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events in history as its very subject matter.
Therefore, literature and history assume a similarity in outlook – because of the characteristics of interdependence.
Literature that does not pay attention to history loses its appeal and lustre. This is because this kind of literature is devoid of ideology. We get this interface of history and literature in some of the works by our own Zimbabwean and African writers.
For instance the title of one of Yvonne Vera’s novel, “Nehanda” is as telling as it is informing of this interdependence as the book explores issues of Zimbabwe’s struggles for independence – mirroring the being of a people; who we are as a people – issues of spirituality that gave birth to Zimbabwe.
The book reminds us about Nehanda Nyakasikana and how she became the leading spiritual force for a people trapped in the grime of colonial power, leading to independence.
Thus Nehanda is the heroine behind the successes of the liberation fighters against the colonial regime.
Vera was conscious not to overlook Nehanda in her literature.
By writing about Nehanda, Vera was not merely venerating her through literature. She was essentially touching on the very aspects of history which shape a people.
Vera was in a way creating the stereotype for literature about us – a euphemism – for the best way to approach Zimbabwean literature.
Thus Zimbabwean literature that ignores Nehanda and Kaguvi, but purporting to mirror the experiences of Zimbabwe as a nation is more or less abortive of that purpose and literature’s primary concerns.
Thus history as an account or set of people’s collective ideas about themselves, ideas which transcend to defining their being is important in a writer’s works.
This means literature as a mirror of society and, importantly as a tool for addressing various societal issues should be informed on a people’s history, their way of life and struggles with themselves and nature.
In short this means that the writer as the one breathing life into literature should be aware of the history of the people he is writing about.
It therefore sounds rather misplaced and unusual for a serious African writer to ignore Africa’s struggles against slavery, colonialism and the road to independence and the predictable neo-colonialism as a hold-over of the Western colonial grip on African countries.
Literature that addresses these concerns fits the paradigm of serious literature that is loaded with grenades that explode in the face of a people’s unawareness of various realities, therefore informing, instructing and liberating the people from variants of chains crippling them.
Wellington Gadzikwa comments on his Internet blog page, “A writer cannot be divorced from society and history; he or she ignites and reignites the spirit of his community in history through touching on those events about society, kindling the spirit of a people of itself”.
Many African authors writing deep in colonial times and in the precincts of independence were aware of this rule – hoisting in their creative efforts the pertinent thematic issues of the day.
Their works became book manuals of the time, which also rocketed to latter times as they sought to expose the various channels Western forces pursued in their strangulation of the African continent in the process presenting Africa’s own ways of resistance against these forces, the successes and failures therein.
This sort of literature carried explicit ideological overtones and thus passed the test of serious literature, which communicates powerful messages.
In Ngugi wa Thiongo’s novels, history forms the base of his inquiry and interrogation of society’s experiences.
He is aware of the causes, both primary and secondary of people’s unpleasant experiences which, are invariably linked to colonialism.
He presents two races of people – black and white – in ever-lasting tension and conflict.
It is tension of interests and ideas, which evolved as the black race who was victim arose to refute second class templates with which the white oppressive mechanisms prescribed for them.
So the history pictured here is the history of a people, the history of a race, the history of struggles and importantly of revolution, itself an aspect and truth of life – defining African people as essentially dynamic.
So it is the writer’s understanding of his people that can lead to literature that not only heals the puss infested sore, but instructs on ways to immunise a people from foreign strangulation.
Ngugi is aware that foreign power at even the lowest levels is set in a bigger picture to extinct a people from their land, their being, and essentially from history.
In his critique, Writers In Politics: A re-engagement with issues of literature and society – Ngugi writes, “Colonialism set out to eliminate all images of self created in people’s orature through substitution with European languages”.
Ngugi understands that society is made up of history and culture and this is what informs him to write of the manner in which Europe used language as the first step towards the absolute domination of a people.
Language to Ngugi is a major cog of politics. He understands that language is culture, and that the colonial master sought to use language as a tool in subjugating the African people.
“This is cultural imperialism, a very powerful instrument of oppression since it distorts a people’s vision of their place in history and of their reality of the world and themselves”.
Ngugi endeavours to incorporate the people in their struggles of being.
Therefore the work is strewn with insights of people’s struggles against colonialism. It informs of the effects of Western colonial grip and imperialism as an evil which undermines African people.
The writer identifies himself with the people, and his work takes a somewhat political tenor.
Ngugi is aware that the main problem faced in Africa is not about who holds power but who detects trends and templates for African people.
His understanding of politics goes beyond mere office battles – as he interrogates the Western systems that pervade the African continent as the root cause of Africa’s frailty and continued sustenance by the West’s strangulation.
This takes the form of language politics; politics of culture and identity.
So Ngugi’s work becomes a rallying point for denouncing Western templates which mutilates African culture and values .
What Okot p’Bitek’s diagnoses in Song of Lawino, which presents a picture of an African man struggling against his identity, community and history.
Ocol becomes the villainous antithesis to the concept of blackness and self.
Thus Lawino traduces him through satire, exposing the misuse of European education systems, which were designed to erode the culture of African people and leave them bare.
These systems destroy a people, detaching them from their roots and making them alien to themselves.
Charles Mungoshi pictures this sickening situation through the metaphorical character Lucifer in Waiting for the rain.
Lucifer goes through a negative identity metamorphosis as he is indoctrinated through a Western education system.
Lucifer disowns his family, community and in the process disowns himself too.
The sublimation of indigenous culture via colonial and imperial systems is the major concern for Africa most eminent writers who includes Ngugi, Wole Soyinka, Achebe, p’Bitek a lot more writing during colonial times.
This literature is set to liberate a people from the shackles of colonialism and diffusions and confusions brought by Western prescriptions on culture.
Therefore, literature is a creative articulation of a people’s experiences with themselves and against others.
Our writers should therefore endear themselves with the cycles of history so as to draw meaningful images of society to shape the future through events of the past that remind a people about themselves.
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