CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

Orature as the oral tradition of literature refers to the collection of traditional folksongs

and stories that are communicated orally rather than through writing. The approach to the study

of orature in Africa in this project falls under the functionalist school of thought, well articulated

by William Bascom a student of Melville Herskovits. Bascom, in particular, regards verbal art

as the creative position of the functioning society. A society that is integrated, not isolated, a

society that is central and not peripheral in the component of a culture. He listed specifically the

roles which each of the genre of oral literature performs stating that proverbs helps in settling

legal decision, riddles sharpen the brain, myth validate conduct, satirical songs release pent up

hostilities(96).

Oral literature, poetry, songs, dance, myths and fables, and texts for religious rituals

provide a portrait of the meaning of life as experienced by the society at its particular time and

place with its unique essential challenges. It retains the society’s knowledge to be passed on to

the succeeding generation and contains the history of the society and its experiences. It explains

the causes of human suffering, justifies them, and they suggests ways of mediation and the

healing of the suffering.

The exploitation of the Kenya and African masses has been a recurrent historical pattern

in their socio-economic reality. The dawn of colonialism with its companion imperialism has

ravaged the African nations, exploited their natural and human resources and carted away the

products of the continent to the home countries of the colonialists. The struggle for

independence and the promise of liberation of the African people from the shackles of the
exploitative forces of the colonialists has become stillborn due to the emergence of neo-

colonialism. African leaders have become agents of western imperialism and capitalism in their

continuous oppression and subjugation of the masses. This reality has cast the continent in a bad

light. Thus, in African social and political philosophy, it is observed that:

Africa remains comparatively the least developed of all continents. 

In terms of the production of critical social goods such as physical
infrastructure, telecommunication facilities, food supply, Electrcity, medical
and health services, education, shelter, employment and other vital materials for
human personal and social being (chukwudum 103).

Subversive songs play a large role in maintaining many of the traditional society

structures of African communities. In the twentieth century, it was a standard tool for African

political movement(s). Songs were favored for their intelligibility by the masses, emotional

patriotic effect and inducement of the government to change. The Mau Mau movement in Kenya

in the early 1950s, for instance, used subversive songs to advertise the cause and elicit support.

The leaders of the movement capitalized on the Gikuyu love of hymn-songs by setting seditious

lyrics of familiar tunes. The Kenyans would memorise the songs and the message spread with the

melody there were many advantages of using to promote their identity. The hymns

were circulated throughout the rural areas and thus had a more far reaching effect than the

government print propaganda (Nkitia 9)

Regarding the above statement, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s two texts Matigari and Devil on

the Cross are used in this research to actualize his vision of impacting change in the society,

which can be viewed for example in Matigari thus:

You foreign oppressors

Pack your bags and leave!

For the owner of this house

 Is on his way (46)

And

I will not produce food

For him who reaps where he never sowed to feed on it

While I go to sleep on an empty belly

I will not build a house

For him who reaps where he never sowed to sleep in it

While I sleep in the open

I have refused to be like the cooking pot

Whose sole purpose is to cook and never eat (97).

The above quoted lines show clearly how Ngugi wa Thiong’o has explored orature in his work to

achieve his vision in literature by impacting change in the Kenya society and Africa at large.

In supporting the above statement using Devil on the Cross, the researcher has also

explored the means of orature as a tool of resistance and impacting change in the society, which

is seen thus:

Come one and all

And behold the wonderful sight

Of us chasing away the devil

And his disciples

Come one and all. (201)

And

Now you see me

Now you see me

 Dawn is breaking

Death and life are the same to me

Dawn is breaking. (212).

Wa Thiong’o’s use of oral forms reflects protests against the minority comprador

capitalists by the masses. Songs have been used overtime by different ethnic groups to achieve

different objectives. They are veritable tools whose potency has not been compromised overtime.

In this research the effectiveness of protest songs and other oral renditions such as speeches in are

examined Wa Thiong’o’s novels: Matigari and Devil on the Cross.

Statement of the problem

Corruption by the political elites and neocolonialism have sunk deep into the fabric of the

African society and rendered the masses distraught in poverty and disillusion. Different forms of

oppression have thrived on the continent ranging from the slave trade, through colonialism to

imperialism; the west has continued to sap the continent of its resources years after they have

been granted independence using the political elite.

A study of the struggle against the exploitative forces of capitalism is imperative in

actualizing socio-economic independence and total emancipation from colonial vestiges in all its

forms. Ngugi wa Thiong’o has been a formidable force in this struggle against the socio-

economic exploitation and cultural imposition through his works. His works have been appraised

by numerous scholars and critics as being tools for revolution and propaganda in their portrayer

of Marxist struggle in the society. These critiques and appraisals, however, have limited their

studies to the content of the work and relegated the role of the subversive songs and speeches of

these works in projecting the authors view to the background. The neglect of this important

aspect of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s work has created an unattended gap. In addressing this need, the
 researcher carries out this study of the subversive songs and speeches in Matigari and Devil on

the Cross.

Aim and Objectives

The aim of this research is to examine the effectiveness and use of subversive songs and

speeches in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari and Devil on the Cross in the struggle against

capitalism and imperialism using Marxism as a literary theory. This study also sets out to achieve

the following objectives:

1. to understand what subversive songs and speeches are

2. to examine the effects of the songs and speeches on agents of capitalism and imperialism

3. to study the vision and commitment of Ngugi wa Thiong’o in the use of literature as a tool for

emancipation

Scope of the study

There is a large pool of African literature that represents the quest for liberation of

Africans from the shackles of capitalism and imperialism such that different generations of

African writers have written on the struggles of the ruled and their experiences in the hands of

political elites in postcolonial Africa. It is in this light that this research focuses on the study of

the subversive songs and speeches in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari and Devil on the

Cross through the theoretical frame of Marxism, using its Marxist tenets to examine both novels

to reveal the class struggle between the poor masses and the African comprador capitalists – the

latter have been puppets in the hands of erstwhile colonialists.

Significance of the Study

A study of the subversive songs and speeches in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari and Devil

on the Cross unveils the route through which the author achieves his vision in literature by apt
representation of African political realities. The study is of immense importance to various

categories of persons. Basically, it will add to the scanty researches done of the use of Orature in

Ngugi’s works among scholars. It will be useful for both academic researches and pedagogical

purposes. It will also bring to limelight the efficacy of the use of Orature in political struggles in

Kenya and, indeed, Africa.

To researchers, this work would be a reference material for studies on political literature

as well as other related issues such as Marxist struggles. In the end instructors, students and

researchers will not be oblivious of the effectiveness subversive songs in literary works and the

society at large as a veritable tool for political emancipation in the African context and will serve

as a useful tool by students of literature.

Research Methodology 

This research has used Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s two novels, Matigari and Devil on the

Cross as the main source of primary data and textual analysis which is guided by the theory of

Marxism. The study will consult secondary data which include literary texts, articles, thesis,

journals and dissertation for a qualitative analysis of the work. These library materials which

relate to the purpose of this research are further used and they include scholarly reviews, ideas

and theories that are useful for the literature review. The research adopts the qualitative research

method, with a tilt towards textual analysis, to achieve its aim and objectives.

Biography of the Author of Matigari and Devil on the Cross

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, original name James Thiong’o Ngugi, (born January 5, 1938,

Limuru, Kenya), Kenyan writer who was considered East Africa’s leading novelist. His

popular Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first major novel in English by an East African. As he
became sensitized to the effects of colonialism in Africa, Ngugi adopted his traditional name and

wrote in the Bantu language of  Kenya’s Kikuyi people.

