Devil on the Cross by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong PDF

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Devil on the Cross is a novel by Ngugi wa Thiong'o that was first published in 1980 under the title Caitani Mutharabaini in the Gky language. It is the author's first novel in English. Heinemann Educational Books published it as part of its influential African Writers Series in 1982. The following y...

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Devil on the Cross by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Devil on the Cross is a novel by Ngugi wa Thiong'o that was first published in 1980 under the title Caitani Mutharabaini in the Gky language. It is the author's first novel in English. Heinemann Educational Books published it as part of its influential African Writers Series in 1982. The following year, it was translated into English by the author himself, and it went on to become a bestseller. According to Namwali Serpell's introduction to the Penguin Edition of Devil on the Cross, the novel's origins can be traced back to Ngg's political struggle, and it was written while he was detained at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. I Will Marry When I Want, a controversial play that depicted the harsh reality of rural/working life in postcolonial Kenya, had been staged earlier that day, on December 30, 1977, when Ngg was apprehended. Ngg was stripped of his identity in prison, where he was referred to as "detainee K6,77," and was forced to choose between having only one hour of light per day or existing in a state of perpetual lightness. Ngg recalls that, during this period of poor sanitation, abandonment by the state, and despondency, reading and writing were the only things that kept him going. After that, in order to keep himself sane and make manifest what he was feeling in his mind and heart, Ngg wrote Devil on the Cross in his handwriting on the toilet paper at Kamiti prison. He wanted to know what had brought him and his country to this point, where foreign culture and ideas were embraced while local culture and truth-tellers were relegated to both literal and figurative prisons. He wanted to know what had brought him and his country to this point. Ngg's decision to write the novel in Gky, his native language, as well as a local Kenyan dialect, was a significant factor in this interrogation. Ngg chose to write the novel in Gky because of his beliefs about language, which he believes is more than a means of communication, but also a reflection of our cultures and the material realities shaped by these cultures. Although Gky is spoken by less than 25% of Kenyans and read by an even smaller percentage, Ngg chose to write the novel in Gky because of his beliefs about language. Because it was necessary to tell the truth about what was happening in Kenya, Ngg believed that it was necessary to depict this truth in a Kenyan language rather than the language of the colonisers who had brought about Kenya's misery in the first place, in order to tell the truth about what was happening in Kenya. While Ngg's choice of language for the novel was later hailed as a watershed moment in his career, it was not without its detractors at the time. For example, Victoria Brittain wrote in a 1982 review for the London Review of Books, "It [would] be tragic if [Ngg's] response to political polarisation in his society is to turn his energies inward, so that he writes only in Kikuyu for a peasant audience, and refuses

to address the rest of the world." However, Ngg's decision to write the novel in Gkyy may have also saved him from censorship, as he recounts in Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary, a guard confiscated a late manuscript of the novel while he was in prison. Ngg's decision to write the novel in Gkyy, on the other hand, may have saved him from censorship as well. The guard eventually returned the manuscript to Ngg after several weeks of holding onto it and explaining that he "wr[o]te in very difficult Kikuyu," according to Ngg. Concerning the novel's plot, it follows a Kenyan woman named Warnga, who used to work as a sugar girl but had aspirations of becoming an engineer, as she embarks on two journeys. It is from Nairobi to Ilmorog (a fictional rural outpost) that Warnga embarks on her first journey, which she undertakes after being fired from her job and abandoned by her lover. There, she will be reunited with her parents. A stranger invites her to a Devil's Feast on the way, and she decides to check it out with a variety of characters she meets while riding in a private minibus (matat) on the way. In actuality, however, the feast serves as a competition among businessmen to see who can come up with the most exploitative and profitable ideas for both exploiting peasants and increasing Kenya's reliance on foreigners, even decades after independence was declared. Ultimately, Warnga is inspired to reform her life by events at the feast and a visit from the Devil himself, and she is able to achieve her goal of becoming a self-sufficient Marxist engineer who will marry a wealthy man she met earlier on the matat. Gaturia is her companion on her second journey, which will take her to Nakuru, where she will meet his parents. When Warnga arrives, she discovers that Gaturia's father is the same man with whom she had an exploitative relationship when she was a young girl. At the novel's conclusion, Warnga assassinates him in order to protect others from his exploitation, thus committing herself fully to the Marxist struggle and transforming herself from a helpless victim of neocolonialism into a martyr for her cause. As one can probably tell from the novel's content, it is a ferociously funny satire that, at the same time, has a great deal to say about Kenya's failed transition to real independence. The novel is set in Kenya and is set during the period of the country's failed transition to real independence. All of the characters in the novel reflect and frame the discourse surrounding these social issues through their actions, as well as, as Gichingiri Ndigirigi has pointed out, through their names and language. In choosing to interrogate and explore these issues, Ngg chooses himself to embody them in his narratology and language, advancing his storey through a series of dialectic dualities and focusing on the language, adages, and fables of the Gkyy people as the central narrative elements.

