Dele Maxell Ugwanyi CJLS 9(2), 2021

Covenant Journal of Language Studies (CJLS) Vol. 9 No. 2, December, 2021

ISSN: p. 2354-3582 e. 2354-3523
An Open Access Journal Available Online

Anthropocentric Urbanity in Ngugi’s Matigari: Implications for

Environmental Discourses in Africa

Dele Maxwell UGWANYI

Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria

Received: June 7, 2019; Accepted: December 1, 2021

Date of Publication: December 2021

Abstract

This study examines the factors responsible for environmental exploitation in Ngugi wa Thiongo’s
Matigari. Ecocriticism from the standpoint of Lawrence Buell’s position is used as theoretical
framework in this study because it centres on anthropocentric attitudes that are considered inimical for
the environment while the interpretive design is adopted for critical analysis. Ngugi’s Matigari is
selected because it reflects on ecological concerns and depicts the motif of exploited urbanity and
environmental frictions. Through Ngugi’s Matigari, the reader is shown the intricacies and
conspiracies that create socio-ecological imbalances in the society. There is a sharp environmental
contrast between the exploiters and the exploited which foregrounds the significance and urgency of
Ngugi’s intervention. Conspiracies between the privileged locals and the settlers distort and violate
environmental harmony in a way that provokes tension inimical to ecological regeneration and social
tranquility. The text studied submits that environmental rot is largely man-made. In the novel, Ngugi
cautions against activities that are inimical to environmental purity and harmony. Key words: Ngugi
wa Thiong’o, novels, exploitation, ecocriticism, Ecological violations, African novel, Matigari.

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Introduction concerns of the social and economic life of

Africans. Without environmental harmony,
Literature has been used largely to convey it will be difficult to sustain a robust
the totality of people’s social, political and economic life of the society. It is worthy to
economic existence especially in Africa. note that whatever affects the environment
African literature is deeply concerned with positively or negatively impacts directly or
the survival of the people and the attendant indirectly on the people.
struggles that have conditioned man’s
survival. In this regard, literature reflects Cheryll Glotfelty states that (1996: xix),
and refracts on the issue of socio- one of the major proponents of
ecological harmony of the environment ecocriticism, “natural disasters have not
and landscape for the advancement of only compelled human societies to re-
man. Without being in harmonious appraise the significance of nature for
relationship with the environment, man’s human survival but also led to the
survival will continue to be a mirage. In realization that any harmful human action
the words of Joyce Agofure (2016:1), against nature (environment) will yield
“postulations on ecological and literary destructive consequences for humanity”
discourse have emphasized that nature is (xix). The seemingly imbalances in the
endangered and the exploitation of natural ecosystem have provided serious
resources for the free market globally environmental concerns in the world and
contributes to the destruction of the natural Kenya, in particular. Writers have
world especially of periphery nations”. deployed literature to investigate and
This very factor has been grossly examine these concerns which have
responsible for the environmental constantly threatened the harmonious
degradation and socio-ecological problems existence of mankind. These concerns
facing African countries. It also varies have therefore given literary production a
from region to region and nation to nation new focus and outlook. Ecocriticism
given their ecological peculiarities. The brings to the fore the environment and its
problems range from disappearance of ecological concerns by rendering an
biodiversity, erosion, global warming, account of the indebtedness of culture to
depletion of the ozone layer, nature. It is pertinent to note that
desertification and deforestation, flooding ecocritics, while acknowledging the role of
waste, oil pollution and spillage to the language and literature in shaping our
abrogation of land by agents of view of the world, they also seek to restore
imperialism. In this regard, the culture of a connection between actuality and
people is derived from the process of representation in literary texts.
constantly fighting their natural and social Specifically, their concern is to revalue the
environment Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1993: more-than-human natural world and
27). accommodate non-human objects, which
some texts and cultural traditions invite us
According to Dustin Crowley (2013), “the to look into. In this way, ecocriticism has a
literary discipline itself has long assumed a vital contribution to make to the wider
sort of geographic vision through its project of environmental studies, which
structuration into nationalist/regionalist Laurence Coupe states that (2000;5),
categories…” (4). This validates the point “debate nature in order to defend nature”.
that literature is mainly produced to For many ecocritics, the defence of nature
capture the exigencies of the historical and is vitally interconnected with the pursuit of
social life of a people. Environment has social justice which many critics have
therefore, remained one of the central termed “environmental justice”. Ecocritics

