The figure of the martyr in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s short fiction

Abstract

In many ways, Ngũgĩ‘s collection Secret Lives and Other Stories (1975) foreshadows his latternovels and their thematic preoccupations as it portrays colonial encounters and social and political upheavals in (post)colonial Kenya. The paper focuses primarily on selected stories included in the second section of the collection which revolve around the theme of fighters and martyrs. Ngũgĩ‘s adoption of Christian imagery, on which he relies quite heavily in his novels as well, enables him to articulate the ambivalent position and conflicts of his characters, both African and European. The motif of martyrdom is associated both with the clashing worlds of Christianity and the Gikuyu religion (addressing primarily the subject of conversion), and the Mau Mau revolt which inevitably required communal sacrifices. The paper ponders on the various modifications of the motif and its potential functions.