Homecoming

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STUDIES IN AFRICAN LITERATURE A Reader's Guide to African Literature: HANS ZELL and HELENE SILVER Homecoming: Essays: NGUGI WA THIONG'O Writers in Politics: NGUGI WA THIONG'O Morning Yet on Creation Day: CHINUA ACHEBE African Literature in the Twentieth Century: O. R. DATHORNE Protest and Conflict in African Literature Edited by COSMO PIETERSE and DONALD MUNRO An Introduction to the African Novel: EUSTACE PALMER The Growth of the African Novel: EUSTACE PALMER The Novel and Contemporary Experience in Africa: ARTHUR SHATTO GAKWANDI The Literature and Thought of Modern Africa: CLAUDE WAUTHIER New West'African Literature: KOLAWOLE OGUNGBESAN The African Experience in Literature and Ideology: ABIOLA IRELE Aspects of South African Literature Edited by CHRISTOPHER HEYWOOD African Art and Literature: The Invisible Present: DENNIS DUERDEN Four Centuries of Swahili Verse: JAN KNAPPERT African Writers Talking Edited by DENNIS DUERDEN and COSMO PIETERSE African Writers on African Writing Edited by G. D. KILLAM Tendi: J. W. T. ALLEN The Writings of Chinua Achebe: G. D. KILLAM The Writing ofWole Soyinka: ELDRED JONES The Poetry of L. S. Senghor: s. O. MEW The Poetry of Okot p'Bitek: G. A. HERON An Introduction to the Writings of Ngugi: G. D. KILLAM The Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah: ROBERT FRASER The Writings of Camara Laye: ADELE KING

Critical Perspectives Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe Edited by CATHERINE INNES and BERNTH LINDFORS Critical Perspectives on Amos Tutuola Edited by BERNTH LINDFORS Critical Perspectives on V. S. Naipaul Edited by ROBERT HAMNER Critical Perspectives on Nigerian Literatures Edited by BERNTH LINDFORS Critical Perspectives on Wole Soyinka Edited by JAMES GIBBS Critical Perspectives on Ngugi Edited by G. D. KILLAM Critical Perspectives on Christopher Okigbo Edited by D. NWOGA

African Literature Today Edited by

ELDRED DUROSIMI JONES

1-4 Omnibus edition

5 The Novel in Africa 6 Poetry in Africa 7 Focus on Criticism 8 Drama in Africa 9 Africa, America and the Caribbean 10 Retrospect and Prospect I I Myth and History 12 New Writing, New Approaches

Homecoming ESSAYS

ON AFRICAN

I,ITERATURE,

AND

CULTURE

CARIBBEAN

AND

NGUGI WA THIONG'O

IIEINEMANN ),IlNIION

. IBADAN

• NAIROBI

POLITICS

Heinemann Educational Books Ltd 22 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3HH P.M.B. 5205 Ibadan . P.O.B. 45314 Nairobi EDINBURGH MELBOURNE HONG KONG SINGAPORE EXETER (NH) KINGSTON PORT OF SPAIN ISBN

0 435 91750

AUCKLAND KUALA LUMPUR NEW DELHI

I

© NGUGI WA THIONG'O 1972 First published I972 Reprinted 1977, 1978, 1981

2

Printed in Great Britain by Biddles L tcl......m-!E29-.~m,._a politica.!_(~cst. It was generally realized that a community deprived of its political liberty would find it difficult to recreate an image of its past and confidently look towards the future. The realization was general, at times vague. The belief has persisted, urnong most African intellectuals, artists and politrci;;;S:that~ liberation i"s,~e~fp.lifjl"s;:~gjti911,_tqr, political.liberation; .~And since they think of culture only in terms of dances, jungle drums and folk-lore, they I hink it enough if they assert the need for the revival of these things. But il i wr~gJEJ:ill~.2.Ls.4!tYt.e.as"pdQr.-tQ,p-olitic~. P.2li!ic~~ ec:~~~c liberatioE_~~~_!he,_~senti~Lg)n.ditionJor .~u!tlJ!allilJ(!ra!i~m, for the true release of a people's creative spirit and imagination. It is when people are involved in the active work of destroying an inhibitive social structure and building a new one that they begin to see themselves. They are born again. In traditional Africa we have seen how culture, as a mode of life, was intimately bound u_p with the social fabric, which was based on man's r .lationship tothe l;~ci~ The colonialist knew this. We have pointed out that his pooh-poohl~g~e African way oflife went hand in hand with a d eliberate destruction of the material base on which itwasouilt: A culture has no meaning apart from the social organisation of life on which it is built. When the European comes to Gikuyu country and robs Ihe people of their land, he is taking away not only their livelihood, but the material symbol that holds family and tribe together. In doing this he gives one blow which cuts away the foundations from the whole (; ikuyu life, social moral and economic. IS 'I'll' Kenya colo~ni.!llEr~gg~se?~~e.~ r,2.,upc4!~,q~m..eniX9-!,.d1!~JQ:;tJ