By Jermaine Broadnax
This article is about two of the greatest African writers from the country “Kenya”, and stacking them against one of the greatest poets in Black American history.
Let’s start off in the beautiful country of Kenya.
Autobiographies written by African Kenyans, started after independence from colonialism.
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o:
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, one of the greatest Kenyan writer’s of all time. His most famous literature “Weep Not, Child”was his first major selling book. Studying and mastering his craft, living in Uganda , then later the U.K. In his classic book ‘decolonize the mind’ he presents his rage towards the machine.
These extraordinary books were written in the Kenyan languages Gikuyu and Swahili. Expressing his unconventional feelings regarding colonial education. He states “that the colonizer abolished the people’s belief in their names, language, environment, heritage of struggle, and unity. He has continued to write in Kikuyu and claims that African authors need to write in their own language before their literature can be called African. His masterpieces have been translated into more than thirty languages worldwide.
Here is three classic’s created by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o:
Wrestling with the Devil:
The way Ngũgĩ talks about his feelings, his pain, but also his strength is powerful and highly impressive. This beautifully written African story of the problems and challenges of living under surveillance for twenty-four hours. He speaks on the trials and tribulations, caused by his separation from his family, and how he fought and survived throughout the entire ordeal.
Birth of a Dream Weaver:
In this wonderful memoir, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o recounts the four years he spent at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda—threshold years during which he found his voice as a journalist, short story writer, playwright, and novelist just as colonial empires were crumbling, and new nations were being born—under the shadow of the rivalries, intrigues, and assassinations of the Cold War.
Wizard of the Crow:
Wizard of the Crow is a comic novel set in the Free Republic of Aburiria. Ngũgĩ dramatizes with corrosive humor and keenness of observation a battle for the souls of the Aburirian people, between a megalomaniac dictator and an unemployed young man who embraces the mantle of a magician.
Who is Grace Ogot?
Grace Ogot is one of the greatest Kenyan woman novelist of all time. Her stories consist of social, and spiritual meanings. She is credited with being the first African woman writer in English to be published with two short stories in 1962 and 1964. Her representation consists of a images and wordplay, to reveal evils which annoy African society. Her stories are overdosed with the civilization of Kenya.
She was born Grace Akinyi in 1930. She began to publish short stories both in English and in Luo in the early 1960s and her first novel. The Promised Land was published in 1966. Her first book titled “The Promised Land”, was about, a husband who was forced to seek help from an African traditional healer.
Land Without Thunder:
This is Grace Ogot’s first collection of short stories.
Phillis Wheatley was the first Black-American woman to publish her own poetry. She was born in west Africa or could be an indigenous native to the Caribbean’s, either way, she was brought by ship to Boston in July, 1761; she was seven years old. The slave ship that carried her was called the Phillis, and she was given that name upon her arrival; there is no record of her African/Indigenous.
In 1773, Phillis published her first poem, making her the first Black American to be published. She was only 12 at the time. Phillis would study the likes of “the Greek poet Homer, English poets Keats and Pope, and British poet Shakespeare. She would also master the Bible.
A year before the Revolutionary War, in 1775, she wrote a poem about George Washington. The poem was called “His Excellency General Washington.” It called Washington “first in peace and honors.”
After Washington read this poem, she was invited to visit George Washington in his headquarters. It was a visit between a black woman and a military commander. This relationship is similar to the introduction of Pocahontas going to England to meet the Queen. Both Pocahontas and Phillis died young.
Two Kenyan writers compared to an American Slave poet extraordinaire. Both are considered black culture and black history. Despite two different worlds and experiences. These three black greats will forever be in the history books for sharing their black intellect.
