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ABSTRACT
Using Ngügï wa Thiong'o and Ngügï wa Mini's I Will Marry When I Want as its focus, this essay critiques black governance in Kenya. It is argued that most of the evils of colonialism such as oppression, exploitation, favouritism and others are perpetuated not only in contemporary Kenya but also across most of Africa. Minority rule appears to have supplanted majority rule as typified by Ndugire and Doma wa Ndikita, on the one hand, and Kiguunda and Wangeci, on the other. In other words, rapacious governments in most of Africa feed fat on the hardworking and underprivileged masses. Faced with the moral bankruptcy of the ruling class, the Ngugis endorse force, on the part of the oppressed, as a way of overcoming the bane of exploitation and other injustices instituted by corrupt leadership. According to the dramatists, it is only when the population can directly influence governance that people can enjoy the fruits of independence.
Between 1884 and 1885, European colonial powers - Britain, France, Germany, Spain, etc. - waged an imperialist campaign of balkanizing Africa. From Alexandria to Cape Town and from Dakar to Mogadishu, the continent was pillaged and depleted of human and material resources in the forms of slavery and precious minerals. Nationalist movements like the Mau Mau in Kenya, the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) in Cameroon, and the Front de la libération in Algeria sprang up across Africa, resisting the havoc inflicted on blacks by ruthless colonial masters. This struggle ended with most of the African countries becoming independent in the 1960s, when blacks replaced whites in leadership. Lofty goals of justice, equality, and an end to suffering and subjugation were reiterated to the masses by enthusiastic leaders. Most Africans soon realized that they had traded colonial oppression for local suppression. Independence became synonymous with dependence as the 'new' governments became ac- complices in an unholy alliance of delusion and graft with the erstwhile colonial authorities.
In this essay, I shall examine how Ngügî wa Thiong'o and Ngügî wa Mirii, in I Will Marry When I Want, interrogate the untrammelled exploitation of Kenyans by successive callous black governments. Their quisling leadership, in connivance with the Americans, the Japanese, the Chinese, and the British, has embarked ferociously on...