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Devil on the Cross by Ngugi wa Thiong'o: As a Piece of Political Fiction and

Powerful Critique of Capitalism

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 LITERARIA (ISSN 2229-4600)
VOL. 9, NO. 1-2, JAN-DEC 2019

Devil on the Cross by Ngugi wa Thiong’o:

As a Piece of Political Fiction and
Powerful Critique of Capitalism
AHSAN UL HAQ MAGRAY
Kashmir University, J&K, India

ABSTRACT

Ngugi wa Thiong' o, the most famous African novelist, who

was incarcerated by the then government for his political
beliefs. This paper will examine his debut novel Devil on the
Cross (1980) as a piece of Pris-Lit. The paper will also study
Ngugi was foremost postcolonial, and to deconstruct as a
critique of capitalism.

Keywords: Postcolonial, neo-colonialism, Mau Mau Uprising,

Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, capitalism, prison literature.

A good number of literary/non-literary works produced in

prisons qualify the title prison literature or “Pris-Lit.” Don
Quixote a very famous work of literature was written by its
author Cervantes when he was incarcerated in 1605-1615. The
book has been a classic of its time and still continues to retain
that status. John Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding and Pilgrims
Progress during his imprisonment in 1666 and 1678. Marquis de
Sade wrote famous work The 120 Days of Sodom during his
incarceration in 1785. Civil Disobedience, a collection of essays
by Henry David Thoreau, produced the same in prison in 1849.
De Profundis, a famous literary work was written by its author
Oscar Wilde when he was incarcerated in 1905. The Enormous
Room, another piece of literature, was written by its author E. E.
Cumming in prison in 1922. Adolph Hitler wrote his
autobiography Mein Kemp during his incarceration in 1925-26.
58 AHSAN UL HAQ MAGRAY

The Story of My Experiments with Truth, a classic of its time,

was written by M. K. Gandhi when he was imprisoned by the
British Government in 1925-29. Nelson Mandala wrote his
memoir Conversation with Myself when he was incarcerated in
1932. Ghubhar e Khatir, translated as Sallies of Mind; a
collection of twenty-four letters, written by Abul Kalam Azad
during his incarceration in 1946 at the Ahmad Nagar jail of India.
The book is considered a masterpiece work of Urdu prison
literature. Antoni Gramsci wrote a series of essays entitled
Prison Notebook while in prison in1950. Madman and Specialist
(1970), a famous play and his memoir The Man Died: The Prison
Notes (1972) were written by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka
when he was incarcerated by the government. Both works are
very famous artistic creations produced from behind the prison
walls. Detained: A Writers Prison Dairy was written by Ngugi
wa Thiang’o when he was incarcerated in 1981. The Dead House
was written by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky when he was
confined in 1999 and Human Landscapes from My Country: An
Epic Novel in Verse was written by Turkish poet and novelist
Nazim Hakmit during his incarceration in 2009. Recently in
August 2018 American author, Nico Walker wrote his debut
novel titled Cherry: A Novel in prison in Ashland, Kentucky
USA. All these and numerous other writings produced in
restrictions and limitations, where the writers were denied even
reading and writing materials bring the fact to the point that no
doubt, they can’t escape physically but no power on earth could
cease their mental freedom. The sky laden walls and narrow
chambers of prison couldn’t lock their strong will of life making.
They criticized the oppressive regimes and remained firm to their
noble aims and deeds and aestheticized even the dark shades of
lives.
All these masterpieces were produced/written when their
authors were behind the bars and the existence of such a vast
body of literature testifies to the fact that human imagination
escapes all the restrictions and control that it is sometimes
subjected to by the powers that be.
There are no qualms in saying that Ngugi Was Thiong’o is
one of the foremost novelists, Ngugi, one of Africa’s greatest
DEVIL ON THE CROSS BY NGUGI WA THIONG’O 59

