Imperialism, Corruption and Protest in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood and Wizard of the Crow

Abstract

Most African countries today are at the verge of collapse as a result of corruption and failed leadership, occasioned by imperial conquest of Africa by the West. This led to the steady but gradual erosion of African cultural values and bred self-centred elites who saw nothing good in their African roots. This paper takes a literary journey into Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Petals of Blood and Wizard of the Crow to examine how he has continued to criticise African landers and the elites and how he has educated and aroused the consciousness of the peasants and workers of Kenya and Africa in general to rise up and protest neo-colonial leaders. Adopting the library-based research and content analysis of the two primary texts, this paper employs literary Marxism as interpretative ideology to examine Ngugi's stance on neo-colonialism, corruption and protest in his literary ouvres as the only way to check both individual and community excesses of the African elites in modern times. The findings of this paper show that Ngugi is not just re-telling history, neither is he an unbeliever but he uses his literature as a tool for raising national consciousness of the masses that their present socio-political and economic conditions lie with their corrupt leaders. He advocates for mass action of the workers and peasants of Kenya and Africa to hold their leaders accountable.