CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

This chapter gives a general view on what the study is about, highlighting the statement of

the problem, the aim of the study, the objectives of the study, significance of the study,

research questions and the theoretical framework. These are followed by the scope of the

study, the structure of the dissertation and operational definitions of important terms used in

the study. The chapter also briefly discusses the relationship between fiction and politics.

1.1 Background of the Study

It is apparent from various studies that literary texts are interrelated. The basis upon which

literary texts can be compared include the plot, characterisation, actions, setting and theme.

Different approaches are also used in understanding the meaning of a text as well as relating

one text to another. Using the formalist approach for instance, one is able to examine the

themes, forms, points of view or characters that are found in one text and compare them with

those of another. It is from this perspective therefore, that this dissertation engages in a

comparative study of the two selected texts Animal Farm and Matigari.

The two texts are selected because they offer a lot of insights into the politics of the societies

about which the authors write. In addition the political controversies sparked off by the

content of the two texts make them worthy candidates of study. This also makes it possible to

suggest that politics and literature mutually influence each other.

Various political themes found in the texts are compared with a view of establishing the

similarities that exist between these political themes in the two texts; and the significance of

this comparison. It should be noted that this however, does not mean that the comparative

analysis of themes in fictional texts is necessarily the only crucial way that can be used to

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relate two texts of different nature. Other approaches can be used. For instance, using

Freytag’s pyramid of the structure of a plot, one is able to connect one text with another, by

showing how the structure of the plots fits in those texts. It should also be noted that while

the theoretical framework used in this study is of importance to the study of fictional texts,

the theories to be used are not the only ones that can be applied to understand the two texts

under study. For example, while reading Animal Farm as a critique of Stalinism or a

historical text and Matigari as a critique of Daniel Arap Moi, Jomo Kenyatta, or post

colonialist society of Kenya, is essential, reading them in the light of the psychological or

structural concerns is also revealing and rewarding. Gill (2011) argues that in analysing

Matigari, it is tempting to try to locate the novel's autobiographical, nonfictional strains and

to conclude that Ngugi's mythical country is a thinly disguised rendition of the author's

homeland, Kenya. This assumption is only natural, considering the author-activist's own

experiences, which have included imprisonment at the hands of a repressive Kenyan regime.

However, such reductive historicising encourages the reader to underestimate Ngugi's project

in writing Matigari. Gill further argues that Ngugi is purposefully vague in establishing both

the temporal and spatial settings of his novel as he refuses to define where and when his story

takes place, insisting in a prefatory song:

This song is imaginary

The actions are imaginary.
The characters are imaginary.
The country is imaginary- it has no name even.
Reader/listener: may the story take place in the country of your choice! (Ngugi: ix)

If readers disregard that advice, then they may underestimate and, consequently, miss the

book's broader political implications (Gill 2011). Thus, we may argue that the narrative in

both texts was designed to evoke more than just some Stalinist brand of Marxism-Leninism

or Kenyatta politics or historical, Marxist or moral concerns. These are used only to discuss

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the issues of power, freedom, rights, truth, and other political concerns which rise above the

specific context and remain significant to the political world. Orwell's and Ngugi’s political

concerns perhaps have become even more relevant since their publication. Thus, no single

approach can be assumed to be the only critical tool in understanding or relating the two

texts.

Further, though the study of themes in fictional texts is vital, theme is not the only element

that can be studied to relate two texts of different backgrounds. Other elements such as

characterisation or symbolism can be used in examining the connection between two fictional

texts. According to Clifford and Marcus (1986:68) symbols are a component in a very wide

range of literature, including allegory. In many works which are neither allegorical nor

symbolist, certain images possess a large-scale symbolic significance which can be helpful in

understanding a text.

The comparison of political themes rather than any other themes in the texts results from the

relationship that exists between fiction and politics, and the important role politics plays in

human life. This relationship seems to ultimately influence the material of the writers.

According to Hogg (2009:127), politics are at root an exploration of the ways in which

humans live together. In this way the relationship between politics and the novel can be seen

not as a limiting force but an essential concern of the complexities of a wider human life and

society. Stendhal argues thus: "Politics in a work of literature is like a pistol-shot in the

middle of a concert, something loud and vulgar, and yet a thing to which it is impossible to

refuse one's attention." (Accessed from crofsblog.typepad.com/fiction/2005/01/politics-in-

fic.html. on 10/07/2013). Therefore, one cannot escape the discussion of politics in everyday

life, let alone in literary criticism. It is also for this reason that the two texts under study have

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been considered by many as political fictions or political novels, and the reason this study

focuses on political rather than other themes that may be found in the two texts.

Therefore, this study attempts to compare the political themes in the two texts to establish the

similarities that exist between the texts and the significance of these similarities. The primary

texts compared in this research are George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s

Matigari though other texts by these and other authors are also referred to.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

One way of getting a deeper understanding of a literary text is by making comparisons

between it and another text, or some other texts, in terms of style, structure, plot, setting,

characterisation, and theme. This is critical especially in disciplines such as comparative

literature. Thus, this dissertation investigates the thematic similarities that exist between the

two texts Animal Farm by Orwell and Matigari by Ngugi.

In short the question under investigation is: what similarities exist between the political

themes in Orwell’s Animal Farm and Ngugi’s Matigari and what is the significance of these

similarities?

1.3 Aim of the Study

The aim of the study is to analyse the similarities of the political themes found in Animal

Farm and Matigari and to establish the significance of these similarities.

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The study intends to:

1. Investigate the nature of major political themes in Animal Farm and Matigari;

2. Analyse the similarities of the political themes in the two texts;

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 3. Examine the significance of the similarities.

1.5 Significance of the Study

From the available evidence, no in-depth comparison of the political themes of Matigari and

Animal Farm has so far been conducted. This study therefore may provide new insights into

the nature and significance of the political themes of the two texts by drawing comparisons

between them. In addition, the study will provide the reader with the opportunity to relate the

political themes of the two texts to what they see in society.

1.6 Research Questions

1. What is the nature of the major political themes found in Animal Farm and

Matigari?

2. What similarities exist between the political themes found in the two texts?

3. What is the significance of the similarities?

1.7 Theoretical Framework

The discipline of Comparative Literature makes it possible to compare texts that are distinct

in nature, culture and history. Comparative literature aims at comparing one literature with

another or others, and literature with other fields of knowledge such as history, politics,

philosophy and economics. It makes it possible for us to draw comparisons between ‘various

text types’ (Zepetnek1998:13) even if, as in the case of this study, the texts are of a cross-

cultural nature – for indeed Matigari and Animal Farm represent not only literatures from

different historical periods, but also different cultures. Although Comparative Literature was

initially a Euro-centric discipline – focusing only on texts of European origin – it has over

the years evolved into a discipline which embraces literatures from any part of the world, any

language and any culture (Zepetnek 1998:13). It facilitates ‘dialogue between cultures,

languages, literatures and disciplines’ (ibid, p16). In this study, the dialogue is not inter-

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disciplinary but rather intra-disciplinary: comparisons are drawn between two texts from the

discipline of literature. The main focus of the comparison is on the political themes, using the

Moral and Intellectual Approach as the overarching theory, while the Marxist Literary

Criticism and the Topical/Historical Critical Approach are supporting theories.

The Moral and Intellectual approach is concerned with how works of literature teach morals,

ideas and values. In this approach the reader or the critic determines whether the particular

work being studied conveys lessons on morals and values and whether the works are true and

significant especially in leading people to better their lives and improving their understanding

of the world. Further, a critic uses this approach to discover the meaning of the text.

Therefore, this approach is used in this study to identify and analyse the political themes in

Animal Farm and Matigari, and also to determine the significance of the comparison.

The Marxist Approach will be applied to complement the Moral and Intellectual Approach

when discussing the text Matigari. The Marxist Approach is concerned with the ideological

content of a work of literature. It views literature as dealing with explicit and implicit matters

on culture, race, class and power and that its content is usually political. Since issues of

culture, class, race and power are cardinal in this study, this theory is helpful. For example,

according to the Marxist point of view, works of literature show that the history of society is

about class and power struggle; and that to understand the meaning of the text, one must look

at the relationship between different classes in the text. These classes according to the

Marxists reveal the nature of society which includes its politics. In other words Marxists view

literature as reflecting the author’s own class.

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Marxist Approach is also vital to this study because of its view of works of literature as being

the product of society. What this entails is that literature reflects its society and thus, for one

to understand the meaning of a text, they must have an understanding of the economic, social

and political circumstances in which the text was produced. Therefore, one has to have

background information of the economic and social conditions that prevailed in the societies

in which particular texts were produced. What makes the Marxist Approach suited to the

discussion of Matigari is that the author of the book, Ngugi, is a Marxist and was already one

at the time of writing the work.

While the Marxist Approach will complement the Moral and Intellectual Approach in

discussing Matigari, the Historical Approach will be used to complement the Moral and

Intellectual Approach in discussing both texts. The Historical Approach gives the reader the

background information of the social, cultural, economic and political conditions in which

texts are produced. According to Guerin et al (2004:22), the historical approach sees a literary

work chiefly if not exclusively as a reflection of the author’s life and times or the life and

times of the characters in the work. This means that from a historical point of view, literature

is a reflection or product of the times and circumstances in which it was written. This may

include the author’s biography and milieu. Young (1997) postulates that the key in analysing

a text using the historical approach is to understand the effect of the work upon its original

readers, how the time in which the author lived influenced him or her and how the work is

better understood through the lens of historical context. Thus, the Historical Approach as a

theory is used in this study to understand the political, economic, social and intellectual

conditions in which the texts were written and how they might have influenced the author’s

writing of certain political matters.

