P-14 Title Significance in Ngugi wa Thiongo’s “A Grain of Wheat”

Name: Rinkal D. Jani

Roll No: 22

Batch: 2016-18

SEM: 4

Enrollment no: 2069108420170012

Email Id: rinkaljani1807@gmail.com

Paper No 14: The African literature

                    Topic: Title Significance in Ngugi wa Thiongo’s

 “A Grain of Wheat”

Submitted to:  Dr Dillip Barad

Department of English,

Smt. S. B. Gardi

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinghji Bhavnagar University

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About the Author

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is a literary and social activist who was born in Kenya in 1938. A Grain of Wheat is a novel by Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o. He is formally working in English and now working in Gikuyu. He wrote many plays, novels, short stories and also essays. He also focuses on ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. Ngugi was born in Kamiriithu and baptized James Ngugi. His family was caught up in the Mau Mau war. In his education Ngugi received a B.A. in English from Makerere University college in Kampala , Uganda in 1963. He wrote his one of the famous play named " The Black Hermit " during his education.

Ø His works.

Ø  Weep not child

Ø  Petals of Bloods

Ø  The River Betwee

Ø  A Grain of Wheat

His first novel, Weep not , child , was the first English language novel to be published by an East African and his account of the “Mau Mau “ emergency in A Grain of Wheat presented for the first time an African perspective on the Kenya armed revolt against British colonial rule during the 1950s.

Ngugi Wa Thiongo himself remarked that:

“I am a writer some have been called me a religious writer. I write about my people. I am interested in their hidden lives and hates and how the very tension in their hearts affects their daily contact with other men. How in other words, the emotions stream of the man within interacts with the real type” – This book is divided into the three parts. The novel starts in the village Thabai, just a few days before Kenyan independence of the village and has been selected as a day in December, 1963 (Uhuru Day).

About the Novel

      A Grain of Wheat reveals the need for a continual struggle and suffering for Kenyans' independence. The novel recounts the independence celebration

(Uhuru) which takes place in a rural village of Kenya.The characters involved are village people and members of the rural community. Though the novel depicts the coming of Independence Day, it also describes those bitter days of the fight for freedom. Moreover, it deals with the lives of ordinary people

and their predicament in the clash against the colonizers.

                  It is the third and best known novel written by Ngugi wa Thiong'o from Kenya. It weaves several stories together during the state of emergency in Kenya's struggle for independence (1952–1959), focusing on the quiet Mugo, whose life is ruled by a dark secret. The plot revolves around his home village's preparations for Kenya's Independence Day celebration (Uhuru day). Former resistance fighters General R and Koinandu plan on publically executing the traitor who betrayed Kihika (a heroic resistance fighterhailing from the village) on that day. This book is very different from its predecessor. There is no one main character, but several. Though they interact, they each have their own issues and deal with them in different ways. And, though the African/British divide is still there, it is not a key. Rather the key theme, which is certainly suggested in his two previous novels, is how the past affects the main characters and how they can move on to a new future. It is clearly a much superior novel to its rather simple predecessors and has become a classic of African Literature. (Italia) This novel and whole story of it is little bit difficult and different from any other novel or any predecessors’ books but it is reality and it generates real thing in person’s mind. Some common elements like hunger of power, love, betray and etc. also can see in this novel.The title of the novel refers to the Biblical theme of Self-sacrifice, a part of the new birth!

“Unless A Grain of Wheat die”

“Parable of the Grain of Wheat” and Ngugi’s grain of wheat

       





      The title originated from Gospel according to st. john. Despite being his most successful novel, A Grain of Wheat was not his first publication, but, it was a play with the title The Black Hermit. It’s also worth knowing that his first novel was Weep Not, Child. Ngugi, in A Grain of Wheat, narrates breathtaking events that are for better or worse for the sake of Kenya

The title of the Novel conveys sacrifice and it is taken from the Bible which suggests "If a Grain of wheat falls to the ground, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." A number of characters have played a part in the Celebration of Independence Day Symbolically Grains of Wheat (Symbol) Mugo and Kihika are "grains of wheat", which symbolizes their seeming insignificance with its concomitant reality of the fact that their death/planting brings about unity and healing/sustenance for the community as a whole. As kihika falls and dies for the nation so after his death and sacrifice there is Mugo and many other are rising for the nation and their freedom struggle. If Kihika not dies and sacrifice there wont be any other person from community get inspired or come out for nation’s freedom struggle.   

                  Parable of the Grain of Wheat is an allegory on resurrection, sacrifice, and ego death, given by Jesus in the New Testament

Jesus uses the metaphor of the grain of wheat to illustrate the importance of ego death in the pursuit of salvation and entering the Kingdom of Heaven. He is suggesting that one must first allow their current convictions and ideas about the world to die and be shed, before they can be reborn with a purer, more virtuous self that is stronger than the original.^[2]

The image of the grain of wheat dying in the earth in order to grow and bear a harvest can be seen also as a metaphor of Jesus' own death and burial in the tomb and his resurrection.^[1]

This parable is used by Jesus to teach them three things. First, he teaches them that he must die. Secondly, he shows them God is in control. Finally, he shows them that his death has purpose.^[3]

 Here in Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Grain of wheat if we can see then Jesus Christ character as compare with Kihika, Mugo, who sacrifice their lives and dying for nation, their death has purpose to become freedom for nation.