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are increasingly becoming many and Getting through

varied in their approaches, drawing on a the crisis requires
wide range of analytical strategies and understanding our
theoretical frameworks and addressing a impact on nature
diversity of cultural, phenomenal and as precisely as
possible, but even
historical exigencies. Glotfelty further
more, it requires
defines it as the study of the relationship understanding
between literature and the physical those ethical
environment. Just as feminist criticism systems and using
examines language and literature from a that
gender conscious perspective, and Marxist understanding to
criticism brings an awareness of modes of reform them.
production and economic class to its Historians, along
reading of texts, ecocriticism takes an with literary
earth-centred approach to literary studies scholars,
(1996: xviii). In addition, she states that anthropologists,
and philosophers,
despite the broad scope of inquiry and cannot do the
disparate levels of sophistication, all reforming of
ecological criticism shares the course, but they
fundamental premise that human culture is can help with the
connected to the physical world, affecting understanding
it and affected by it; that our metaphor of (27).
land influences the way we treat it (1996:
xvii). Ecocriticism takes as its subject the The above shows that the environmental
“interconnections between nature and problem the world is facing is as a result
culture”. Given its critical stance, it has of both the actions and inactions of
one foot in literature and the other on land. human beings. This has brought serious
As a theoretical discourse, it negotiates consequences to the management of
between the human and nonhuman. environmental crisis as there seems to be
Relying further on Glotfelty’s opinion; abuse of ethical conducts and processes.
most ecocritical works share a common What is prevalent today is nature fighting
motivation: the troubling awareness that back the abuse and exploitation of ethical
we have reached the age of environmental values. Calling people’s attentions to
limits, a time when the consequences of these various abuses and violations of
human actions are damaging the planet’s ecosystem should be the major focus of
basic support system of life. This ecocritics.
awareness sparks a sincere desire to
contribute to environmental restoration, Furthermore, William Rueckert
not just in our spare time, but from within (1996:107), defines ecocriticism as “the
our capacity as literary scholars. application of ecology and ecological
According to Donald Worster (1994); concepts to the study of literature,
because ecology (as a science, as a
We are facing a discipline, as the basis of human vision)
global crisis today has the greatest relevance to the present
not because of and future of the world” It can be inferred
how ecosystems from this context that the possible
function but relations between literature and nature are
rather because of studied in terms of ecological concepts.
how our ethical
systems function.

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Research Problem one of the frontline writers, whose works

