A Grain of Wheat

by

Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Themes and Colors
Colonialism Theme Icon
The Individual vs. the Community Theme Icon
Guilt and Redemption Theme Icon
Christianity Theme Icon
Gender and Power Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Grain of Wheat, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism Theme Icon

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.

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Colonialism Quotes in A Grain of Wheat

Below you will find the important quotes in A Grain of Wheat related to the theme of Colonialism.
Chapter 2 Quotes

The whiteman told of another country beyond the sea where a powerful woman sat on a throne while men and women danced under the shadow of her authority and benevolence. She was ready to spread the shadow to cover the [Gikuyu]. They laughed at this eccentric man whose skin had been so scalded that the black outside had peeled off.

Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:

They looked beyond the laughing face of the whiteman and suddenly saw a long line of other red strangers who carried not the Bible, but the sword. […] The iron snake […] was quickly wriggling towards Nairobi for a thorough exploitation of the hinterland.

Related Symbols: The Train / The Iron Snake
Page Number: 11-12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

At Githima, people believed that a complaint from [Karanja] was enough to make a man lose his job. Karanja knew their fears. Often when men came into his office, he would suddenly cast them a cold eye, drop hints, or simply growl at them; in this way, he increased their fears and insecurity. But he also feared the men and alternated this fierce prose with servile friendliness.

Related Characters: Karanja
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“In a flash, I was convinced that the growth of the British Empire was the development of a great moral idea: it means, it must surely lead to the creation of one British nation, embracing all peoples of all colors and creeds, based on the just proposition that all men were created equal.”

Related Characters: John Thompson (speaker)
Page Number: 52-53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“Many of us talked like that because we wanted to deceive ourselves. It lessens your shame. We talked of loyalty to the Movement and the love of our country. You know a time came when I did not care about Uhuru for the country anymore. I just wanted to come home.”

Related Characters: Gikonyo (speaker), Mugo
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Unknown to those around him, Kihika’s heart hardened towards “these people,” long before he had even encountered a white face. Soldiers came back from the war and told stories of what they had seen in Burma, Egypt, Palestine and India; wasn’t Mahatma Gandhi, the saint, leading the Indian people against the British rule? Kihika fed on these stories: his imagination and daily observation told him the rest; from early on, he had visions of himself, a saint, leading Kenyan people to freedom and power.

Related Characters: Kihika, Gikonyo
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:

“I would hate to see a train run over my mother or father, or brothers. Oh, what would I do?” [Mumbi] quickly exclaimed.

“Women are cowards.” Karanja said half in joke.

“Would you like a train to run over you?” Mumbi retorted angrily. Karanja felt the anger and did not answer.

Related Characters: Karanja (speaker), Mumbi (speaker), Kihika
Related Symbols: The Train / The Iron Snake
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

In Kenya we want deaths which will change things, that is to say, we want true sacrifice. But first we have to be ready to carry the cross. I die for you, you die for me, we become a sacrifice for one another. So I can say that you, Karanja, are Christ. Everybody who takes the Oath of Unity to change things in Kenya is a Christ.

Related Characters: Kihika (speaker), Karanja
Related Symbols: The Oath
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

Though Njeri was a short girl, her slim figure made her appear tall. But there was something tough about that slimness. She despised women’s weaknesses, like tears, and whenever fights occurred at Kinenie [forest], she always fought, even with men. A cat, men called her, because few could impose their physical will on her.

Related Characters: Kihika, Wambuku, Njeri
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“As for carrying a gun for the whiteman, well, a time will come when you too will know that every man in the world is alone, and fights alone, to live.”

Related Characters: Karanja (speaker), Mumbi
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

[Wambui] believed in the power of women to influence events, especially where men had failed to act, or seemed indecisive […] Let therefore such men, she jeered, come forward, wear the women’s skirts and aprons and give up their trousers to the women.

Related Characters: Wambui
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:

“I despise the weak. Why? Because the weak need not remain weak. Listen! Our fathers fought bravely. But do you know the biggest weapon unleashed by the enemy against them? It was not the Maxim gun. It was the division amongst them. Why? Because a people united in faith are stronger than the bomb. They shall not tremble or run away before the sword.”

Related Characters: Kihika (speaker), Mugo
Page Number: 186
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

Koina talked of seeing the ghosts of the colonial past still haunting Independent Kenya. And it was true that those now marching in the streets of Nairobi were not the soldiers of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army but of the King’s African Rifles, the very colonial forces who had been doing on the battlefield what Jackson was doing in churches.

Related Characters: General R., Lt. Koina, Rev. Jackson Kigondu
Page Number: 216
Explanation and Analysis:
Karanja Quotes

Then, somehow, [Karanja] had not felt guilty. When he shot [Freedom Fighters], they seemed less like human beings and more like animals. At first this had merely thrilled Karanja and made him feel a new man, a part of an invisible might whose symbol was the whiteman. Later, this consciousness of power, this ability to dispose of human life by merely pulling a trigger, so obsessed him that it became a need. Now, that power had gone.

Related Characters: Karanja
Page Number: 225
Explanation and Analysis:
Harambee Quotes

Courage had failed [Gikonyo], he had confessed the oath in spite of his vows to the contrary. What difference was there between him and Karanja or Mugo who had openly betrayed people and worked with the whiteman to save themselves? Mugo had the courage to face his guilt and lose everything. Gikonyo shuddered at the thought of losing everything.

Related Characters: Mugo, Gikonyo, Karanja
Related Symbols: The Oath
Page Number: 241
Explanation and Analysis: