At the launching of Petals of Blood in July 1977, Ngugi
bluntly explains his motive for writing the book:
... I came to realize that Kenya was poor,
not because of anything internal, but
because the wealth produced by Kenyans
ended in developing the western world... .
Their aid, loans, and investment capital
that they gloat about are simply a chemical
catalyst that sets in motion the whole
process of expropriation of Kenya's wealth,
with, of course, a few leftovers for the
'lucky' few....
This was what I was trying to show in
Petals of Blood: that imperialism can never
develop our country or develop us, Kenyans.
In doing so, I was only trying to be
faithful to what Kenyan workers, peasants
and workers have always realized as shown
by their historical struggles since
1895.
In an interview with Anita Shreve in July 1977, Ngugi attacked the
capitalist system in Kenya which he saw as:
... the root cause of evil. Our economy is
dependent on international capitalism. And
capitalism can never bring about equality
of people. The exploitation of one group
by another is the very essence of
capitalism. The peasants and workers are
very much exploited in this country. They
get very low pay, very poor housing, and
unemployment effects them more than anyone
else. Now, women form the majority in this
category of peasants. Women are doubly
exploited and oppressed.
As an exile and activist Ngugi recently made it clear that
he had :
... no choice but that of aligning himself
with the people - their economic,
political, cultural struggle for
survival ... to rediscover the real language
of struggle in the actions and speeches of
the people; learn from their great heritage
in orature; and above all, learn from their
great optimism and faith in the capacity of
human beings to remake their world and
renew themselves.
Pulled from:
http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/bitstream/1892/6636/1/b14966918.pdfNgugi:
First it has been the external factor of foreign invasion, occupation, and control, and
second, the internal factor of collaboration with the external threat. Whether under
Western slavery and the slave trade, under colonialism and today under neo-colonialism,
the two factors have interacted to the detriment of our being. The greedy Chief and other
elements bred by the new colonial overlords, collaborated with the main external
imperialist factor. The storm repeats itself, in a more painful way under neo-
colonialism.
Ngugi (2003):
I wrote Weep Not, Child; A River Between; and A Grain of Wheat and published the three novels under the name James Ngugi. James is the name which I acquired when I was baptized into Christianity in primary school, but later I came to reject the name because I Saw it as part of the colonial naming system when Africans were taken as slaves to America and were given the names of the plantation owners. Say, when a slave was bought by Smith, that slave was renamed Smith. This meant that they were the property of Smith or Brown and the same thing was later transferred to the colony. It meant that if an African was baptized, as evidence of his new self or the new identity he was given an English name. Not just a biblical, but a biblical and English name. It was a symbolical replacing of one identity with another. So the person who was once Ngugi is now James Ngugi, the one who was once owned by his people is now owned by the English, the one who was owned by an African naming system is now owned by an English naming system. So when I realized that, I began to reject the name James and to reconnect myself to my African name which was given at birth, and that's Ngugi wa Thiong'o, meaning Ngugi, son of Thiong'o.
http://lbc.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/ngugi_wa_thiong.html