The storey of Devil on the Cross takes place in the postcolonial landscape of Kenya in the 1980s. However, even though the country had its own legislature and government at this point, the influence of international culture and currency continued to play a significant role in the daily lives of ordinary citizens, something that author Ngugi wa Thiong'o despised and saw as a relic of colonial oppression on the part of the government. The storey begins with a Gcaannd player in Ilmorog, a fictional Kenyan outpost in the middle of nowhere. His initial reluctance to tell the storey that follows is met with divine intervention and the collective will of the people, he claims, prompting him to do so regardless of his feelings. The main character of this storey, Jacinta Warnga, is introduced in the second chapter and develops throughout the storey. Warnga has recently lost her boyfriend and been fired as a result of her refusal to accept the advances of her boss. She is depressed and has given up hope. She decides to return to her hometown of Ilmorog, but while waiting for a bus, she makes the tragic decision to commit suicide. Despite this, an unknown man intervenes and saves her before she can complete the deed. His reaction to her life storey, which includes being impregnated at a young age as a sugar girl and being forced to abandon all of her childhood dreams and ambitions, is profound. In response, he extends an invitation to her to a party dubbed "The Devil's Feast," which will feature a competition in "modern theft and robbery" as part of the festivities. He assures her that the conditions that led to Warnga's exploitation will be explained if she attends the Feast, but Warnga is unsure whether or not she wants to attend because the Feast is advertised in demonic terms. However, it just so happens that the Feast is being held in Ilmorog, which she is already on her way to see her parents. To get to Ilmorog, she boards a dilapidated matatu driven by a greedy and unctuous man named Mwara, who is also her driver. While travelling on the matata, Warnga encounters a diverse group of characters, each of whom shares their life storey and explains what has brought them to Ilmorog in the first place. One of these individuals is Mturi, a handyman who is travelling to Ilmorog to look for work after being fired from his previous job (he went on strike and demanded a livable wage from the same person who fired Warnga, as it turns out). Wangar is also on the bus, a woman who fought for Kenyan independence during the Mau Mau Uprising, but who was arrested for vagrancy while looking for work in Nairobi after being arrested for fighting for Kenyan independence (she is on her way to Ilmorog to cooperate with the police and point out thieves and robbers, so as to avoid her own charges). Gaturia, a welleducated and courteous student from the university who studies traditional music, is also present. He is on his way to Ilmorog to witness the Devil's Feast and attempt to convince himself of the truth of old folktales (which tell of demons and other supernatural