Ngugi received bachelor’s degrees from Makerere University, Kampala Uganda in 1963

and from Leeds University, Yorkshire, England, in 1964. After doing graduate work at Leeds, he

served as a lecturer in English at University College, Nairobi, Kenya, and as a visiting professor

of English at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, U.S. From 1972 to 1977 he was senior

lecturer and chairman of the department of literature at the University of Nairobi.

The prizewinning Weep Not, Child is the story of a Kikuyu family drawn into the struggle

for Kenyan independence during the state of emergency and the Mau Mau rebellion. A Grain of

Wheat (1967), generally held to be artistically more mature, focuses on the many social, moral,

and racial issues of the struggle for independence and its aftermath. A third novel, The River

Between (1965), which was actually written before the others, tells of lovers kept apart by the

conflict between Christianity and traditional ways and beliefs and suggests that efforts to reunite

a culturally divided community by means of Western education are doomed to failure. Petals of

Blood (1977) deals with social and economic problems in East Africa after independence,

particularly the continued exploitation of peasants and workers by foreign business interests and

a greedy indigenous bourgeoisie

In a novel written in Kikuyu and English versions, Caitaani Mutharaba-ini (1980; Devil

on the Cross), Ngugi presented these ideas in an allegorical form. Written in a manner meant to

recall traditional ballad singers, the novel is a partly realistic, partly fantastical account of a

meeting between the Devil and various villains who exploit the poor. Mũrogi wa

Kagogo (2004; Wizard of the Crow) brings the dual lenses of fantasy and satire to bear upon the
legacy of colonialism not only as it is perpetuated by a native dictatorship but also as it is

ingrained in an ostensibly decolonized culture itself.

The Black Hermit (1968; produced 1962) was the first of several plays, of which The

Trial of Dedan Kimathi (1976; produced 1974), cowritten with Micere Githae Mugo, is

considered by some critics to be his best. He was also coauthor, with Ngugi wa Mirii, of a play

first written in Kikuyu, Ngaahika Ndeenda (1977; I Will Marry When I Want), the performance

of which led to his detention for a year without trial by the Kenyan government. (His

book Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary, which was published in 1981, describes his ordeal.)

The play attacks capitalism, religious hypocrisy, and corruption among the new economic elite

of Kenya. Matigari ma Njiruungi (1986; Matigari) is a novel in the same vein.

Ngugi presented his ideas on literature, culture, and politics in numerous essays and

lectures, which were collected in Homecoming (1972), Writers in Politics (1981), Barrel of a

Pen (1983), Moving the Centre (1993), and Penpoints, Gunpoints, and Dreams (1998).

In Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986), Ngugi argued

for African-language literature as the only authentic voice for Africans and stated his own

intention of writing only in Kikuyu or Kiswahili from that point on. Such works earned him a

reputation as one of Africa’s most articulate social critics.

After a long exile from Kenya, Ngugi returned in 2004 with his wife to promote Mũrogi

wa Kagogo. Several weeks later they were brutally assaulted in their home; the attack was

believed by some to be politically motivated. After their recovery, the couple continued to

publicize the book abroad. Ngugi later published the memoirs Dreams in a Time of War (2010),

about his childhood; In the House of the Interpreter (2012), which was largely set in the 1950s,
during the Mau Mau rebellion against British control in Kenya; and Birth of a Dream Weaver: A

Writer’s Awakening (2016), a chronicle of his years at Makerere University [sic].

Organization of the Study

This research is organized into four chapters. Chapter one being the introduction includes

the background of the study, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study. This

chapter also includes the scope of the study, significance of the study, methodology, a brief

biography of the author and organization of the study. Chapter two covers the review related

literature as well as the theoretical framework. In chapter three, the chapter opens with synopsis

of the novels under review – Matigari and Devil on the Cross. The researcher conducts a critical

analysis on subversive songs and speeches in wa Thiong’o’s Devil on the Cross and

Matigari. Chapter four of this study contains the summary of all the chapters of the research, in

detail, and the conclusion.  

 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Preamble

In this chapter, the researches carried out by various scholars in related fields/subject

areas are reviewed. It contains reviews of literature related to this topic with especial interest paid

to scholarly applications and findings under the following subthemes: Review of Related

Literature and Theoretical Framework. This review explores the critiques and opinions of

scholars/critics on Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari and Devil on the Cross as emancipative novels.

Review of Related Literature

Originally written in Gikuya as Caitani Mutharaibani, Devil on the Cross has been one of

the most acclaimed works of Ngugi wa Thiong’o for its direct and scathing attack on the

exploitative and imperialist process of the capitalist economy in Kenya. According to Booker,

Devil on the Cross is a didactic work designed to educate Kenyan peasants and workers in the

true nature of capitalism, much in the way that the proletarian novels of the 1930s sought to

educate British and American workers” (177). Booker avers that the novel tremendously reflects

the Kenyan society in its exposure of the corrupt exploitative nature of the few elites who

economically oppress and rob the masses. The novel portrays a striking class distinction that

separates the masses and the capitalist and as such, Booker states that “Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s

insistence on the class distinction between workers and capitalist shows his acceptance of the

Marxist vision of history as class warfare” (178). The novel reflects the class struggle that ensues

between the exploited masses and the capitalists who exploit their labour without commensurate

reward. Ngugi wa Thiong’o does not relent in depicting the reality of the class struggle in Kenya

and this reality has been stated thus: “A central fact of Kenyan life today is the fierce struggle
between the cultural forces representing foreign interests and those representing patriotic national

interests” (Amuta 158). Characters such as Muturi and Wangari are “the types who represent

specific groups in the Kenyan society” (Booker 176), and they belong to the exploited group in

the economically structured society who are patriotic in their fight for national interests, The

liberation of this oppressed group rests on a “complete and total liberation of the people,

completely socialized economy collectively owned and controlled by the people “(Ngugi 13).

Liberation is crucial in the resistance of capitalist exploitations as “its expresses the aspirations of

the oppressed people and social classes, emphasizing the conflict aspects of the economic,

social and political which puts them at odds with wealthy nations and complicities of liberation

struggle” (Childs et al. 50) and exposes “the crisis or conflict between the emergent African

bourgeoisie and the African masses” (Ngugi 94)

Devil on the Cross builds on “formalized realism and extreme ironic satire” (Cook

and okenimkpe 117) to explore the exploitation of the peasants by the powerful elites that have

turned their advantage over the masses into means of extortion and exploitation. The novel in its

narrative, reprobates the workings of individualism and materialism in the African society and

rejects capitalism’s attempt to portray itself “as a natural, common-sense way of ordering a

society” (Booker 67).

The outright condemnation of capitalist exploitations in the neo-colonial Kenyan society

by Ngugi wa Thiong’o in his works, stems greatly from the nation’s history of struggle and

resistance in pre-independence Kenya. To buttress this point, Chidi Amuta states that:

The central experience which informs his consciousness is the Mau-Mau armed struggle

which Kenya peasants and nationalists had revealed not only the physical violence with

which colonialism sought to entrench itself but also the cultural violence which is rejected
 on the consciousness of the colonized. It was against this background that Wa

Thiong’o may have derived the prominence which he continued to give to the cultural

aspects of the Mau-Mau struggle. (163)  

Devil on the Cross as broadly critiqued reveals Ngugi wa thiong’o’s continual struggle

against the vestiges of colonialism and the imperialistic capitalism that accompanies it. In the

employment of satire and grotesque forms in the novel, the rejection of capitalism is constantly

reiterated in the African society.

Matigari, on the other hand, originally written in Gikuyu as matigari Ma Njiruungi, has

attained a lot of scholarly criticism and reviews for its critical representation of the Kenyan

society, their struggle against the exploitation of the masses by the elites and the politics of

corruption and neo-colonialism. According to Mushengezi, “Ngugi’s commitment to activism is

no doubt total: he reveals it in most of his written works, his presentations and interviews” (82).