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1.8 Scope of the Study

The study is concerned with the similarities of the political themes found in the two texts and

the significance of this. It is not concerned with making comparisons between non-political

themes or other aspects of the text such as plot, character, setting, story-line or style. It should

be restated that the comparative analysis of themes in fictional texts is not necessarily the

only crucial way that can be used to relate two texts of different nature. Therefore, the study

must be considered in terms of the similarities that have been established rather than other

themes which may be drawn from the texts. Further, the themes studied are not the only

political themes in the two texts, and may not be the exact themes which the authors intended

or dealt with in the two texts. In other words this study does not claim that the themes studied

are fixed within the texts and people only need to ‘find them’. The themes presented in this

study are only a selection of what the researcher identified.

According to Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke (2006:18) an account of themes ‘emerging’

or being ‘discovered’ is a passive account of the process of analysis, and it denies the active

role the researcher always plays in identifying patterns or themes, selecting those which are

of interest, and reporting them to the readers. They argue that the language of ‘themes

emerging’ can be misinterpreted to mean that themes ‘reside’ in the data, and if we just look

hard enough they will ‘emerge’ like Venus on the half shell. If themes ‘reside’ anywhere,

they reside in our heads from our thinking about our data and creating links as we understand

them.

1.9 Structure of Dissertation

The dissertation is divided into six chapters. The first chapter deals with the Background of

the Study, Statement of the Problem, Aim of the Study, Objectives, Significance of the Study,

Research Questions, Theoretical Framework, Scope of the Study and Operational Definitions.
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Chapter Two is a Literature Review of various works on Animal Farm, Matigari and politics

and fiction. Chapter Three contains synopses of Animal Farm and Matigari the two texts

under study.

Chapter Four deals with political themes of Animal Farm while Chapter Five deals with

political themes of Matigari.

Chapter Six is a Discussion and Conclusion of the research. It links the two texts by showing

the similarities and differences of themes, and the significance of the similarities.

1.10 Operational Definitions

Important terms to be used in this study include Politics, Fiction, and Political Theme.

Politics has taken up many definitions in the past because of the various ways in which

people use the term. Some have defined it as anything that relates to government and its

leadership while others have defined it as the behaviour of various people in decision making

positions. In this study politics is the ways in which a country is governed and power is

acquired and used in a country. (Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, 1987: 1034).

Further, politics in this study will also be used to refer to how those in power and those who

are not in power relate seeing that politics consists of social relations involving authority or

power and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy. Other views

embraced in this study are that Politics is a frequent battleground over the proper balance

between public welfare and individual rights. Fundamental questions about basic liberty are

raised if national security is at stake and all this is addressed in politics.

Fiction according to Daiches (1975:5) etymologically is derived from the Latin fictio, which

means a making, or fashioning. Rockwell (1974:21) notes that fiction means something

made or made up and is not identical with fact. In short fiction clearly means not real, not

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true, existing only by virtue of invention. It is important to note that literary fiction is divided

into three recognisable categories namely: realistic, non-realistic and semi-fiction. Fiction in

its realistic form is untrue but is likely to happen in the physical or actual life. Sometimes it

appears to the reader to be something that is actually happening at the time it is read. Non-

realistic fiction is very fictitious as events cannot happen in real life because they are

supernatural or involve an alternate form of history of mankind other than that recorded.

Semi-fiction implements a great deal of non-fiction. Thus, this study embraces all three forms

though having a bias towards realistic fiction which many literary texts seem to take.

Political Theme in this study refers to the ideas, lessons, subjects, values, morals and content

regarding politics or that are political in nature. It should be noted that political themes will

be discussed as they are identified in the two selected texts and not as they are defined or

used in actual politics. This is because not every political theme in fictional works,

particularly those under study, reflects exactly what goes on in society.

1.11 Conclusion

This chapter has dealt with the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Aim of

the Study, Objectives, Research Questions, Theoretical Framework; Significance of the Study

the Scope of the Study and the Structure of the Dissertation. Operational Definitions of

important terms used in this study have also been outlined.

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 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.0 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the various works that have been written in an effort to discuss the

two texts Animal Farm and Matigari and other works on politics and fiction.

2.1 Literature on Animal Farm

In Social Stratification and Class in Animal Farm Nicole Smith (2011) argues that

throughout Orwell’s Animal Farm one of the most prominent themes is that of the

inevitability of class and social stratification and the problems of the working classes,

especially in terms of their relationship to power structures. She argues that in fact, it is not

difficult to analyse Animal Farm from a Marxist perspective. The lower animals in Animal

Farm who comprise the working class and who are not part of Napoleon’s intimate circle are

hard workers and do not complain, even though they seem to realise that something foul is

going on around them. Still, these lower classes in Animal Farm do not rise up and can thus

be named as the major reason why the failed utopian social experiment of Animalism never

worked.

Smith further argues that throughout Animal Farm another theme emerges. This is the idea of

inevitability of class stratification. She argues that this can be extended somewhat to include

the idea that although the animals’ lack of realisation about the verbal manipulation was

genuine, this was part of their characterisation because of the belief that the working class is

unable, despite its seeming might, to climb out from under repressive leadership. Although

there are a number of issues relating to the power of language, rhetoric, and words in Animal

Farm the overwhelming sentiment at the end of the novel is that the lower class animals

realise far too late what has occurred and thus no real change takes place throughout Animal

Farm except for some variance in the faces that represent the leadership.
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Smith also notes in this study that it is difficult to cast aside more critical biographical slants

on Animal Farm because this is a work that came out of the perceptions of George Orwell’s

modern politics and society. The working class in Animal Farm is generally sympathetically

portrayed, but not entirely. These classes are guilty of being like sheep in terms of following

a leader and they rarely rise up or voice dissent despite the growing authority of the pigs. To

amplify this argument Smith quotes one scholar who notes that in Animal Farm, George

Orwell has a great many thoughts about the working class and their lack of potential. She

writes, “He [Orwell] often praised the working class for their stoicism and hard work—but

never for their intelligence or leadership. To his mind, workers were not just ordinary people

whose education had often limited their intellectual horizons, they were inherently mentally

inferior.”1 Thus, from Smith’s perspective the working class who are represented by the

majority of the animals, are shown to be at the lowest end of the spectrum throughout the

book. By making them appear as such, Animal Farm seems to be making a statement about

societal structure as a whole.

Smith further argues that it is difficult not to think of Marx and other social and economic

theorists as the power centre unfolds and then collapses, leaving the working class in its

wake. It does not seem, however, that Orwell wants us to feel particularly sorry for them

throughout Animal Farm, but only to see that they have brought ruin upon themselves as a

result of their lack of initiative and education. In many ways, Boxer is a symbol for the whole

of the working class, not just in the novel but in real life as it has occurred throughout history.

Smith concludes this work by arguing that the social stratification that began with the

overthrowing of Mr. Jones has once again worked itself out and come full circle and again, it

1
Pearce, Robert. “Animal Farm” History Today 55.8 (2005): 47 in Smith. Social Stratification and Class in
Animal Farm. Accessed from http://www.articlemyriad.com/social-stratification-class-animal-farm/ on
10/07/2013.

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seems that there must be a leader and some degree of oppression in order for society to

function. Furthermore, it also seems that Animal Farm is expressing the view that there must

be a class of workers who are useful only when producing and after that are expendable.

Boxer serves as the greatest example because he was the most loyal to the ideas of the

“revolution” and the end was proven to be unnecessary to its existence or survival.

Furthermore, it shows the process of social stratification as it happens by demonstrating how

the weaker parties can fall victim to those who are more powerful—even if the power lies in

words. The problem is, this book is not necessarily about change at all. Instead it is about the

ineffectuality of change when dealing with social structures. From the first moment, when

Mr. Jones is overthrown and the animals take over, the process of social stratification has

begun. The working class animals are taught but are weeded out in a sense and tested with the

skilful manipulation of Squealer. Eventually the leadership under Napoleon sees that they

have nothing to fear from this working class and takes over completely, thus leaving the farm

and its conditions in exactly the same sorry state it was in before the first chorus of “Beasts of

England” was sung. (Accessed from http://www.articlemyriad.com/social-stratification-class-

animal-farm/ on 10/07/2013).

Craig Carr in Orwell, Politics and Power (2010) discusses the various aspects found in

Animal Farm in relation to the issues of power and politics. He shows various characters and

how they relate to the issues of power and politics. For example he notes the passivity of

Benjamin in the text leads to further abuse of power and abuse of office by the pigs. Further,

Carr argues that Orwell’s masterful description of the animals permits the reader to identify

the all too human attributes of the various animals populating the farm. For instance Mollie is

vain, egotistical and stupid. The sheep are mindless followers seemingly incapable of

independent thought. The cat is duplicitous and self-serving, while the pigs are clear but

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unscrupulous, with the arguable exception of Old Major who never lives to see the

revolution. Thus, through various characters Carr shows how the theme of power and politics

can be viewed in Animal Farm. His argument is that what constitutes the heart of the

indecency that flows through the story is the transformation of the pigs into social elites, or

into animals more equal (i.e. worthier) than the others. This thought in Carr’s study is backed

by his comparison of Plato’s analysis of political decay near the end of The Republic to the

question of why the ruling elites transform themselves, in their own minds, into superior

persons or animals.

According to Plato Timocracy (rule by able elites) will decay into Oligarchy because the elite

class will attempt to solidify its political control and perpetuate itself; and it will do so

because it will want to institutionalise its position of privilege. In the process the ruling elites

confuse their class’ well-being with the well-being of the polity as a whole. Carr argues that

the problem, as Plato saw it, is a product of the lack of moral knowledge in the ruling elite

because they are not philosophers, they do not know the good and therefore cannot act upon

it. He concludes that troubles emerged on Animal Farm because Napoleon and Squealer were

morally flawed pigs. If these pigs grasped the moral message of Old Major, they still put it

aside because they were inspired by baser motive, selfishness perhaps, or egoism or sheer

arrogance to pursue power for itself and gain control of the farm.

