Debating Socio-Cultural Identity: Spaces of Negotiation in Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat

Abstract

Set in the wake of the ‘Mau Mau’ rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya’s independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952-1960 Emergency. At the centre of this novel is the reticent Mugo, the village’s chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret.