NGUGI  WA THIONG'O: DEVIL ON THE CROSS

Ngugi wa Thiong’o (b.1938) is a novelist, dramatist, essayist, short-story writer, journalist and critic. Throughout the development of his career as a writer his abiding theme has been the struggle of the common people of Kenya to come to terms with the efforts on their culture of colonialism and neocolonialism that followed. His fifth novel, Devil on the Cross, was written on toilet paper during his detention in his native tongue Gikuyu, and later translated by him into English. It is a searing indictment of Kenyan politics and society after independence. Devil on the Cross is written in a unique style akin to oral performance. It begins and ends with the third-person omniscient narrating voice of the “Prophet of Justice” who provides poignant social and existential commentary. Recalling traditional African ballad singers, the novel can be easily performed as a play and thereby used to educate and inform its mainly illiterate audience of the political situation. This critical study explores and examines the text and subtext of the novel to bring out Ngugi’s vision for a free Kenya. It provides the background to African literature as well as tackles the critical problems associated with the novel for the benefit of university students. Shakti Batra, Formerly Vice-Principal of Dyal Singh College (University of Delhi), has also taught at the Kabul University and the University of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek.

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