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African literature is shaped by the events and problems of African societies, the commitment
of African writers is so deep that it appears in the themes and languages that change over
time. African literature is the by excellence in echoing its society. As regards postcolonial
African literature, the writings of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o illustrate well this fact mostly in Devil
on the Cross on which this paper is focused; dealing with the post-independence Kenyan
society. This is why an understanding of socio-economic domination and social revolution
in Devil on the Cross is worthwhile. This topic exposes the plight of the workers class and
the political set up in Africa and Ngugi’s fight to liberate Africa from capitalism and
imperialism and local corrupt bourgeoisie to build a society of justice, democracy, equality
and brotherhood.
The political situation in postcolonial Africa is echoed in African literature where
many writers have made of religion, politics and liberation the prevailing themes of works.
It is important to note that the main issue of this corpus is a hotly-debated topic often
analyzed yet rarely effective. The question may be asked: what has literature got to do with
the whole lot of issues that have been raised so far? This question is important if we take
into consideration the views of some writers and critics who insist that literature does not
have any utilitarian value. Some authors such as Bart Difiore in Hybridization of the Bible
blends aspects of both the colonizer and the colonizer’s interpretation of Christian narratives.
In using a familiar text, he spoke to the dispossessed masse of Kenya and spurred a rebellion
to social justice through both a reiteration of Biblical justice and a revolution of the
colonizer’s use of the Bible as an oppressive tool. Another point worth noting is Ben Okri’s
reflection on the theme of dispossession, displacement, colonial and neocolonial domination,
postcolonial corruption, cultural fragmentation and the problematic of postcolonial identity
in Postcolonialism as a reading strategy: The Famished Road. In his article he uses
Postcolonialism as a popular literary theory which mirrors the conditions of postcolonial
societies. This is the case of Andrew Canessa who presents a deep and dramatic change in
the social and the political landscape of Bolivia. Through his writing, A Postcolonial Turn:
Social and Political in the new indigenous order of Bolivia, he provided a critical insight
into how the power wielded in a country where whites have ruled over a majority indigenous
population. Moreover the issue of exploitation and revolution did not escape from Kwame
Nkrumah’s writing through the struggle Continues. The pamphlets in this book reflects the
indomitable spirit of Kwame Nkrumah, the symbol of a fighting Africa. His theoretical work
is a practical guide to revolutionary action. In this same perspective, A M. Babu discussed
in general terms the fate of Africa in The Review of Classes and Class Struggle in Africa.
Basing himself on Marxist theory, he demonstrated that the years of independence in Africa
have proved beyond reasonable doubt that the road Africa has been treading, leads to a blind
alley; no progress has been made economically and socially and Africa is still exploited and
the masse of the people still suffer from unspeakable misery, all this because of the bourgeois ideology of leadership. By Contrast to Luanga A. Kasanga and Mambo Kalume in The Use
of Indigenized Forms of English in Ngugi’s Devil on the Cross: A Linguistic and
Sociolinguistic Analysis, the question of domination and revolution is far from being a
predominant in this article. They examine only the functions of Africanized forms of English
language used in Devil on the Cross in order to prove the argument of a deliberate use of
hybrid language as means of contextualizing the English language in the novel.
These positions differ from our conception of literature. Literature is concerned with
humankind and human life in its entirety. This includes everything that impinges on human
life; it covers every aspect of experience and aspirations, politics inclusive. As a result of
this literary review, it is worth noting that we study a common problem to many writers, the
same chosen audience, and the means of communication, language and political message but
differently assessed.
Consequently, it goes without saying that the question of socio-economic
domination, exploitation, corruption and social revolution are most important in my research
paper. That is why I have selected Ngugi’s Devil on the Cross to focus on the critical aspects
that writers do not often evoked. Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the writer whose works are the subject
of our discussion has demonstrated in his creative and critical works that the writer is a
product of society, and has a responsibility towards it, wherein he unequivocally says in his
prison memoir, Detained that “literature is not …something belonging to a surreal world, or
a metaphysical ethereal plane, something that has nothing to do with man’s more mundane,
prosaic realm of attempting to clothe, shelter and feed himself”. (Devil on the Cross)
These critical writings also help in the debate on the definition of African literature,
because they bring forth the historical connections that make it possible for us to analyze
African literature dealing with the pre-colonial, colonial and neo-colonial phases of African
history. In doing so, I have opted for the theme of exploitation and social revolution to draw
that postcolonial domination through items and text-based justifications to allow an
understanding of the corpus. It is in the context of the latter interpretation that we place
Ngugi’s works as not only discourses on cultural and political decolonization, but also as
works that are in quest of a new socio-economic and political order. Therefore, Devil on the
Cross, despite the fact that it refers to Kenya in particular, depicts situation and problems
that are common to almost all postcolonial African countries.