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| Writing Lively Stories Set in Colonial and Postcolonial Kenya |
by Harriet McGuire
If your students’ knowledge of colonialism in Africa is based on
viewing the 1985 Meryl Streep / Robert Redford film Out of Africa,
consider balancing that view with a story set two generations later,
The Mzungu Boy, by Kenyan author and filmmaker Meja Mwangi.
Originally published in 1990 as Little White Man, The Mzungu Boy was
released in North America in 2005 by Groundwood Books. It is winner
of the 2006 Children’s Africana Book Award for Best Book for Older
Readers, given by the Outreach Council of the African Studies
Association.
Set in the 1950s, The Mzungu Boy portrays life on a colonial
plantation as seen through the eyes of Kariuki, the twelve-year-old
son of the cook for the White planter’s family. This book continues the
story of Kariuki, who was introduced in the children’s novel Jimi the
Dog, and his tender friendship with a village mongrel that his older
brother had presented to him. In The Mzungu Boy, Kariuki describes
the world of his village:
Everything in our village ran according to a hierarchy. Above everyone
were Bwana Ruin, Mamsab Ruin and any white person who happened
to come along. Then came the village men. Then came the women and
girls. And then came the rest of us. The boys and village dogs were at
the bottom of the ladder, below the goats, the sheep and the
chickens. (49)
Kariuki learns to survive in this well ordered world—and even to have
fun. Two outside influences occur that change his life forever: the Mau
Mau men in the forest and Nigel, the grandson of the Ruins who is on
summer vacation from England.
The two become instant friends, unaffected by the racism and
violence that surrounds them. Although the story ends unhappily with
the death of Kariuki’s brother, the theme of the novel is that “hope
and transformation…rest with children like Kariuki and Nigel who are
not corrupted by the violence and hierarchy that govern their lives”
(Khorana 154). Mwangi’s writing is as dramatic and fast-paced as a
screenplay, providing a vivid sense of a rural youth’s life at the time
when the freedom fighters had begun to demand their land and
independence from the British colonists.
Mwangi based the novel on his own experiences of growing up in a
rural area dominated by White settlers.1 Meja Mwangi was born in
Nanyuki, Kenya, in 1948, and was educated at Nanyuki Secondary
School and Kenyatta College.
His first novel, Kill Me Quick, was written in 1973 while he worked as
a sound technician for TV ORTF, a French television station based in
Nairobi. This young adult novel displays Mwangi’s talent for writing
lively stories depicting rural youth and societal problems in Kenya. It
narrates the experiences of Meja and Maina, two youths who have
come to the city with the hope of bettering their lives, confident that
their high school diplomas will lead to success. However, they are
unable to compete for jobs in the city and, ultimately, they resort to
petty theft and crime, and being exploited by employers. Vivian Yenika-
Agbaw, in her article “‘Half Education Is Madness!’: Mwangi’s Teenage
Characters Battle Poverty in a Postcolonial African City,” states that
the novel shows the failure of the educational curriculum in
postcolonial Africa. She writes that it is “a typical story of a dream
deferred because each pays the price of daring to hope for a better
life” (15). Kill Me Quick was also made into a stage play.
Mwangi’s second novel, Carcase for Hounds, was written while he
worked as a film librarian for the British Council in Nairobi. It won the
inaugural Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature and was adapted for a
1981 film set in Nigeria, Cry Freedom, depicting a guerrilla leader’s
fight for national independence against the British colonialists.
These first two successes brought Mwangi a fellowship for the
University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP) for 1975-76.
Reflecting on this transforming experience, he writes:
I was relatively green in the field of creative writing and,
consequently, the experience was staggering. We had a group of
very good, very experienced writers there, and the wealth of
knowledge and experience I gathered from them would only become
clear to me later. Such things as commitment, dedication and
discipline were relatively alien to me and, if truth be told, I wasn’t
sure I wanted to be a writer then, or indeed if I was one. I loved the
process but not the labor. (Email to McGuire)
Two months after joining the International Writing Program at the
University of Iowa, Mwangi quit his job with the British Council and
decided to write full time. Although today he considers that move to
be a big mistake in some ways, he says he has learned a lot from that
mistake, especially the important lesson of just how hard it is to write.