are regarded as all-encompassing and
Environmental, ecological, social, representative of Kenyan national life.
political, economic and literary discourses
across Africa and particularly Kenya have This work to a great extent is restrained to
stressed the fact that nature has become unearthing the relationship that exists
seriously endangered, and its continued between literature and society and how
exploitation for the free market globally their interactions have contributed to eco-
contributes to the environmental wreckage social discourse. The massive
the under-developed countries are environmental degradation and
experiencing. From the explanation given exploitation of Kenyan land, natural and
thus far, this study fixes its argument on human resources for the benefit of the
the fact that literature is used as a lethal imperial agents and their indigenous
weapon to express the disenchantment of collaborators have brought untold
Kenyans to the violation of their hardships to the majority of the people.
environmental purity by the imperial This research is therefore undertaken to
powers and their collaborating African establish how this exploitation is captured,
agents. Literature has also been clearly a portrayed, and expressed in Ngugi’s
veritable tool in amplifying the evil done Matigari. The study also validates the
to Kenyan landmass which is allegedly ecological imbalances in Kenyan society
seen as being responsible for the dwarfed and the roles literature has played in
development of the social, political and fighting these perceived environmental
economic life of the country. The study injustices. It equally further amplifies the
upholds the view that Kenyan literature correlation between literature and
particularly Ngugi’s is largely produced to environmental discourse in its concerns
resist these environmental violations with environmental injustice which are
which are regarded as proofs of the British largely responsible for the
conquest. The study also demonstrates that underdevelopments in Kenya. It also
Kenya is enmeshed in the dangers of establishes the potency of ecocriticism in
exploitation, destruction and the evaluation of environmental discourse
mismanagement of its lands and natural in African literature.
resources by the forces that have held the
country down. By this approach, the This study is significant in the sense that it
research delves into the frontiers of amplifies the understanding of the roles of
ecological crisis in one of Ngugi wa literature in foregrounding the
Thiong’o’s novels. Ecocriticism is used to environmental injustices and exploitation
investigate Ngugi’s Matigari as a through the instrument of ecocritical
resistance to the various forms of theory. This approach demonstrates and
environmental crises in Kenya. The text validates the fact that Ngugi’s work
examined validates the fact that socio- provides lethal weapons in cushioning the
ecological issues in Kenya have been extent of the devastation that might have
largely responsible for the political, social occurred as a result of activities of the
and economic imbalances of the Kenyan exploitation of human and non-human
marginalized and exploited people. This resources in Kenya. As a core Marxist
scenario has therefore defined the Kenyan writer, Ngugi foregrounds the dialectics
social dialectics and dynamics. Though that have defined Kenya both historically
many writers from Kenya have written and materially and concludes that
extensively on socio-ecological issues, for environmental rot is man-made and mass
instance, Wangari Maathai (Nobel Peace actions are needed for the restoration of
Prize Winner), Ngugi can be considered as ecological purity. One of the core issues is

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the betrayal and the conspiracies of the analyzing and interpreting data through the
settlers and the privileged locals on the employment of words and concepts. It
issues of land. Ngugi who is among the therefore entails a critical and an in-depth
foremost writers in Kenya occupies a very detailed analytical investigation of the
vantage and dominant position in the primary data in Ngugi’s Matigari. The
interpretation of ecological matters in study also employs ecocriticism as its
Kenya. He is one of the Kenyan and theoretical and analytical framework.
African writers who has seen it all and
therefore can be regarded as an authority Review of Related Literature
on Kenyan environmental discourse. Apart
from his writings, Ngugi also has a In what is regarded as a very significant
personal experience on the imbalances of and wide-ranging survey of pastoralism in
land management issues in Kenya which American literary criticism, Lawrence
amplifies the authority of his narratives. Buell (1995) explores the experience of
American pastoralists in a variety of issues
The research undertakes a detailed analysis and contexts to include social, political,
of Ngugi’s Matigari. It is pertinent to note gender-based aesthetic pragmatic and
that land and eco-social politics are the environmental discourse. He pays greater
most central issues in the historical attention to the emergent threat of
development of Kenya, and no discourse ecological holocaust, and sees
and narrative is complete without them environmental pressures that come with
(Veit P,2019:2). It is therefore safe to posit the importance of pastoralism as a literary
that socio-political and economy issues and cultural force in the future. Buell in his
and politics in Kenya are centred on land seminal book, The Environmental
and the control of environmental Imagination (1995), submits that the study
resources. The text is therefore, selected “must be conducted in a spirit of
because it captures the eco-social and commitment to environmentalist praxis”
environmental issues in Kenya and the (12). His work is regarded as very primary
attendant crisis. It is also anchored on the to ecocriticism. Buell’s ecocritical
fact that Ngugi’s writings reflect and approach can be seen in his outstanding
refract largely on the resistance and work on Henry David Thoreau, which
counter resistance that have defined the interprets Thoreau’s nature writing and the
Kenyan land struggle and the quest for formation of American culture.
environmental justice and purity. Ngugi’s
choice is anchored on the fact that he best Timothy Morton in his book, Ecology
captures the ecological issue the study is without Nature: Rethinking Environmental
undertaken to explore. Ngugi’s works Aesthetics (2007) complements Buell’s
convey the thematic concern and the work by focusing his discussion on the
principles of ecocriticism this study is all nature of nature in ecocriticism. Morton
about, which is the exploration of documents the changing definition of the
ecological and environmental degradation word “nature” and echoing Buell to a
of urban cities and crisis in Kenya and the certain extent, suggests that nature can be
various ways it is encountered in the anything. Similar to Gotfelty, Richard
novel. Kerridge in, Writing the Environment:
Ecocriticism and Literature (1998) notes
The research uses the descriptive that:
interpretative design which explores the
subject matter under discussion by

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Dele Maxell Ugwanyi CJLS 9(2), 2021

Ecocritics want to track environmental ideas and representations

wherever they appear, to see more clearly a debate which seems to be
taking place, often part-concealed in a great many cultural spaces. Most
of all, ecocriticism seeks to evaluate texts and ideas in terms of their
coherence and usefulness as responses to environmental crisis (5).

The whole idea of Kerridge’s submission movement

is for ecocritics to come together and embracing
harmonize the various cultural divergences literary
and differences that create volatile environmental
environment for humanity. This is interconnections,
commonly termed
considering the fact that environmental
‘ecocriticism’ is
crisis brought about by violation and emerging….
exploitation of ecosystem is a global issue Ecocriticism,
and there should be concerted efforts by unlike all other
writers to combat it. forms of literary
inquiry,
Glen A. Love (2003), while attempting to encompasses non-
answer a question on what human nature human as well as
has to do with ecocriticism submits that; human contexts
and
At the beginning considerations.
of the third On this claim,
millennium and ecocriticism bases
of new century its challenge to
often heralded as much postmodern
the century of the critical discourse
environment, a as well as to the
coherent and critical systems of
broadly based the past (3).

Love avers that “human behavior is not an

empty vessel whose only input will be that, David Mazel (1996) opines in The
provided by culture, but is strongly Ecocriticism Reader that ecocriticism is
influenced by genetic orientations that the analysis of literature using various
underlie and modify, or are modified by strategies and theories, to him this create a
cultural influences” (3). In Practical kind of authority that will safeguard the
Ecocriticism, Literature, Biology and the environment from violations;
Environment (2003), Love clearly outlines
the issues the two cultures face together. …our reading of
He posits that a great deal of world environmental
literature deals with the pastoral and with literature should
the relationship between human and non- help us realize
human beings. According to him, ecocritics that the concerns
are not
are simply trying to read literature with a exclusively of the
fresh sensitivity to the emergent voice of order of “shall
nature. Inevitably this “voice” can only be these trees be cut?
expressed, in literature at least through Or shall this river
representations of both human and non- be dammed?” As
human creatures and their interactions with important as such
landscapes. questions are, but

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Dele Maxell Ugwanyi CJLS 9(2), 2021

also of the order are the level on

of, “what has which I would
counted as the like to see
environment, and ecocriticism
what may count? theorize the
Who marks off environment
the conceptual (143).
boundaries, and
under what Mazel comes close to involving the
authority, and for activities of man and the authority he
what reasons? carries in determining the extent of
Have those
environmental violations. Though Mazel is
boundaries and
of the opinion that such authority should
that authority
been contested, be contested if environmental peace is to
and if so, by be achieved, he comes short of the
whom? With direction of such resistance and its impacts
what success and on eco-social and economic implications.
by virtue of what
strategies of
resistance?” these

Textual Analysis they begin to resist and wage war against

their oppressors. Having realized that the
Matigari to a certain extent can be “…sun was just rising, but the land was
regarded as Ngugi’s first real attempt at covered with fog” (3), the peasants and
correcting, fighting and resisting the workers led by Matigari begin to assert the
ecological and various eco-social and right of those who sow to enjoy the
political imbalances in his society. The benefits of their labour and to end the
novel is Ngugi’s attempt at bringing to oppression that hinders such enjoyment.
fore African cultural values which are The oppressor here is not a white settler
technically connected to sections of lands alone but the Kenyan who represents
that have been taken away by the imperial western capitalism and its exploitive
agents. So, in the new Kenyan society packages. This realization makes Matigari
according to Ngugi, there should be many to drop his arms and embrace peaceful
Matigaris (eco-activists ready to reclaim solution to end the oppression of his
and safeguard the environment from people and restore the land to them, “it is
violations) who will monitor the turn of good that I have now laid down my
events and wait for an opportune moment arms… now girded myself with a belt of
to give, fight back and restore the land, peace. I shall go back to my house and
Kenyan resources and environmental rebuild my home” (5). With this
justice to the people. To Ngugi, the era of resolution, he comes out of the forest
docility is over and the peasants should which had hitherto protected him. Coming
demand the restoration of their lands and out of the forest is to validate the fact that
cultural values. the people are out for dialogue and
peaceful solutions to the eco-social
The central thrust of Matigari is the right impasse. However, Matigari ultimately
of the growers to enjoy the fruits and the rejects any route to liberation and the
resources of the land instead of the settlers restoration of land without an armed
who have become masters. When the uprising. The oppressors and the settlers
workers and peasants come to the cannot be driven by words alone but by
realization that they are being exploited, armed words. No matter how credible and

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sound the argument seems to be Ngugi Matigari is shocked to see how the
takes an increasingly uncompromising children of Kenya and animals scrambled
stance in the quest to take the land and its for the rubbish from the market and the
resources back. factories. To him, this is not only
environmental disaster; it is also
Matigari seems to concern himself with humanitarian degradation and crisis.
oppression faced by the peasants and Having witnessed the deaths and
workers. He resolutely feels that those who sufferings of Kenyans during the invasion
sow are alone qualified to enjoy the full of the imperialists and the violation of
use of the benefits and fruits of their environmental purity,
labour. To the tillers of the land and the
owners of the lands, independence is …his thoughts
nothing but a mirage because their now turned to
sufferings just got multiplied and the the railway and
hopes of land restoration completely the tunnel. He
dashed. Their labour is like nectar in a shivered. How
many lives had
sieve. The non-colonial Kenyan people are been claimed by
ecologically exploited. After fighting the the railway and
colonial rule in the forest, Matigari comes the tunnel at the
back to discover that injustice and time they were
oppression still exists in different ways in built? He
the realms of eco-social order. Despite his remembered the
earlier resolve to put on a belt of peace, he explosions of
decides to go back to the forest and fight dynamite and the
for the restoration of environmental justice screams of the
of his fellow Kenyans. This is as a result workers
of what he comes to understand as what is whenever the
walls caved in
going on since his return to build his home
often burying
(Kenya). To his utter amazement each them alive. And
child; the groans, as
some were
… had to pay a flattened by the
fee to enter. A rollers, came
ticket to enable back to him so
them fight it out vividly… the
with dogs, blood curdling
vultures, rats, all cries of the
sorts of dying…
scavengers and swallowing up
vermin, for the tea-leaves,
pieces of strings, the coffee, the
patches of cloth, cotton, the sisal,
odd bits of the wheat. In
leather, shoe, fact, all the
soles, rubber produce from all
bands, threads, the land that
rotten tomatoes, settler William
sugarcane chaff, and his like had
banana pads, stolen from the
bones… people (8).
anything (11)!

