Before the coming of the white man to Africa and in particular to Kenya, our people had
their own literature. Although it was not recorded on paper , it was there, properly
recorded by our people in their minds, actions and it was actually lived and passed from
generation to generation orally. This is the pre-colonial literature.
When the Europeans partitioned Africa, Kenya was colonized by the British. Some of our
people got educated ad they were able to write. Even before our own people could write
any literary works, some missionaries had started writing about the Africans.
However, what they gave was a distorted mage of our literature. The earliest form of such
works was done by a missionary known as Cagnolo. However, our main concern is our
own people because they are the ones who addressed the issues that were at hand. The
earliest writers like Jomo Kenyatta who wrote Facing Mount Kenya gave an account of
the oral literature of his community the "Agikuyu". Later on we had early writers like Ngugi Wa Thiong?o in his early novels The River Between (1965) and Weep Not Child (1964) who have given the readers a glimpse into the colonial times.
Just before Kenya got her independence, there are some texts that address that period.
Two good examples are Ngugi Wa Thiongo's Grain of White (1966) and Majorie
Macgoye's Coming to Birth (1986).After independence there are literary texts written by our people about the issues that emerged in society. We have Ngugi Wa Thiongo?s Petals Of Blood (1977) and I Will Marry When I Want (1977); Francis Imbuga's Betrayal In The City (1987), The Successor (1979).
There are writers who have addressed the contemporary issues. These ones range from
family issues to political issues in the country some of which affect our lives in general.
Others have also looked into gender issues. These literary works whether written early or
today, constitute to Kenyan Literature.
Summary
There are four phases of Kenyan literature:- pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial and
Neo- colonial periods. Each period had its issues and the writers addressed them to either
praise or ridicule society.
Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 06:02