In this regard as a political activist, Ngugi wa Thiong’o expressively represents the different facts

of the Kenyan society that exploits the masses. Wood once remarked, “Cut the Kenyan novelist,

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and he will bleed politics” (23). Ngugi wa Thiong’o in explaining the need

to represent the struggle of the masses in his texts reveals in Something Torn and New: An

African Renaissance that, “struggle is central to nature, to human art and to my history” (22).

In confirming Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s adherence to Marxist tenets in Matigari, Booker states

that, “Ngugi’s insistence on the class of distinction between workers and capitalists shows his

acceptance of the Marxist vision of history as class warfare” (178). This class disparity that is

characterised by the masses by the elites as seen in Matigari where the poor live in slum and

scrap yards and the factory workers are underpaid. Amuzu says that these poor living conditions

of the masses “are serious actions of exploitation that contribute to the crises of the world” (36).
In Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary, Ngugi wa Thiong’o writes that “capitalism is a system of

theft and robbery, and thus theft and robbery are protected and sanctified by the law and law

courts, parliaments, religion, prisons, police as well as armed forces” (135-136). This assertion is

evident in Matigari, where corruption is portrayed.

To Glen, “Matigari needs to be principally tied to the realities of Kenyan politics and not just

to the formally experimental techniques of contemporary Euro-American writing” (13). It is a

novel that is more preoccupied with the politics of capitalist exploitations and the politics of

corruption prevalent in the Kenyan society than the form of writing itself. Matigari reveals Ngugi

wa Thiong’o’s ideological disposition through his vivid dissection of the society into the haves

and the haves-not.

To Ushie, “…the reality of the material world of Africa, which its writers essentially confront

in their works, is the neo-colonial state of the continent” (33). Ngugi wa Thiong’o therefore,

describes capitalism as a ‘faceless system’ used by the new Kenyan elite to control the state and

treat the poor unfairly.

According to Steven Tobias: “throughout, Matigari Ngugi wa Thiong’o employs a

Marxist yet distinctively African perspective, to critique and expose both the overt and the

subexternal socio-political structures reveal the exploitation of the poor by the leaders and elites

few of the society and the disillusion of the poor in living in such unequally distributed society.

Matigari in Matigari is seen as liberator and “someone who seeks to abrogate an existing order

perhaps in a bid to replace it with what his ideological reflexes recommend” (Afolayan 26). 

According to Chijioke: “This liberation is attained when the people control the means of

contact of their integrated survival and development are considered liberated” (96). The

representation of the reality of the African society is done by writers such as Ngugi wa
Thiong’o who “actively engage in the construction of cultural identities for new societies… on

the other hand, actual experiences in the post-colonial has been anything but utopian” (Keith 58).

In resonance with this, Biersteker comments that:

My reading of Matigari ma Njiruungi is of the novel as response to this call. I read it as a

novel that reinvigorates links between past and present insistence voices and languages

that have been and are being silenced when they demand liberation (152).

Matigari, like “most African novels [that] appear to be set in recognized nations is a novel set in

Kenya, which reveals the disillusionment of the people in the post-independence state which they

had fought for in order to be extricated from the wiles of colonial subjugation. The ‘utopian’

Kenyan society which they had dreamed of is a mirage that disappears with the African

leadership of post-colonial Kenya. Regardless of the lamentable outcome of the independence of

African states, Ngugi wa Thiong’o through Matigari and several of his works maintains his

topical message that “…Black people must realize themselves on the level of class and anti-

capitalist and anti-imperialist positions” (Killiam6).

Hands states that Marx believed in a communist society without private property which

ensures that women, men and children were equal (51). As a radical advocate of Marxism, Ngugi

wa Thiong’o moves beyond the patriarchal bearings of his African society by his portrayal of

women as not merely being the domesticated gender but as significant figures in the fight against

capitalism and redefinition of the existing status quo. In Detained Ngugi wa Thion’g’o writes,

“Because women are the most oppressed and exploited section of the entire working class, I

would create a picture of a strong determined women with a will to resist and struggle against the

conditions of her present being” (Ngugi 10-11).

 In Matigari, Guthera is a representation of this liberated woman. According to Ogude,

“Although Ngugi Wa Thiong’o displays awareness that Kenyan women are subject to double

oppression as women as workers rather than women” (124). James Ogude, however, has asserted

that “Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s articulation of Kenyan history from a dependency theory perspective”

does not “allow him to deal with specific contradictions and local divisions within Kenyan, and

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is therefore forced to suppress certain histories” (96-97).

In neglecting the holistic realities of the Kenyan society and intensively focusing on the

ideological structures of the society by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o cooper contends that: “…

Matigari sadly provides an example of what it means to go too far with

undiluted didacticism within literary discourse, producing propaganda rather than fiction” (176).

Cooper’s position can arguably be confronted as Matigari is a work of fiction that reveals the

plight of workers in adherence to the Marxist principles.

According to Marcus and Herbert: “a worker, who is alienated from his product, is at the

same time alienated from himself, His labour itself becomes no longer his own, and the fact that it

becomes the property of another bespeaks an expropriation that touches the very essence of man”

(277). This alienation brings about a struggle which is “what Ngaruro wa Kiriro, the worker

leader in Matigari is doing in organizing workers…[which] finds its concrete expression in the

violent attempt by Matigari to win back his house and land” (Ogude 32). This alliance further

produces a “concerted struggle of peasant workers through mass mobilization, trade

union movements and armed resistence” (Ogude 32).

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Matigari is a novel that transcends the borders of

mere aesthetically crafted fiction but represents through the struggles and predicaments of the

character, the historical warfare of capital and labour in the world. The novel incorporates the
principles of Marxism and reveals the ill of capitalism against the backdrop of a poverty infested

society and corrupt leadership in the African society.

Out of these works that have been reviewed they have concerned themselves generally

with examining Marxist struggles in the characters in fighting the capitalists and imperialists

without no specific light beamed on the efficacy of political songs in freedom struggles. On

neither of the texts has there been prior research on the songs and to what extent Orature is used

in African climes. This gap does this research seeks to fill using the aim and objectives outlined

above.

Theoretical Framework

This study has employed the Marxist literary criticism as its theoretical bedrock which is

based on the philosophy and ideology of the German thinker and practical revolutionary,

Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels. Marxism aims to revolutionize the concept of work through

creating a classless society built on social control and ownership of the means of production. The

theory and ideology of Marxism is developed on the ideological strands of Historical Materialism

and dialectical Materialism.

Dialectical Materialism is a Marxist ideology that is called so because its approach to the

concept of nature and its method of studying it is dialectical, while its interpretation of nature, its

theory is materialistic. In Dialectics of Nature, dialectical is define as:

The science of the general laws of motion, both of the external world and of human

thought-two sets of laws which are identical in substance but differ in their expression in

so far as the human mind can apply them consciously, while in nature and also up to now

for the most part in human history, these laws assert themselves unconsciously, in the

form of external necessity, in the midst of an endless series of accidents. (Engels 350).
This “motion” that propels dialectics entails a process of development and change that might not

be always readily obvious. Dialectics provides a means of understanding this constant, gradual

and sudden change that occur in the human thought, nature and society. In understanding the

workings of the contradictions and changes of the dialectical processes, it is noted in Conspectus

of Hegel’s science of logic’ that:

Dialectics is the teaching which shows how Opposite can be and how they happen to

be(how they become) identical, - under what conditions they are identical, becoming

transformed into another, - why the human mind should grasp these opposites not as dead,

rigid, but as living, conditional, mobile, becoming transformed into one another (Lenin

109).