living writers. He was detained and imprisoned without trial

between 31 December 1977 and 12 December 1978 in Kamiti
Maximum Security Prison under the charge of having engaged in
unspecified “activities and utterances... dangerous to the good
Government of Kenya and its institutions. He decided not to
write in English the colonial language but in Gikuyu his mother
tongue. His writings are concerned with colonial times and the
Mau Mau Uprisings in his nation Kenya. The Mau Mau
movement was with that oath and Kenya embarked on its hard
road to National Sovereignty in the 1950s. From 1952- 1959
Kenya was put under a state emergency due to the Mau Mau
rebellion against the British colonial rule. This movement had a
great effect on the writings of Ngugi. He decides to write in his
mother tongue to break the hierarchy of the English language.
Ngugi as a novelist and artist emerged as an activist struggling
against the government for economic liberation of his masses. As
a great literary person, he produced a number of works in prison
like A Writers Prison Dairy: Ngugi Wa Thiong’o Detained and
the novel The Devil on the Cross. Ngugi Wa Thiong’ o wrote his
Devil on Cross while he was in jail, thereby putting on record his
severest criticism of the oppressive system that he was fighting
against. Who can imagine the aesthetic power the writer has in
those dark hours of life and to write such a great novel on the
toilet issued papers. Is it not surprising that how can one write on
toilet papers? In one of the speeches delivered by Prof Ngugi, he
remarks as “The toilet paper they gave us is very hard, or it was
even to punish us in our private business, but that was a very
good writing material. And when one confesses his/her sins he
was provided with a paper to write down, but I ask them for a
pen also, so they gave me…the toilet paper they gave us to
punish, I turned to opposite ‘I wrote my novel.’” This shows his
commitment to his nation and his love for the masses. It was
discovered when almost novel was complete but unexpectedly
returned to him on his release. When the novel was licensed for
publication it had an enormous effect on the postcolonial writing
of Africa. He never surrendered his will to express for his people
and didn’t stop his struggle for their liberation and freedom. He
faced a lot of problems in writing and started protesting against
60 AHSAN UL HAQ MAGRAY

colonialism. He then started to address the Kenyan masses

especially illiterate ones to struggle against the unjust system of
his nation. He went up to the extent of criticizing the government
even after the independence and described the government as
elitist and partisan. As a result was harassed, tortured and was
incarcerated without charge. He didn’t remain silent and
criticized the Kenyan government in his writings even after his
release.
Devil on the Cross was first written in Gikuyu and then
translated by himself into English, the novel was published in
1980 in East Africa. Devil on the Cross is a powerful fictional
critique of capitalism. Kenya has been presented as a nation of
the capitalist system based on theft, corruption, and robbery
where the masses are exploited and put to death. The novel is an
apt example of what lies concealed by darkness and behind the
curtains. The plot construction and the development of the novel
are fantastic. The novel paints the society which is full of women
exploitation, abuse, brutality, corruption, theft, robbery, and
social injustices. It tells the tragic story of Wariinga, whose name
means “Woman in chains” a young woman who moves from a
rural Kenyan town to the capital, Nairobi, only to be exploited by
her boss and later by a corrupt businessman. Her story and the
struggle she faces is illustrative of post-colonial state, the story of
Kenya’s proletariat, a story of victimization of filthy and sexist
politics. She grows from a traditional local girl to become an auto
mechanic and out spokeswoman of his nation. The main part of
the novel is concerned with speeches of the local and foreign
exploiters who meet in Illmorg (a mythical place of all Africa) of
Devil Feast organized on theft and robbery and to choose some
experts in theft and robbery. At the feast, the explicators started
speeches about the bravery of theft and robbery. All these
exploiters were concerned with the wealth of poor to snatched, as
every speaker says about how many cars he owns, how many
wives, who may suggest girls and how much property they have.
Warinnga’s life throughout the novel is very hard, she faces from
the very beginning a lot of problems, she was worried about his
shabby figure as mentioned in the novel “That which is born
black will never be white” (Thiong’o 1980: 11) with the passage
DEVIL ON THE CROSS BY NGUGI WA THIONG’O 61

of time seemed very difficult for him “I suddenly felt my brain

and heartburn with pain and my anger seemed to suffocate me”
(p. 14). She struggles very hard to find a job, whenever she gets
some job she had been exploited by her bosses, getting a job was
very difficult unless she surrenders herself completely before
boss at the cost of her beauty, the corruption, abuse, and women
exploitation in prevailing in Kenya as the narrator Waringa
recounts: “Women’s thighs are the table on which contracts are
signed” (p. 19). Her body was exploited to the extent of raped by
her bosses and getting pregnant. Later when she discloses this to
the man who had exploited and seduced her denies the charge
against him and leaves her all alone. She tries to commit suicide
a number of times in the novel. As she struggles to survive,
Wariinga begins to realize that her problems are only symptoms
of a larger societal malaise and that much of the misfortune stems
from the Western, capitalist influences on her country. The story
runs over two hundred and fifty-four pages at the end Warringa
becomes a mechanic to start her job and carrier and live a free
life where she will be boss of her own. Wariinga’ ordeal of
sexual abuse and exploitation, show the patriarchy prevailing in
Kenya and is an attempt to break down this patriarchy. But here
also people started exploiting her but she was now a brave girl
who can fight against the cruel system and capitalist and malaise
society, where masse are reduced to mere creatures to be crawled
and trodden. At the end, Wariinga commits for a new life, a life
which is based on honor, respect, equality, and freedom. At the
end of the novel she kills her first seducer as she says in last
pages of the novel:

You snatcher of other people’s lives, do you remember the game

you and I used to play, the game of hunter and hunted. Did you
imagine that a day might come when the hunter would become
hunted? What is done can’t be undone… the man interrupted
Wariinga…. My darling, my little fruit, my orange, my flower to
brighten my old age! He went on, carried out by his words. He
didn’t see Warringa take out the pistol. Look out at me! Wariinga
commanded, with the voice of a judge…his words suddenly
ceased. The people outside heard the shots. (Thiong’o 1980: 253)
62 AHSAN UL HAQ MAGRAY

An impassioned cry for a Kenya free of dictatorship and for

African writers to work in their own local dialects, Devil on the
Cross have had a profound influence on Africa and on post-
colonial African literature. The novel shows the reaction,
rebellion, and rejection which enabled him to resist his
incarceration. Ngugi has presented himself not as an individual
but as a writer as an essential component of the society a voice to
the voiceless.
The novel allows one to understand and to fight against neo-
colonialism and capitalism. The Marxist influence in the novel,
the class struggle between the poor and rich. The capitalist who
always destroys poor as Wariinga is a poor girl who was
throughout the novel the victim in the hands of bosses. Ngugi
was deeply engulfed in the Mau Mau Uprising of Kenya. From
his all writings his Marxist beliefs and clear representation of
Marxism are obvious. But through the character of Wariinga, her
exploitation several times are crystal clear representations of
Capitalism and commoditization in Kenyan society, as Ngugi
believes in a classless society. Marxist novel-like this and his
other writings have made Ngugi as the subject of much
discussion in the world academia. He gained much popularity
with his powerful critique of writings; it proves the fact
whenever an artist is incarcerated to speak against the capitalism,
oppressive regimes and for the betterment of common masses.
His/her talent seemed to block by the government to remain
silent in the dark and solitary cells of the prison. But how can
they put the locks on their imagination, soul, and power to create
more distinguish arts like poetry, dramas, novels etc? The novel
is thronged with the themes of resistance at political, social,
linguistic, cultural or philosophic levels embedded in the
aesthetic structures. Along with Marxist perspective and critique
of capitalism; the novel can be aligned and interpreted with from
materialist feminist perspective. Ngugi not only speaks of the
post-colonial state of Kenya but more of neo-colonial state,
regardless of the independence of Kenya, the colonization is still
prevalent in Kenyan society. Mentally, politically, economically,
socially colonization is still in society, to decolonize the mind
seems very crucial to Ngugi. Devil on the Cross is embedded
 DEVIL ON THE CROSS BY NGUGI WA THIONG’O 63

with conflicts and effects of colonization and neo-colonization,

without which text cannot be interpreted at all.
Ngugi prison writings proved the fact that the aesthetic the
writers have is much higher than the reach of one image. These
great prison bards prefer to die but not to remain silent. Prison
literature begins with Boethius is now one of the great genres in
literature. There is no denying the fact that this African writer is a
great prison writer indeed. The novel is an excellent piece of art
produced by its author in the narrow chambers of prison, and
powerful fictional critique of capitalism, a cry for Kenya of free
dictatorship, and fight against the neo-colonial stage of
imperialism. The novel bears a profound influence, and effect on
African Postcolonial literature.

REFERENCES

Brumely, E. A. 2007. Wariinga’s got a gun: Feminism and revolution in

Devil on the Cross. Available online: <http://toto.lib.unca.edu/
sr_papers/literature_sr/srliterature_2007/brumley_emily.pdf>.
Honoré, N. M. 2018. Women’s fight in Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Devil on
the Cross: A structural analysis. Greener Journal of Language and
Literature, 4/1, 1-11. Available online: <http://gjournals.org/
GJLLR/ Publication/2018/April/PDF/030718034%20Honore.pdf>.
Thiong’o, W. N. 1980. The Devil on the Cross. Gikuyu: Penguin
Classics.
——. 1984. Devil on the Cross. African Writers Series 200. Exeter,
NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

AHSAN UL HAQ MAGRAY

PH.D. RESEARCH SCHOLAR,
DEPTT: OF ENGLISH,
KASHMIR UNIVERSITY,
SRINAGAR, J&K, INDIA.
E-MAIL: <AHSANULHAQ045@GMAIL.COM>

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