The Rhetoric & Caricature of Social Justice in Post-1960 Africa: A Logical Positivist Reading of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Matigari

Summary

Most literary pundits agree that a literary work is not created ex nihilo. In other words, it is a reflection of a particular society in space and time. The writer’s immediate socio-political context is regarded as the material cause of the text since the raw material for his literary productivity comes from his society. Diana Laurenson and Alan Swingewood, in The Sociology of Literature, write: ‘Literature, because it delineates man’s anxieties, hopes, and aspirations, is perhaps one of the most effective sociological barometers of the human response to social forces’ (1971: 17).

This mimetic capacity of literature is the source of the debate on the role of the writer in African literature, in particular and post-colonial literature in general. Established African writers and critics such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka have argued that the African writer should play a functional role in his society; he should be the voice of the voiceless and the visionary of his time. Wole Soyinka, in ‘The Writer in a Modern African State’ contends thus: ‘[...] the time has now come when the African writer must have the courage to determine what alone can be salvaged from the recurrent cycle of human stupidity’ (1969: 19). The African writer, according to Soyinka, should perform the role of the gadfly of his society and also a compass to show the society which direction to go in. In other words, he should be the harbinger of truth and a firebrand crusader against social injustice and all forms of exploitation of his people. This justifies Soyinka’s argument that ‘When the writer in his own society can no longer function as conscience, he must recognise that his choice lies between denying himself or withdrawing to the position of a chronicler or postmortem surgeon’ (19-20).

This article seeks to carry out a critical discourse of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Matigari to show that post-colonial writers are in a constant search for justice and socio-political equality in their different socio-political contexts. The article, therefore, justifies the premise that nation-building and national harmony in post-colonial societies are impossible without conscious policies laid down by the ruling political elite to institute justice and equality in their political and juridical societies.