The philosophy of dialectics was originally conceived by 19 thcentury philosopher Hegel, who

developed the doctrine of dialectical development and formulated laws of dialectics, which he

presented as laws of the movement of thought. He asserted that the motion and development of

nature and society in the real world, only comes about as a result, the materialization moment by

moment, of the development of all-embracing idea, which he called the Absolute Idea. This

assertion rests on the position that ideas rule the world and as such, the material world is

secondary to thought. This of course, is pure idealism, the view that matter is created by thoughts.

Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism was derived from Hegel’s dialectical idealism but

unlike Hegel’s, Marx’s dialectics were materialist. He showed, in contrast to Hegel, that the ideas

of men arise from the material world around them, and that real development proceeds from

changes in the material world to changes in people’s ideas, not vice versa. In developing the

metaphysics of Marxist dialectical materialism, Engels in his two books, Anti-Duhring and

dialectics of Nature, expound three laws upon which the theory thrives. These three are the law of
unity and struggle of opposites, the law of the transformation of quality into quantity and vice-

versa and the law of negation of the negation.

Historical materialism is another philosophical theory of Karl Marx. It delves into the past

and present, and the social structures and institution of the society, into political and economic

systems, into government and their policies, into the origins of wars and revolutions, into the

activities of nations and the social forces within them: in fact, into all the major spheres of human

activity and knowledge. In the exposition of historical materialism, there is the refutation that the

objects of history are objects of immutable, eternal laws of nature. Man fossilized history in a

formalism incapable of comprehending that the real nature of socio-historical institutions is that

they consist of relations between men. On the contrary, man becomes estranged from this, the

true source of historical understanding are cut off from it by an unbridgeable gulf. As Marx points

out in his Poverty Philosophy, people fail to realize “that these definite social relations are just as

much the products of men as linen, flax, etc (48).

In his celebrated account of historical materialism Dialectics of Nature, Engels proceeds

from the assumption that the essence of history consist in the fact that “nothing happens without a

conscious purpose or an intended mind aim”. Historical materialism therefore, traces the basis for

the socio-economic revolutions of the society through different epochs. Karl Marx subjects the

history of the society under study through the epochs of, primitive communism, slavery,

feudalism, and capitalism, with the major class of bourgeoisies or capitalist and the proletariats or

the working class. In capitalism, the capitalists monopolize the means of production while the

proletariats are the working class who produce economic wealth for a wage. The owners of the

means of production, who, do not produce, accumulate surplus wealth and the workers who

produce this wealth are paid a wage that barely caters for their basic needs. This uneven
distribution underbellies the exploitative nature of capitalism, Karl Marx further posited

that capitalism will give way to socialism where the means of production are collectively owned

by the state and there will be an eventual eradication of class stratification and a withering of the

state which will lead to communism.

Art or literature then, according to Marxism is a part of the society’s ideology which is

produced as a result of cultural conditioning by the worldview of the dominant class in the

society. The society dominant ideology is reflected through literature and other forms of the

superstructure as the natural order of the society in definite historical eras.

The Marxist literary criticism was not fully developed by Marx and Engels, but was

incorporated as the official aesthetic principle of the 19 th century communist society under the

name of Socialist Realism. Certain Marxist critics such as Lenin saw literature as an instrument

for communist Party to use in the portrayal of the ideology of the working class and the

reflection of their class struggle in the society. In the 1934 Congress of Soviet Writers, Socialist

Realism was officially accepted as the aesthetic principle of Soviet Union and also used as a

dogma by communist worldwide. Socialist Realism was based on three principles namely,

Partinost or commitment to the working class of the party, Narodnost of popularity and

Klassovost or writer’s commitment to the class interests. Marxist critics such as George Lukacs,

Louis Althuser, Terry Eagleton, Antonio Granci, Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin etcetera,

emerged over time and there has been certain shift from the rigid prescription of literature by the

communist party.

Marxism and literature share a relationship that births Marxism Literary Criticism in its

evolution. The integration of the concepts of Marxism in the creation of literary works has been

employed by several writers across the world such as George Orwell, Wole Soyinka, Leo
Tolstoy, Ngugi wa Thiong’o etc. In their societies, the agitations for social change and revolution

of their exploitative capitalist societies, drives these writers in adopting the role of social

crusaders through their works.

 CHAPTER THREE

Preamble

This chapter contains a synopsis of the two primary sources – Matigari and Devil on the

Cross. It also covers the analysis of the texts in relation to the topic of this research: a study of the

subversive songs and speeches in Matigari and Devil on the Cross.

Synopsis of the Text(s)

Matigari: a Novel (1986), written by Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, centers on

Matigari, a mysterious figure who survives his country’s war for independence and emerges

from the mountains making strange claims and demands. While searching for his family, he

begins a quest for peace and justice and battles the forces of corruption, fear, and misery that

have taken over his country. As rumors spread that he has unique, supernatural abilities, people

start to debate whether he could be the resurrection of Jesus in Africa.

The novel opens to Matigari burying his weapons under a fig tree. He has just killed

Howard Williams, the colonial leader who had oppressed his country, and has committed to

pacifism and to finding his people. He has been away for a while and is amazed at the changes

he sees. People are driving their own cars, and the city has grown massively. Matigari looks for

his people at a factory but is appalled when he sees the city’s poverty.

He helps a boy named Muriuki chase away a bully, and the boy leads him to a scrap

yard where children hide in old cars. As Matigari approaches, the children stone him until he

falls unconscious. He is helped by a factory worker named Ngaruro, who brings him to a safe

place. While they walk, Matigari tells the story of how he killed Mr. Williams. He tries to kill

the old man at his house, but is stopped by his servant, Mr. Boy. He runs, and Williams chases
him into the mountains, where Matigari eventually kills him. Ngaruro mentions that the factory

owner is named Williams and his deputy is Mr. Boy, but Matigari thinks it must be a

coincidence.

Ngaruro takes Matigari to a nearby bar, then, leaves him there to take part in a strike at

the factory. Matigari is approached by a prostitute named Guthera, who is hiding from the

police. She harasses him, but he helps her when she is attacked by police dogs. He stands up to

them with no fear, and the stunned police let her go. Guthera tells Matigari that she hates the

police for killing her freedom-fighter father. She decides to stay with Matigari and help him

get home.

They arrive at a mansion that Matigari says is his, but it is occupied by Robert Williams

and John Boy Junior, the sons of Williams and Boy. They would not let Matigari into his

mansion without a deed; he refuses to cooperate and is arrested.

He finds himself in a cell with other inmates, all of whom are there for crimes they

committed out of desperation or passionate belief. Matigari shares his food with them, which

reminds an inmate of the Last Supper. He explains the circumstances of his arrest, which

impresses the other inmates. They want to support this mysterious freedom fighter. When they

are released from prison under mysterious circumstances, Matigari’s legend grows stronger.

Around the country, people add increasing embellishments to Matigari’s story, turning him

into a mythical figure. This leads to people turning him away because they don’t recognize

him. He approaches ordinary people, meeting with students and religious figures. When he

goes to a church to talk to the priest, he finds that the priest is a government puppet. The priest

suggests Matigari meet with the Minister of Truth and Justice. This meeting is observed by

representatives from a number of Western countries. It turns out to be a trap, as the other
inmates who escaped prison with Matigari are held there and convicted at show trials. The only

one not convicted turns out have been working with the government.

The Minister announces that Williams’s company has partnered with the government,

which now owns a share and gives the company favored status. Matigari confronts the Minister

directly, accusing the government of corruption and perpetuating oppression. The Minister

argues that Matigari is a madman, and he and Ngaruro are sent to a mental asylum. The people

at the meeting sing protest songs, which are then outlawed by the Minister. The government

passes harsher laws to suppress dissent. While at the mental hospital, Matigari decides the time

for pacifism is over. He must fight.

