43. Matigari by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Title: Matigari Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o Translator: Wangui wa Goro Genre: Fiction (Satire) Pages: 175 Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Year of Publication: in Gikuyu, 1986, (in English 1987) It was my first attempt at writing this review that led to my article on Precolonial and Post-Colonial African Literature . Ngugi's novel, Matigari, is one that is funny along all lines and at several levels. Just after independence, Africa's faithful literati realised the path along which the new governments were taken the country. They foresaw that such a path portends nothing but doom and so decided to speak against it. One of such prolific writers against the system in Kenya and because of the ubiquitousness of the atrocities on the continent for that matter Africa, was Ngugi wa Thiong'o. In Matigari, Ngugi wa Thiong'o created a fictional hero Matigari ma Njiruungi (this in Gikuyu means 'the patriots who survived the bullets'). M...