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The Reader Lovemore Ranga Mataire
ONE of the main themes of Ngugi wa Thiongo’s novel Matigari is the deceptiveness of any notion of an epistemological rupture between colonial and post-colonial society. While the confrontational tone of the Devil on the Cross is maintained, Matigari goes beyond the colonial binarism and postulates a vision of Utopia to be attained through armed struggle. There seems to be a paradigm shift in Matigari as the novel transcends the orbit of Marxist, materialist discourse of the Devil on the Cross and Petals of Blood.
The inclusion of magic and supernatural elements envisages a Utopia which is based on what can be called an “ethical universal” premised on the ethical principles of Gikuyusim, Christianity and Marxism.
The novel exemplifies a more holistic way of approaching the world, an awareness of more things in heaven and earth than have been dreamt in philosophy — a free interaction between the living and the dead. Yet in Penpoints Ngugi claims that: “Art has more questions than it has answers. Art starts with a position of now knowing and seeks to know.
“Hence its exploratory character. In fact, art has hardly any answers.”
Matigari, the main protagonist, typifies this constant search for answers as he was going about asking questions related to the truth and justice of what was going on in the country. Matigari is preoccupied with two questions: where is the truth and justice to be found and; had anything really changed between then and now?
These questions are constantly put to test as Matigari explores the cartography of the country after independence. Matigari confirms the impression from Devil on the Cross that the expected discontinuity between the colonial and post-colonial time is illusory. In fact, an idea of a new dispensation based on the ideals of independence is pulverised as a result of Matigari’s numerous depressing experiences after his return from the forest.
After his encounter with the children who are exploited, Matigari is convinced that nothing has really changed in post-independence Kenya and asks rhetorical questions as to why only a handful people profited from the suffering of the majority, the sorrow of many being the joy of a few.
In prison the post-colonial reality is recounted when the country’s grim dry and dreary situation is likened to the concrete floors of the prison cell with the leaders having hearts as cold as that of Pharaoh.
The collapse of the dream for a better post-independence future has created an atmosphere of repression and fear, transforming people from truth-sayers to self-interested egoists, blatantly exposed in the student’s and teacher’s response in the cell and their cowardly rejoinder to Matigari’s moral challenges later.
Matigari’s version of the post-colonial reality in Kenya is thus based on the fierce contestation of “whose reality counts”, one belonging to the oppressor or the oppressed. In this novel, Ngugi seems to have been conscious of the limitations of Marxism and its resultant lack of elasticity.
Matigari’s response to the exploitation and repression of the present regime represents a paradigmatic shift in Ngugi’s development as an author.
This is not just a book about a worker’s revolution but the creation of Matigari as a prophet who not only passes judgement on the present state of affairs, but also projects a vision of the new Jerusalem.
By staying away from the strict materialistic discourse, the novel goes beyond the reiteration of Marxist jargon but instead widens its scope of combat strategies, thus challenging in a number of ways the present order and the inevitability of the post-colonial situation.
As a prophet who tries to reinvigorate the spirit of Mau Mau, Matigari represents these ideals of resistance against oppression. Embodying the double-edged role of the prophet of Old Testament style, Matigari both projects the truth to the people and passes judgement on the present state of affairs going beyond the traditional prophetic role by claiming Christ-like stature through the reference to various specifics in the New Testament.
Matigari departure in the midst of thunder and lightning is reminiscent of the New Testament’s rendering of Jesus’ death and ascension to heaven.
Online Reporter