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Dramatizing Postcoloniality: Nationalism and the Rewriting of History in Ngugi and Mugo's The Trial of Dedan Kimathi*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Oyeniyi Okunoye
Oyeniyi Okunoye*
Affiliation:
Obafemi Awolowo University, okunoye/[email protected]
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Extract

      History is not the past: it is a consciousness of the past used for present purposes. (Greg Dening)
      After empire, it was clear the history of the colonised needed repair. (Elleke Boehmer)

This paper identifies history as a major site for identity-formation in the postcolonial world. It draws attention to some strategies of historical reconstruction in African drama by focusing on Ngugi and Mugo's The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, an influential Kenyan play which has also come to be seen as providing a paradigm for the African historical play. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that the play is rooted in the counterdiscourse which authorizes revisionist histories in the postcolonial world. The creation of this play is seen as motivated by the desire of the playwrights to interrogate misconceptions and distortions in official Kenyan history, which marginalizes the popular struggle that culminated in the nation's independence. The writing of the play therefore enables the playwrights to celebrate Dedan Kimathi, who personifies the collective aspirations of the Kenyan people, but is demonized in earlier versions of their history. The essay underlines the fact that this version of history is basically conditioned by the materialist vision of the writers.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 28 , 2001 , pp. 225 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2001

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Footnotes

*

This paper was originally presented at the XXIIIrd annual conference of the Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English held between in 2000 at Aachen University of Technology and Université de Liège. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Centre de Cooperation au Développement de the Université de Liège that sponsored my attendance at the conference. I also appreciate the comments of Harry Garuba, Kenneth Harrow, Obodimma Oha, and M.E.M. Kolawole on earlier versions of the paper.

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