Carr further argues that in Animal Farm Orwell wanted to emphasise Lord Acton’s concern

that power corrupts.2 Even if the pigs had the best of intentions and were reasonably solid

moral characters, they could still not overcome the mesmerising effect of power. For instance

2
In a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, Lord Acton a British Historian and Moralist wrote “Power
tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Accessed
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/view/reardon-lord-actions-dictum-on-absolute-power.

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while not morally bad, Napoleon was morally weak and succumbed to power. Carr argues

that there is more to the emergence of social elites, and the corresponding eclipse of

egalitarianism, than moral failing.

In his conclusion Carr shows that there are two ways in which a text such as Animal Farm

can be read. These include the elitist reading and liberal reading. From the liberal point of

view the failure of the revolution is attributed not chiefly to the treachery of Napoleon, but to

the inability of animals to really comprehend what the revolution meant. From the elitist

view, the new elite work to control the government and sustain its position of privilege

because it thinks its interests are coterminous with the interests of society as a whole and a

dominant ideology will emerge that allows the elite to legitimatize its position of privilege by

hammering out an account of equality that supports its interests.

Assietou mint Abdurrahman in The Art of Propaganda as used by Dictatorial Regimes

through Orwell’s Animal Farm (2008), discusses propaganda and how it is used in Animal

Farm. He argues that the term propaganda has a huge content of different references and

relates mainly to commercial activities and it incarnates a necessary tool for political

practices. He argues that moreover, propaganda is an indispensable element for the dictatorial

regimes to keep their people unaware of the way they are managing them. The art of

propaganda as used by dictatorial regimes, and as illustrated in Orwell’s Animal Farm is a

good topic to have a deep look on the matter.

The use of propaganda is shown in Animal Farm through different aspects that mirrored the

real practices in the daily lives of the Russians. Brain washing, creation of an outside threat,

thirst for power, and blaming others for the regime’s faults, are different points that Orwell

used to criticise his world. Abdurrahman further submits that the novel reflects a lot of dirty

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practices that politicians engage in against the masses and also shows how the powerlessness

of the masses corrupts in the same way as the absolute power of the leadership.

Further, Abdurrahman tries to outline the ways in which Napoleon obtains and maintains

power in Animal Farm. He argues that there are many ways in which Napoleon obtains and

maintains power and one way is through propaganda. He also does this by turning the

weaknesses of the other animals into opportunities.

Harry Sewall in his work George Orwell’s Animal Farm: A Metonym for a Dictatorship

(2002), argues that George Orwell’s Animal Farm is traditionally read as a satire on

dictatorships in general and the Bolshevik Revolution in particular. This article postulates the

notion that the schema of the book has attained the force of metonymy to such an extent that

whenever one alludes to the title of the book or some lines from it, one conjures up images

associated with a dictatorship. The title of the book has become a part of the conceptual

political lexicon of the English language to refer to the corruption of a utopian ideology. As

an ideological state, Animal Farm has its vision, which is embedded in its constitution; it has

the vote, a national anthem and a flag. It even has its patriots, double-dealers, social engineers

and lechers. He argues that in this way the title Animal Farm, like Joseph Heller’s Catch-22,

or Thomas More’s Utopia, functions metonymically to map a conceptual framework which

matches the coordinates of the book.3

The article concludes with a look at contemporary society to show how Orwell’s satire

endorses the words of Lord Acton, namely, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts

absolutely. He argues that there have been, are, and always will be pigs in every society, and

3
Quotation in Harry Sewlall (2002) George Orwell’s Animal Farm: A metonym for a dictatorship,

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they will always grab power. He also argues that as we enter a new millennium and

dictatorships continue to flourish in some parts of the world, the echoes in Orwell’s Animal

Farm acquire an ominous resonance.

Sewall also submits that critical studies of the book generally draw parallels between certain

animal characters in it and real people involved in the Bolshevik Revolution. Whilst

acknowledging the allegorical dimension of Orwell’s work, this article makes a radical

departure from traditional readings by proposing that the book has become a part of the

conceptual political lexicon of the English language, in much the same way as the term

“Orwellian” has earned its pseudonymous writer a place in the Oxford Concise Dictionary.

This paper posits the notion that the schema of Animal Farm may be read as a metonym of a

utopian vision that has gone horribly wrong. From his argument while Animal Farm has

been variously described as a myth, an allegory, a satire, a moral fable and a beast fable and

answers to all these genre descriptions, Sewall’s argument is that the book may be regarded

as having evolved from a myth or political allegory to a modern metaphor, and more

specifically, a metonym.

2.2 Literature on Matigari

Various works have been produced on Matigari and one such work is the 2010 dissertation

by Deborah Sundy entitled Mother Tongue: The Use of Another Language and the Impact on

Identity in Breyten Breytenbach’s Dog Heart and Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari. In this

dissertation, Sundy examines Breyten Breytebach’s memoir Dog Heart and Ngugi wa

Thiong’o’s Matigari with particular attention to the use of a mother tongue or another

language in the texts and whether these reflect or impact on the writer’s sense of personal

cultural and political identity. It compares and contrasts the author’s views on and

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experiences of culture, language, translation and exile and whether these aspects appear in the

two primary works.

In this work, Sundy explores the dilemmas associated with the authors’ choice of language in

their creative works, preferred audiences, and affiliations to their mother tongue speech

communities. She argues that in the opening few paragraphs of Matigari, Ngugi inverts the

colonial tendency to portray indigenous people in violent and savage terms and the

colonialists in a noble light, and he turns the colonial diction and imagery around in the

hunting scene. Ngugi portrays the settlers as savage hunters who cut off the fox’s tail and

smear blood over a woman’s face (Ngugi, 1989:3). At the end of the novel, a mirror scene is

created when Matigari, Gũthera and Mũriũki are on the run and being hunted like foxes by

the authorities (172). This similarity between the colonial settlers and the current

establishment where both are seen as savage hunters completes the inversion of the typical

colonial literature model.

Sundy further argues that in Matigari, a clear depiction of the education system and pressure

to conform to European models is portrayed in the diction, binary terms, metaphors,

metonymy and irony Ngugi uses. For example, John Boy Junior talks of his father’s vision in

sending him abroad to Fort Hare and the London School of Economics to get an education

ignoring the idiots who were mumbling nonsense about sharing the last bean. (Ngugi,

1989:49).

Another work worth of review is Pheng Cheah’s book Spectral Nationality: Passages of

freedom Kant to Postcolonial Literatures of Liberation (2003). In the book she dedicates a

chapter to the discussion of Ngugi’s project of revolutionary culture. In this chapter, Cheah

notes that the novel’s fable-like quality suggests that the Kenyan postcolonial experience,

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from which many of Matigari’s key events are clearly derived, is an example of the general

crisis of contemporary Africa. Thus, this shows that the work of writers may be similar to a

large extent because much of what they write about is material from society. Cheah argues

that the novel’s primary concern is not the intellectual’s equivocation about the nationalist

struggle’s rightness but that the struggle’s universal imperativity is asserted and the reader is

drawn into the nation’s teleological time by a contrast that must be accepted before stepping

across the book’s threshold.

Further, Cheah views Matigari as a work of survival and his return from the forest as a

reversal of the betrayal of independence. She argues that as a common noun, Matigari refers

to the patriot, an exemplary member of the nation and that this is a mark of survival; the

nation’s survival after colonialism, and the promise of its survival beyond neo-colonialism in

future. What we see here is that Cheah sees significance in Matigari and African society, and

this gives us the view that there may be a link between reality and fiction. This is further

demonstrated by Cheah’s argument that Matigari’s homecoming is an attempt to find

habitation in one’s land when it has become so alien that it is no longer a home, a place to

which one belongs. She sees Matigari’s repatriation as involving at least two tasks

repossessing and rebuilding the home. She argues that for Matigari there is no returning home

until political and economic alienation have been overcome.

Further, Cheah argues that Matigari embodies a projected future reality that is reconciled with

human ideals and has greater actuality than the neo-colonial state. This entails that Matigari’s

search in Cheah’s view is a symbolism of the reality of a search for better society on a

political and economic level. This remains vital because Ngugi himself in the opening of this

text does say the story is imaginary and with no setting and thus the reader or listener may set

the situation, place or time in which the text can be viewed. Further, Ngugi throughout the
19
text presents Matigari as a figurative character as we find in several instances and times in

which other characters within the text do not know him and so question whether he is Christ,

man, woman and so on.

Thus, Cheah’s view of Matigari as a work or a representation of survival in post colonialism

is vital and key in her work. This is also seen in the other characters that she discusses. For

instance she compares the character Guthera to Mary Magdalene and argues that her role is to

aid Matigari just like Mary Magdalene aids Christ. This comparison also makes us question

further Matigari’s existence as Christ or as human. This comparison also qualifies Cheah’s

view that Matigari’s truth is ontological and performative as it concerns a transfigured reality

that will arise from united human labour. This will also see the children come out of this

graveyard into which their lives had been condemned. She argues that the children in

Matigari are a synecdoche for the people. They can inherit and defend the home in future by

assuming the nationalist vocation. This can also be seen in Matigari’s observations that “A

child belongs to all” and that “a nation’s beauty was borne in a child, a future patriot” (48).

To this extent therefore, Cheah’s work does show the significance of the text to society and

contributes greatly to the works of other scholars.