With the help of his allies Guthera and Muriuki, Matigari escapes from the mental

asylum, heads to where his guns are buried, and plans to attack Mr. Williams’s house. They

steal a car that they later learn belongs to the Minister’s wife. On the radio, they hear that

Ngaruro has been killed. The police stop Matigari before he gets to his weapons; he leads them

on a chase to Mr. Williams’s house.

There, Matigari sees countless people awaiting his return. In a shootout, the house is

destroyed, but Matigari is able to escape. The three freedom fighters attempt to escape the

police and reach a river. As Matigari explains how they’ll use it to escape, he and Guthera are

gunned down by police. Their bodies fall into the river and are never recovered, leading to

many rumors that they somehow survived. The sole survivor, Muriuki, reaches the fig tree and

digs up Matigari’s guns, singing the song of victory.

Devil on the Cross: is a 1980 novel by the Kenyan novelist, playwright, and activist Ngũgĩ wa

Thiong’o, written originally in Gikuyu (under the title Caitaani mũtharaba-Inĩ) and translated

into English by the author himself. The novel follows a long-suffering young Kenyan woman
Jacinta Wariinga as she attends the “Devil’s Feast,” a celebration of Kenya’s exploitation by

the forces of Western capitalism, attended by both Western businessmen and the Kenyan

bourgeoisie who aid and abet them in their expropriation of Kenyan wealth. The novel blends

allegory, dream-narrative, and a realist story of ordinary Kenyan life to comment on the

involvement of Western businesses in Kenyan economic life.

The novel opens as the narrator introduces his story in a reluctant tone: it is his duty to

relay this sad and maybe even shameful account of events in the town of Ilmorog. In Chapter

2, the narrator introduces his protagonist, Jacinta Wariinga, who is at the end of her tether.

During an affair with the “Rich Old Man of Ngorika,” she became pregnant. The Rich Old

Man abandoned her. Wariinga had her baby and returned to secretarial school, finding a job at

Champion Construction. Soon, her boss Kihara made advances on her, and Wariinga was

forced to leave her job. This did not stop her from losing her boyfriend, John Kinwana, who

believed she had slept with Kihara. Unable to pay her rent, Wariinga has been thrown out of

her studio apartment by three thugs acting on her landlord’s orders.

In despair, Wariinga takes herself to the railway tracks, where she intends to kill

herself. However, she is prevented by the arrival of a man named Munti, who persuades her to

give life another chance and hands her an invitation to the “Devil’s Feast.”

When Wariinga realizes that this Feast is taking place in her parents’ hometown of

Ilmorog, she decides to go. She travels by “matatu” (taxi-bus), and on the long journey, she

bonds with her fellow passengers: Gatuīria, an African Studies professor who works overseas;

Wangarī, a peasant woman from the deep country; Mūturi, an industrial worker, and Mwĩreri

wa Mũkiraaĩ, a businessman. They also get to know the driver, Mwaūra, a hard-working man

who worships money and idolizes the rich.

 Businessman Mwĩreri explains that the Devil’s Feast is a competition: the guests will

choose the seven cleverest thieves and robbers in Ilmorog. Mwĩreri thinks this competition is a

good thing. It is not really organized by the Devil, he explains, but by the Organization for

Modern Theft and Robbery. The occasion for the Feast is a visit by foreign guests from the

Thieves’ and Robbers’ associations of America, England, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and

Japan. The passengers agree that they will all go together to the Devil’s Feast. At the Feast,

Wariinga and the other passengers witness the local Kenyan bourgeoisie (the members of the

Organization for Modern Theft and Robbery) each set out their case for the title of cleverest

thief. Each man boasts of a different scheme that he has used to rob Kenyan workers of the

value of their labor. Mwĩreri proposes that the Organization chase the foreigners out of

Ilmorog in order to take a bigger slice of the wealth, an uproar breaks out.

Wariinga and Gatuīria decide to remain as observers, while Wangarī and Mūturi,

horrified by what they have heard, decide to summon the police to arrest the self-proclaimed

Thieves and Robbers. However, when the police arrive they arrest only Wangarī, and drag him

away. Mūturi raises a mob of local workers, students, intellectuals and peasants, who march on

to the cave where the Feast is taking place. They manage to break up the event, but the

members of the Organization and their foreign guests all escape.

Two years pass. Wariinga is engaged to Gatuīria, and through lengthy and expensive

training, she has fulfilled an old dream of becoming an engineer at a garage. Meanwhile

Gatuīria has finished the musical composition he has been working on, honoring Kenyan

history.

Wariinga’s old boss, Kihara, with the backing of businessmen from America, Germany,

and Japan, buys the garage where Wariinga works, so he can demolish it and construct a tourist
hotel on the site. Gatuīria takes Wariinga to meet his parents. There she learns that Gatuīria’s

father is the “Rich Old Man” who left her when she was pregnant. Finally Wariinga snaps. She

shoots Gatuīria’s father and several other guests, whom she recognizes from the Devil’s Feast.

Gatuīria is left standing, unsure whose side to take, as Wariinga strides from the house.

Use of Subversive Songs in Matigari and Devil on the Cross

Matigari

Ngugi's second Gilcuyu novel, Matigari, is extraordinary for its immersion in music and

song. Ngugi uses music in many ways: to create formal structure, to advance the plot and to

further political ends. Indeed the resemblance of the novel to orature can be noted even before

the story begins in the author's address to the reader/listener. The fact that he writes

"reader/listener" is itself significant in that he presents the novel as not just a work to be read but

a work to be performed. Ngugi invites the reader/audience to participate in the composition of

the novel by choosing the country of the story, its time reference, "space," and the duration of its

action. The lyrical structure of the prologue sets the tone for the ensuing novel. Indeed, the

narrative form throughout is imitative of African song in style and formal organization. In

chapter seven (page 19), for instance, the repetition in the dialogues simulates imitation between

two soloists or choral groups. In many cases the substance of the question is included in the

response.

'And who are you, my son?' he asked the man. Who, me?' the worker said. 'My name is

Ngaruro wa Kiriro.' 'Ngaruro? Of the Kiriro clan? ... .'

' ... Muriuki. My name is Muriuki.' 'Yes, that's right a place where Muriuki and I can find

something to eat ...'

 'Do you live in a children's village?' Ngaruro asked. 'Yes, that's where I live,' the boy

replied.

The songs serve many functions within the novel. They are employed to approximate oral

performance, to unify the piece, and to further the plot. Most African readers/listeners would

welcome the interjection of song as reminiscent of their orature heritage. Both songs and phrases

are used motivically in the novel as unifying and organizing tools. The question, "Who was (is)

Matigari rna Njiruungi?" is another subversive thread. The motif is then employed with

increasing frequency. It is used as the final line in both the second section and the penultimate

chapter of the novel. Just as the community repeatedly intones, "Who was (is) Matigari rna

Njiruungi?" Matigari presents his own motivic interrogative, "Where can one find truth and

justice?" This sincere question is also never answered, though Matigari poses it to almost every

character in the novel.

Indeed, Matigari endeavors to use song throughout the story in order to elicit a communal

response and involvement. His strategy is to set himself up as cantor in order to lead the

community. Prior to his arrival in the city and his first interaction with others, he rehearses two

traditional songs that he remembers from his days in his home town.

and
If only it were dawn, If only it were dawn, So that I can share the cold waters with early
bird ( 4).
Great love I saw there, Among the women and the children. We shared even the single
bean That fell upon the ground (6).
By trying to recollect songs that he thinks will still be relevant to his people, Matigari

prepares for his future undertaking of the cantor role. Unfortunately, Matigari finds that the

community has forgotten many of the old traditions, including orature and song. When he meets

the children for the first time he asks "What was the song we used to sing?" but they don't seem

to know the correct response. Again, in the prison he calls to his cell-mates, "What did we use to
sing?" This time Matigari provides his own response with the "bean song." The prisoners listen

but have forgotten how to respond.

