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Meja Mwangi began his prolific writing career in the
1970s, a decade after his more well-known compatriots such as
Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Grace Ogot had been publishing their
works. When he burst onto the scene with the award-winning
Kill Me Quick in 1973, Mwangi was hailed in various quarters as
a rising star in the East African literary constellation who was
helping to disprove Taban lo Liyong's oft-cited claim that East
Africa was a literary desert (Taban 1965, Nazareth 1976). Since
then, Meja Mwangi has gone on to establish himself as one of
the most prolific of Kenyan writers, publishing eleven novels in
seventeen years in addition to short stories, children's books
and working with a variety of projects in film. Mwangi's works
have received awards in Kenya and abroad, they have been
translated into six languages, and there are film versions of two
of his novels.
If there is a single writer whose work is representative of the
entire range of Kenyan narrative fiction today, it is Meja Mwangi.
What is common to practically all of Kenyan--indeed, we might
even say African—writing is its major thematic preoccupation with
the dynamics of how tradition and modernity interact in African
society. This thematic preoccupation has led in a number of
directions, of course, with major concerns being the
disintegration of village life following the arrival of the Europeans
in the colonial era, the disequilibrium caused by European formal
education, the torment of the "been-to", the influence of the
missionaries, and in the post-colonial setting the development of
a new African political and economic elite and the dilemmas of life
in the modern African city.
While Mwangi has touched on all of these concerns, we might
divide his work into three major categories. The first comprises
his Mau Mau novels. For many Kenyan writers, the armed
resistance to British colonialism in Kenya, which came to be
known as the Mau Mau revolt and reached its height in the
1950s, was a far-reaching experience. Mwangi has "exhumed
his Mau Mau ghost" in his two novels Carcase for Hounds and
Taste of Death (note). The'thrillers that Mwangi began to write
during the late 1970s and 1980s form a second category of
texts, and have put him at the heart of a raging critical debate in
the Kenyan literary establishment over the merits of serious
versus popular literature. The third category of Mwangian
writing, in fact written before Mwangi began his popular writings,
is that of the urban novel. Mwangi's urban trilogv--Kill Me
Quick. Going Down River Road, and The Cockroach Dance—is
a compelling and innovative set of texts dealing with what is
arguably the most pressing contemporary social problem in
Kenya: the rapid urbanization the country has experienced since
independence in 1963 and its accompanying social problems. It
is fair to say that critical acclaim for Mwangi as a writer has come
predominantly from these tales of city life.
| photo by Heidi Zingg Knöpfli |
| "... i find this novel (The Big Chiefs) a great piece of literature, impressive and despairingly reflecting the realities, despite its ending. I actually virtually saw it as a piece of theatre and could very well imagine it performed on stage. It has a power reminding me of Waiting for Godot". ruedi küng Schweizer Radio DRS |
| Weapon of Hunger is perhaps Meja Mwangi's best book yet. The picture he paints of the relentless quest for modern Africa is grim. What is most depressing, is that there seem to be no solutions. Western philanthropists, such as Jack Rivers, are portrayed in a favourable light as sincere people. All their energies, however, are expended on trying to understand Africa's problems and once they understand them they realise that the problems are beyond them. As for the Africans themselves, they could have provided solutions, but since they are lined up in warring factions, that is impossible. While the two sides fight on to the finish, will million of ordinary people continue to starve to dead? That is the questions which Meja Mwangi asks himself and which he asks the readers of weapon. Lyne Mansure Weekly Review |
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