Hooper in Ngugi’s Matigari and the Politics of Literature (2003) argues that the issue of art

in the service of politics is a notoriously complex one. He examines Ngugi’s most explicit

attempt to marry traditional and experimental forms and to question how beneficial his efforts

are at integrating orature within the fictional world of Matigari particularly when the text also

gestures towards development within postmodern writing.

He argues that Matigari has a greater degree of organisation and focus for the narrator and

reader alike, and that Ngugi not only posits the superiority of an African aesthetic, making

20
the oral tradition, song and story-telling a central component of the text itself, but he invests

these aspects of the text with a value that goes beyond aesthetic considerations only. This

view by Hooper indicates to us that song and story-telling are vital to the interpretation of the

work Matigari.

Further, Hooper argues that Matigari seeks to engage with the complexities and challenges of

postcolonial identity but doing so by recourse to a smaller cast of characters and a tighter

narrative order. In addition Ngugi employs immediately recognisable historical icons with

which to strengthen his strategy. By opening the first chapter of the text with the image of a

returning ‘Mau Mau’ fighter, for example, Ngugi presses for a recognisable moment from the

past, but one that has a contemporary relevance also. Matigari is presented as being in

possession of an AK47, in addition to being attired in a variety of colours and fabrics

suggestive of prolonged deprivation and hardship. He argues that Matigari is suggestive,

therefore, not only of those who took to the forest for the duration of the emergency, but he

actually conforms to historically verifiable fact.

Hooper also sees various literary elements used in the text as being significant. For instance

he points out that balancing statements and repeated phrases have an important role in

Matigari, for they bind the text to the immediacies of lived oral tradition. The effect of the

language, mesmerising for those who might hear it spoken, greatly enhances the impact of the

piece. By doing this, Hooper argues that Ngugi wishes to present a coherent and compact

model revolutionary challenge.

Symbolism is another element that Hooper discusses on Matigari. He argues that the use of

symbols in Matigari is helpful in communicating political motivation. By using story

technique in the text Ngugi shows how politically repressed individuals can be successfully

21
motivated to use storytelling techniques. This is evident at the beginning of the second

section of Matigari where Ngugi incorporates story-telling as a distinct and politically

motivating tactic.

Further, Hooper argues that this text shows a lot of political hope and regeneration. He argues

that for Ngugi, the farmer’s determination to succeed, the emphasis on integrity, self and

collective well-being, as well as the symbolic force of the life giving seed, suggests a

centrally important image of political regeneration and hope.

In part II of this work Hooper relates Matigari to other works by Ngugi. For instance, in

relating Matigari to The Fig Tree a text written and published by Ngugi in 1960, Hooper

argues that the importance of The Fig Tree has a direct bearing on Matigari, as we see the fig

tree in Matigari as well. He argues that by incorporating the fig tree in the opening pages of

Matigari, the text is far more politically developed. Further, Hooper argues that while

emphasis is being laid on the actualities of resistance, which ties the texts to recent historical

experience, the tree’s broader associations affiliate the text with a different belief system

entirely. Thus, the symbol of the ‘fig tree’ locks two texts together and shows a developed

political awareness. In his concluding chapter, Hooper links fantasy to song in Matigari and

submits that so long as Ngugi continues to move between literature and oral tradition, linking

fantasy and song to the practical considerations of a revolutionary form he will continue to be

seen as appropriable to the Postmodernist community.

Lewis Nkosi in Reading Matigari: The New Novel of Post-Independence (1995) argues that

this book has parallels with the Kenyan society. He notes that it would be foolish to deny the

work’s special links with the Kenya of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi, or rather its

contestation of their version of the country and the claims the novel makes on the legacy of

22
the freedom fighters, the brave men and women who imagined they were delivering their

country from British colonialism only to discover, as Matigari does, that only a handful of

people profited from the suffering of the majority.

Nkosi notes that the struggle for possession in Matigari is obviously meant to symbolise the

people’s bid to claim their heritage at the end of the freedom struggle. From Nkosi’s view

therefore, the text is symbolic and of much significance. For instance, we see various

symbols in the text which are a reflection of post-independence Kenyan society. As such,

Nkosi argues that the themes that the book rehearses will be news to no one much less to

those who have followed Ngugi’s career as he has continued to chronicle the political and

moral decline of the country’s leadership since independence.

Nkosi concludes his work by submitting that Matigari simply gathers up all the wood

shavings left over from Ngugi’s other political novels and that Ngugi’s gradual

relinquishment of realistic representation for the world of fairy tale and day-dreaming may

provide us with yet another sign of the crisis afflicting the post-colonial novel in Africa

generally in its attempts over these past decades to plot the story of corruption and

exploitation under the leadership of civilian military dictatorship, economic decline, violence,

coup and counter coup. These issues have produced a profound disillusionment among

African populations which have in turn inevitably left their marks on the novel. He argues

that in the writing of Matigari, Ngugi for the first time seems to have been aware that it is

hardly possible anymore to write another post-independence novel of disillusionment without

descending into pure farce.

The centre piece of F. Odun Balogun's Ngugi and African Postcolonial Narrative (1997) is an

extended analysis of Ngugi's Matigari. Occupying well over half the book, this reading seeks

23
to vindicate Balogun's view that "the destination at which Ngugi has arrived is that toward

which the development of African literature has been heading all along" (p.178). Successive

chapters frame and re-frame the text as "oral-narrative performance," "hagiography,"

"mythology," reconceptualised realism, and "postmodern deconstructionist experiment," in

order to demonstrate the revolutionary potential of Ngugi's achievement for the novel both

within and outside Africa. Balogun thus takes Matigari as an aesthetic and political

summation, one that both incorporates and revises existing orientations for African literature.

The rest of the book reviews Ngugi's literary and political trajectory in light of this claim.

For Balogun, Ngugi's well-known turn to Gikuyu expresses a complex linguistic and political

commitment that comes to fruition in the "multigenre performance" that is Matigari. He

argues that by absorbing the mythopoeic and satirical resources of orature into the framework

of novelistic realism, Ngugi forges a narrative instrument capable of overcoming the divide

between literate and illiterate audiences, addressing "the ideological needs of his proletarian

constituency and forging an emancipatory consciousness of the struggle against neo-

colonialism. From this perspective, critics who view Matigari as an ambitious failure, or

bridle at its “very aggressive, perhaps oppressive" politics are either judging it by overly

narrow Eurocentric standards or expressing "pro-imperialist sympathies” (Balogun

1997:169).

Although Balogun's reading of the novel is thorough and often insightful, some scholars

argue that the book suffers from the hyperbolic claims made on Ngugi's behalf, and from an

unnecessarily polemical stance taken to defend those claims. They further argue that it is one

thing and obviously important to understand the multiple generic traditions that shape

Matigari, and the fierce political pressures that give Ngugi's intervention its urgency and

point; it is quite another thing to assert that Ngugi has carried out a revolution in the African
24
novel in which a "relationship of equality has supplanted that of exploitation.” Balogun then

argues that "Ngugi's narration makes it clear that those who believe in the fantasy of

Matigari, both as a Mau Mau returnee and as a Christ figure, are the gullible, illiterate

common folk who constitute the majority population” (p.169).

2.3 Literature on Politics and Fiction

This section reviews works by various authors who argue that there is a relationship between

fiction and politics and fiction and society. The study of fiction and society is incorporated in

this study because of the fact that politics is an aspect of society and so the relationship

between fiction and society can to a large extent address politics.

Nicholas Karolides, Margaret Bald and Dawn B. Sova in A Collection of Classic Works

(1999), have dealt with several aspects concerning literary texts, though their concentration is

on issues of censorship of these texts. In this book the authors deal with the issues of

censorship of 100 banned books in the United States. The books discussed vary from political

texts such as Animal Farm and The Grapes of Wrath to religious books such as The Bible.

Other books dealt with in this work are children’s books, which society saw as having

negative impact on children and thus not worthy of study in schools.

The book is divided into four categories, namely: Literature suppressed on political grounds,

Literature suppressed on religious grounds, Literature suppressed on sexual grounds and

Literature suppressed on social grounds. Twenty-five books are covered in each of these

categories, with summaries of the particular text, its censorship history and suggested further

reading. The authors guide readers to know why certain books though influential came to be

banned. It is clear from this text that society has an influence in the way texts are received

and used within that particular society, but also it is clear that texts are to a great extent a

25
reflection of society. For instance, it is stated in the book that the impression that censorship

for political reason emanates only from national governments is mistaken. The second

common source of such activity is at the local community level, generated by school board

members or citizens, individually or in groups who attack textbooks and fiction used in

schools or available in school libraries. This simply means that political novels whether

fiction or non-fiction have a relationship with politics.

David Cook and Michael Okenimkpe, in their work Ngugi wa Thiong’o: An Exploration of

his Writing (1983), argue that literature synthesises and focuses many aspects of human

experience and understanding and is concerned with life as a whole. In this work Cook and

Okenimkpe deal with the various works by Ngugi excluding Matigari and point out the

various reasons and motivations that lead to these works. They argue that Ngugi’s writings

deal with a progressive line of thought concerning all the pressing social issues of his time.

It would appear from their work that Cook and Okenimkpe agree that Literature has a role to

play in society and that the writings of various writers reflect their views on society or the

actions of the society at the time their works are produced. For instance, they argue that the

writings of both Ngugi and Achebe are based on the mission to transform their societies. That

is why one can argue that the majority of Ngugi’s works are based on the Kenyan struggle to

fight the bourgeoisie class that developed after independence, as well as showing the role of

the Mau Mau in the struggle for independence.

