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The writers use a variety of styles to communicate to the readers. In the novels and lays of
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o a lot of oral literature material is employed. In the play I Will Marry
When I Want, there are songs that are used to communicate and break monotony of
dialogue. A song is involving and so it makes whatever it is communicating interesting
and memorable.
There is Biblical allusion in the Christian songs and in the conversations. Ngugi uses this
to show the hypocrisy of the Christian characters. An example is in the song „Good news
have come' when Kioi has succeeded in making Kigunda take a loan when he is sure that he cant repay and he is waiting to buy his farm once it is auctioned by
the bank. In the novel Petals Of Blood there is a journey similar to that of the Israelites
leaving Egypt to the promised land. Ngugi uses the journey motif to move his characters
from the land of ignorance to the land of consciousness. There is the use of proverbs when
Ngugi communicates the evils of corruption by the proverb „The antelope hates less who
sees it than the one who shouts?. Juxtaposition is used in the characters who are of diverse
character traits. An example is in Abdulla and Kimeria in Petals of Blood. Abdulla went
to fight in the Mau Mau warfare and lost his leg. Kimeria was a collaborator who betrayed
his people and he got rich from ferrying dead bodies of the Mau Mau in his lorry during
the struggle. When independence came, Abdulla lives in poverty but Kimeria is a rich man
enjoying the
„Uhuru? he worked against. Irony is shown in characters and events. Wanja a character in
Petals of Blood suffers from sexual harassment and cannot get the education she also
wished because Kimeria impregnated her when she was in primary school. When Wanja
becomes rich, she owns a brothel and sells young girls to be used by men they don't know
as sexual workers and she pays them meager wages. She states that you are either eaten or
you eat. Symbolism is used by the writers. A symbol is something that stands for another
thing. In Petals of Blood Ngugi uses the title symbolically. The petals of a flower are
beautiful, but some children see a flower with pale petals and they report to their teacher,
others see many more. On looking closely at the inside of the flower they see a green fatty
worm sucking. The flowers are symbolic of the citizens and they are the workers. They
are pale because the employers symbolizes the green fatty worms are sucking them.
In Macgoye's Coming to Birth, Paulina symbolizes the country. It has suffered in the
hands of the whites who are symbolized by Martin. The miscarriage is symbolic of the
'Uhuru' we got that did not satisfy the ones who were waiting. The child has to be born
live to survive. Paulina conceives by Martin, there is an abortion. Kenya is always
aborting because of foreigners. Paulina carries Simon's pregnancy to term but the child
dies. What is the reason? The child is illegitimate. Simon is a married man. He commits
adultery with Paulina when his wife goes to their rural home. There is a deaf aunt in the
house. She can see but she can't talk. Kenyans are deaf and dumb. They see evil but they
keep quiet and so the evil takes root.
In the poems in Ezekiel Alembi's collection and Amateshe's Antology, the poets use
a variety of styles also. Henry Barlow's
'Building the Nation', the PS stands for the elite rich rulers while the driver stands for the
employees whose pay is so little as to make them go without lunch. The driver has to wait
faithfully for the PS who goes to attend delicate matters of the state while he is actually in
a luncheon at a hotel. Barlow has paralleled the two to show class disparity. In the other
one 'I refuse to take your brotherly hand?, the persona tells his brother that his fingernails
are dirty with filth. This filth is corruption. He prefers to trudge the long way up for the
shortcuts are soiled and slippery. This means that to acquire wealth genuinely, the persona
has to go along way because the shortcut is through corruption which is immoral. It is also
slippery because there are the eyes of the hungry citizens watching his brother.
Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 08:27
- MICERE G. MUGO: Digging Our Grave
My subconscious
Leaks out
A past
I have long buried
Marching under
Drenching rain Draining
heat Heavy escort
Fenced in on every side
By howling, vicious guards At...(Solved)
MICERE G. MUGO: Digging Our Grave
My subconscious
Leaks out
A past
I have long buried
Marching under
Drenching rain Draining
heat Heavy escort
Fenced in on every side
By howling, vicious guards At the
crack of dawn
Miles from home
An unbroken file of men and women, Boys and
girls
Heading north
To Kirinyaga Forest trench White-
washed
In colonial propaganda
Loyalised
Venomed
Against blood-brothers A
raving guard Slashes at
Mumbi
As she halts
To shift her bundle From
shoulder to breast
“ In the name of Ngai I get
you bwana,
Spare my child!” she cries
On the slopes of the sacred mountain „ Ngai
sanctuary –
His children bend Low
Slaving Hungry Weather
beaten Crushed with
blows Digging day-long
A grave
A trap
For brothers In the
forest
A twenty –foot gulf Separates
Blood from blood
Grinning the expose Rows
of spikes That lie waiting
To crucify
Him who dares plan A
reunion
Curfew starts at sunset Away back in
the trench Journeying back in the
dark Cries of hungry children Tear
mother's hearts
While fathers
-castrated- Tamely
listen
And gaze at their toes
Survivors arrive At
midnight
At first cock-crow The pot
leaves the fire At third cock-
crow The daily March Again
begins.....
Under the sweat of Today
labour
We forgive the past
Impossible to forget
Questions
1. Explain the meaning of the title of the poem
2. What is the main theme of this poem?
3. What does the speaker reveal about the guards?
4. explain the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem:
(a) “Bundle” (line 25)
(b)“ a twenty-foot gulf separates blood from blood”(lines 43-45)
(c) “- castrated_” (line58).
Date posted: November 11, 2021. Answers (1)
- Tell me thou proud jigger,
Having stolen your way in
Need you beat your chest
In premature celebration?
Your flying brother
Sang a song of victory...(Solved)
Tell me thou proud jigger,
Having stolen your way in
Need you beat your chest
In premature celebration?
Your flying brother
Sang a song of victory
Before he tasted the toast
And met his singing end.
We thought you had learned
To taste and not devour
Unmindful of other mouths
In the neighborhood of time
Come thou proud jigger
Follow the prick in my hand
And celebrate your death
Beside thy favourite toe
Explanation
Jigger is another word for chigoe, a tropical flea which burrows
into the skin of its host. A toast in British custom is drink to wish someone good health
or success. For example, at a wedding, someone proposes a toast to the bride and
groom whereon all present wills and, raise their glasses, repeat “to the bride and
groom”, and drink.
Toast in another sense is a slice of bread browned on both sides by radiant heat.
Questions
1. Who/What is the second stanza referring to?
2. Who does the „you‟ in the third stanza refer to?
3. What does the persona achieve by talking to the jigger as if it understands him?
4. What is the moral teaching of this story?
5. Give the meaning of the following lines as they have been used in the poem
(a) “In premature celebration?” (line4)
(b) “Before he tasted the toast” (line7)
Date posted: November 11, 2021. Answers (1)
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