A Grain of Wheat is a novel by Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o. The novel weaves several stories together during the state of emergency in Kenya’s struggle for independence (1952–1959), focusing on the quiet Mugo, whose life is ruled by a dark secret. The plot revolves around his home village’s preparations for Kenya’s independence day celebration (Uhuru day).
Former resistance fighters General R and Koinandu plan on publicly executing the traitor who betrayed Kihika (a heroic resistance fighter hailing from the village) on that day.
First of all, Ngugi use many characters to express the aim of the story as an African man the protagonist of this story is the loner Mugo, a hero of the British concentration camps where he led a hunger strike and he also tried to stop a village guard from beating a pregnant woman to death. Although he is thought to be a hero through the whole book, he is the traitor of Kihika betraying him to the British in a selfish act to save himself.
Also Gikonyo, an ambitious carpenter and business man who’s married to Mumbi. He confessed to taking the oath of the resistance while in a concentration camp, securing an early release only to find that his wife had borne a child with his hated rival Karanja while he was away. another character is Mumbi, the wife of Gikonyo and sister of Kihika. While Gikonyo was imprisoned she slept with Karanja who had been appointed village chief by the colonial power.
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Also, Karanja, a collaborator with the British and widely suspected to be the traitor who betrayed Kihika. In addition toKihika, a resistance fighter who conquered a police station and killed the hated District Officer Robson before being caught and hanged after being betrayed by Mugo. and John Thompson, an early British settler and administrator of Thabai, who believes in the ideals of colonial imperialism and persecutes black Africans. A Grain of Wheat is about the events that lead up to the Kenyan independence, or Uruhu.
The setting is a Kenyan village. When the characters Gikonyo and Mumbi get married, are in love and just started their lives, Gikonyo is sent to detention. When he comes back after six years, Mumbi had his rival’s child. They cannot find the words to talk about the past, and a wall is created between them. Mumbi’s brother gets captured and hanged and after loads of events, the town realize that the one they thought to be the hero, was actually the betrayer.