beings that Gaturia has never seen before). Finally, there's Mwreri wa Mkiraa, a reticent and wealthy businessman who only speaks when it comes to discussing his belief in stealing. According to Mwreri wa Mkiraa, theft is what distinguishes a developed country from a developing country; the only thing that separates one country from another on the global stage is a country's relative inability to grab and steal in places where its people have not worked. On the matatu ride to Ilmorog, there are extensive and in-depth discussions about the nature of good and evil, as well as a discussion about the post-colonial conditions that have benefited local tycoons and compradores, among other topics. Despite the fact that Kenyans fought for their independence, and despite the fact that the people in power at the moment are nominally Kenyan (e.g., by race or clan), they frequently serve at the feet of foreign masters and allow themselves to be manipulated by foreign money. This type of situation is, in some ways, worse than colonial conditions because it keeps the imperialist truth from the general public hidden from view. Because the general consensus on the matatu is that the Devil's Feast will host a large number of thieves and traitors who enable the post-colonial system of capitalism, each passenger is intrigued to attend for their own reasons. They are informed by Mwreri wa Mkiraaa that the Feast is not, in fact, hosted by the Devil, but rather by a local association of thieves and robbers; the card that Warnga received, he claims, was forgery created by radical college students. Mwreri wa Mkiraaa informs them of this fact. The Feast begins with Warnga and his companions witnessing a series of barbaric, inhumane, and exploitative proposals from a group of businessmen and industrialists, which they are forced to accept. It is not only for the purpose of sharing information and techniques among thieves, but also to impress a delegation of foreigners who will determine the winner, that each tycoon tells their storey of how they exploited the people and earned vast fortunes. In order to extend the lives of the wealthy, they have suggested everything from selling bottled air to peasants to selling human organs to the wealthy. An uproar erupts when Mwreri wa Mkiraa takes to the stage, suggesting that the organisation of thieves and robbers drive the foreigners out of Ilmorog so that they can take a larger cut of the loot for themselves. However, the idea is quickly rejected by the emcee, who and the other members of the audience. Warnga and Gaturia choose to remain as spectators, whereas Mturi and Wangar, alarmed by what they have heard, decide to lead a revolt of the peasants and call the police to apprehend those who are present at the Feast, in that order. Between bites of lunch, Warnga tells Gaturia about how her life was ruined when she

became the sugar girl of a Rich Old Man from Ngorika, which led her to attempt suicide on several occasions only to be rescued each time by Gaturia's intervention. As soon as they return to the cave, Mwara informs Warnga and Gaturia of the other two's plans, and he also informs Warnga that it has been Mturi who has saved her from suicide on three separate occasions. Warnga flees the stage and falls asleep against a tree as another man takes the stage and begins to speak to the audience. While she is sleeping, the Devil appears to her and reveals the truth about the entire colonial and imperial operation, which is rooted in the common evil of capitalist exploitation, and invites her to become a participant in the operation. She rejects him, and when she wakes up, Gaturia is there to watch over her. It is he who explains to her that Wangar brought the police, but that she was captured and detained on the orders of those in power, whom the police genuinely serve. A short time later, Mturi arrives with an army of neighbourhood labourers, students, and workers, all of whom walk through the cavern, which is where the Feast is taking place at the time. They disrupt the festivities and cause all of the thieves to flee, but they are then violently suppressed by the police and their associated auxiliary forces, who then kill them. Two years have passed. Warnga and Gaturia are getting married, and she has fulfilled one of her childhood dreams of becoming a mechanical engineer by putting in a lot of effort and money into the preparations. She has also learned self-defense techniques and adhered to Marxist principles, all while concealing a pistol that Mturi gave her in the cave when she was a child. Meanwhile, Gaturia has completed his musical composition on the history of Kenya, and he plans to present it to his father in Nakuru, along with his new girlfriend. In order to visit his parents, Warnga leaves Nairobi with her lover, but she is also depressed because her former boss, with the support of businesspeople from America, Germany, and Japan, has purchased the garage where Warnga works in order to demolish it and develop it into a traveler's inn on the premises. Gaturia and Warnga have their first meeting with her parents, and her mother expresses her approval of the union. In the following days, they travel to Nakuru, where Warnga discovers that her boyfriend's family is one of the very same tycoon families she has grown to despise since the Feast—in fact, many of the people who spoke at the Feast are present at Gaturia's residence. Furthermore, she learns that Gaturia's father is in fact the Rich Old Man from Ngorika who impregnated her and then abandoned her when she was a young girl. Warnga maintains her composure at first, but as the father continues to pursue her and even threaten her, she loses her cool and snaps. She shoots Gaturia's father and a few other visitors from the Feast, claiming that she will stop them from destroying other people's lives and perpetuating the oppressive systems that they are involved in perpetrating. Gaturia is left

