Grain of Wheat

The 1967 novel, A Grain of Wheat , by Ngugi wa Thiong’o tells the story of a village as Kenyan independence approaches. There is a love triangle involving Mumbi and the rivals for her love, the collaborator Karanja and the carpenter Gikonyo, who eventually marries her. There is the tortured hermit Mugo, regarded as a hero of the Movement for his endurance during detention camp and for rescuing a pregnant woman from a beating. Hanging over the book is the question of who betrayed Mumbi’s brother Kihika, the vigorous leader of the resistance.

Ngugi’s novel also shows the interplay of biblical, nationalistic, and traditional religious themes in the Kenyan imagination. At the Uhuru meeting celebrating the independence, the Rev. Morris Kingori opens with a prayer that links European colonialism with Pharaoh and independence with exodus. Then, “People started singing, led by the youth band with drums, guitars, flutes and tins. Again they recreated history, giving it life through the words and voices: land alienation, Waiyaki, Harry Thuku, taxation, conscription of labour into the white-man’s land, the break with the missions, and, oh, the terrible thirst and hunger for education. They sang of Jomo (he came, like a fiery spear among us), his stay in England (Moses sojourned in the land of Pharaoh) and his return (he came riding on a cloud of fire and smoke) to save his children. He was arrested, sent to Lodwar, and on the third day came home from Maralal. He cam riding a chariot home. The gates of hell could not withhold him. Now angels trembled before him.”