Mumbi - A Connecting thread in A Grain of Wheat

Mumbi- A Connecting thread in "A Grain of Wheat"

Name: Jinal B. Parmar

Roll no.:11

Paper no.: 14 "The African Literature

M. A. Semester: 4

Year: 2015

PG Enrolment no.: 13101025

Email ID: jinal.parmar989883@gmail.com

Submitted to: Department of English

Smt. S. B. Gardi

Maharaja Krishnakumar sinhji

Bhavnagar University

Introduction:

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o

              Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is a Kenyan writer. He was formerly working in English and now he is working un Gikuyu. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o has been acclaimed as East Africa’s foremost novelist. His work include novels, Plays, short-stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu language journal Mutiiri.

             Ngugi Wa Thiong’o has rejected Christianity which he regarded as a sign of colonialism, and changed his name from James Ngugi to Ngugi Wa Thiong’o to honour his African heritage. The transition from Colonialism to Post colonialism has been a central issue in a great deal of Ngugi’s  writings.

              Helen Hayward has commented that his early novels like, The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, and Petel of Blood, act as 

“Important documents in the history of Post-Colonial  writing, distinguished by the urgency of their political engagement and the subtly of their historical grasp”

Introduction:

A Grain of Wheat

           A Grain of Wheat is one of the great novel written by Kenyan writer namely Ngugi Wa Thiong’o. This novel published in 1967. This is a story about events and relationships leading up to a country’s struggle for independence, and the story, focusing on the quite Mugo, whose life is ruled by a dark secret.

             In this novel A Grain of Wheat writer has presented for the first time an African perspective on the Kenyan armed revolt against British Colonial rule during the 1950s. This novel marked Ngugi’s break with cultural nationalism and also his embarking of Fanonist Marxism. The title of the novel refers to the Biblical theme of Self-sacrifice, a part of the new birth!

“Unless A Grain of Wheat die”

              It is an allegorical story of one man’s mistaken heroism and a search for the betrayer of a Mau Mau leader. Many of the critics have also praised the work and role of Ngugi as an influential Post-Colonial African written, particularly in his portrayal of corrupt post-liberation African Government.

This novel A Grain of Wheat is divided into three eras that are;

                  The story of this novel is center around the character Mugo. The plot revolves around his home village’s preparation for Kenya’s Independence day celebration, “Uhuru day”. On that day, former resistance fighters General R. and Koinandu plan on publicly executing the traitor who betrayed Kihika. The entire novel tells about the history of Kenya and the Mau Mau revolt.

                  A Grain of Wheat was a turning point in the formal and ideological of his works. This text is multi-narrative liens and multi-viewpoints unfolding at different times and spaces replace the linear temporal unfolding of the plot form a single viewpoint. The collective replaces the individual as the center of history.

                  In the novel A Grain of Wheat there are many characters in the novels, but Mugo, Gikonyo, Mumbi, Karanja and Kihika plays very vital role in the novel. The character of Mugo is a central character of the novel. These characters also plays vital role in freedom fighting of Kenya and the Mau Mau revolt.

                Ngugi Wa Thiong’o begins the novel with the character of Mugo, who is asked to speak at the Uhuru, which is another Swahili word for the Kenyan Independence. Mugo agrees and denies knowledge about another character’s death. Gikonyo, another character, who married to Mumbi. Gikonyo’s rival is Karanja, whom Mumbi sleeps with when Gikonyo is away at a detention center, when came back after six years, Mumbi is pregnant and the presence of the baby causes their relationship to be strained.

                Throughout the rest of ‘A Grain of Wheat’ Mugo struggles with the guilt of betraying Karanja and later confesses; he is punished by the Freedom fighters. Writer ends the novel with Gikonyo and Mumbi working their marriage.

               Ngugi Wa Thiong’o early novels like A Grain of Wheat and another also like “Weep not Child” and “The River Between” explore the detrimental effects of Colonialism and Imperialism.

Mumbi- a connecting thread in “A Grain of Wheat”

Introduction of the character- Mumbi:

               Mumbi is one of the female character of the novel. Mumbi is the central female character of the novel. In the novel Mumbi can be described as a beautiful and very influential figure for example,

“Her eyes were soft and submissive and defiant”

               Mumbi with her beauty and natural charisma she is used to link all the important themes, ideas, characters and even some of the symbols of the novel. Ngugi makes use of a number of different themes to convey his ideologies, it is in these themes that the reader come across the specific characteristics of Mumbi and can really come to terms with the novel from a female point of view.

                Mumbi, is the wife of Gikonyo and the sister of Kihika. Mumbi has baby with another man namely Karanja, while her husband was in a concentration camp. While Gikonyo was imprisoned she slept with Karanja, who had been appointed village chief by the Colonial power.

