Colonialism Theme Analysis

In A Grain of Wheat, Britain’s colonization of Kenya is the context against which its characters are formed as well as the primary political tension of the book. Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o, himself a native Kenyan, uses this context and development of his characters to explore the moral aspect of colonization from both the perspective of the British and rural Kenyans. Ngũgĩ’s narrative argues that, although both the colonizer and the colonized feel morally justified in their pursuits, colonialism is ultimately an immoral and oppressive practice, justifying the colonized people’s struggle for freedom, even through violent means.

The British colonialists and the Kenyan freedom fighters (the Mau Mau) want fundamentally opposing futures for Kenya, pitting them at war with each other and creating a moral tension over the future of Kenya. The British, in the expansion of their empire, seek to modernize Kenya with technology and administration. However, in doing this, they force themselves upon ancient ethnic groups like the Gikuyu and steal their land from them for their own purposes. The Mau Mau fighters, with the support of most of their village, Thabai, seek to push “the whiteman” completely out of Kenya so they can preserve their way of life. Rather than the “modern” future envisioned by the colonizers, the Gikuyu hope to maintain their independence and right to self-govern, as well as their ancestral traditions. The moral tension over the future of Kenya is exemplified by the fact that some Kenyans, and even some Gikuyu, choose to align themselves with the British and adopt their vision of the future as Kenya’s best option. This makes colonization more than simply a conflict between nations, but a conflict between moral ideals: Western imperialism versus Kenyan tradition.

Both the colonizer and the colonized see themselves as the righteous, heroic figure working for the good of humanity, and their enemies as evil. This is exemplified in the story by the mirrored characters John Thompson and Kihika. John Thompson, the English regional governor, is an evangelist of British colonialism, believing it to be a moralizing and purifying force of human progress. Decades before the story takes place, John meets two African students studying in a British institution who are thoroughly knowledgeable of Western history and literature and convinced of British imperialism’s benefit to the world. This awes and inspires John, in his eyes demonstrating the power of colonialism to replace the “irrationality, inconsistency, and superstition so characteristic of the African and Oriental races” with “the principle of Reason, of Order, and of Measure.” To a group of officers, John makes the declaration, “To administer a people is to administer a soul,” suggesting that beyond making subjects more rational and less superstitious, British colonialism makes them more intrinsically human and moral, further from primitive beasts.

In contrast, Kihika, a young Gikuyu man, is raised on stories of British oppression and injustice, inspired by Gandhi’s rejection of their imperialism in India. With his own eyes, Kihika sees how the British have forced the Gikuyu tribe—who take their relationship to their ancestral lands very seriously—out of their original territory, stolen their lands, and resettled them in British-controlled districts. Furthermore, for the last three generations the British colonialists have subjected Kihika’s people to forced labor and made them pay exorbitant taxes, often with the threat of detention, rape, or murder. From an early age, Kihika knows his life’s calling is to lead the moral fight against the British: “from early on, he had visions of himself, a saint, leading Kenyan people to freedom and power.” In Kihika’s eyes, the sins of the colonizers are obvious, suggesting that colonization is not the establishment of a moral society, but of an evil social order; the righteous cause is Kenyan freedom.

Although to each party, their own aims seem noble, Ngũgĩ’s depiction of their representative figures and their methods argues that colonialism is indefensible and barbaric at its core, giving the moral high ground to the Kenyan freedom fighters. Both Kihika and John wage their war through violence; Kihika as the leader of the Mau Mau resistance fighters, and John as the brutal overseer of the detention camps and the colonial soldiers in his region. Notably, both groups blame the need for such violence on the other. While Kihika’s fighters kill British soldiers and are labeled as terrorists by the British—Kihika himself assassinates John’s predecessor—the British are repeatedly depicted raping and murdering their Kenyan subjects. As the overseer of the detention camps, John and his underlings routinely torture prisoners to get information from them and break their spirit of resistance. Although the British government chastises John for beating eleven prisoners to death in a single week, they only put such pressure on him to save face once the killings make international headlines. Privately, it seems that John’s barbarism earns him the quiet adoration of his colleagues, suggesting that on some level, the British revel in the domination of their subjects. Although the author does not depict the freedom fighters as entirely blameless, their violence pales in comparison to the abhorrent violence the British commit, often against defenseless civilians and prisoners. This uneven depiction argues that in the conflict between colonizers and colonized, the Kenyans and their quest for freedom morally outweighs the British mission to “moralize” what they see as a lesser country. If violence is the only way for the Gikuyu to fight British oppression, A Grain of Wheat implies, so be it.

The novel ends on the day of Kenya’s independence from Britain, thus resolving the conflict between colonizer and colonized. Even so, since the author observes that Britain remains imperialistic, the moral argument against such colonization—by any country—remains firm.