Waiyaki's task in the novel is actually to negotiate the gap that separates the pre-colonial world from the colonial one, to imagine a national space between a dying "tribal" culture and an alienating colonialisim. As an adult, his quest for a narrative in which the ancient prophecy can be translated into modernity and the culture of colonialism can be harnessed to the service of tradition. Waiyaki's crisis of identity is generated by his location at the intersection of Gikuyu traditions and colonial culture. In this sense he is a victim of cultural hybridity and crisis." (61) Another form of ambivalence in the novel appears in the character of Muthoni. Through representing Muthoni's conflict, Ngugi shows his ability to project the different forms of cultural hybridity. Just as Waiyaki adopts traditionalist values and tries to mingle them with elements of Christianity, Muthoni performs the same job in reverse; she is Christianized but her new faith does not stop her from being attached to her tribe. She demonstrates another form of cultural hybridity through importing a Gikuyu tradition to her newly embraced religion. She justifies her doing saying that: "I am a Christian and my father and mother have followed the new faith. I have not run away from that. But I also want to be initiated into the ways of the tribe" (Ngugi 43). In her eyes, there is no contradiction in such an act; on the contrary, this act is what gives her an identity to which she can hold on firmly. Muthoni is an instance of what Homi Bhabha calls a colonial mimic figure. As is well known, Bhabha defines the concept of colonial mimicry as "a reformed recognizable Other, as a subject of difference that is almost the same but not quite", he adds that "in order to be effective, mimicry must continually produce its slippage, its excess, its difference" (Bhabha 86). Muthoni's difference or slippage is her insistence to be circumcised against the
Waiyaki's task in the novel is actually to negotiate the gap that separates the pre-colonial world from the colonial one, to imagine a national space between a dying "tribal" culture and an alienating colonialisim. As an adult, his quest for a narrative in which the ancient prophecy can be translated into modernity and the culture of colonialism can be harnessed to the service of tradition. Waiyaki's crisis of identity is generated by his location at the intersection of Gikuyu traditions and colonial culture. In this sense he is a victim of cultural hybridity and crisis." (61) Another form of ambivalence in the novel appears in the character of Muthoni. Through representing Muthoni's conflict, Ngugi shows his ability to project the different forms of cultural hybridity. Just as Waiyaki adopts traditionalist values and tries to mingle them with elements of Christianity, Muthoni performs the same job in reverse; she is Christianized but her new faith does not stop her from being attached to her tribe. She demonstrates another form of cultural hybridity through importing a Gikuyu tradition to her newly embraced religion. She justifies her doing saying that: "I am a Christian and my father and mother have followed the new faith. I have not run away from that. But I also want to be initiated into the ways of the tribe" (Ngugi 43). In her eyes, there is no contradiction in such an act; on the contrary, this act is what gives her an identity to which she can hold on firmly. Muthoni is an instance of what Homi Bhabha calls a colonial mimic figure. As is well known, Bhabha defines the concept of colonial mimicry as "a reformed recognizable Other, as a subject of difference that is almost the same but not quite", he adds that "in order to be effective, mimicry must continually produce its slippage, its excess, its difference" (Bhabha 86). Muthoni's difference or slippage is her insistence to be circumcised against the
The_River_Between_A_Cultural_Approach.docx