“I am now convinced,” he continues, “I would not have written as
frequently had I not made a commitment. So I have the IWP to thank
for the terrible and the wonderful things” (Email to McGuire).
Upon returning to Kenya, he embarked on producing a steady stream
of novels for children, young adults, and adults, most of them
published by East African Educational Publishers in their PEAK Library
series. Several of these novels are available in the United States
through the partnership that African Books Collective has formed with
Michigan State University Press.2 Some of the notable titles Mwangi
published were Going Down River Road, The Cockroach Dance, The
Bushtrackers, Bread of Sorrow, Weapon for Hunger, Striving for the
Wind, and The Last Plague.
Mwangi’s keen eye for the drama and humor in everyday rural life in
Kenya shines throughout his work. Striving for the Wind, set in the
drought years of the 1980s, contrasts a traditional farmer, who is
dependent on oxen for plowing, with a wealthy neighbor whose
imported tractor is incapacitated during a global petrol crisis. While
this novel is suitable for young adults, it does not shy away from
some painful realities. It includes the seduction of a young schoolgirl
by a rich old man, and when the young girl becomes pregnant, his son
says that he will marry her in his father’s place. The girl eventually
dies in childbirth, but her twins will be raised by the parents.
If your students’ knowledge of colonialism in Africa is based on
viewing the 1985 Meryl Streep / Robert Redford film Out of Africa,
consider balancing that view with a story set two generations later,
The Mzungu Boy, by Kenyan author and filmmaker Meja Mwangi.
Originally published in 1990 as Little White Man, The Mzungu Boy was
released in North America in 2005 by Groundwood Books. It is winner
of the 2006 Children’s Africana Book Award for Best Book for Older
Readers, given by the Outreach Council of the African Studies
Association.
Set in the 1950s, The Mzungu Boy portrays life on a colonial
plantation as seen through the eyes of Kariuki, the twelve-year-old
son of the cook for the White planter’s family. This book continues the
story of Kariuki, who was introduced in the children’s novel Jimi the
Dog, and his tender friendship with a village mongrel that his older
brother had presented to him. In The Mzungu Boy, Kariuki describes
the world of his village:
Everything in our village ran according to a hierarchy. Above everyone
were Bwana Ruin, Mamsab Ruin and any white person who happened
to come along. Then came the village men. Then came the women and
girls. And then came the rest of us. The boys and village dogs were at
the bottom of the ladder, below the goats, the sheep and the
chickens. (49)
Kariuki learns to survive in this well ordered world—and even to have
fun. Two outside influences occur that change his life forever: the Mau
Mau men in the forest and Nigel, the grandson of the Ruins who is on
summer vacation from England.
The two become instant friends, unaffected by the racism and
violence that surrounds them. Although the story ends unhappily with
the death of Kariuki’s brother, the theme of the novel is that “hope
and transformation…rest with children like Kariuki and Nigel who are
not corrupted by the violence and hierarchy that govern their lives”
(Khorana 154). Mwangi’s writing is as dramatic and fast-paced as a
screenplay, providing a vivid sense of a rural youth’s life at the time
when the freedom fighters had begun to demand their land and
independence from the British colonists.
Mwangi based the novel on his own experiences of growing up in a
rural area dominated by White settlers.1 Meja Mwangi was born in
Nanyuki, Kenya, in 1948, and was educated at Nanyuki Secondary
School and Kenyatta College.
