In defence of Wanjala and varsity dons
Prof Chris Lukorito Wanjala since he joined the ranks of writers and literary scholars at the then University College, Nairobi, as a freshman in 1968, he has proved himself to be the father of literary criticism in East Africa. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The said article makes the graduates who passed through the professors’ hands feel that they sat at the feet of inferior people. That most of the literary academics who were told off are from the University of Nairobi is also an unfounded aspersion on that institution.
- Whilst many scholars were maligned by Mulama, I would like to single out Prof Chris Lukorito Wanjala for mention and argue that since he joined the ranks of writers and literary scholars at the then University College, Nairobi, as a freshman in 1968, he has proved himself to be the father of literary criticism in East Africa.
- Like Ngugi, Micere Mugo, and Wanjiku Kabira, Wanjala has shown immense interest in oral literature, poetry and drama.
The recent outburst in the print media and on social media about Kenya’s senior literary scholars, pitting them against their counterparts in the diaspora, does not augur well for the future of scholarship in this country. Harry Mulama sensationally elected to humiliate our elders and make them feel that their contribution to scholarship is either void or not wanted.
The said article makes the graduates who passed through the professors’ hands feel that they sat at the feet of inferior people. That most of the literary academics who were told off are from the University of Nairobi is also an unfounded aspersion on that institution.
Mulama, however, acknowledges one thing about these men and women of letters. In one breath he talks of their “charlatany”, but even as an independent scholar, he notices in another breath the unsolicited praises from admirers and praise singers. Is Mulama the only guy in the crowd who does not see the greatness of these scholars ?
LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Whilst many scholars were maligned by Mulama, I would like to single out Prof Chris Lukorito Wanjala for mention and argue that since he joined the ranks of writers and literary scholars at the then University College, Nairobi, as a freshman in 1968, he has proved himself to be the father of literary criticism in East Africa.
He has contributed to debates on literature, politics and culture in the local press, local and international journals, broadcast media and public lectures. He has seen the dichotomy between writers who seriously draw from the socio-economic reality of East Africa and those who frivolously practice art for art’s sake. Angus Calder, who introduced one of his books, says: “(Chris Wanjala) understands that, while creative writing in East Africa goes surging and straining onwards, the critic who really wants to influence its pace and direction must work very hard himself.”
Taban lo Liyong had published The Last Word (1969), which was more of a bibliographical survey, showing gaps in the publication of creative works, than a work of literary criticism. Lo Liyong’s claim that there was a literary desert in East Africa gave Wanjala the inspiration to publish Standpoints on African Literature (1973), and The Season of Harvest (1978) and to promote creative writing.
In his earlier career, the most common words and phrases were ‘commitment in literature,’ ‘cultural nationalism in Africa,’ ‘Negritude,’ ‘pan-Africanism,’ ‘African socialism,’ ‘African nationalism’ and ‘socialist realism.’ African scholars and political thinkers were easily divided into the radical intelligentsia with lofty ideals and liberals and renegades.
The son of rural western Kenya, Wanjala’s early contributions were in Busara, Makerere’s Dhana, Nairobi’s Ghala, and The Sunday Nation, when Joe Kadhi, Alfred Araujo and Nancy Owano were the editors of that paper. Wanjala published in The Weekly Review, Joe Magazine, and Nairobi Times.
His essays in Season of Harvest are part of what he wrote for the press, literary magazines and scholarly journals, and they established his reputation as a literary critic. He was briefly the editor of Joliso: Journal of Literature, before engrossing himself into the academia.
From 1975, Wanjala had moved from orthodox Marxism to a Hegelian view that literature and the history of a nation were closely connected. He was heavily influenced by Georg Lukacs, Bertolt Brecht, and Erich Fromm. He believed, like Hegel and Georg Lukacs, that East African literature would progress when it addressed development issues in society.
UNFAIR CRITICISM
In 1977-79, he joined the great literature debate on the abolition of English literature in Kenya. He joined Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o in writing articles for The Weekly Review and The Sunday Nation. What Ngugi wrote was later published in the book Decolonising the Mind. Wanjala used those ideas to launch the Department of Literature at Egerton University. The ideas were formulated so well that they informed his inaugural lecture at the University of Nairobi on June 19, 2003.
Wanjala was the second full professor to give an inaugural lecture at the university. The first one to be delivered was by Prof Andrew John Gurr, in 1971, now Professor Emeritus at the University of Leeds, England.
Like Ngugi, Micere Mugo, and Wanjiku Kabira, Wanjala has shown immense interest in oral literature, poetry and drama.
His praise for writers such as Ngugi, Okot p’Bitek, Ebrahim Hussein, Leonard Kibera and Robert Serumaga has helped to maintain their reputation, whereas his repudiation of David G. Maillu, Taban lLo Liyong and others in the domain of popular culture has maintained their notoriety.
It is unethical for anyone to judge him on the autobiography which has not been published and to say, as Harry Mulama does, that “Wanjala (is) a disorganised writer who has no mastery whatsoever of the biographical and anecdotal as a writing strategy.”
Dr Remmy Shiundu teaches Literature at Pwani University, Kilifi. [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