                   Mumbi is one of the significant part of the novel. She is the sister of Kihika. Kihika is the considered the leader of the people and leads the movement with Kihika being like this Ngugi brings Mumbi into the novel with a jumpstart on the other characters.

Mumbi as a Mythological Figure

                    Mumbi is a mythological figure regarded as the mother of the Gikuyu people. The word Mumbi can be translated as “One who moulds”. In the mythology Mumbi was the wife of Gikuyu and ancestor to all the “Agikuyu” people. The story of Mumbi and Gikuyu has been recorded by various writers throughout the history of Gikuyu, one of the notable among them are Jomo Knyatta, the first pressdent of independent Kenya, Louis Leakey and the prolific Gikuyu writer Gakara Wa Wanjau and another Gikuyu writer known as Mathew Njoroge Kabetu among many others.

                  Gikuyu, is the father of the tribe and God took him on top of Kiri-Nyaga and showed him on the land that he had given him. He then pointed to him a spot full of fig tress and he commanded him to descend establish his homestead on the selected spot known as Mikurwe Wa Gathanga. When Gikuyu descended to the spot he found a beautiful wife waiting for him, Mumbi. Together, Gikuyu and Mumbi had ten beautiful daughters. Which are also very popular names for Gikuyu females today.

                   Gikuyu marry their daughters and married the man who was the same height as she was and together they gave rise to the nine of the full nine clans to which all Gikuyu belong. These clan are the Anjiru, Agaciku, Ambui, Angui aka Aithiegeni, Agechi aka Aithirandu, Aacera, Ambura aka Aakiuru aka Eethaga, Airimu aka Agathiigia, Angari aka Aithekahuno and Aicakamuyu.

                Shortly before a state of emergency was declared by the imperialists in Colonial Kenya on the 9^th of October 20, 1952, the name of Mumbi was invoked as a rallying call to unite the Agikuyu in a fight for the independence of Kenya, under the banner of what came to be known as Mau Mau uprising.

                Gakarra Wa Wanjau published the Gikuyu and Mumbi creed, for which the Colonial government put him in detention till 1960. In A Grain of Wheat, Ngugi seems to be trying to establish a critical, renovating and strengthening national identity. For Example,

“The names Mumbi and Gikonyo suggest the central figures in the creation myth of Mumbi and Gikuyu”

                 Although the creation myth is not addressed directly in this novel, the meaning of the name Mumbi, “Mother Creator”, is mentioned in petels of Bllod. In the novel the theme of creation is also depicted through Gikonyo’s work as an artist or carpenter, particularly in this imaging of a stool in the form of a man, a pregnant woman, and a child. This thematic concern is also evident in Gikonyo’s estrangement and ultimate reconciliation with Mumbi and his association of Mumbi with a “the birth of a new Kenya”. Mumbi herself is a central figure for the three major male characters and in her struggle to communicate with Gikonyo. The myth of Mumbi tells about the relation of Gikonyo with Mumbi and also the history of Kenya.

Role of Mumbi in the novel

                In A Grain of Wheat the role of Mumbi is very complex one. As a female character in the novel she plays very vital role. As earlier we have seen that Mumbi is a wife of Gikonyo and the sister of Kihika. In the novel Mumbi has also relations with the other characters. In the novel Mumbi is an object of great interest and affection she is courted by both Karanja and Gikonyo. Ngugi uses the affection of Karanja and Gikonyo to forshadow the underlying animosity between the white man and the Kenyan people.

                  In the novel the character of Karanja respects the Whiteman while Gikonyo represents the Kenyan people. Gikonyo represents the Kenyan people because it was him that went to the detention camps for six years to protect the oath of the Mau Mau.

                   In contrast to this Karanja confessed the oath immediately and then became the creature of the Whiteman. He turned on his own people and destroyed hope in some of their eyes. Mumbi chose Gikonyo and marry with him; this how ever did not deter Karanja. He still loved Mumbi and wanted to possess her. In the novel Mumbi has relation with other characters also like Karanja, with whom she has a child.

                In many of the novels Ngugi has presented the problems of the women in African society. In A Grain of Wheat, there is a effect of patriarchy in the marriage of Mumbi with Gikonyo. Although she has some problems in her marriage, she cannot tell her family, and also though she wants to go her parents’ home, she cannot do this because of the patriarchal ideology, because in such a society, her parents take sides with her husband. Her mother’s statements upon Mumbi’s decision to go home demonstrate the power of patriarchal ideology. Wanjiku, Mumbi’s mother, says Mumbi,

“The women of today surprise me. They cannot take a slap, soft as a feather, or the slightest breath, from a man. In our time, a woman could take a blow and blow from her husband without a thought of running back to her parents”

               Ngugi paints out the situation of the women who live in patriarchal society, women are seen as properties or an object for the male dominated society. Like situation in the novel like, “A Grain of Wheat”. Karanja’s father sees his mother as property and even we can say that he buys her. And he has four wives, when he is bored of them and find more beautiful girl, he sends them away. That is, women are the victims of Karanja’s father. Statement is,

“She was the third of the four wives that Karanja’s father had acquired by paying so much bride price in goats and cattle. He acquired them, yes and then left them to their own resources”

              Another example if we take it can be Gikonyo’s mother, Wangari, also suffered from the patriarchy. Her husband beat her several times and forced her to leave home. Since he is not pleased with her wife’s sexual conditions, he falls out of love with her wife.

