured by their prior knowledge of what the consequences will be. Most crucially, it means that the day of Uhuru itself is inextricably linked with Kenya's painful and violent past, where courage and betrayal have been evident in equal measure. This explains why the longed-for independence is accompanied by "a disturbing sense of inevitable gloom".
The novel is an important retelling of history from an African perspective, directly challenging British colonialism in Kenya by charting the resistance to it which led up to independence, (or Uhuru, the Swahili word for freedom). His novel questions the imperial view of Kenya's history by presenting the Kenyan perspective, where the Mau Mau movement is sympathetically portrayed as a band of courageous freedom fighters, rather than as insurgents or terrorists. The novel describes the decline in imperial idealism as well as the brutality of the British military regime in Kenya in the face of resistance. However, he is equally uncompromising about the prospect for independent Kenya, describing 'a feeling of inevitable gloom' as Uhuru approaches because of the pain of Kenya's past and the corruption which is already evident in the new independent government.