However, something in Matigari's voice made them listen to him attentively, “…There

was a sad note about it but it also carried hope and courage. The others now fell silent. His words

seemed to remind them of things long forgotten; carrying them back to dreams they had had long

before” (56).

Matigari repeatedly attempts to initiate others into the orature/song tradition in an effort

to educate and recruit them into the political cause. When he meets Ngaruro wa Kiriro for the

first time, Matigari strives to initiate Ngaruro into the orature rite thereby establishing a

relationship of cantor/chorus or leader/follower. The introductory dialogue is marked by some

repetitive phrases.

"What is your name?" Ngaruro Kiriro asked him. "Matigari rna Njiruungi." "Matigari rna

Njiruungi?" "Yes, that is my name." (Matigari, 20)

Immediately following this interchange Matigari lapses into the "Settler Williams narrative."

There is a clear parallel between the structure established by the main character and that of

orature and song. Alternating imitative lines followed by solo narrative is a common format in

both genres. Here we see the similarity between the text and song forms. Indeed, Ngugi

comments on the tonal and traditional qualities of Matigari's narrative.

His melodious voice and his story had been so captivating that Muriuki and Ngaruro wa
Kiriro did not realize that they had reached the restaurant. History had transported them
to other times long ago when the clashing of the warriors' bows and spears shook trees
and mountains to their roots (22).
Through his song Matigari is attempting to relate what he considers to be relevant

historical infonnation. He assumes that by using the traditional orature/song form, his listeners

will be not only attentive but moved to panicipate in the action of his agenda. Matigari repeats
this strategy of using the "Settler Williams motif' when he meets Guthera (Chapter I 0) and when

he encounters the prisoners (Chapter 13). Again, the motivation is the same; he is recruiting

followers for his revolution. In each case it appears that Matigari achieves initial success in using

traditional methods to captivate the attention of his listeners and to generate participation through

response. There are those, however, who have forgotten or who have chosen to forsake their

cultural roots.

In Chapter 10, Matigari employs his song strategy with John Boy but with disappointing

results. His plan seemingly is to educate John Boy about his historical past through orature, but

after several lines he is interrupted in mid-sentence by John Boy who complains: "Look, I don't

want history lessons; I only asked you about the house" (45). It is clear that John Boy does not

wish to engage in the orature activity. He has become thoroughly colonized through his Western

education. He has adopted the language, clothes, and philosophy of the imperial government and

has relinquished his heritage. The motivations of both characters become clearer as the scene

progresses. Matigari makes a further attempt to involve John Boy in the orature by singing a

politically motivated song, perhaps designed to touch his emotions and spark his patriotism.

You foreign oppressor. Pack your bags and leave! For the owner of this house is on his

way! (46).

Matigari's methods prove to be ineffective, however, and the song is not adapted or repeated by

the listener. In fact, when John Boy hears his father's name used disrespectfully, his response

comes in the form of a crack of his whip. Matigari nonetheless persists in his struggle to win

John Boy over by reminding him of the important role that music played in his youth.

Are you the boy we sent abroad? The boy the cost of whose education we all contributed
to, singing with pride: Here is one of our own and not a foreigner's child over whom I
was once insulted? The boy for whom we sang: He shall come back and clear up our
cities, our country, and deliver us from slavery? (48).
Matigari tries to shame John Boy into accepting his national responsibility by reminding him that

he was once the subject of their songs, their hope for the future. In this way he attempts to

awaken John Boy to his obligations to his community through political action and reverence of

tradition. The words are lost on John Boy, however, and he responds to Matigari's invitation to

participate by speaking of the "freedom of the individual." His refusal of communal interaction is

further evidence of his complete integration into the European social structures. It becomes

increasingly evident as the story progresses that many people have forgotten or forsaken the

traditional ways. This can be seen in the reluctance of citizens and certainly the government

officials to respond to Matigari's lyric. There are times when Matigari is the one who is

perceived to be out of sync, the one who sings the wrong song and is not familiar with the more

progressive melodies.

` In section II Matigari employs the "truth and justice motif' at a shopping center where the

store owner and customers are busy singing the praises of the man who has become a legend,

Matigari. Ironically, when Matigari himself appears and invites them to respond, they either

reject his song or more probably do not know how to reply.

"Kindly tell me this, my friends, where can one find truth and justice in this society?"
They fell silent and just stared at the stranger as if he had struck the wrong chord of a
popular melody. Then they started talking to one another complaining about the man who
had spoilt their song (73).
It appears that although the people are fascinated by the image of the man, they are deaf to his

message in song. In fact, the citizens of Trarnpville compose their own song to honor the legend

of Matigari. The lyrics reflect their captivation by the tales and miracles surrounding Matigari

but do not mention the substance of his tune.

Show me the way to a man Whose name is Matigari rna Njiruungi. Who stamps his feet

to the rhythm of bells And the bullets jingle. And the bullets jingle (Matigari, 71).
Matigari is revered as the people's savior but they are slow to digest his message. This attitude is

clearly presented in the scene in which Matigari encounters women at a crossroad exchanging

fabulous versions of tales involving Matigari. Here, one of the women expresses the desire to

meet the legend and to sing him the "Matigari rna Njiruungi" song personally.

Surely, Matigari is aware of the revolutionary tone of his songs. Indeed the integration of

political song into the antiphonal song structure is part of his recruitment strategy. To his mind,

he is attempting to attain a logical goal through a traditional method that represents the heritage

he is trying to preserve. The teacher seeks to dissuade Matigari from his goal by schooling him in

the new neo-colonial song practice. Matigari is not convinced, however, and he retorts: "... Far

better are those who are going to gaol singing songs of courage rooted in their commitment to

truth and justice ... " (92).

It is in Matigari's "song of resistance" that he defines his motivations as seeker of truth

and justice. The song of resistance or the "he-who-reaps-where-he-never-sowed" tune

exemplifies Matigari's argument with capitalist society. The song is initially directed toward the

priest who, naturally, as a product of colonialism does not value the message or play the game.

He quickly tires of Matigari's "foolish questions" and "political fables" and endeavors to get rid

of him as expediently as possible. Quite obviously the priest is only receptive to the "approved

tunes" of colonization. What are the tunes sanctioned by the government? This becomes clear in

the courtroom scene.

The government has compiled an approved repertoire of hymns that were composed to

replace the traditional African songs. This collection was printed in a volume entitled Songs of a

Parrot. Clearly, the songs are based on Western conventions, as they are recorded in the book

"which had been composed by a group of specialists in the voices of parrots." The printed text of
tunes precludes any possibility for improvisation or community input. Indeed, the followers of

parrotology did not seem to be able to sing without the hymn book as reference: "They sang

three stanzas from Songs of a Parrot and then they sat down, clinging to the hymn book as

though their lives depended on it" (104). Ngugi must have derived this reference to parroting

from a 1984 speech made by President Moi of Kenya. His speech in part is as follows:

... I call on all ministers, assistant ministers and every other person to sing like parrots ... you

ought to sing the song I sing. If I put a full stop, you should also put a full stop. This is how this

country will move forward. The day you become a big person, you will have the liberty to sing

your own song and everybody will sing it. ... 11

It was President Moi's obvious intention to set himself up as an authoritative leader of

song with every citizen parroting his philosophy in an effort to cultivate a structure which would

resist subjective reception as well as preclude vocal agency of the masses, a structure which

indeed would corrupt the oral tradition. In the adaptation of this historic event into the novel, His

