Historification and Kenya's Plural Identities: Re-reading Ngugi's Historiography

Abstract

This article critiques Ngugi wa Thi ong'o's strategies of constructing nationalism and heroism in some of his creative works. This critical re-reading focuses on Ngugi's choice and projections of characters in relation to historical epoch and setting, evaluating how the depiction can reveal his re-interpretations and re-representations of histories in order to tease out possible silences in his construction of Kenya's national identities. Grounded in the decidedly complex and variegated colonial, anti-colonial, and post-colonial history, this analysis facilitates a critical highlighting of the possibility of plurality in textual moments Ngugi largely privileges monolithic assigning of nationalism and heroism.