The Voice of Kenya in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The River Between

Abstract

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a well known African novelist, has shown his anguish on cultural, social and linguistic famine in Africa due to colonisation. He has criticised the colonial rule that has brought changes in postcolonial writings. The River Between projects the situation in Kenya and explains the agony brought to the nativity due to the impact of cruelties brought by Colonialism. Ngugi also alarms the deterioration of African culture and language in the post colonial period.  More than insisting on writing in African language he brings forth a universal appeal to the writers to concentrate on multilingual literary development than getting stuck on one common language because of considering it a prestigious one. Ngugi's The River Between is concerned with the exploitations of Africans by the colonisers and the impact of colonisation. Waiyaki, the protagonist of the novel and Nyambura fight against the white domination. In The River Between, Ngugi wa Thiong'o has shown the domination of western ideologies and education and how the people of Kenya are being thrown far away from their roots.