Excellency ole Excellence seeks to seize the role of authoritative leader of song and philosophy

by advocating Parrotology. Apparently the government also recognizes song as an effective tool

of mobilization. Any anempt to completely colonize African societies includes the abolition of

the music tradition and an installment of new Western lyric conventions. In the new

dispensation, the perpetuation of the status quo can only be guaranteed by following the colonial

examples. The songs of the parrot are not the only pieces performed in the courtroom; in fact,

this scene becomes a vinual cacophony of conflicting tunes and styles. It is Matigari who begins

the agitation with his performance of the "resistance song" ending with "Where are truth and

justice on this eanh?" The minister for Truth and Justice does not comprehend the song style nor

the text since it is not in the Songs of Parrots hymn book: "Stop speaking in parables. lf you want
to ask a question then do so in plain language" (113). Matigari's song presents a musically and

politically dissonant clash with the approved parrot songs. Some of the citizens in the courtroom

sing the song composed by the people of Trampville. The minister immediately informs them

that he has "banned that song." Here we clearly see songs perceived as weapons by the

government. They are to be rigorously controlled and banned. They represent a threat to the

stability of the ruling class. The priest contributes to the raucous scene with his orature of the

twelve commandments, representing a colonial version of truth and justice. The student also

takes part in the dissonance with his seditious composition: Even if you detain us, Victory

belongs to the people. Victory belongs to the people! (121)

The teacher responds to the student in support and cooperation: "I shall never sing like a

parrot, never. I shall sing the same song of courage and hope that was sung by the brave and

courageous student" (172). The teacher was forcibly hindered from singing the student's stanza

so the people sang the song thereby providing the antiphonal response. Thus, the student's song

becomes part of the African tradition and is assimilated into the political song literature. The

courtroom provides a forum for the juxtaposition of the three sources of political song

represented in the novel; the government, Matigari's songs, and the songs of the people.

Although the ruling body attempts to eradicate all subversive music through banning and

substitution of its own tonal philosophy, the revolutionary songs prevail. The scene ends with the

people reiterating the Trampville song of Matigari rna Njiruungi despite the insistence of the

minister that "all subversive songs and dreams are banned!" It is apparent that even though the

people have not fully digested and assimilated Matigari's songs, they have been inspired to create

their own in working toward a common goal. Indeed, these radical songs of the people "spread

like wildfire in a dry season" and "the people sang them day and night" thereby bringing the
message of revolution to all citizens, even the illiterate. The polyphony of song in the courtroom

is an effective prelude to the climax in Section III. This occurs at the burning of John Boy's

house and the Mercedes-Benz. The citizens form a circle around the pyre of these symbols of

colonization and sing various improvisatory versions of the bum song. Here, we see the

utilization of many of the various song structures. The call and response form is, of course,

represented:

Everything that belongs to these slaves must burn! Everything that belongs to these

slaves must burn!

Their coffee must burn! Yes, their coffee must burn! (168)

The repetitive structure is also presented:

Burn detention without trial - burn!

Burn detention without trial - burn!

Burn exiling of patriots- burn!

Burn exiling of patriots - burn!

Also, the form of a uniform beginning with varied ending is used:

They burned down the houses.

They burned down the tea-bushes.

They burned down the coffee trees...

The burn songs bring the people together in a communal setting and create the emotion

and excitement necessary to propel the participants into a frenzy. The citizens form a circle

around the burning sacrifices as they would in a children's game or a religious ritual. Once again

we see contemporary adaptation of traditional song procedures motivated by political desires.

The novel ends with Muriuki's vision of all the nationalities of Africa singing "Victory shall be

ours" in harmony.

Matigari's initial intention is to take on the role of cantor and convert the people with

traditional song and musical procedures. He soon discovers that he must modify his approach. It

is not enough to be vocally radical and "girded with the belt of peace"; one must also be "armed

with armed words." Though it pains Matigari, he realizes that guns must be the percussion

instruments to accompany the revolutionary songs if the people are to succeed:

"Matigari, stamp your feet in rhythm and let the bullets tinkle! May our fears disappear
with the staccato sound of our guns." Matigari bent his head and turned his face away. He
felt hot tears sting his eyelids (140).
Although Matigari does not succeed with his original plan, he does effectively educate and

mobilize the masses. They are not able to comprehend his "truth and justice song" but they are

motivated to compose their own for the political cause that he has awakened them to. It is the

legend of Matigari that effects a result and inspires them to action more than the message he

brings. In the end Matigari and Guthera are swept away by the river currents, but it is almost

inconsequential because the motivating legend remains. The mystery is part of the aura and in

the end the question lingers: "Who was Matigari rna Njiruungi?" He remains a mystery and a

legend to inspire subsequent generations to song and revolution.

Devil on the Cross

In Devil on the Cross, a story that sets out to arouse the anger of the peasantry and workers

against the Kenyan middle class, songs have been used to maximum advantage. They are

essentially functional in the sense that they are mainly made to carry Ngugi's revolutionary

message. By using songs, the author was employing a form very close to the heart of his

audience. Historically, songs played an important role in Gikuyu society, where people used the

form to convey their protest against land alienation, the imposition of hut tax and the kipande
system. The landless peasants also used work songs to lessen the psychological tension of forced

labor on large tracts of the White Highlands belonging to their European employers. Quoting L.

S. B. Leakey, Ruth Finnegan testifies to the effectiveness of the form in moulding public opinion

at the onset of the Mau Mau war:

The leaders of the Mau Mau movement ... were quick to realize the very great

opportunity which the Kikuyu love of hymn singing offered for propaganda purposes. In the first

place propaganda in "hymn" form and set to well know tunes would be speedily learned by heart

and sung over again and again and thus provide a most effective method of spreading the new

ideas. The fact that such "hymns" would be learned by heart, by those who could read them, and

then taught to others, meant that they would soon also become well-known to the illiterate

members of the tribe. This was very important, for there were many who could not be reached by

ordinary propaganda methods. . . . There is no doubt at all that these hymns, which were being

sung at K. A. U. (Kenya African Union) meetings, at Independent Schools and Churches, in

homes of thousands in the Kikuyu Reserve, in squatter villages and kitchens of European homes,

were one of the most powerful propaganda weapons of the whole Mau Mau movement.

When the dispossessed Gikuyu peasants moved into the forests to fight against the

colonial administration, songs had contributed in strengthening their sense of unity and in

boosting their morale. Ruth Finnegan has argued that "songs can be used to reopen and comment

on affairs, for political pressure, for propaganda, and to reflect and mould public opinion."

Earlier on, Ngugi had successfully used songs in his Gikuyu play Ngaahika Ndeenda, produced

in 1977 and translated in 1982 as I will Marry When I Want. By experimentation, Ngugi realized

that the sense of identification of the audience with the performance would be stronger if

recognizably local songs were used in a play. He therefore employed in his play traditional
songs, such as the Gittiro, which his audience might know because it is the classic song

performed at Gikuyu wedding ceremonies. It was then easy for Ngugi to use traditional tunes to

fit in the revolutionary songs in I Will Marry When I Want. The songs carry explicit protest

messages meant to stimulate political awareness and revolutionary action:

and

We do not mind being jailed

We do not mind being exiled

For we shall never stop Agitating for and demanding back our lands

For Kenya is an African people's country ....

The trumpet of the masses has been blown

Let's preach to all our friends

The trumpet of the masses has been blown

We change to new songs

For the revolution is near.32

The banning of the play by the Kenyan authorities in December 1977 and the official order

stopping the rehearsals of Maitu Njugira (Mother Sing For Me) (1981), a vernacular dramatic

musical evoking the response of Kenyan workers against the labor conditions of the 1920s and

1930s show that oral forms can be used in drama to directly communicate with the masses; and

in the hands of a radical writer like Ngugi they can prove dangerous as they can be collectively

marshalled to serve as an insoument of public incitement 33 Songs which could have been

modelled on traditional Gikuyu ones have been skillfully integrated into the structure of Devil on

the Cross. The predicament of the peasants and workers is, in the song below, attributed to the

political elite:
 Famine has increased in our land

But it has been given other names,

So that the people should not discover

Where all the food has been hidden.

Two bourgeois women

Ate the flesh of the children of the poor

They could not see the humanity of the children

Because their hearts were empty.

Many houses, and acres of land,

And mounds of stolen money

These cannot bring peace to a person,

Because they have been taken from the poor (pp. 50-51).

Later in the story, when the peasants and workers of Njeruca march towards the llmorog Golf

Course to confront the contestants for the exploitation trophy, song is used to reinforce the

popular determination not to give up the struggle:

Come one and all,

And behold the wonderful sight

Of us chasing away the Devil

And all his disciples!

Come one and all! (p. 20).

This call ends in a violent attack on the political and business elite participating in the

competition. (p. 207) When the foreign delegation is about to leave the Cave, "The people roared

like a thousand angry lions whose cubs had been taken away from them, and they seized their
sticks and clubs and iron rods and pressed forward towards the foreign thieves, who were

surrounded by their local homeguards" (p. 208). This change of community advocated by Ngugi

in Devil on the Cross is championed by Muturi, a worker who mobilizes the peasants and

workers of Njeruca to attack the local and foreign "robbers" and contribute to ending the system.

A member of the militant team, the student leader argues that all hands must be on deck to fight

neo-colonial capitalism conceived in the story as "the drinking of human blood [and] the eating

of human flesh" (209).

In Devil on the Cross Ngugi deliberately avoids a simple solution showing that the attack

of the peasants and workers on the middle class elite and the foreign "robbers" and Wariinga's

elimination of the Rich Old Man mark the beginning of an arduous struggle that lies ahead. The

masses have not overthrown the political system. Five of them have been killed in the

confrontation. Wariinga has lost not only her fiance but her future is also fraught with danger as

"the forces of bourgeois law" are certain to catch up with and charge her with murder and

unlawful possession of a lethal weapon (214).

Much of the progress that has been achieved in the novel is premised on the influence of

subversive songs in the novels under review. In both novels, songs have been used as tools for

mobilization of the masses against comprador imperialists who, in both texts, collaborate with

the western forces to impoverish, exploit and oppress their people. Although total liberation has

not been recorded in any of the novels, Ngugi sets the ideal pace for African freedom and

emancipation movements.
 CHAPTER FOUR

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Preamble

This chapter contains a summary of all the chapters including the main body of the

research. The conclusions reached here are on the basis of data in the course of researching on

the effective usage of subversive songs in the two texts of Matigari and Devil on the Cross as

veritable tools for emancipation.

Summary

The research has examined the use of Orature in Ngugi’s groundbreaking novels:

Matigari and Devil on the Cross. Chapter one, which is the introduction, begins with a

background to the research. The trajectory of oral forms in Africa has been traced extensively. It

also captures the statement of problem as well as the aim and objectives of the study. The

significance of the study has been stated: it will immensely benefit students, researchers and

tutors. The chapter also covers the research methodology which the researcher has adopted. The

author’s biography has been given with spotlight on his writings, education and imprisonment.

Chapter two, titled review of related literature, takes a cursory look at the works of other

researchers and scholars that relate to the project topic. The theoretical framework upon which

the research finds its bearing has been examined: Marxist Literary Criticism which is concerned

with the study of class struggles and income disparity in the society and all its complexities as

well as social relations. The development of the Marxist literary criticism has been traced – the

propounder of the Marxist philosophy to the popularizers and down to subsequent modifications

and application in contemporary climes. The chapter also xrayed works of other scholars and

authorities who have applied the theory to their researches.

 In the third chapter, the summaries of both texts which constitute the primary sources of

data – Matigari and Devil on the Cross have been captured. The synopsis gave us a clear

portrayal of the key characters in the novels. On the one hand, Matigari, the seeker of truth and

justice, in Matigari whom the peasants perceive to be a supernatural being whose mission is to

save the suffering masses that are in dire need of deliverance A Jesus Christ, perhaps. On the

other hand, Jacinta Wariinga, the protagonist of Devil on the Cross, her struggle for

independence and self reliance represent the struggles, yearnings and aspirations of the majority

of Kenyans.

The chapter also covers the analyses of the texts in line with the project topic, a study of

subversive songs in Matigari and Devil on the Cross. The analysis is done in line with the aim

and objectives of the research. The study reveals how instrumental Orature has been used as a

tool for mobilization and recruitment in both texts. In both texts the social crusaders rely on oral

forms to persuasively communicate their messages and recruit followers to help in reclaiming the

country and the means of livelihood from the comprador imperialists. We have been to see that

subversive songs are veritable tools for freedom movements, not just in Africa, but globally. The

author has achieved this by effectively employing songs in the novels inter alia.

Chapter five, which is tagged ‘summary and conclusion’, contains a synopsis of all the

chapters of the research undergone. This section also includes the conclusions reached by the

researcher upon conducting the research as well as observations made at the end of the research.

Conclusion

The study has identified the efficiency of the use of subversive songs in Matigari and

Devil on the Cross. It has attempted to buttressed how Ngugi has sufficiently employed the

Gikuyi Orature as a tool for mass mobilization of the masses to break free from the exploitative
claws of the few privileged political elites who have turned their backs on their countrymen and

preferred the friendship of neocolonial capitalists who do not wish to leave the resources of

their erstwhile colonies. The so called leaders who are comprador bourgeoisie only serve as

puppets in the hands of the imperialists.

The research also reveals that although songs alone would not suffice in gaining freedom

it is a powerful instrument for mass mobilization. This is seen in the government’s song being

played by the mass media. As already stated in the research, Matigari's intention is to convene

the people with traditional song and musical procedures. He soon discovers that he must modify

his approach. It is not enough to be vocally radical and "girded with the belt of peace"; one must

also be "armed with armed words." Though it pains Matigari, he realizes that guns must be the

percussion instruments to accompany the revolutionary songs if the people are to succeed.

This proves that Africa cannot be free and achieve reliance and gain a slot among the

developed nations by passive verbiage. Necessary and proactive actions by the led should be

taken to have an afro centric development. Ngugi, being a social crusader himself has proven

that the artist has a role to play in guiding his people, like a Moses, to lead them to the promised

land of freedom and plenty.

Through the character of Matigari, Ngugi has shown that the social crusader may not

achieve everything he sets out to achieve, but his ideas could outlive him and become a

benchmark for mobilization as that even though Matigari does not succeed with his original plan,

he does effectively educate and mobilize the masses. They are not able to comprehend his "truth

and justice song" but they are motivated to compose their own for the political cause that he has

awakened them to. It is the legend of Matigari that provokes a result and inspires them to action

more than the message he brings.

 It is noteworthy that the historical situation in Devil on the Cross must be viewed as a

reconstruction of the historical situation in Kenya in the 1970s created by the author. Ngugi has

aptly captured the postcolonial situation in Kenya which is a microcosm of Africa. The author

has used oral forms to invoke social change. Of course, songs have always played a crucial role

in freedom movements as they help in building the right spirit in the masses to passionately drive

home their cause. The efficacy of chants, songs, speeches inter alia in the novels by the author is

epic.

To Ngugi, being a radical Marxist, the use of Orature is the best medium through which

his revolutionary message can be conveyed to the masses.

The author, being a Marxist radical when he wrote the story, therefore, found it an appropriate

medium through which to convey his revolutionary message to the Kenyan masses.

a When examining the theme of oppression one can detect how the situation of the poor is

outlined according to a rhetorical model to invoke change

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