English Language and Literature Vor 53 No, 5(2007) 829-847 Narrative Strategies and the Issue of Traditional Culture in Ngugi’s Early Novels* Suk-Koo Rhee I, Introduction Patrick McGee in Telling the Other asserts that Chinua Achebe’s engagement in postcolonial writing aims “to undo the imperialism of the metaphor and to articulate the concrete particularity of African life that imperialist discourse occludes” (136). The deconstruction of imperialist metaphor, no doubt, serves to historicize, and thus to restore humanity to, the Africans that were reduced to an evil force in the European litera- ture and historiography. McGee’s view surely points out an important aspect of Achebe’s work and is certainly applicable to other writers. Since ‘undoing metaphorical writing,’ after all, calls forth realist writ- ing, McGee is not very far from Kwame Anthony Appiah when the lat- ter claims that “the first generation of modern African novels” are “real- ist legitimations of nationalism” (63). These critics are correct in seeing an ally of African nationalism within the postcolonial African novels of the first stage; yet their view that understands these African novels as a sort of “realistic” or ‘rationalizing’ writing, this paper argues, is not extensive enough to account for their narrative complexity. Appiah also asserts that the early African fictions “authorize a ‘return to traditions’ while at the same time recognizing the demands of a Weberian rationalized modernity” (63). Despite its insightful mention of the African dilemma between tradition and modernity, Appiah’s thesis is too universalizing to do justice to the diverse and complex political agendas of the first-generation African writers. If we, on the one hand, look at the early works of Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiong’o from the per- spective of “a return to traditions,” it will rather limit our understanding * This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund) (KRF-2006-321-A01003).830 ‘Suk-Koo Rhee of them; but it is fair to state that traditionalism is an important keyword in understanding both Grace Ogot'’s first novel, The Promised Land (1966), and Amos Tutuola’s first novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952). The viewpoint of “recognizing the demands of modernity,” on the other hand, fails to illuminate Ogot’s and Tutuola’s narratives while it touches upon important issues raised in the works of the other writers. This paper argues that the first-generation African writers did employ the strategy of mythologizing (inclusive of both retelling and creating myths) as well as that of demythologizing in their early narratives. As a result, the texture of these works is best characterized by ‘hybridity,’ not a generic or discursive homogeneity for which Appiah reserves the name, “realism.” This paper investigates the ways the two postcolonial narra- tive strategies are used in Ngugi’s The River Between (the first to be draft- ed but the second to be published in 1965) and his Weep Not, Child (the second to be drafted but the first to be published in 1964). The signifi- cances and purposes of these strategies in Ngugi’s early novels will be charted through a brief comparison with the narrative features of the first novels of other postcolonial African writers. The conclusion of this paper is that Ngugi exploits both the mythic/mythologizing discourses and the demythologizing/rationalizing discourses for the cause of decol- onization, and especially the former discourses should be comprehended as a precursor of the Kenyan author’s Fanonian search for the national culture of resistance, which is usually associated with his later works. In this regard, this study differentiates itself from the current Ngugi schol- arship that sees Fanon’s influence only in Ngugi’s later works such as Decolonising the Mind (Lovesey 109), or views Ngugi’s first two novels as being primarily concerned about a modernist project (Ogude 22) or, not unrelatedly, as leadership and education (Cook & Okenimkpe 29- 31). This study is also distinct from the critical works of Korean schol- ars that either treat Ngugi’s early works mainly as a kind of bildungsro- man (Jeong-Kyung Park 110, 113) and thus a failure to represent a total picture of a colonized society on the path of modernity (Kangmok Suh 269), or as a restoration of traditional culture (Seung Yu 65), or as a record of the sufferings of and the issue of education of the Kenyans under the colonial rule (Chull Wang 268-69).‘Narrative Strategies and the Issue of Traditional Culture in Ngugi’s Early Novels 837 Il. Deconstruction of African Trope As generally understood, the strategy of demythologizing is intended to humanize the “demonic” Africa and Africans while the strategy of retelling the tribal lore aims at restoring and affirming the magical and spiritual aspects of the local African culture. In Ngugi’s early novels, both narrative strategies of mythologizing and demythologizing are, in the first place, geared towards debunking the stereotypical Western images of the Africans. A prominent example of demythologization is the tribal dance scene in The River Between that takes place in Kameno the day before traditional circumcision. Obscenities in this festival are portrayed as being committed with impunity by the old and young of both sexes, one of the scenes by which Marlow, the narrator of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, might have been disgusted during his voy- age up the river Congo. Tribal dancing is described by the narrator of The River Between in the following terms: Whistles, horns, broken tins and anything else that was handy were taken and beaten to the rhythm of the song and dance. Everybody went into a frenzy of excitement, Old and young, women and children, all were there losing themselves in the magic motion of the dance. Men shrieked and shouted and jumped into the air as they went round a circle. For them, this was the moment. This was the time. Women, stripped to the waist, with their thin breasts flapping on their chests, went round and round the big fire, swinging their hips and contorting their bodies in all sorts of provoca- tive ways, but always keeping the rhythm. (41) In the eyes of outsiders like Marlow, this festive custom would imme- diately confirm Europe’s long-held notions of Africa as prurient and animalistic. The portrayal of this outrageous African custom is intended as a deliberate reverberation of another famous literary scene rendered by Conrad more than half a century ago. To quote Marlow from Heart of Darkness. But suddenly as we struggled round a bend there would be a glimpse of tush walls, of peaked grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. The steamer toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy. The pre- historic man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us—who could tell?