His first novel, Kill Me Quick, was written in 1973 while he worked as
a sound technician for TV ORTF, a French television station based in
Nairobi. This young adult novel displays Mwangi’s talent for writing
lively stories depicting rural youth and societal problems in Kenya. It
narrates the experiences of Meja and Maina, two youths who have
come to the city with the hope of bettering their lives, confident that
their high school diplomas will lead to success. However, they are
unable to compete for jobs in the city and, ultimately, they resort to
petty theft and crime, and being exploited by employers. Vivian Yenika-
Agbaw, in her article “‘Half Education Is Madness!’: Mwangi’s Teenage
Characters Battle Poverty in a Postcolonial African City,” states that
the novel shows the failure of the educational curriculum in
postcolonial Africa. She writes that it is “a typical story of a dream
deferred because each pays the price of daring to hope for a better
life” (15). Kill Me Quick was also made into a stage play.
Mwangi’s second novel, Carcase for Hounds, was written while he
worked as a film librarian for the British Council in Nairobi. It won the
inaugural Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature and was adapted for a
1981 film set in Nigeria, Cry Freedom, depicting a guerrilla leader’s
fight for national independence against the British colonialists.
These first two successes brought Mwangi a fellowship for the
University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP) for 1975-76.
Reflecting on this transforming experience, he writes:
I was relatively green in the field of creative writing and,
consequently, the experience was staggering. We had a group of
very good, very experienced writers there, and the wealth of
knowledge and experience I gathered from them would only become
clear to me later. Such things as commitment, dedication and
discipline were relatively alien to me and, if truth be told, I wasn’t
sure I wanted to be a writer then, or indeed if I was one. I loved the
process but not the labor. (Email to McGuire)
Two months after joining the International Writing Program at the
University of Iowa, Mwangi quit his job with the British Council and
decided to write full time. Although today he considers that move to
be a big mistake in some ways, he says he has learned a lot from that
mistake, especially the important lesson of just how hard it is to write.
“I am now convinced,” he continues, “I would not have written as
frequently had I not made a commitment. So I have the IWP to thank
for the terrible and the wonderful things” (Email to McGuire).
Upon returning to Kenya, he embarked on producing a steady stream
of novels for children, young adults, and adults, most of them
published by East African Educational Publishers in their PEAK Library
series. Several of these novels are available in the United States
through the partnership that African Books Collective has formed with
Michigan State University Press.2 Some of the notable titles Mwangi
published were Going Down River Road, The Cockroach Dance, The
Bushtrackers, Bread of Sorrow, Weapon for Hunger, Striving for the
Wind, and The Last Plague.
Mwangi’s keen eye for the drama and humor in everyday rural life in
Kenya shines throughout his work. Striving for the Wind, set in the
drought years of the 1980s, contrasts a traditional farmer, who is
dependent on oxen for plowing, with a wealthy neighbor whose
imported tractor is incapacitated during a global petrol crisis. While
this novel is suitable for young adults, it does not shy away from
some painful realities. It includes the seduction of a young schoolgirl
by a rich old man, and when the young girl becomes pregnant, his son
says that he will marry her in his father’s place. The girl eventually
dies in childbirth, but her twins will be raised by the parents.
Other themes that are common to all his works are the
difficulties young educated Kenyans face when trying to
return to their rural homes to apply their learning and the
impact of corrupt officials on the lives of the poor. The
young adult novel The Last Plague, which won Mwangi
his third Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2001, offers
a seldom-heard African male perspective on the impact of
HIV/AIDS in rural areas. Again, it features a well-
educated, well-meaning young man facing many
obstacles as he tries to set up his veterinary practice in a
small, dying town. A teenage boy is among the
enlightened, promoting condoms for school children.
Mwangi’s tremendous concern for the poor and
disadvantaged—and his prescriptions for how they could
really be helped—resonate throughout the novel. The
author’s special talent for creating hilarious action scenes
begs for an opportunity to translate this story into film.
While continuing to write, he also became involved with
filmmaking in various capacities, eventually directing one
documentary and one television series. He participated in
Sidney Pollack’s Kenyan production of Out of Africa as
third Assistant Director, coordinating the Kikuyu extras.
