Of Ngugi, orature and cyberture

Tanaka Chidora Literature Today —
I always thought that Ngugi wa Thiong’o was an obsolete scholar, obsolete in the sense of his relentless preaching of what I considered to be outdated socialist sermons, especially in an Africa where speaking socialism and being socialist are not bedfellows.

When you read “I Will Marry When I Want”, “Devil on the Cross”, “Petals of Blood” and “A Grain of Wheat”, you get the sense that you are reading one sermon with slight variations here and there of character names and setting.

My conclusion would always be like this: “Why did this guy have the effrontery to call his sermons novels? Why didn’t he just write some essays or one book which is not a novel instead of subjecting his readers to four very heavy readings?”

Then when you think you have escaped from his novels, you find him waiting for you in books that are not novels with the same socialist sermons: “Moving the Centre”, “Decolonising the Mind”, etc.

While these two books are not explicitly socialist, the decolonising venture that they are preaching is a collusion of pan-Africanism, African Nationalism and African Socialism (or is it Socialism in Africa? Bhabhu’s African Socialism or Socialist Africa? can answer that better than me).

For instance, Ngugi’s socialist thinking has led him to perform in the close circumscription of the writer’s space in order to convert the writer into some sort of vanguard.

His thinking is that in line with socialism, the writer should creatively channel the energies of the oppressed towards a revolutionary goal.

This entails literature that is overwhelmed by socialist realist techniques just like the literature of the Leninist and Stalinist eras. Remember Sholokov and Gorky? There is also a dollop of Ernst Fischer’s “The Necessity of Art” in Ngugi’s thinking.

So, my assumption was that Ngugi was this recalcitrant and monolithic guy who could not adjust his thinking to the changing times.

That was my assumption until I read “Wizard of the Crow” and his iterations on “Globaletics”. “Wizard of the Crow” is, for me, an amalgamation of the Ngugi of “The River Between” and his socialist novels, an amalgamation which enriches his work in a very powerful way.

And to think that this novel was actually translated from Kikuyu! The writer is still playing his vanguard role; he is still writing in the language of the people (Kikuyu); he still has faith in the masses and does not doubt the ability of the people to challenge oppressive kleptocracy.

But the satire is scatological, a far cry from the preachy and forceful sermons of his previous novels. It is experimental and also utilises orature. This novel taught me to approach differently the mind of a man who has been writing for decades. His mind has moved with the times!

Ngugi believes in orature. At first, one would ask, why is this guy always looking back? Let me tell you something, orature does not mean you are looking back.

Orature means you are embracing the life we live everyday (that’s usually my introductory line in the Introduction to Orature course at university). Living produces orature.

Our cultural rituals, our folk tales, our traditional and urban legends, our songs, our proverbs, our riddles, our spoken poetry, our myths … that’s orature! But orature gets even more interesting when it goes cyber!

For me, the coinage of the term “Cyberture” by Ngugi represents the highest level of his flexibility. Cyberture is orature circulating in virtual reality. It is orature whose circulation is facilitated by communication technologies.

I remember this riddle (a riddle is a generic element of orature) which once circulated virally on WhatsApp and Facebook concerning the relationship between sekuru Gudo and muzukuru Tsuro, two legends from our oral tradition.

The question was like: Nhai hamadzangu ndokumbirawo kubvunza. Hukama hwaTsuro naGudo hunokonzerwa nekuti Gudo ihanzvadzi yamai vaTsuro here kana kuti? Asi kana Gudo ari hanzvadzi yamai vaTsuro, nei vakasiyana pakuonekwa kwavo? (My clansmen, I have a question. What is the basis of the relationship between Hare and Baboon? Is Baboon brother to Hare’s mother? But if that is the case, why are the two so physically and intellectually different?). In short, why doesn’t Hare look like a Baboon?

While this might look like a Facebook/WhatsApp joke, it’s actually orature going cyber. This is contrary to the belief that the advent of communication technologies will be the demise of oral traditions! Those who agitate for the preservation of indigenous languages can learn a thing or two here.

For instance, in those viral tales or jokes that circulate in Zimbabwe, you find that the phrase “Ndipopakaperera sarungano” has been modified or even changed to “Chibatisise nedish towel chichirikupisa”, or “Ndachibawo manje-manje kuMasvingo”.

What a way of concluding a tale or joke! Like the “sarungano”, the teller of the tale/joke is here not claiming ownership of the tale/joke. Even though it’s stolen from Masvingo or somewhere, the recipient can also become a “sarungano” and forward it to others.

Think of kurovabembera. This, in the Shona tradition, is an act of public appeal against misbehaviour. Think, for instance, of Lawino in “Song of Lawino” calling her clansmen to come and listen to her song.

In that song are hidden her grievances against the misbehaviour of her husband. Instead of confronting her husband directly, she hides her confrontation in a song.

In Cyberture, think of this in terms of Facebook wall posts or WhatsApp statuses. Dzimwe nguva panenge pachitorohwa bembera ipapa. Pane anenge akatonangwa (Sometimes these posts and statuses are indirect confrontations. Someone might have misbehaved. kkkkkkkk).

Before I conclude my piece, let me give a Hi 5 to one of the greatest orators of cyber space in 2017, the “Ndobva Tadii Paya” spokesperson.

His oration is jamming cyber networks. I might not be privy to the circumstances that provoked that oration, but artistically, that was on point!

Of course, my hope is that the law will be used to judge whether they are guilty or not. But whatever happens, many of us fell in love with Rombo Chirara. He showed us that languages do not die easily. Instead of cyber technologies killing language, they might actually be enhancing them!

To Ngugi I say, that cyberture coinage, that was on point man. Maybe, I will read those four socialist novels again just because they were written by a thinker of your calibre.