              Similarly the situation of Mumbi can be described as the lives a patriarchal society. The trouble create in her life is that she has love with another man and also child with that man.  

             Gikonyo and Mumbi are not only charcters in a post independence Kenyan novel. In Ngugi’s fiction we know, Gikonyo and Mumbi’s name also evoke the two legendary founders of the Gikuyu community, Gikuyu and Mumbi given their correspondences with the male and female archetypes in the Gikuyu foundation myth, Gikonyo and Mumbi each represent a gendered collective.

              Mumbi’s name has remained not changed, but the name of Gikonyo is a derivative of ‘Gikuyu’. Gikonyo represents the Gikuyu male peasant whose identity has been fragmented by Colonial strategies of detection and detention during the Kenyan emergency.

                  Gikonyo and Mumbi are frighted with a great deal more ideological baggage than that when Mumbi first approaches Gikonyo with a panga for repair, the resistance song that he sings invokes and further inscriptions of their relationships:

“Gikuyu na Mumbi

Gikuyu na Mumbi

Gikuyu na Mumbi

Nikihiu nywatiro”

               “Gikuyu na Mumbi”  is also one of the names which the Kenyan land and freedom army used  for itself it never called itself “Mau Mau”.

                The second phrase in the song is a proverb suggesting the pressure of time. Ngugi  translate it “the firebrand is burned at the handle”. However the song’s references to the archetypal male and female figures suggest that it is using gender as a framing device for anti-colonial struggle. 

                   Mumbi’s relation with Karanja affects the married life of Mumbi and Gikonyo. In Grain of Wheat is that Mumbi’s desire for Karanja or her submission to his sexual demands, remains largely unexplained. She is the only character in A Grain of Wheat that does not really get to confess her confession. 

“(Karanja) came to where I was standing and showed me a long sheet of paper with government stamps. There was a list of names of those on their way back to the villages. Gikonyo’s name was there. What else is there to tell you? That I remember being full of submissive gratitude? That I laughed – even welcomed Karanja’s cold lips on my face? I was in a strange world, and it was like if I was mad and need I tell you more? I let Karanja make love to me”

              Mumbi’s confession is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons, but most especially because she makes no positive statement as to her adulterous motivation in this passage are a cipher. Indeed, the only statement she makes is that she ‘let’ Karanja have with her. This passive construction of Mumbi’s desire is consistent with the novel’s phallocentric construction of female sexuality according to a model of lack.

             In this way the portration of the character of Mumbi is situated. The character of Mumbi is totally different from the other female characters in the novel. As we take example of the character of Margery Thompson. Although akin to Mumbi, she is described as someone very beautiful who always dominated the scene. Margery’s beauty is often subject to sexual comments, her buttocks, man would not mind giving her the work myself which adds to the various elements of realism in the novel.

            Ngugi clearly shows the difference between Margery and Mumbi in the value and words of them by denoting the consequence of each one betrayal. Another thing is that Mumbi, who is leading a life full of hardships due to betrayal and in contrast Margery who fell neither sad nor anything on hearing about the death of her lover.

              However, the life of Margery seems much easier than that of Mumbi, Ngugi stills favors   the African women; Mumbi is strong, independent and resourceful where as Margery is weak, fragile and unstable. Also, on the one side there is freedom where as on the other there is discussion meant.

              Throughout the entire novel Ngugi talks about the freedom of Kenya and also about the dark side of the situation of the women in the African society. In the novel the female characters plays very vital role and also there are love relationships of the characters. In the novel there are love triangles between,

               In the novel as there is love between Mumbi, Gikonyo and Karanja similarly there is another love triangle between Kihika and Wambuku this characters shows the situation of the novel. In the novel A Grain of Wheat centers around the female character Mumbi who is the connecting thread with the other characters. It shows that how the female character was treated in the colonial society.

                  In the entire novel these characters plays very vital role which are connecting with each other. Mumbi’s character explains the situation of the African society and the history of Kenya through the myth of Gikuyu and Mumbi. Mumbi is the connecting thread with other characters in the novel A Grain of wheat.

Conclusion

                  Throughout the novel we see the plight of women during the Mau Mau rebellion. They experienced many bad things during the resistance movement, including rape, exploitation, and harassment. Several women were killed cruelly by the colonizers.