According to Mwangi, he “was very, very far behind the
camera…but I enjoyed it as a great experience, and it
raised my interest in filmmaking” (Email to McGuire).
Adaptations of his works for television broadcast as
miniseries or as films have been proposed, but are still
awaiting production due to lack of funding.
Mwangi continues to be a prolific writer. His latest novel,
The Boy Gift, will be released in North America toward the
end of 2006. Suitable for adults and young adults alike, it
is about the confusion caused by the birth of a light-
skinned, green-eyed baby in the Bush Hospital. While
political aspirations and intrigue surround the birth of the
boy, at the emotional and psychological levels the author
explores a community’s reaction to the strange and
inexplicable “Other.” Mwangi is currently revising a 1990
novel, The Return of Shaka, which was inspired by his
friendship with a South African artist at the University of
Iowa.
The Mzungu Boy, this year’s CABA winner, is an
important book for young teenagers who want to
understand how the colonial system impacted on the
lives of rural youth in Kenya. Readers interested in
fast-paced stories that impart considerable information
on contemporary obstacles to rural development and
healthcare are encouraged to continue reading the
impressive list of novels published by Meja Mwangi.
Meanwhile, one hopes that these delightful stories,
with wonderfully complex male and female characters
of all ages, will sooner or later make their way into
film.
Notes
1. Information on the author’s personal life is based
on Meja Mwangi’s email to Harriet McGuire, 25 Sept. 2006.
2. See ,www.AfricanBooksCollective.com. and order
via <www.msupress.msu.edu>, or contact Justin Cox, the
Manager of African Books Collective North America, at
<coxju@msu.edu>.
Works Cited
Khorana, Meena. Africa in Literature for Children and
Young Adults: An Annotated
Bibliography of English-Language Books. Westport, CT:
Greenwood, 1994.
Mwangi, Meja. The Boy Gift. Columbus, OH: HM Books,
Forthcoming.
---. Mama Dudu, Columbus, OH, HM Books, 2007
---. Bread of Sorrow. Nairobi, Longman Kenya, 1980.
---. The Bushtrackers. Nairobi, Longman Kenya 1980.
---. Carcase for Hounds. London, Heinemann Educational
Publishers 1974.
---. The Cockroach Dance. Nairobi, Longman Kenya1979.
---. Email to Harriet McGuire. 25 Sept. 2006.
---. Going Down River Road. London, Heinemann
Educational Publishers, 1976.
---. Interview with Harriet McGuire. 7 Sept. 2006.
---. Jimi the Dog. Nairobi, Longman Kenya, 1990.
---. Kill Me Quick. London: Heinemann, 1973.
---. The Last Plague. Nairobi, Kenya: East African
Educational, 2000.
---. Little White Man. Nairobi, Kenya: Longman, 1990.
---. The Mzungu Boy. Toronto: Groundwood Books /
House of Anansi Press, 2005.
---. Striving for the Wind. Nairobi: East African
Educational, 1990.
---. Weapon for Hunger. Nairtobi, Longman Kenya, 1989.
Yenika-Agbaw, Vivian. “‘Half Education Is Madness!’:
Mwangi’s Teenage Characters
Battle Poverty in a Postcolonial African City.” Sankofa 2
(2003): 13-19.
Harriet McGuire is a retired US Foreign Service Officer with
fifteen years’ experience living in six African countries.
She serves on advisory boards for Africa Access, Mbari:
The Institute for Contemporary African Art, and the
Warren Robbins Library at the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of African Art.
difficulties young educated Kenyans face when trying to
return to their rural homes to apply their learning and the
impact of corrupt officials on the lives of the poor. The
young adult novel The Last Plague, which won Mwangi
his third Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2001, offers
a seldom-heard African male perspective on the impact of
HIV/AIDS in rural areas. Again, it features a well-
educated, well-meaning young man facing many
obstacles as he tries to set up his veterinary practice in a
small, dying town. A teenage boy is among the
enlightened, promoting condoms for school children.
Mwangi’s tremendous concern for the poor and
disadvantaged—and his prescriptions for how they could
really be helped—resonate throughout the novel. The
author’s special talent for creating hilarious action scenes
begs for an opportunity to translate this story into film.
While continuing to write, he also became involved with
filmmaking in various capacities, eventually directing one
documentary and one television series. He participated in
Sidney Pollack’s Kenyan production of Out of Africa as
third Assistant Director, coordinating the Kikuyu extras.
According to Mwangi, he “was very, very far behind the
camera…but I enjoyed it as a great experience, and it
raised my interest in filmmaking” (Email to McGuire).
Adaptations of his works for television broadcast as
miniseries or as films have been proposed, but are still
awaiting production due to lack of funding.
Mwangi continues to be a prolific writer. His latest novel,
The Boy Gift, will be released in North America toward the
end of 2006. Suitable for adults and young adults alike, it
is about the confusion caused by the birth of a light-
skinned, green-eyed baby in the Bush Hospital. While
political aspirations and intrigue surround the birth of the
boy, at the emotional and psychological levels the author
explores a community’s reaction to the strange and
inexplicable “Other.” Mwangi is currently revising a 1990
novel, The Return of Shaka, which was inspired by his
friendship with a South African artist at the University of
Iowa.
The Mzungu Boy, this year’s CABA winner, is an
important book for young teenagers who want to
understand how the colonial system impacted on the
lives of rural youth in Kenya. Readers interested in
fast-paced stories that impart considerable information
on contemporary obstacles to rural development and
healthcare are encouraged to continue reading the
impressive list of novels published by Meja Mwangi.
Meanwhile, one hopes that these delightful stories,
with wonderfully complex male and female characters
of all ages, will sooner or later make their way into
film.
Notes
1. Information on the author’s personal life is based
on Meja Mwangi’s email to Harriet McGuire, 25 Sept. 2006.
2. See ,www.AfricanBooksCollective.com. and order
via <www.msupress.msu.edu>, or contact Justin Cox, the
Manager of African Books Collective North America, at
<coxju@msu.edu>.
Works Cited
Khorana, Meena. Africa in Literature for Children and
Young Adults: An Annotated
Bibliography of English-Language Books. Westport, CT:
Greenwood, 1994.
Mwangi, Meja. The Boy Gift. Columbus, OH: HM Books,
Forthcoming.
---. Mama Dudu, Columbus, OH, HM Books, 2007
---. Bread of Sorrow. Nairobi, Longman Kenya, 1980.
---. The Bushtrackers. Nairobi, Longman Kenya 1980.
---. Carcase for Hounds. London, Heinemann Educational
Publishers 1974.
---. The Cockroach Dance. Nairobi, Longman Kenya1979.
---. Email to Harriet McGuire. 25 Sept. 2006.
---. Going Down River Road. London, Heinemann
Educational Publishers, 1976.
---. Interview with Harriet McGuire. 7 Sept. 2006.
---. Jimi the Dog. Nairobi, Longman Kenya, 1990.
---. Kill Me Quick. London: Heinemann, 1973.
---. The Last Plague. Nairobi, Kenya: East African
Educational, 2000.
---. Little White Man. Nairobi, Kenya: Longman, 1990.
---. The Mzungu Boy. Toronto: Groundwood Books /
House of Anansi Press, 2005.
---. Striving for the Wind. Nairobi: East African
Educational, 1990.
---. Weapon for Hunger. Nairtobi, Longman Kenya, 1989.
Yenika-Agbaw, Vivian. “‘Half Education Is Madness!’:
Mwangi’s Teenage Characters
Battle Poverty in a Postcolonial African City.” Sankofa 2
(2003): 13-19.
Harriet McGuire is a retired US Foreign Service Officer with
fifteen years’ experience living in six African countries.
She serves on advisory boards for Africa Access, Mbari:
The Institute for Contemporary African Art, and the
Warren Robbins Library at the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of African Art.
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The Mzungu Boy