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These memories above coupled with what In Weep Not, Child, Jacobo attempts to
he is seeing provoke him into action with subdue Ngotho brutally and hinders the
“armed words” otherwise the land and its early attempts of the black natives to get
resources will not be restored to the back their occupied lands. The cruel ways
people. Matigari’s resolve is predicated on of the askaris (home guards) during the
the fact that the Kenyans who are emergent era of Mau Mau to subdue the
supposed to distribute food and produce natives are depicted clearly in Weep Not,
from the land, market and factories among Child, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood,
themselves have become terribly selfish and Devil on the Cross. This is similar to
that they even prefer to share the waste Matigari, which mainly deals with the
with animals and children at a cost. This is Kenyan elite who has mastered the
unacceptable to Matigari. settlers’ ways of defrauding the people of
their lands and environmental resources.
The pain of Matigari and by extension Ngugi’s focus on Matigari is to depict the
Ngugi himself is such that the black suffering, struggle and the revolt of
exploiters have become more brutal than Kenyans against ecological exploitation
the White settlers. He becomes very and deprivation, both in the hands of
critical of the evidence of the pact they White settlers and their native
(the Whites and their local agents) entered collaborators who have reduced the
with one another to perpetually subjugate independence gains of the people to what
the natives. After independence, the local they can find from refuse dumpsites.
agents modified the pact which made them “Yes…these are our gains, the things we
become worse than the Whites in the found in the pit” (13). It is shocking to still
violation of the land and the dispossession find out that the people are not even
of its resources. allowed the good things they get from the
dumpsite as they are deprived of them,
One of the greatest challenges of education “when they see that we’ve found things
in Kenya is that instead of using it as an like shoes, belts, pieces of leathers or cloth
avenue to reclaim the land for the people, in good condition, they pretend to get
the educated class only appropriates the angry, and they growl at us” (13). “They”
land for themselves. This point is raised here stands for the agents of the oppressive
earlier and in so doing, they perpetuate the and depraved class while “us” are the
ecological disaster brought about by the children who represent the deprived
rampaging imperialists. This is the main Kenyans. It is shocking to Ngugi that
worry and concern for Ngugi in his children in his native Kenya,
ecologically-driven thematic thrust. Ngugi metaphorically pay to enter garbage sites
shows how the early pro-western to scavenge for rubbish instead of enjoying
education and religious natives in an the produce which the fertility of their land
attempt to prove how good Christians they offers. Passivity has taken a better
are and how valuable western education is, advantage of the people, when Matigari
have tried to suppress ruthlessly their own comes to the rescue to save his scattered
native customs than even the settlers have and deprived children, having spent his life
done. For instance, in The River Between, in the struggle with the settlers
a particular set of people, mainly the (imperialists) in “the forests, mountains,
natives who accept the new religion on the valleys, ditches, caves, plains, rivers, hills,
pretext of sustaining their native traditions all over the country” (15). This portrays
exploit the unsuspecting public for their the fact that the settlers spare nowhere in
selfish ends thereby violating the sanctity Kenyan environment and resources in the
of the land. course of the plundering.

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The only place left for the poor Kenyan is bank… I

in “the vehicle cemetery …scrap yard produced
where cars of all makes are heaped… A everything on
scrap-yard, no a grave yard for motor that farm with
vehicles… others had grass growing inside my own labour.
But all the gains
them. That is our village” (15-16). This is
went to settler
an environmental disaster which Williams… (21).
constitutes Ngugi’s pain and concern that
the settlers have taken all the resources of This is basically what provokes the
his people, thereby reducing the people to narrative shift of Ngugi in this resistance
sub-humans. To Ngugi, the “children novel in which he questions the rationale
would come out of this graveyard into behind the activities of the settler and
which their lives had been condemned… demands ecological justice for his people;
build their lives anew in the unity of their “…one morning I woke up from deep
common sweat” (16). With this resolve, sleep of many years and I said to him:
Ngugi seems to suggest in Matigari that “a Settler Williams, you who eat what
new heaven on a new earth” (16) is another has sown, hear now the sound of
possible for his people not on a platter of the trumpet and the sound of the horn of
sweet words but on the potency of “armed justice… the tiller demands his land…”
words.” This is so because the fire of (21-22). This is a biblical allusion to the
freedom has ecological backing as it “first prophesied second coming of Jesus to give
lit in the forest and mountains” (20), which justice to mankind to reclaim the glory of
protected the fighters during the uprising God and establish the Kingdom of God.
to save the land. The motivation for Likewise, Matigari is poised to restore the
Matigari is derived from the fact that he purity of the land and environmental
and his children have the right to enjoy the justice, and save his people from further
fruits of their labour having produced humiliation and deprivation in the hands of
everything that the settlers are enjoying. the settlers.
Also, the fact that he knows the settlers’
secrets is an added motivation to fight for The role of women is also brought to the
the restoration of the land and resources: fore by Ngugi in Matigari with Guthera’s
experience as a saint turned prostitute and
I built the house the plight of other women as a result of
and with my
hands. But
land alienation: “Today there is no corner
settler Williams of the land where you’ll not find women
slept in it and I for something with which to quell the
would sleep hunger of their children and husbands…
outside on the most of the women are casual labourers in
veranda. I tended the tea, coffee and sisal plantations” (39).
the estates… But
it was settler From the foregoing, Ngugi is able to
Williams who sustain the consequences of land alienation
took home the on the women and children of Kenya in
harvest… I almost all his novels. The Natives are not
worked all the
machines and in
only dispossessed of their lands but the
all the industries lands are converted to foreigners’ use
but it was settler without any benefits to the natives or
Williams who owners of the land, “so fertile, this land!...
would take the Does all this land belong to one person?
profits to the Yes… or foreign companies” (41). The

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vastness of the plantation makes them and foreigners! Therefore, the tiller must
wonder if it actually belongs to one person reap what he sows” (63). With this, Ngugi
and for a whole day, they are walking and sounds a revolutionary warning to the
seem lost inside the plantation; “… they violators of Kenyan’s ecosystem. Using
decided to walk down between the rows of ecological metaphors to drive his point, he
the tea-bushes… they walked and walked also calls on the people not to relent thus;
and walked down the slope, but they were “…farmer whose seeds have not
still nowhere near the end of the estate. germinated does not give up planting”
One ridge simply gave way to the next” (64). Therefore, a person who seeks
(41). environmental justice is never tired of the
search until he finds it. He is strongly of
Though Ngugi seems to have braced up for the opinion that the products of “our
the consequences of his literary action, he labour should go back to us who produce
is of the opinion that it is high time people the wealth of this country” (74). This
demanded the restoration of the land to the suggests that Ngugi’s concern is centred
rightful owners through revolutionary on the restoration of the land and its allied
means. His main character in Matigari resources to the people. He considers
braces up to undertake the act of restoring armed resistance as the only option for
the land and its resources to the ancestral lifting the Kenyans out of poverty and
owners. He says, “The builder demands slavery on their own land. The search for
back his house, and the tiller his land… ecological justice and truth which is the
For, from this day on, the builder refuses major concern of Ngugi in Matigari is to
to beg for a place where he can lay his be looked into with ecological
head; the tiller refuses to starve…” (46). consciousness: “… in the grass in the
From the decision of Matigari to reclaim bushes. He searched among the thorns, in
the land and its resources to the owners, the shrubs, the ditches and the molehills,
Ngugi seems to have set the stage for and in bud nests. He searches for them in
confrontation with the settlers which is not the whole nature” (86). This brings the
likely to be a tea party. This is a significant ecological angle to resolving the land
departure from the beginning of his alienation of the Kenyans.
narratives where most of his characters are
indifferent to real resistance against land As the resistance culture grows which is
alienation. arises from the awareness Matigari is
creating, reasons are adduced why the
Matigari therefore, begins his real settlers should not be allowed to enjoy the
questioning of the deprivation of his sweat and the land resources of the people.
people’s resources and environmental Songs of resistance are composed by
justice by asserting that “…the land Matigari to awaken the weakened spirit of
belongs to the tiller and not to parasites the Kenyans:

