African Literature

¶ … Devil on the Cross, War? nga exhibits meekness and self-hatred. Her self-loathing prompts her to bleach her black skin and iron her hair. When she interacts with her fellow passengers in the taxi, War? nga lacks the resolve she has following her encounter with the Devil on the golf course immediately prior to the Njeruca revolt. Witnessing the circumstances and listening to the speeches at the Devil's Feast was not enough to spur her on to eventually wield a deadly weapon.

War? nga needed her visions to empower her and awaken her to the injustices of her people and her nation. War? nga kills the Rich Old Man, her fiance's father, for five solid reasons: her conversation with the Devil alerted her to the realities of life; M-turi's call to arms and his entrusting War? nga with the gun; her newfound self-confidence and transformed personality; War? nga's anger at the oppression of women; and her hatred of hypocrisy and determination to find the "third world" suggested by Satan.

The Rich Old Man exemplified evil; this twist at the end of Ng-g?'s novel adds a realistic, albeit pessimistic tone. War? nga experienced her moments of bliss with Gatu-ria before Kenya's realities shattered her happiness. War? nga's conversation with Satan transformed her personality; the Devil led War? nga to the truth. The "voice of the roaming spirit" informed her of the "catechism of slavery," and on the use of religion to make oppression acceptable to the masses.

Ironically, the souls of the robbers and thieves belonged to Satan, but his words instigated War? nga against them. Prior to her vision, War? nga was merely a spectator. She witnessed the gross extravagance and celebration of gluttony at the Feast, but was powerless to act. Her own life had been a sell out, for she had allowed herself to participate in the black-and-white vision of reality than Satan warns her against. The Devil's lecture enlightens War? nga to the possibility of revolt, even a revolt that includes violence.

Violence against the poor is condoned, for the poor are brainwashed into believing that their suffering is divinely ordained. The Devil's pep talk enables War? nga to have more faith in herself and her abilities to affect positive change. Soon after her vision, War? nga and Gatu-ria meet M-turi, who it turns out is a rebel and a key leader in the workers' strike. His words inspire War? nga, even before he entrusts her with his firearm.

For the first time, War? nga feels like a participant and not just an observer: "the voice of a worker was urging them to enter the arena," (p. 205). M-turi hands K-haahu's gun to War? nga and spurns her on: "guns like this should really be in the hands of the workers so they can defend the unity and freedom and wealth of their country," (p. 211). This is the gun she uses on the Rich Old Man, who tempts her into selling her soul at the end of the novel.

By then, War? nga was a changed woman who no longer bleached her skin and who knew how to fight like a man. War? nga's transformation gave her the self-confidence she needed to shoot Mr. G-tahi, Gatu-ria's father. Ng-g? illustrates her changes by her attendance at engineering college and her enrolment in karate classes. Not even her romance with Gatu-ria can undermine her newfound strength; she does not allow weakness and the subjugation of women to interfere with her work.

Despite the fact that the Rich Old Man is her fiance's father, War? nga is confident enough to kill him and stamp out the mark of the devil in Kenyan society. Throughout Devil on the Cross, the oppression of women is a major theme. War? nga epitomizes the subjugated female who loathes her own body and weakens her soul by selling herself to men.

She was repeatedly in trouble for refusing (or accepting) the advances of men in power, and when it turns out that the Rich Old Man with whom she had a child was Gatu-ria's father, War? nga cannot control her disgust. That he entices her with a new life and sexual advances only angers her further, for at this point War? nga was not the weak-willed woman she was at the beginning of the novel. She kills Mr. G-tahi for all women, not just herself.

She frees herself from sexual oppression and tyranny just as she hopes to liberate her people from economic and cultural imperialism. The hypocrisy rampant in the words of the speakers at the Devil's Feast are reflected in the words of the Rich Old Man. His sleaze parallels the sleaze of the robbers and thieves, and in him War? nga sees the epitome of Kenya's.