NGUGI’S DISILLUSIONMENT OF RELIGION IN DEVIL ON THE CROSS

edeejosh (47)in #writing • 6 years ago

ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the disillusioned of religion by Ngugi Wa Thiongo who was a revolutionary in the area of fighting for the rights and privileges of the masses in the Kenyan society. Ngugi used Christianity as a religion in order to set a clear picture in the minds of his readers because the issue of colonialism by the white brought into the Kenyan society corruption, so therefore, there was need to do away with white or Europeans and their loyalist slaves who were the capitalist.
INTRODUCTION
Devil on the Cross a classic indictment of neocolonialism and corruption in Kenya, first published in Gikuyu Language in 1980 and then in English in 1982. The text is set against the backdrop of the post colonial era in Kenya. Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Devil on the Cross depicts irony at its peak-with the devil on the cross instead of Jesus. The text is written entirely in Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Gikuyu language after he declared he would no longer write in English, the book is a critical examination of Kenyan society. Deeply allegorical, it was written allegedly on toilet paper, while the author was detained in prison.
Through the characters of Wangari, Wariinga, Gatuiria, Mwaura and Muturi, Mwireri, Ngugi explores various issues or themes including;
• Neocolonialism and corruption
• Religious hypocrisy and sexual harassment
• Patriotism and state of enlightenment
Ngugi Wa Thiongo is believed to be a Marxist writer because of the revolutionary spirit he has in advocating for the ownership of resources by the workers not the capitalist or the colonialist. Ngugi dedicated his novel “to all Kenyans struggling against neocolonialism of imperialism”. This work is set to carry out a discussion on Ngugi’s disillusionment of religion in Devil on the Cross.
DEFINITION OF TERMS

Disillusionment: Disillusionment is seen as the state of being disillusioned.
Disillusioned: disillusioned means disappointed because the person you admired or the idea you believed to be good and true now seems without value. (Synonym: Disenchanted).
Religion: Religion is a system of beliefs in a god or gods that has its own ceremonies and traditions.
The disillusionment of religion by Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s “Devil on the Cross” is characterized by the use of diction, irony and other figures of speech but in the course of this work, we are looking at how religion was disillusioned by the writer. The issues raised in the introductory part of this work will dully be explained below:

NEOCOLONIALISM AND CORRUPTION
Exploration of the Kenyan people by the white, who are the westerners. The Kenyan people were deprived of their rights and privileges as citizens of their land by the westerners (white) who colonized them. Ngugi who was conscious of what was happening decided to speak for his people. The effort of Ngugi placed him in the prison where he had the chance to write this book to make visible the devils “act to people in disguise” pg 13:4. The whites (Europeans) are known to be the people exploring Africa as written by Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. According to the writer, Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s theft and robbery made possible the development of the western world.
RELIGIOUS HYPOCRISY AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT
In this text, Ngugi viewed and related Christianity to the daily activities of the Kenyan people such that the Bible was quoted into the text just to give a clear picture of what the society was. In quoting the Bible, it was seen that there were a lot of challenges even to those who think that they are Christians. To see such challenges, this paper looks into the life of a character called Boss Kihara who calls himself an elder and member of the committee that runs the church of heaven but still engage himself in a sexual attempt. Based on the story as narrated by Wariinga the major character in the text, Boss Kihara was trying to take advantage of Karrendi because she was after a job in his firm or company and the only way for her to get employed is to have sex with Boss Kihara “the modern love bar and lodging has become the main employment bureau for girls, and women’s thighs are the tables on which contracts are signed” pg. 19, paragraph 2.
It is believed that Christianity as the case may be that abstinence from ungodly sex is a way one can keep himself pure from sin but it is not as in the case of Boss Kihara who claims to be a committee member that runs the church of heaven. It is an issue of concern that some people uses Christianity as a platform for their wicked acts in order to hide themselves from the anger of the society. “Aren’t you a member of the church of heaven? Do you ever read the bible? When you go home, read Romans chapter xiii, line fourteen: ‘Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof… Pg 23:2 Karindi was trying to challenge Boss Kikara on why he want to have sex with her, telling him or reminding him that he is a Christian and advising him to read the Bible.
Boss Kihara wanted his way which was to have sex with Karindi; “But in the same book it is written: “Ask, it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for everyone that asketh recieveth, and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened…” This shows clearly that even though Boss Kihara knew that what Kareendi was saying is right, he still wanted to use his Christianity manipulating concepts to convince her into having sex with him for a job.
THE MODERN THEFT AND RUBBERY
In the text, this was used as the title for the devils feast that took place in Ilmorog arranged by the organization for modern theft and rubbery to commemorate a visit by foreign guest from an organization for the thieves and rubbers of the western world-particularly America, England, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Japan called the international organization of thieves and rubbers.
In respect to this, one of the characters who stood as an angel of the devil or a loyal slave to the devil was strongly in support of what the Europeans were doing despite he was a citizen of Kenya. The reason is that Mwireri Wa Mukiraai was also among those people whom the Europeans were using to continue exploring Kenya. “This feast is not a devils feast, and it has not been organized by Satan” (pg 78:2). In trying to keep himself from the watch eyes of others, he was explaining that the people in the society can never be the same by saying “just look at God’s heaven. God sits on the throne. On his right side stands his only son, on his left side, the Holy Spirit. At his feet the angels sit. At the feet of the angels sit the saints. At the feet of the saints at all the disciples and so on one rank standing below another” (pg 78:4). Mwireri Wa Mukiraari was telling the people that no matter what they do, the Europeans stands as the superior and the god’s of their land because they were in possession of all the affairs of the Kenyan society.
PATRIOTISM AND STAGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
The stage of enlightenment and patriotism was that moment when Kenyans understood the devil and their problem was with them, so they needed to confront the devil. In reference to the, “the devil, who would lead us into the blindness of the heart and into the deafness of the mind should be crucified and care should be taken that his acolytes do not lift him down from the cross to pursue the task of building hell for people on earth” (pg 1:5). The need for the devil to be crucified came on board because the people were getting more enlighten on what the devil (Europeans) and their indigenous slaves were doing to them as a nation.
In order for the devil (Europeans) to escape the shame that will befall him, he decided to take another dimension in corrupting and colonizing the Kenyan society “for the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods and unto one he gave five talent, unto another two and to another one” (pg 81:6)
This master is seen as the Europeans who ironically are known as the devil on the cross. The Europeans who were known as capitalist and imperialist decided to change their ways of manipulating and corrupting the Kenyan society by given some of the blacks who were the loyalist charge over their property just to disguise themselves from the “nationalist guerillas” (pg 82:3)
One of those who fought for Kenyans freedom in the text was Wangari who happened to be one of the “nationalist guerillas” (pg 83:3) sang a song “come one and all and behold the wonderful sight of us chasing away the devil and his disciples! Come one and all” (pg 93:3). Wanagari in this case was been patriotic by calling on all the citizens to come and fight the devil and his disciples.
A protest came up when one of the servants that was given 100,000 shillings stepped forward and told his master “you, Lord and Master, member of the white race, I have discovered your tricks! I have also discovered your real name, Imperialist, that’s your real name and you are a cruel master” (pg 84:4). This very part of the passage is simply showing how patriotic some people in Kenya were because they have come to realize that the Europeans were after the resources in their lands.

CONCLUSION
There are issues as much as one can count but this very work is particularly looking at where religion was used to give a better understanding on the problems that was confronting the Kenyans. Ngugi himself was silenced because he was against corruption and the way the white were treating his people as if God has made them superior over the blacks.

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