It was nice to read The Trial of Dedan Kimathi to get an idea of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s style as a playwright. Even though it is a collaboratively written play, I can still see strong elements of Ngũgĩ’s arguments that he makes in Decolonising the Mind and Something Torn and New. During Dedan Kimathi’s third trial, his argument with the Politician indicates the persuasiveness of arguments made to support colonialist policies made by Kenyan leaders. Despite being Kenyan, these leaders still advocate for policies that are ultimately harmful to the country as a whole and beneficial to the elite few. He delivers a scathing rebuttal to the Politicians request that they work together to be “given” independence. He says: “Partners in Progress. Towards what end? What will you do to the widows, orphans, the labouring millions? New masters. We labor for you, pick coffee and tea for you. Is that why poor men died and continue to die in the forests?” (47).
Through the character of the politician, the playwrights demonstrate the pervasiveness of European education which influenced highly educated Kenyans to adopt colonial understandings of African people and their own country. These leaders become the neocolonial face of Europe, maintaining oppressive government structures even after the country gains independence.
A particularly striking scene in the play occurs in the Second Movement when Kimathi is beaten and tortured in prison. Instead of watching the beating, the audience only hears the sounds of the violence while they watch actors mime “black history” (56). The stage notes clarify that “there should be as much harmony between the action on the visible stage and the goings on in the torture chamber” as possible (56). By shoring up the scenes of the torture and miming of black history, the playwrights are placing Kimathi’s imprisonment and torture within the greater narrative of black history, emphasising the interconnectedness of his story with history as they do many times throughout the play. While the play depicts the story of Kimathi’s trial, it provides much wider views of how peasants and resistance fighters are participating in an interconnected resistance struggle, both on the individual and collective level. These activities, while they may seem separate in the play, all come together at the end as the resistance members unite in song and become the central focus of the final scene. Kimathis is no longer in focus, but the unified group end in a freedom song, an image that could be related to by many resistance groups across the country.
Works Cited
Mugo, Micere Githae and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. The Trial of Dedan Kimathi. RevSocialist, 1976, https://www.dkut.ac.ke/downloads/The%20Trial%20of%20Dedan%20Kimathi%20-%20Ngugi%20wa%20Thiong’o.pdf.
