응구기 와 시옹오의 「마티가리」―포스트식민성과 주변부의 보편성

Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari ― Postcoloniality and Universality of the Periphery

‘ Decentralization’ is the motto of Ngugi’s political and cultural agenda. He defines the Western culture and the Kenyan neo-colonial ruling elite as having been ‘the center’ dominating the modern Kenya. As a result, the predicament of postcoloniality prevails among the African neo-colonial nations. To expose and overcome the universal conditions of postcoloniality, Ngugi begins to write his later novels, on the one hand in the native Gikuyu language and on the other hand in the allegorical narrative. He believes that his works will rehabilitate the marginalized people and restore the African national culture against the Western one. In this aesthetic strategy, Matigari became a kind of new African classic, different from those of Achebe, S oyinka, and even Ngugi’s earlier English novels.