standing, unsure of which side to take, and as the novel comes to a close, Warnga walks away from the house without a backward glance in his direction. It is critical to explicitly point out the ways in which Ngg's worldview corresponds to that of conventional Marxist philosophy. Traditional Marxist philosophy holds that a majority working class, known as the proletariat, is kept indentured in slave-like servitude to a wealthy, minority bourgeoisie class as a necessary and fundamental condition of capitalist society. Religion, mainstream culture, and educational institutions are all instruments of the bourgeoisie that serve to strengthen the capitalist system and allow the bourgeoisie to maintain their disproportionate control over natural resources and the means of production. Thus, it is not difficult to draw parallels between Devil on the Cross and such a worldview: under the disproportionate influence of foreign money and the elevation of wealthy, local compradores, the majority peasant class is kept indentured to these powers, who seek nothing more than to exploit them. It is possible to see the extremes of this exploitation in the absurd and hellish ideas that are proposed at the Devil's Feast. Furthermore, the author is able to introduce a disdain for religion, bourgeois culture, mainstream media, and local education systems, all of which he perceives as reinforcing the control of capitalist tycoons over the disenfranchised majority, through the mouthpiece of Ngga's Devil speaking to Waronga. Another important parallel between Ngg's Marxism and the conventional Marxism of Engels and Marx is the fact that Ngg considers the worker majority to be a revolutionary force, something that Engels and Marx did not believe to be the case. Even though the proletariat is initially kept in the dark by the bourgeoisie, Marx and Engels believed that awakening to a collective class consciousness could spark a revolution that would upend the capitalist system and allow the proletariat to rework the oppressive instruments of their oppression. Devil on the Cross is a novel in which Ngga explicitly states that a peasant/revolution worker's is unavoidable, both by drawing on the Mau Mau Uprising (which was itself a peasant/revolution) worker's as a historical touchstone and by uniting our sympathies with figures such as Mturi, who leads another such uprising at the Devil's Feast. When it comes to local rule by the peasant majority, Ngg advocated for the return of not only local customs but also the use of dialects, traditional art forms, and local idiomatic language in both cases. The Gcaanda Player is a folk artist driven by the collective desires of the people, and our narrator, Ngg, attempts to speak directly to this peasant collective by transforming his text into a hybrid, Kenyan-inspired form and by creating the Gcaanda Player—a folk artist driven by the collective desires of the people—our narrator attempts to speak directly to this peasant collective, using their language to inspire a similar class consciousness and awareness and showing them

So, how does Ngg's Marxism differ from conventional Marxist thought, and in what ways does it contribute to it? Several differences between Ngag's beliefs and the Marxism advocated in the philosophy's seminal texts are pointed out by Govind Sharma in an article published in 1998. The bourgeoisie is treated with little admiration or respect by Marx and Engels, who take pleasure in the ways in which they have industrialised society, bent nature to their human will, and so on. But Ngga does not treat the bourgeoisie with such admiration or respect, according to Sharma. Instead, Ngg considers them to be merely exploitative, taking advantage of the accomplishments and labour of the majority, who, in his opinion, are the real drivers of every major profit, every major advancement, and every national victory. Through the voice of Mturi, he repeatedly informs us of his intentions. Ngga is also less enthusiastic about solidarity with the working class, whereas Marxists believed that a necessary partnership between some academics (whose job it was to educate and expose the exploitation of capitalism to the masses) and the working majority was necessary. Even though in Devil on the Cross, certain university students are willing to give their lives in order to support the revolutionary actions of the workers, in the character of Gaturia, Ngg shows us an example of why such partnerships should not be taken for granted, and in some cases, should even be discouraged from taking place. They are not always able to fully participate in the ideals and actions of the proletariat because they have privileges that they must acknowledge in themselves and their own backgrounds. According to Sharma, this divergence in Ngg's thought is most likely due to the fact that Ngg felt alienated in Kenyan academia because of his own beliefs, and that his detention and imprisonment were preceded by a series of intellectual conflicts with others in the academic world before his detention and imprisonment. In this way, while Ngugi is a Marxist to his core, we can see here through some key idiosyncrasies in his thought that, as Sharma notes, he agrees with Fanon more than Marx or Engels, despite the fact that Ngugi is an out and out Marxist. As a result of Ngg's personal experiences, the masses and peasan...