African Literature

¶ … Letter," by Mariama Ba, "Devil on the Cross," by Ngug" wa Thiongo, and "July's People," by Nadine Gordimer. Specifically, it will discuss and explain gender and family in "So Long a Letter," the aspects of Colonialism and Imperialism in "Devil on the Cross," and cultural freedom and integrity in "July's People." THREE AFRICAN NOVELS In "So Long a Letter," Mariama Ba writes of Ramatoulaye, a Senegalese schoolteacher in her 50s, whose husband decides to take a second wife without Ramatoulaye's knowledge.

Of course, the new wife is younger and prettier than Ramatoulaye, and her husband's selfish move devastates her. The book is written in the form of a touching and emotional letter to her best friend from childhood, someone she feels she can trust. "We walked the same paths from adolescence to maturity, where the past begets the present" (Ba 1). Family and gender are two of the most important issues in "So Long a Letter." Ramatoulaye married her husband for love, and they had a happy marriage, eventually having twelve children.

She thought her position was secure, and did not even know her husband had taken another wife until a group of friends told her. She recognizes her family is never going to be the same, but she chooses to remain in the marriage to keep the family together as much as possible. She chooses to stay married to her husband, but she is bitter and hurt. "In loving someone else, he burned his past, both morally and materially. He dared to commit such an act of disavowal" (Ba 12).

Her family has been irrevocably broken, along with her heart, and she writes out her pain and longing to her friend. In Africa, it is acceptable for the man to take another wife, but not for the woman. Here is the clear issue of gender out in the open, for the men have more freedom than the women, and the women have little power to stop it. Ba shows the unfairness of the situation, and hopes her writing can help change it.

Devil on the Cross" author Thiongo attacks the problems of Colonialism and Imperialism in Kenya head on. We all come from the same womb, the common womb of Kenya. The blood shed for our freedom has washed away the differences between that clan and this one. Today there is no Luo, Gikuyu, Kamba, Giriama, Luhya, Maasai, Meru, Kalenjin or Turkana. We are all children of one mother. Our mother is Kenya, the mother of all Kenyan people (Thiongo 234-235).

Thiongo portrays Kenya as in the clutches of "Euro-American conglomerates behind the scenes determining the politico economic destiny of Kenya as a nation" (Mazrui 223). Ever since the country was colonized by Europeans in the 1800s, they have been under white mans rule, and the people are fighting for their freedom, and for their independence from this colonial rule. This book follows Kenya's struggle to emerge from Colonialism, and follows the protagonist, Jacinta Wariinga, through her trials in postcolonial Nairobi.

The white culture is still so indoctrinated she cannot see her own beauty, and tries to make herself look more white, to look more attractive. "Whenever she looked at herself in the mirror she thought herself very ugly" (Thiongo 11). Even though Kenya has gained her freedom, her troubles are not over, for the white man's influence is everywhere, and permeates life in the country.

Thiongo tries to show the folly of this with his work, and hopes that Kenya can survive and thrive in her freedom from the rule of others. Early in the book, Thiongo says, "Happy is the man who is able to discern the pitfalls in his path, for he can avoid them" (Thiongo 7). This is also his hope for Kenya, as they throw off their past, and head toward their future.

Of course, the path has been filled with pitfalls, but the people of Kenya, like Wariinga, stride toward the future confidently. Like "Devil on the Cross," "July's People" is also concerned with freedom, but the freedom of culture and integrity that is so difficult to find in South Africa.

The people may have won their freedom from oppression, but they are still fighting for true equality, and that is the central theme of this novel, but roles are reversed, it is the white people who are losing their rights and belongings to the natives, and it is difficult for them. They eventually have to learn a new life from the people they had initially taught. "This white woman who had to be taught" (Gordimer 131).

It is the responsibility of the blacks to make a new life, and even create a new language they can understand and relate to. "Gordimer makes it clear that the black majority must create the new 'words that would make the truth that must be forming here, out of the blacks, out of themselves' (127)" (Folks 121). Before this, their worlds were vastly different, and Gordimer is trying to show the difficulties of merging two cultures that have been so intensely interdependent for so long.

The black July and the white Maureen try to come to some understanding during this trying time, but there is always something between them - their color.