I will not produce food

for him-who-reaps-where-he-never-sowed to feed him
in it
while I go to sleep on an empty belly… (97-98)

With this song in mind, Ngugi argues that African neo-colonial business class is
the imperial tradition is maintained by the reflected in its culture of parrotry as
international bourgeoisie using the portrayed in Matigari. This is brutally
multinational and the local compradors. enforced on restive Kenyans through
The economic and political reliance of the police boots, barbed wire, a compromised

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Dele Maxell Ugwanyi CJLS 9(2), 2021

clergy and corrupt judiciary, as echoed because killing of animals is violating the
strongly by Matigari thus: purity of the environment and the
ecological resources, as animals are part of
The house is their restoration struggle:
mine because I
built it. The land … animals are
is mine too man’s friends?
because I tilled it When we were
with these hands. in the forest, we
The industries never killed any
are mine because animal at any
my labour built cost unless we
and worked were and had run
them. I shall out of food.
never stop Even when we
struggling for all came across an
the products of injured animal,
my sweat. I shed we would mend
blood and I did their broken
not shed it in limbs. Animals
vain. One day were very useful
the land will to us… if you
return to the stay in the
tiller, and the forests and
wealth of our mountains for a
land to those long time; you
who produce it. get to learn how
Poverty and to talk to them.
sorrow shall be Sometimes, the
banished from animals talk to
our land (124). you. You just
remain silent,
This is a demonstration of the fact that the listening to them
end of poverty and sorrow of the Kenyan (143).
people is connected and tied to the
restoration of the land and its resources The above suggests that even animals are
hence, the demand for environmental against the dispossession of the land by
justice by Matigari. He resolves that in the settlers hence, their cooperation with the
pursuit of the restoration of his people’s fighters for the restoration of land to the
land neither arms nor words alone can dispossessed. This amplifies the fact that
restore the environmental justice but “one the culture of resistance pervades and
had to be armed with armed words” (31) to arouses the feelings of both human and
make it possible. The resistance tradition is non-human objects in Kenya.
being carried out by the army of informed
workers assisted by patriotic students and Conclusion
other progressive individuals of the middle
class though with some level of passivity. Having got to the full consequences of
This resistance is reflected in their land alienation there is a need therefore, to
patriotic defence and protection of even rebuild, though belatedly the devastated
Kenyan animals in the forest that form and violated environment. This is the
parts of the land resources. Even during thrust of Ngugi’s environmental concern in
dire needs and at the verge of starvation which he has consistently maintained that
the animals are protected; this is so serious and concerted efforts are required
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Dele Maxell Ugwanyi CJLS 9(2), 2021

from the people in order to clear the rot

that has befallen the land. He points out Coupe, Laurence. The Green Studies
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task for one person; it is a communal narrative: representations of place
responsibility. To this end, Ngugi in African literature. Unpublished
reiterates the fact that though people may PhD Thesis Submitted to the
not have a choice in the kind of Department of English, University
environment they find themselves or the of Kansas, 2013.
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derivable from their environment and its Glotfelty, Cheryll. “Introduction: Literary
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Matigari to further raise the awareness of Environmental Crisis” in
environmental injustice as a central Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in
thematic thrust in his writing where he Literary Ecology. Athens:
brings to the attention of readers the University of Georgia Press, 1996.
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-------------. Matigari. London; Heinemann, Veit, P. 2019. Brief: history of land conflicts
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-------------- A Grain of Wheat. London; About the Author

Heinemann, 1967(2008).
Dele Maxwell UGWANYI
-------------- The River Between. London; [email protected]
Heinemann, 1965. +2348039507777
Department of English and Literary
--------------. Weep Not, Child. London; Studies
Heinemann, 1964. Enugu State University of Science and
Technology Enugu, Nigeria
Ruckert, William. 1996. “Literature and
ecology: an experiment in
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Ecology. Athens: University of
Georgia Press.

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