An analysis of the land issue as portrayed in selected novels by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Abstract

This study looks at the land issue in Ngugi Wa Thiongo 's novels. It looks at four novels only, namely: Weep Not Child (1962), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), and Petals of Blood (1977), analyzing how Ngugi uses form to present land as a bone of contention between white settlers and Africans in Kenya and paying particular attention to how land appropriation affected African culture and tradition.

It is hoped that at the end it should be clear that land has great significance to Africans, a fact borne out by several critics cited in the study on the plight of Africans in relation to the land issue, particularly its usurpation by colonial powers and why loss of land is the cause of African nationalism as a counter to the colonial experience.