AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS DISSIDENCE

The Nairobi Journal of Literature, 2022

The publication of three volumes of memoirs by of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o between 2010 and 2016: Dreams in a Time of War, In the House of the Interpreter and Birth of a Dream Weaver, has been a major literary event for Kenyan and Eastern African literature. In his seventies, Ngũgĩ joins other postcolonial authors of the first and second generations who have preceded him, in publishing an autobiographical serial on childhood, identity formation and the issue of becoming a writer in colonial contexts and on the verge of formal decolonization. As representative of the Kwani generation of Kenyan writers, Binyavanga Wainaina, aged only 40, offers an early autobiographical text, One Day I will write about this Place in 2011, followed by its lost chapter "I am a homosexual, mum" in 2014. His was a major literary event, too. In my paper, I propose to examine the continuities and ruptures in life writing, and how the thematic, stylistic and ideological choices of Ngũgĩ's and Wainaina, who are both widely read global authors of the present, differ. As I go along the lines of language, class and Bildung; collective trauma and individual depression, the relation to the nation, pan-Africanist and hybrid culture as well as the issue of becoming a writer, I question whether Wainaina's narrative should still be termed postcolonial life writing in the same sense as Ngũgĩ's. By observing that in many ways, Wainaina's text moves away from Ngugi's classical postcolonial stance, I argue that he inaugurates what we canby lack of a better term for nowmomentarily name a postpostcolonial autobiography.

2008

My paper examines the feminist poetics of Ken Saro-Wiwa's methodology of protest. Utilizing a gendered pathos, Saro-Wiwa evoked the female body as a metaphor, signaling a connection between the colonization of the land, indigenous peoples, and women in his speech. In the organization of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), he also utilized traditional West African systems that valued a complementary Africana womanist vision of community. In addition, the demonstration he is most remembered for is distinctly patterned after traditional West African female methods of protest. During the 1990's, already as an established writer, Saro-Wiwa honed his gift with script to create a powerful, resonating call to action for Ogoni residents who were victims of a new form of imperialism in the name of oil in the Niger Delta region. His methods inspired worldwide human rights and environmental activism.

Journal of african studies , 2024

This paper is a critical interrogation of the relationship between the exploitation and manipulation of women and nature by systems put in place by patriarchy. The present analysis will go further in bringing out the relationship between the exploitation of nature and the exploitation of women across three texts that is Alice Walker's the Colour purple, Wangari Mathai's Unbowed and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus. The text, written by feminists writers are picked because they cut across three generations.

Neohelicon, 1990

Journal of Advances in Education and Philosophy, 2018

An interrogation of the autobiographies by leaders who write from the margins of power show that subaltern political autobiographies inhabit a privileged position that enable one to see the effect of power on subaltern subjects. Their writings, thus, resist and mount a challenge to hegemonic structures that encroach and sustain the materiality of domination. In this regard, their political autobiographies can be said to be engaged in the quest for dismantling the silence of being the "Other." This paper contends that the Kenyan subaltern political autobiographies are not merely literary but political acts, and examining these texts will lead to a better understanding of the current political frameworks that help in the conceptualizing the Kenyan nation. The unit of analysis will be two Kenyan political autobiographies, particularly Jaramogi Odinga"s Not Yet Uhuru and Raila Odinga"s The Flame of Freedom. Biographical method of analysis will be employed. The perspectives and experiences of Jaramogi and Raila are used as the basis for a critique of the dominant discourse of the post-independence political elites. In particular, the emergence of these autobiographical works is interrogated here as counter-narratives of Kenyan politics and society, alongside the persisting elite structures of politics and culture extending from the colonial through to the post-colonial eras. The analysis of the autobiographical reflections of Jaramogi and Raila demonstrate levels of resistance which have not been recognised until now.

2020

This paper studies the position of self-referential narratives in alerting the society about the danger of human activities on the environment and creates awareness among members of the society about the need to avoid polluting the environment in whatever way possible. In doing this, Tanure Ojaide's autobiography, Great Boys: An African Childhood serves as a primary source of the study of the symbiotic relationship between man and nature. It also explores some human activities that seriously and negatively affect the environment in the name of civilization or development. The autobiography is studied from the perspective of Ecocriticism with the aim of examining the contract or bond between the environment and the life of the writing subject and the various ways he frames his narrative to highlight the repercussion of environmental abuse. Through this perspective, the study also analyses the narrator's style of highlighting the importance of farming and how man selfishly and deliberately destroys the environment that nurtures plants, provides space for the farming and reserves water for fishing.

Murtala Lawal, 2020

This research studies the position of self-referential narratives in alerting the society about the danger of human activities on the environment, and creates awareness among 1

Language in Africa, 2021

The article analyses the depiction of new types of female characters in the stories by Kenyan female writers published from 2003 to 2012 in literary almanacs Kwani? and Storymoja. The author traces the evolution of female characters from the "victim" type, which appeared in Kenyan women's literature already in the 1960s, to its modern alternatives-women advocating their rights in all spheres of private and public life.

2017

Kana tagumburwa, toramba kuita hwezongororo Kuzvikunga kuita hata yavanogona kusenga Kana kuzvidambura gumbo segurwe Kuti masvosve agotimomotera Rogo ngatiise mudonje kwete kunwa Parafini tiise muzvibani tivheneke Tiwone nzira, kwete kuzvipisa, kuzviita vivi (p.68).

African Studies Review, 2022

2013

Motherlands, mothers and nationalist sons: theorising the engendered nation 2 'The master's dance to the master's voice': revolutionary nationalism and women's representation in Ngugi wa Thiong'o 3 Of goddesses and stories: gender and a new politics in Achebe 4 The hero's story: the male leader's autobiography and the syntax of postcolonial nationalism 5 Stories of women and mothers: gender and nationalism in the early fiction of Flora Nwapa 6 Daughters of the house: the adolescent girl and the nation 7 Transfiguring: colonial body into postcolonial narrative 8 The nation as metaphor: Ben Okri, Chenjerai Hove, Dambudzo Marechera 9 East is east: where postcolonialism is neo-orientalist-the cases of Sarojini Naidu and Arundhati Roy 10 Tropes of yearning and dissent: the inflection of desire in Yvonne Vera and Tsitsi Dangarembga 11 Beside the west: postcolonial women writers in a transnational frame 12 Conclusion: defining the nation differently Select bibliography Index viii Contents I first wish to acknowledge with much gratitude the support of the A.H.R.B.

The last century has witnessed an upsurge in literature triggered by the feminist movement. This unprecedented event has transformed the various literary genres that are being deconstructed to suit the changing times. African literature has not been spared by the universalized world order. The paper attempts a re-analysis of gender inequality from the pre-colonial to post-colonial period from the lenses of literary narratives. Male writers like Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, and Cyprain Ekwensi in their literary mass are accused of condoning patriarchy, are deeply entrenched in a macho conviviality and a one dimensional and minimalised presentation of women who are demoted and assume peripheral roles. Their penchant to portray an androcentric narrative is at variance with the female gender that are trivialized through practices like patriarchy, tradition, culture, gender socialization process, marriage and domestic enslavement. The paper concludes with some contemporary showcases and metanarratives by both male and female writers like Buchi Emecheta, Mariama Bâ, Ama Ata Aidoo, Flora Nwapa, Sembene Ousmane and Leopold Sedar Senghor who attempt to bridge the gender rifts in the African literary landscape.

CORETRAIN, 2018

The avalanche of autobiographies that are produced in postcolonial Kenya calls for sustained interrogation and analysis of the narratives created to elucidate those murky aspects of the colonial past and post-colonial present which may resolve the conundrum of failed independence. As the past studies on autobiography have shown, the autobiographical genre, and especially the political strand, has become a strong statement for resistance against hegemonic discourses that continue to inform national discourses in Kenya. This paper interrogates the Kenyan postcolonial leadership and the ways in which it is dramatized in the Kenyan political autobiography. Specifically, the paper interrogates Jaramogi Oginga Odinga's Not Yet Uhuru, Raila Odinga's The Flame of Freedom and Bildad Kaggia's Roots of Freedom to show that there is a discursive shift in the Kenyan political autobiography; a concerted effort to move away from themes of failed independence to constructing ideographs of resistance within the frameworks of class suicide espoused by Antonio Gramsci. The paper argues that Jaramogi, Kaggia and Raila use these ideographs of resistance to construct their senses of selves as Moses (Jaramogi), Joshua (Raila) while Kaggia sees himself as the black Messiah. The paper rides on textual analysis to contend that the authors of these texts negotiate and challenge terrains of history, ideology and class to present their authors as unparalleled nationalists. Leaning on a critical look at the production of such narratives, which are largely based on personal participation and observation, this paper interrogates and preserves authoritative data of the Kenyan past and present which is more vivid and accurate, than the annals, chronicles and other forms of modern historiography. Historians from earliest times have recognized that the closer such records were to the phenomena described in both time and place, the more their potential value as reliable sources for information.

Converging Perspectives: Environmental Advocacy in "Silent Spring" and "Unbowed" compares the environmental advocacy in Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" and Wangari Maathai's "Unbowed." Published in 1962 and 2006, respectively, these works emphasize the interconnectedness between ecological well-being and social justice. Carson's "Silent Spring" exposed the devastating consequences of indiscriminate pesticide use on the environment, wildlife, and human health, inspiring a global awakening to the dangers of pesticide use. Her meticulous research and compelling storytelling catalyzed policy changes, increased public concern, and the establishment of environmental regulations. In contrast, Maathai's "Unbowed" chronicles her journey as an environmentalist and women's rights advocate in Kenya. It highlights grassroots activism, community mobilization, and women's empowerment as essential components of sustainable development. By empowering women and marginalized communities, Maathai's work demonstrates the integral role of community-led initiatives in addressing environmental challenges. Both works converge in their recognition of the interconnectedness between environmental degradation, human well-being, and social equity, inspiring collective action towards a more sustainable and just world.

2006

Movement's goals and programmes 4.2 Maathai, the Green Belt Movement and women 4.3 Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in challenging a capitalist and patriarchal state 4.4 Maathai, land, conflict and gender in Kenya 4.4.1 Gender and land issues in Kenya 4.5 Maathai, democratic refonn and gender 34 4.6 Maathai, political involvement and gender 5. WANGARI MAATHAI AND THE GREEN BELT MOVEMEN T: DEVELOPM ENT, ENVIRONM ENT AND GENDER 37 5.1 Maathai, development, environment and gender 37 5.2 Maathai, sustainable development, environment and gender 40 6. CONCLUSI ONS 42