The Title significance in “A grain of wheat”

The title of the novel A Grain of Wheat means. Ngugi chooses a Christian myth and a religious framework to depict the violent freedom movement in Kenya. The title of the novel is itself from the Bible

 “ Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.’

(Corinthians 15:36-38 King James Version (KJV)


                               

        This epigraph appended to the novel is an attempt by St. Paul to answer queries by some Corinthians as to the possibility of the resurrection ofthe mortal body of Christ. St. Paul hints at the 'potentiality' of the mortal frame to get itself renewed in life for 'a second coming.' But like a sown seed, it has to die first before it can be born again. The image of dying to be born again runs recurrently and is central to the novel. In other words, the alchemy of "rebirth and regeneration" always lies embedded in a dying seed as a strong "potential" only waiting to be born again "through the will of God. "(African Literature Today No.7~111)

   Ngugi applies this Christian epigraph to the gory nationalist struggle against colonialism. Referring to the martyrdom of Waiyalu during the early phase of this struggle, the novelist

Observes: "Waiyaki's blood contained within it a seed, a grain, which gave birth to a movement whose main strength thereafter sprang from a bond with the soil" (p. 12) Waiyaki sacrifices

his life. But he rises again phoenix-like% the form of a potential and formidable movement. This movement is organically linked to the soil of the people so as to provide succor, strength and inspiration to them in designing and building a new nation corresponding to their aspirations. Emphasizing the need for sacrifice by one and all for a national cause, Kihika says:

“I die for you, you die for me, we become a sacrifice for one another. So I can

say that you, Karanja, are Christ. I am Christ. Everybody who takes the

Oath of Unity to change things in Kenya is a Christ. Christ then is not one

person. All those who take up the cross of liberating Kenya are the true

Christs for us Kenyan people(p.95)”

According to Govind Naraian Shanna, "Kihika is a true Christ who, through sacrifice, not only justifies himself but also brings about a revolution in the lives of his friends and followers by showing them the way to the spiritual regeneration." (African Literature Today No. lop. 170) Such a spirited defense of Kihika seeks to transcend the limitations of a religious principle so as to cover and embrace a secular pursuit; a social ethic; a national aspiration and a sense of commitment. Obviously, Kihika's sense of religion is not confined to its meaning in an abstraction but it is sought to be applied to a people engaged in a grim battle against colonial forces. Kihika feels stung by a remark made by his friend, Karanja, who reminds Kihika of his own saying that "Jesus had failed." (p. 94) Karanja even wonders whether Kihika is trying to resort to religious revivalism. For a moment, Kihika is nonplussed. But he does not give in to the sarcasm or the logistics of Karanja. He continues to argue forcefully: Pressed people have a cross to bear. The Jews rushed to carry it and were scattered like dust all over the earth.. . ..In Kenya we want deaths which will change things, that is to say, we want true sacrifice. But first we have to be ready to carry the cross. (P. 95) this passage has several layers of meaning and inferences. It points out categorically that Christ had failed in the Kenyan context. his is a common phenomenon in any colonial situation where the alien religion of Christianity always tended to support an oppressive regime causing hardships to the colonized. Ngugi is of the view that Christianity as an organized institution, paved the way for the colonizer and unhesitatingly supported him in consolidating his position in the colonies. Along with religion the imperial enterprise also used language as a tool of continued colonization.

For example, English continues to occupy a superior status vis-a-vis indigenous languages in most colonized cultures. Africans were also taken away from their places as slaves and scattered "all over the earth." Hence, the novelist appeals to the suffering masses the world over "to carry the cross" and bear the burden and take the fire right into the midst of the enemy's camp using the tools of the religion and the sword or the gun which had been used so far by the colonial master. In short, Ngugi is using Christian mythology to inspire a

Feeling of regeneration and revolution among oppressed peopl

     

    

Conclusion:  The title is part of the overall impression for the literary work. A title can be used to identify the work, to place it in context, to convey a minimal summary of its contents, and to pique the reader's curiosity. In the novel “ A grain of wheat” is story is something else and the title is something else, no one could imagine that a Freedom struggle story is with the metaphoric title. When you first red this novel you couldn’t get the meaning of the title. Its title is hooks the attention of their readers.

Works Cited

(Title A garin of wheat) (The Grain of Wheat)

kebede, Balew Demissie. "Ideology and the Representation of Female." Ideology and the Representation of Female (2009): 95.

"Title A garin of wheat." UNIT 6 A GRAIN OF WHEAT - AN EVALUATION . n.d.

wikipedia.org. n.d. 4 4 2018 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grain_of_Wheat#Interpretation>.