모호하거나 충돌하는 마우마우의 재현

Vague or Conflicting Representations of Mau Mau: Ngũgĩ’s Weep Not, Child and Mwangi’s The Mzungu Boy

Mau Mau uprising against British colonial rule has been represented by many writers with different standpoints. The leading writer is Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o who has told Mau Mau’s stories in almost every work and has critically explained the realities and problems of the colonial and the post-colonial regime through the stories. Another Mau Mau writer is Meja Mwangi who called the next Ngũgĩ and has recently come into focus in the Kenyan literary world. This paper firstly reviews and compares Ngũgĩ’s Weep Not, Child and Mwangi’s The Mzungu Boy to check how their representations of Mau Mau are accurate. Through the review and comparison, this paper also shows what particular tendencies are noticed in Mwangi’s novel and how it is different from Ngũgĩ’s novel. And then analyzing the vague or conflicting representations of Mau Mau in their novels, the paper examines both positive and negative sides, and confirms what perspectives are necessary to estimate justly Mau Mau rising.