Ministry of Education Research Papers (original) (raw)

Ngugi's combative spirit against neo-colonial agents and their masters continues in Devil on the Cross, a novel he wrote in detention in Kimathi Maximum Security prison in Kenya. Like Petals of Blood, the story takes place mainly in Ilmorog and partly in Nairobi. It is no wonder, then, that the major trope in Devil on the Cross could be neocolonial dependency, with the Devil on the Cross as the structuring symbol. This is best illustrated in Wariinga's nightmare in which the white colonialist Devil is crucified by the masses (apparently, a reference to political independence) only to be resuscitated by the local comprador. Devil on the Cross shows the class struggle between the poor and the rich, the exploited and the exploiters. The novel begins with the story of Wariinga, a lady who had suffered a series of misfortunes, maltreatment and deprivation at the hands of some irresponsible men in the society. She was used, abused and abandoned by the rich old man of Ngorika whose child she was carrying. She had attempted suicide on the railway track but was saved by the timely intervention of Munti. After having her baby, she was able to complete her secretarial studies and found herself a job in Champion Construction Company. She later lost this job because she did not welcome boss Kihara's attentions. Her undergraduate friend, John Kinwana, jilted her after accusing her of being Kihara's mistress; and she was thrown out of her one-room apartment for her inability to pay the rent which the landlord had increased, and the landlord secured the services of three thugs who threw her things out. On the matatu bus, we see Muturi, Wariinga and Wa Mukiraai with the invitation cards for the feast to choose the seven cleverest thieves and robbers in Ilmorog. Mukiraai is in favour of the competition, and he is of the opinion that the feast is not organized by Satan but by the organization of modern theft and robbery in Ilmorog to commemorate a visit by foreign guests from an association of the thieves and robbers of the Western world, particularly from America, England, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Japan. The creation of a Devil's feast where national robbers and thieves with their foreign allies gather in order to reveal their tactics, strategies and motives provides Ngugi with the space for enacting or deconstructing, through the grotesque and the obscene, the banality of power, in a neo-colonial African society. During the feast we are confronted with the boastful thieves and robbers in the cave as the cooperation of the Kenyan bourgeoisie is seen as fruitful by the international representatives; the leader of the foreign delegation from the international organization of thieves and robbers headquartered in New York thanks the local thieves and robbers for the good work they have done performing, yet thieves who steal out of hunger are not allowed to compete. An example is Ndaaya Wa Kahuria in order to stop these noisy competitors who are watchdogs of imperialism that Wangari decides to invite the police, while Muturi who believes in the ability of the workers to arrest the thieves goes ahead to mobilize them. But the police who ought to arrest the thieves turn round to arrest Wangari, who should