This document provides background information on the novel "A Grain of Wheat" by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. It summarizes that the novel focuses on the protagonists' remembrances of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, which was an anti-colonial struggle against the British between 1952-1960. The action of the novel centers around the events of the Mau Mau revolt and the birth of a new, independent Kenya. The document also notes that the novel can be seen as a "collective act of recalling and reflecting on the past" that narrates the formation of a nation through sacrifice and struggle against colonial powers.

1. Paper: 14 The African Literature
PG Enrollment No: 14101005
MA Sem: 4
Email id: nikunjbhatti332@gmail.com
Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India.
A Grain of Wheat as a National epic
of Anti-colonial struggle
Nikunj Bhatti

2. A Grain of
Wheat
Anti-
colonial
Struggle
National
Epic

3. The West
White
colonizers
The Power
Patriarchal man
Fatherland
The Rest
Nonwhites
colonized
Have-not power
womanized
Motherland

4. Condition of African Labors
Mau Mau Rebellion

5. The Mau Mau Uprising, also known as
the Mau Mau Revolt, Mau Mau Rebellion,
or Kenya Emergency, was a military conflict
that took place in British Kenya between
1952 and 1960.
It involved Kikuyu dominated groups
summarily called Mau Mau, the white
settlers including women and children and
elements of the British Army. (Wikipedia)

6. Mau
Mau
Rebellion
Physical
Psychological
Political
impact
The novel can be
summarized as a
‘collective act of
recalling and
reflecting on the past’
that is a narration of
nation.

7. Uhuru : Freedom

8. The whole novel can indeed be summarized as a
collective act of recalling and reflecting on the
events leading to Uhuru, in order to understand
what actual meaning it should have for Thabai
peasants.
That would be held on Kenya’s Independence
Day.
 Kihika, a Mau Mau rebel who sacrificed his life
to fight for Kenya’s freedom during the Mau Mau
rebellion.
People tries to struggle for their own Uharu and
it is the main and central idea of Novel .

9. Anti-Colonial Struggle
The action of novel
focuses on the
protagonists’
remembrances of
the events of the
‘Mau Mau ’
Revolt- the birth of
a new Kenya.

10. The author choose
Christianity as a knife
to tear apart the society. “ They looked beyond
the laughing face of the
Whiteman and
suddenly saw a long
line of other red
stranger who carried,
not the Bible, but the
sword.”

11. Theme of Sacrifice
“A Grain of Wheat”
can be called
‘impossible irony’ of
nationalism in the
words of Terry
Eagleton

12. Kihika
Gikonyo
Mugo
Heroism

13. Bhagat SinghKihika

15. Source
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising
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