Cook argues that The Trial of Dedan Kimathi was written to mobilise the popular will against

neo-colonialism and the new capitalism, which were widening the gap between the Kenyan

rich on one hand and Kenyan poor on the other. This pursuit continues in Petals of Blood

though with a new approach. In this novel Ngugi brought face to face the oppressor and the

26
oppressed, the overfed and the starving, the predators and their victims, the degenerate city

and the desolate village. At this point, Cook argues, Ngugi stops speaking in parables and

denounces injustices he sees in society openly through his novels.

Cook and Okenimkpe conclude by stating that the function of literature as an examiner of

human values and experience must never be belittled. They argue that Ngugi’s choice to put

his message on the stage through fiction points to his urgent desire for communication at

grass roots. Thus, it would be possible to state from what Cook and Okenimkpe write that

there is a relationship between fiction and society as well as between fiction and politics.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Writers in Politics (1981), is another work worthy of our discussion.

Although Ngugi in this work deals with other aspects such as cultural independence, he

spends a substantial time discussing issues on politics. In the first part of this book, Ngugi

discusses the importance of Literature in cultural education schemes. He argues that

Literature and the whole approach to literary and cultural education inculcated in some of the

African people the values of the European ruling class and also made the rising African

middle class take on those values for a universal norm. It could be argued therefore that

Ngugi sees a relationship between literature and society and that literature reflects the life of

people. Ngugi further argues in this book that the writer as a human being is himself a

product of history in terms of time and place and that, as a member of society, he belongs to a

particular class and therefore part of the class struggles of his time and society. Ngugi further

argues that a writer’s subject matter is history i.e. the process of man acting on nature and

changing it and in so doing acting on and changing himself. These changes are a “whole

territory” of the writer’s literary concern and so politics is part and parcel of this literary

territory. He further states that even where a writer has not ordinarily been actively immersed

in politics, i.e. in a situation where the writer does not consciously see himself in terms of
27
political activism either as an individual citizen or in the subject matter of his literary

concern, he may well find himself suddenly involved in the hot political power struggles of

the day. According to Ngugi, a novel is not a product of imaginative feats of a single

individual, but of many hands and tongues. A writer just takes down notes dictated to him by

life among the people, which he then arranges in a particular form.

Joan Rockwell argues in Fact in Fiction: The Use of Literature in the Systematic Study of

Society (1974), that Literature does not ‘reflect’ or arise from society but is as much a

functioning part of it as any social structure, institution or set of norms. She argues that

fiction no matter its content is a representation of social fact rather than the crystallised result

of private fantasy4. In this book Rockwell also makes attempts to show that sociology can be

studied through Literature and here the main topics of discussion are the use of fiction in the

deduction of facts about society, speculations on the possible existence of a matriarchal

society in Greece, based on the Oresteia of Aeschylus and normative attitudes of spies in

fiction.

In this work therefore, Rockwell manages to highlight some of the important facts and

functions of fiction and consequently points out that fiction is not just a social product, but it

also influences society, because it has a normative effect on its members. She further adds

that nursery rhymes, folktales, religious observances such as those connected with Christmas

and Easter and comic books, which set ideals of behaviour and a picture of the world before

the child are necessarily conveyed in narrative form.

4
Joan Rockwell. (1974). Fact in Fiction: The use of Literature in the Systematic Study of Society. London:
Routlegde & Kegan Paul. p3

28
We can therefore argue looking at Rockwell’s point of view that literature especially fiction

is not simply entertainment, but has certain social and political functions attached to it. It

could further be argued that fiction and politics are related.

Irving Howe, in his work Politics and the Novel (1957) argues that the political novel is a

peculiar work of internal tensions. To be a novel at all, it must contain the usual

representation of human behaviour and feeling; yet it must also absorb into its stream of

movement the hard and perhaps insoluble pellets of modern ideology. He argues that one

thing that can be profitably said about fiction is that it constitutes a literature of blockage, a

literature of impasse. Fictional texts portray historical moments and situations; they offer

sharply critical understandings; but they can find no way out of the dilemmas with which

they end their books.

2.4 Conclusion

This chapter has discussed various studies conducted in relation to Animal Farm, Matigari as

well as fiction and politics and fiction and society. It may be argued that there is indeed a

relationship between fiction and politics and, in addition, between fiction and society.

29
 CHAPTER THREE: SYNOPSES OF TEXTS

3.0 Introduction

This chapter deals with the synopses of the texts under study starting with Animal Farm and

ending with Matigari. In so doing the chapter discusses some critical passages and their

implications in the context of the study.

3.1 Animal Farm

The novella was written by Erick Blair under the pen-name George Orwell. It was written

between November 1943 and February 1944, and was published in August 1945 by Secker

and Warburg. The story is a reflection of events that occurred in Russia from the reign of

Tsar Nicholas II to the Stalin era just before the Second World War. Orwell narrates these

events by telling a story of animals that expel a man named Mr. Jones from his farm and

consequently take over the running of the farm with the pigs taking charge of administrative

affairs.

The story begins with Old Major, a highly respected boar calling a secret meeting of all the

farm animals and giving them a speech about his dream regarding a utopian place called

Sugar Candy Mountain. In his speech, he emphasises that the animals need to free themselves

from the rule of man and to do this, they must rebel against man and create enmity between

man and animal. Man he says is the reason for the animal’s misery, labour and short life.

Now comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are
miserable, laborious, and short.... No animal in England knows the meaning of
happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of
an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth. But is this simply part of the
order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a
decent life to those who dwell upon it? No comrades a thousand times no! The soil
of England is fertile, its climate is good, and it is capable of affording food in
30
 abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it.... Why
then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the
produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings! There, comrades, is the
answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word - Man. Man is the
only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of
hunger and overwork is abolished forever.... Is it not crystal clear, then comrades
that all evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get
rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we
could become rich and free. What then must we do? Rebellion! I do not know
when that Rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I
know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will
be done (Orwell 1945:3-5).

Old Major encourages the animals to rule themselves in a spirit of oneness. He also

encourages them to hate man and all his ways.

Among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle.
All men are enemies. All animals are comrades... Remember that in fighting
against man, we must not come to resemble him. Even when you have conquered
him, do not adopt his vices. No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed,
or wear clothes, or drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in
trade.... above all no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or
strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal must ever kill any other
animal. All animals are equal (Orwell 1945:5-6).

Three days after the meeting Old Major dies, but his speech stirs up the more intelligent

animals, the pigs, into action. They begin to make plans and have secret meetings with other

animals to bring about the rebellion and overthrow Mr. Jones. However, other animals are a

bit reluctant to participate in the plans, as they talk about loyalty to Mr. Jones. Others believe

if Mr Jones goes they will starve while others do not see why they should care what happens

to them after they die. They do not even see the need of having the rebellion and question

31
whether it will even happen. Despite this, the pigs still manage to convince the animals about

the success of the rebellion and its benefits to them. Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer

become prominent among the animals and thus automatically take up the roles of leadership.

They elaborate Old Major’s teachings and turn them into a philosophy they call Animalism.

Despite not being expected to happen soon, the rebellion takes place and the animals take

over the farm. This happens as the treatment of the animals by Mr Jones is unbearable; it has

become worse. The animals are left hungry for days and this makes them force their way into

the store shed where they help themselves to some food. Woken up by the noise of the

animals, Mr Jones and his workers are surprised at the behaviour of the animals, and they

begin to whip them in an effort to drive them away. The animals, hungry as they are, cannot

bear this and so fling themselves upon their tormentors, forcing them to flee from the farm,

leaving it to the animals.

The animals now take charge of the farm and the principle of Animalism is narrowed down to

seven commandments that are aimed at encouraging equality among the animals and enmity

with man. These commandments are written on the wall and declared ‘unalterable’ laws by

which every animal on the farm must live. Besides this, the animals change Manor Farm to

‘Animal Farm,’ to reflect the complete takeover of the farm.

The animals begin to run the farm and work hard together for the good of all animals. The

pigs emerge as leaders and are depended upon by the other animals because of their

intelligence. Boxer, one of the horses is the most hardworking and thus establishes a motto

for himself. “I will work harder.” He later develops another one: “Napoleon is always right.”

No sooner have they started enjoying the farm than their leaders begin to be selfish and to do

32
the exact things Old Major spoke against. Inequality among the animals begins to manifest,

with the pigs taking milk and apples for themselves and justifying this act.

Mr Jones and his friends stage another attack to retake the farm but the animals do not relent.

They fight back under the leadership of Snowball and manage to fight off the human beings.

After this, the animals become even more dedicated and the desire to prevail against man

increases. However, the dispute between Snowball and Napoleon begins to tear the animals

apart. The dispute intensifies after Snowball’s proposal to build a windmill. Napoleon

opposes the proposal and with the aid of nine ferocious dogs, which he has secretly trained,

attacks Snowball and exiles him from the farm.

Napoleon takes over and becomes autocratic in his leadership. He changes things on the farm

and with the help of Squealer begins to change the seven commandments. More work is

given to the animals but their food rations and relaxation time are reduced. He establishes

trade ties with humans and this rekindles the pig’s relationship with mankind. The animals on

the farm are surprised and remind themselves of the principles of Animalism, but always

forget what exactly the principle is. Squealer takes advantage of this and always justifies the

actions of the pigs. The worst situation the animals find themselves in is when at one

assembly Napoleon demands confession from all disloyal animals. Some animals are forced

to falsely confess to being in league with Snowball. They are slaughtered and this frightens

the other animals who try to remind themselves of one of the commandments that forbids any

animal from killing another animal. However, they are relieved when they read on the wall,

“No animal shall kill any other without cause” (p.78).

Napoleon is now less seen in public and all orders are now issued through Squealer. Another

human invasion is fought but not as successfully as the one led by Snowball. The animals are

33
directed by Napoleon to attack from the rear and this leads to Boxer’s injury. He continues to

work and collapses because of overworking. He is taken to a veterinarian for treatment, but

he is carried in a truck owned by a glue company. As usual Squealer covers this up by lying

about the car. The farm falls apart as the pigs change the commandments to suit their

behaviour and slowly they begin to behave like human beings. In the end it is hard to tell the

difference between man and pig as they not only look alike, but behave the same.

Thus, in summary the story is a tale of animals that take over a farm from its owner by

exiling him. They try to manage it for a while but find themselves still behaving the same

way man behaved; the behaviour they condemned.

3.2 Matigari

First published in 1989 by Heinemann, Ngugi wa Thiong’os Matigari is a story about a man,

possibly a former Mau Mau fighter, who returns from fighting the colonialists in the forest.

He buries his AK-47 and sword, and sets out for his family and home. He comes back to his

locale which is unnamed but clearly a reflection of Kenya, to take possession of what he had

fought for. He finds that those who did not fight for the land have actually taken over not just

the land but his house, property and everything he has ever worked for, leaving him nothing.

His search for his home and children is elusive because as he leaves the forest the ideas of

home and children seem to be very specific. However, once he commences his search it

begins to be clear that his home and family are ambiguous as he calls all the children he sees

as his children; and the search for home becomes the search for justice and truth. He is

disappointed during his search because of what has become of his homeland and how the

masses continue to be under the yoke of oppression.

34
When he first appears Matigari is perceived by people as being insane, but he never gives up.

He is hopeful of finding his family and house; and consequently justice and truth. He is

arrested twice and with the help of Guthera and Muriuuki manages to escape. Rumours of

who he is, both in terms of the physical and spiritual being are debated by various people,

with many claiming he is Jesus Christ.

“Who is Matigari? They asked one another. How on earth are we going to

recognise him? What does he look like? What nationality is he? Is Matigari a man

or woman anyway? Is he young or old? Is he fat or thin? Is he real or just a figment

of people’s imagination? Who or what really is Matigari me Njiruungi? Is he a

person, or is it a spirit” (Ngugi1989:32).

This ambiguity amplifies the ambiguity of his search. Is he literally searching for his house

or is he searching for freedom, for truth or justice? Does the house really mean a place where

to sleep or does this mean the comfort, peace, justice, freedom that many search for? All

these questions help the reader to see Matigari as a man with superhuman qualities and who

has risen to renew the freedom struggle.

The ambiguity of the character Matigari as well as that of house and children also helps to

understand the elusiveness of the independence fight and the purity of the new government.

Was the fight for independence to get rid of white domination and to bring about freedom for

the Africans, or was it to overthrow the whites and then have the capitalists take over. This

further indicates that colonialism had not ended but had come in a different form. It is learnt

that the freedom fighters such as Matigari did not even get a share of the benefits of

independence, but were simply rallied for the benefit of the capitalists such as the Ministry of

Truth and Justice.

35
When he begins to search for justice and truth, Matigari is girded with the belt of peace. He

asks in shopping centres, law courts, restaurants, farmlands, women, men, children, students,

prisoners, teachers and a priest, but all these fail to tell him where he can find justice and

truth.

My only thirst and hunger are to do with my troubled spirit. I have

travelled far and wide looking for truth and justice... (Ngugi

1989:94)

He is humiliated by the police and government and so he resorts to arms. He vows never to

allow John Boy to sleep in his house nor to allow the new government to continue oppressing

the people. Thus, he decides to put off the belt of peace and vows to wage war on the

oppressors.

One cannot defeat the enemy with arms alone, but one could also

not defeat the enemy with words alone (Ngugi 1989:131).

With his new spirit of war rather than peace, Matigari goes into action by inciting a strike at

the factory and then he destroys Boy’s house with a fire and leads the on-looking mob to burn

all other houses and cars belonging to government ministers. The police give up on Matigari,

but when his Excellence Ole Excellence promises a reward to whoever would find Matigari,

a search begins. Matigari, Guthera and Muriuuki head for the Mugumo tree where his

weapons of warfare are, but they are caught by the police dogs. However, Muriuuki manages

to escape and gets to the Mugumo where he recovers the weapons buried there by Matigari.

Matigari and Guthera struggle to rescue themselves from the police, with Guthera shot in the

leg. They finally manage to rescue themselves as they jump into the river. However, the

mysterious thing is that Matigari and Guthera are neither spotted dead nor alive and so their

end is a mystery.
36
One of the motifs that Ngugi creates in Matigari is the search. Matigari is in search of his

family, truth and justice, but he is also being searched for by the police and people of his

country. The search is futile for both Matigari and the police and as such symbolic of the

futility of the search for a better world that many usually engage in. Thus, Matigari is not just

a character, but a representation of mankind and his various institutions. He is the voice of the

voiceless, courage to the coward and hope for the hopeless. He depicts through this narrative

the history of Kenya, clearly showing how the political authorities in Kenya undermined the

fight for independence, thus rendering it meaningless. This is a typical focus in the majority

of Ngugi’s works. For instance, in The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, he seeks to mobilise the

popular will against neo-colonialism and new capitalism which were widening the gap

between the Kenyan rich and poor (Cook and Okenimkpe, 1983:84).

Throughout the story there are short radio news bulletins which tell much of the government

and its cruel way of governing. This also amplifies the fact that the government has changed

but the policies and principles upon which it operates remain those of the colonialist.

Matigari was written in Kikuyu and modelled on a traditional Kikuyu tale, but it could be set

almost anywhere in Africa. This is actually the advice that Ngugi gives from the outset:

This song is imaginary

The actions are imaginary.
The characters are imaginary.
The country is imaginary- it has no name even.
Reader/listener: may the story take place in the country of your choice! (p.ix)

Ngugi is purposely vague in the setting of this novel and so helps the reader to relate it to any

situation of their choice.

37
3.3 Conclusion

This chapter has dealt with the synopses of the two texts by showing what the story lines are

as well as indicating some of the important subjects they deal with. The chapter has attempted

to show that these texts were not necessarily written for political purposes, but politics is only

a framework in which they could be studied.

38
 CHAPTER FOUR: POLITICAL THEMES OF ANIMAL FARM

4.0 Introduction

This chapter focuses on political themes in Animal Farm. The identified themes are by no

means exhaustive, but are a result of the researcher’s interpretation of the text. The themes

include:

(i) The inevitability of political power struggles where class and social

stratification exist;

(ii) Lack of accountability by leaders;

(iii) Language, propaganda and terror as tools of political control;

(iv) Power’s ability to corrupt;

(v) Rebellion does not produce a perfect society;

(vi) The rule of the few over the many;

(vii) Education and knowledge as tools for effective participation in the political

process;

(viii) Inevitability of exploitation and abuse of human rights where corrupt

leadership exists;

(ix) The tendency of the masses to become apathetic when dissatisfied with

leadership.

4.1 The inevitability of political power struggles where class and social stratification

exist

It is clear from the text that political power struggles are inevitable and that this results from

the class and social stratification that exists on the farm. Power may be broadly defined as the

ability to determine the behaviour of others in accordance with one’s own desires (Coser

1963:150). From the beginning of the text to the end we see a struggle for power between the
39
animals and the people, and among the animals themselves. One example of this power

struggle is between Jones and the animals. The animals believe Jones is mistreating them

because of the power that he holds. Thus, they hatch a plan to depose Jones. They believe that

once this is done, they can obtain power and administer the farm on purely unselfish and

equal basis. Hence, the animals inspired by the teachings of Old Major rebel against Jones

and ultimately grab power from him. He however, launches an unsuccessful offensive to

recapture the farm in what is dubbed “The Battle of the Cowshed.” The battle which

symbolises the Russian Civil War in which the western capitalist governments sent soldiers

in an attempt to drive the Bolsheviks out of power and re-establish capitalism, is a clear

indication of the ongoing power struggle between men and animals.

Another example of power struggle in Animal Farm is between Snowball and Napoleon. We

can argue that the relationship between Napoleon and Snowball is characterised by

antagonism. They are nearly never in agreement over anything. When either makes a

suggestion, the other opposes it. This is prominent when Snowball proposes the building of

the windmill. Snowball’s idea is that the windmill will generate electricity to warm the stalls,

bring in electric lights and warm water, and also power the machinery on the farm so that the

animals could have time to relax. Napoleon opposes it and shows his contempt for it by

urinating on the drawings made by Snowball. From this scenario, Orwell makes us think the

two are opposing each other on principle but later, we discover that it is a struggle for power.

As much as policy seems to be at the centre of their conflicts, power is the main reason the

two are never in agreement. This is proven when Snowball is exiled from the farm; Napoleon

begins to implement Snowball’s policies and plans when he was against them.

On the third Sunday after Snowball’s expulsion, the animals were somewhat

surprised to hear Napoleon announce that the windmill was to be built after all. He
40
 did not give any reasons for having changed his mind, but merely warned the

animals that this extra task would mean very hard work.... (Orwell 1945:51).

That evening Squealer explained privately to the other animals that Napoleon had

never in reality been opposed to the windmill. On the contrary, it was he who had

advocated it in the beginning... (ibid, 52).

Although the animals are surprised by Napoleon’s apparent change of mind, it is obvious that

in fact Napoleon had wanted power from the beginning and only opposed Snowball’s policies

because of selfish political interests. Hence he still implements Snowball’s policies upon

assuming power.

This Napoleon-Snowball political struggle parallels the historical power struggle between

Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin and Trotsky emerged as

the most powerful and likely heirs to Lenin’s vast power. Like Snowball, Trotsky became a

popular and charismatic leader, famous for his impassioned speeches, while Stalin like

Napoleon was not very popular and so decided to consolidate power behind the scenes. He

formed an alliance with Zinoviev, and Kamenev and thus succeeded in becoming the

unquestioned dictator of the Soviet Union. Trotsky was exiled from Russia and he became a

frightening spectre used to conjure horrifying eventualities, in comparison with which the

current misery paled. Additionally, by associating his enemies with Trotsky’s name, Stalin

could ensure their immediate and automatic elimination from the Communist Party.

(Accessed from http://warandgenocideinchlit.weebly.com/stalins-reign-of-terror.html on

5.03.14). This is similar to what Napoleon does. He raises fierce dogs that help him to get rid

of Snowball and when Snowball is exiled, Napoleon continues associating him with the

mischief suffered by the animals on the farm. This makes Snowball a national enemy.

41
Another example of the power struggle in Animal Farm is at the end of the novel where

Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington both play an ace of spades simultaneously. Each of them wants

to win the game and gain more power of the other, but both cheat by playing spades. Thus,

the pigs are exposed as hypocrites. They have changed and become like man.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig

to man gain; but already it was impossible to say which was which (Orwell

1945:120).

Therefore, it is clear that there are power struggles in Animal Farm. As indicated, the power

struggles are due to the hierarchical distribution of power on the farm, right from the reign of

Jones to that of the animals. The classes are those of the rulers and the ruled, the lower and

the high class, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the literate and the illiterate, the exploiters

and the exploited, the oppressed and the oppressors. From the perspective of

Deconstructionist critics, Orwell’s work is an indication of a system of binary oppositions

that are in existence everywhere around us.

Mr Jones is a rich farmer whose farm seems to be flourishing and excelling over other

neighbouring farms. This gives him a status above other farmers and consequently puts him

in a superior class. He is also the owner and manager of Manor farm, with people and

animals that work for him. Thus, he can be considered as a member of the upper class, the

bourgeoisie, while his servants and the animals are in the lower class. We should note here

that although Jones’ workers are of the lower class, they are not in the same class as the

animals. For example, although they do not own wealth as much as Jones, they at least have

decent shelter, eat well even when they are lazy, find time to relax without being punished

and even mingle with other workers from other farms. This is not so for the animals. They

42
sleep in cold stalls, their food is rationed and sometimes they are not fed, they do most of the

farm work and others such as horses are beaten when they do not follow the leading of their

master or killed when the master sees no profit in them. They are the masses, the working

class and at the end of the power spectrum. This is actually clearly indicated by Mr.

Pilkington at the end of the last chapter when he gives a speech.

...He believed that he was right in saying that the lower animals on Animal Farm

did more work and received less food than any animals in the country.... ‘If you

have your lower animals to contend with,’ he said, we have our lower classes!’

(Orwell 1945:117).

Another indication of class and social stratification is among the animals themselves.

Although Orwell shows us that power struggles may lead to class and social stratification, it

can be noted that class and social stratification of the animals begins as early as Jones’ reign

when the animals have no power. For example, Mollie and Moses the Tame Raven are of a

high class during Jones’ reign as they enjoy the privileges that Jones and his wife enjoy.

Moses is Jones’ favourite pet and hence enjoys great benefits. He is fed crusts of bread

soaked in beer and unlike other animals he does not do any work at the farm. In fact

indications are that the animals on the farm hate him.

Moses, who was Mr. Jones’ especial pet, was a spy and a tale-

bearer, but he was also a clever talker. He claimed to know of the

existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to

which all animals went when they died. It was situated somewhere

up in the sky, a little distance beyond the clouds, Moses said....

43
 The animals hated Moses because he told tales and did not work,

but some of them believed in the Sugarcandy Mountain, and the

pigs had to argue very hard that there was no such place (Orwell

1945:17).

Thus, it is clear that Moses is not of the lower class of animals but high class in the animal

world because of being Mr. Jones special pet, with benefits that other animals do not have.

When the rebellion occurs he runs away from the farm only to appear after a long time with

the same old behaviour of talking and never working. The pigs condone him and even award

him with beer for his stories.

Further, it is clear that class and social stratification exist among the animals in Animal Farm

even before they obtain power. The meeting called by Old Major highlights this. The pigs

take the lead from the beginning. Old Major takes the role of the leader when he is not the

oldest animal on the farm. In fact Benjamin is the oldest and lives on through the rebellion. In

this meeting, the pigs apportion themselves the best seats. They take the front seats while

others sit behind them.

First came the three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie and Pincher and then

the pigs who settled down in the straw immediately in front of the

platform (Orwell 1945:6).

This is a clear foretaste of the leadership role the pigs would take and the subordinate role the

other animals would take after the rebellion. It should be noted that although the pigs show

signs of leadership and superiority from the beginning, their intentions are not necessarily bad

at first. They take on the task of organisation because of their reputed intelligence and dislike

for man rather than a desire to take control of all the other animals. For example, Snowball,
44
Napoleon, and Squealer organise Old Major’s ideas into the theory of Animalism, which was

to stand for unity and equality among the animals and enmity with man. However, they begin

to change when they start ruling and as the other animals show their ignorance and myopic

behavior. For instance, in writing, the Seven Commandments look fair and hold true to

Major’s stipulation that the animals do not emulate humans, but we learn quickly that the

tenets of Animalism do not translate perfectly into reality, as the seeds of elitism begin to be

planted among the pigs.

Throughout the novel then, Orwell emphasises the growth of elitism among the pigs and the

lack of intelligence among the other animals. However, it is also clear that we can never be

sure that the animals’ ignorance and illiteracy is due to lack of intelligence and not an

oppressive environment which has made their lower status and ability seem natural. For

example, when the pigs take the milk for themselves, the reader knows that this is the

beginning of a new round of subjugation and oppression by the elite. We see the government

change but oppression and class stratifications continue. This also highlights the Marxists’

view that the history of society is the history of class struggles. Smith (2011) argues that the

working class in Animal Farm are the majority of the animals and these are shown to be at

the lowest end of the spectrum throughout the text. It is these that struggle for power

throughout the text.

From the perspective of history class and social stratification existed in Russia during the

time Orwell wrote this text and this led to political power struggles amongst many notables.

From the point of view of the Moral and Intellectual critic, the lesson that Orwell teaches us

is that class structures whether political or social lead to inequalities and cruel treatment of

one class over another. From Jones’ regime through to that of the pigs we see the animals

suffering because those in leadership oppress them. Their dignity is compromised and they
45
are treated merely as objects. For instance, during Jones’ reign the animals are kept without

food and sleep in cold stalls while he (Jones) enjoys his beer and sleeps in a covered and

warm place. Not only does he keep the animals without food, he kills them whenever he

thinks they are no longer useful on the farm. When the animals take over they still experience

cruelty. For example while the pigs move on from the lower class to a bourgeoisie class, the

other animals are excluded. They remain in the same social spectrum with the living

conditions worse than they were during Jones’ reign.

When Jones is ousted and the animals take over the farm, we expect to see a lot of changes in

terms of how the animals are treated and kept by their leaders. However, it turns out that the

animals continue suffering, sleeping in cold stalls and being killed by their masters the pigs.

This is because of the fact that the pigs have now become the bourgeoisie capitalists and the

other animals have remained in the lower class as the proletariat. According to Creighton

(1988:180) in a system where class and social stratification are inevitable, there is a tendency

to achieve three objectives: not to lose is the first objective, to score points according to one’s

scoring system (or values) is the second and to prevail is the ultimate but remote goal.

From the text the three objectives that Creighton describes are inevitable. The masters do not

want to lose so they do all they can to score points and to prevail. For example Jones does not

want to lose his power and farm to the animals so he stages a war against them to regain his

property. However, the animals also do not want to lose and so they fight back to keep the

power and the farm.

Another example is when Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington play the same cards. Both desire to

win and not lose and thus get angry with each other when neither wins. This scenario also

highlights Creighton’s view that scoring points according to ones scoring system is another

46
objective in class systems. This means that if one’s scoring system involves cheating then one

uses it. If it involves oppression, that particular individual or class definitely oppresses

another.

From a moral and intellectual viewpoint Orwell’s text shows that the class with the highest

amount of power tries to find means by which opponents can be outplayed, outwitted,

deceived, driven into a corner and ultimately beaten. Thus, the moral view here is that

bourgeois or capitalist rulers are usually ruthless, exploitative and with a fraudulent type of

religion.

From the historical point of view this situation is a reflection of Russia from the reign of the

Tsars to that of the Communist party under Stalin. Russian society in the early twentieth

century was bipolar: a tiny minority controlled most of the country’s wealth, while the vast

majority of the country’s inhabitants were impoverished and oppressed peasants. After a

politically complicated civil war, Tsar Nicholas II, the monarch of Russia, was forced to

abdicate the throne that his family had held for three centuries. Vladimir Ilych Lenin, a

Russian intellectual revolutionary, seized power in the name of the Communist Party. The

new regime took land and industry from private control and put them under government

supervision. The rise of capitalism in Russia led to the growth of Communism. The nation’s

workers and peasants, assisted by a class of concerned intellectuals known as the

intelligentsia, rebelled against and overwhelmed the wealthy and powerful class of capitalists

and aristocrats. After Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky jockeyed for

control of the newly formed Soviet Union. Stalin, a crafty and manipulative politician, soon

banished Trotsky, an idealistic proponent of international communism. He became leader but

continued with the class and social stratification which eventually affected the lives of the

47
poor, oppressed peasants in Russia.(Accessed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia

on 30/01/2014.

In the farm hierarchy, the pigs elevate themselves to high positions of leadership and set aside

special food items, ostensibly for their personal health. Napoleon however cannot accept

sharing power with Snowball so he takes some pups from the farm dogs and trains them

privately. When Snowball announces his plans to build a windmill, Napoleon has his dogs

chase Snowball away and declares himself leader. He attains the highest level in the power

structure, and he together with the other pigs and dogs move into a new social class. It would

be possible to argue that the power struggles within the text were a result of the class system

and power hierarchy. Orwell actually shows us that class and social stratification result from

power at the end of the text when we see the pigs have all the laws removed leaving only one:

All animals are equal but others are more equal than others. It may also be argued that

wherever class systems exist, the moral code is compromised as ill-treatment of one class

over another is inevitable, politics are reduced to a contest between classes and the lower

classes exist only as an object of manipulation or an object of direct aggression.

4.2 Lack of accountability by leaders

One of the tenets of leadership and consequently democracy is accountability. According to

Philip (2006:1) democratic government combines two central ideas: that those who rule

should do so in the public interest; and that they will be more likely to do so when they are, in

some way, representative of, answerable and responsible to those they rule. By linking the

demand that those who rule do so in the interests of the people with attempts to make them

representative of and accountable to the people, democratic theory sets out a simple and

seemingly attractive model of good government.

48
If Philip’s ideology of democracy is considered, then we can argue that there is no

democracy on the farm because the leaders are not accountable for their leadership. For

instance, when there is a lawsuit against Jones, he loses focus on the affairs of the farm to the

point of neglecting the farm animals. This leads to the animals rebelling against him. This

behaviour by Jones shows that he is unaccountable and cares less for the animals. His actions

reflect a commitment to personal gain rather than the development of the farm. We might

argue that accountability is not about holding others responsible or answerable for their

actions, it is about setting the expectation, clearly communicating it, and then holding

yourself and everyone within your sphere of influence responsible for consistently meeting

the established expectations. This kind of accountability is however not what we see on the

farm. Jones and his men are unaccountable not because they fail to feed the animals but

because they do not set expectations, do not communicate with each other and ultimately all

contribute to the destruction of the farm. Had Jones set expectations and clearly

communicated them to his workers, the animals would not have rebelled because the

expectations - feeding the animals, milking the cows and so on - would have been met by the

workers even in the absence of the master. Jones’ assumption was obviously that the workers

knew what to do. However, we could argue that accountability includes communicating

expectations and thus people cannot be held accountable for what they have not been

informed of. To this extent therefore it can be argued that Jones fails to account for his

leadership.

The pigs are also not accountable to their subjects. Many things happen for which the pigs

neither give an explanation nor communicate the expected standard of behaviour to the other

animals. For example, they show lack of accountability in the case of the milk and the apples

which are supposed to be shared among the animals, but the pigs keep them to themselves

49
and never reveal to the other animals until the animals discover that the milk was used for the

pigs’ mash and the apples were also consumed by the pigs. Instead of being sorry for this,

they justify it by claiming they need the apples and milk because they are the brain workers

of the farm. This becomes the new standard of life for the pigs at the farm yet the other

animals on the farm are not consulted or given an opportunity to voice their opinions. If

leaders are to be accountable, their subjects should be given an opportunity to voice their

opinions or concerns

Reading Animal Farm from the Moral and Intellectual point of view, we would be inclined to

conclude that leaders need to rule their subjects with honesty and integrity. They discredit

themselves in the eyes of the ruled and the opposition when they are not accountable for their

actions. Jones’ behavior shows how he discredits himself in the eyes of his workers and the

animals. He is not feared or respected by both his servants and animals. His servants are

dishonest and lazy because they are not monitored or held accountable for their work. On the

other hand the animals disrespect Jones because of his behavior towards them. Therefore, it is

clear that one moral lesson that can be learnt from Orwell’s work is that any political regime -

that is those who hold political office and have political responsibility - must be accountable

to their subjects or to those they rule, so as not to discredit themselves in the eyes of the

ruled. Animal Farm is in a state of uncertainty and instability and disaster is imminent, but

the leaders are expected to be as accountable as possible to their subjects. A leader is

expected to be a person who is responsible, trusted, consistent, honest, ready to sacrifice and

faithful.

Another moral and philosophical issue is the principle of holding government authority to

account and placing the wishes of the populace above those of the rulers. This entails that the

leader must be self-less in order to offer valuable services to society. A society in which
50
individuals feel safe and secure, where legal protection is provided for rights and

entitlements, and disputes are settled peacefully and effective redress is available for harm

suffered, and where all who violate the law, including the State itself, are held to account.

However, in Orwell’s Animal Farm the rulers feel no responsibility or commitment towards

their subjects and exercise their rule without any commitment to the law morals.

4.3 Language, propaganda and terror as tools of political control

There is evidence to suggest that language, propaganda and fear are used by the pigs to

control the other animals.

From the beginning of the story, the pigs use language to manipulate and subjugate the other

animals. For example, Old Major not only represents Karl Marx in the allegory, but also the

power of speech and how it can and was used to provoke and inspire the animals to rebellion.

His language is able to create in the other animals a hatred for and desire to destroy man. The

animals easily believe and accept his claim of having had a dream. Manipulative use of

language enables the pigs to gradually take advantage of the other animals.

After Major dies, the pigs twist the meaning of his words. Through Squealer who becomes

the government spokesman, language is used in a very cunning way that enables him to turn

black into white and white into black. He uses language to justify the behaviour of the pigs

and to manipulate the animals. For example he justifies the consumption of the milk and

apples by the pigs, by claiming that science has proven that milk and apples contain

substances essential for the health of the pigs. He argues that he himself dislikes milk and

apples but because science has proven their importance to the health of pigs, he has to take

them. Squealer’s argument is merely a clever way of self-serving hypocrisy and reflects

Stalin’s justification for special shops for Communist party members. Squealer actually

51
appeals to the emotions of the animals by saying to them: “Day and night we are watching

over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples” (Orwell

1945:35). He also intimidates them by telling them Jones could return because he wants them

to choose between the lesser of two evils - Jones or the pigs.

It is not true that the pigs are brainworkers or that they are keeping the apples and milk

because they are thinking of the other animals; the fact is that they are being deceitful and

selfish. However, when they state that they are doing all for the sake of the animals, they

psychologically tame the animals into silence and submission. Because of their high

intelligence, the pigs are able to use language in a deceitful way to control the other animals.

Actually this indicates the first sign of propaganda especially when the pigs claim that

science has proven that milk and apples are good for the health of the pigs and enable them to

work efficiently. Hence, the pigs keep the good things to themselves and accumulate other

privileges. This also indicates that decency is being compromised by the pigs, as lies become

the norm rather than the exception in their rule.

Another instance in which language is used to gain political control is when Napoleon

abolishes the Sunday meetings. Squealer claims that the decision by Napoleon to take the

leadership of the farm on his shoulders was a “sacrifice”. He argues that Napoleon assumes

the “heavy responsibility” of the farm so as to encourage equality and avoid the possibility of

Sunday debates producing wrong decisions. By using the words “sacrifice” and “heavy

responsibility”, Squealer is trying to make the animals believe that this is a burdensome task

which should not be coveted. He tries to make them believe they are being cared for by

Napoleon and that he is not a dictator. However, this is a lie as the reader knows that

Napoleon is a dictator.

52
Chinez (2008:45) argues that the command not to lie is a moral of the natural law which is

expressed in the divine positive law, “You shall not bear false witness against your

neighbour.” He adds that this law points out man’s duty to always live in the truth. We can

argue from this that the duty of leaders is to defend the cause of the people by speaking the

truth to the people rather than speaking lies in order to gain political advantage over them.

Acting in the manner that the pigs do, compromises morality because any moral value is

founded on truth. It would be possible therefore to state, from the perspective of the Moral

and Philosophical approach that, in George Orwell’s Animal Farm language is used as a tool

for political control and manipulation.

Propaganda is another means by which the pigs control and manipulate the other animals.

This indeed is the case when Napoleon discredits Snowball and accuses him of destroying the

windmill. One way in which manipulation works in politics is where one politician or

political personality discredits an argument by making unfounded or irrelevant charges

against another, instead of rationally addressing what is being argued. This is exactly what we

see Napoleon do. When the windmill falls, he accuses Snowball of bringing it down so as to

draw away the attention of the animals from Snowball as well as from their suffering.

Further, Napoleon discredits Snowball’s efforts in battle and charges that Snowball was

Jones’ ally during the revolution. It is this question of whether or not Snowball was really

Jones’ ally that reinforces Boxer’s loyalty to Napoleon. Although he has doubts at first, he is

convinced by Squealer’s lies that Napoleon revealed this himself. Thus, Squealer works on

Boxer’s mind and manipulates him into believing and trusting Napoleon’s leadership.

Boxer’s opinion is altered, stops thinking for himself and depends on the pigs’ orders. His

support for the pigs actually intensifies as he adapts the two maxims “Napoleon is always

right” and “I will work hard”. It could be argued from the moral point of view, that people
53
manipulated by political propaganda tend to lose their capacity to think critically about issues

or to realise when their rights are being violated. This is also apparent in the incident in

which some animals are slain. The slain animals have been manipulated into believing that

the pigs are the ones to make decisions for them, thus even when it concerns their death they

do not come out and speak the truth but do as the pigs want them to do.

The windmill is also used for propaganda purposes – one of the methods by which Napoleon

rules. He uses propaganda to direct the animals' attention away from the growing shortages

and inadequacies on the farm and the animals ignorantly concentrate all their efforts on

building the windmill. Further, Napoleon makes the outrageous claim that Snowball was

responsible for the windmill’s destruction in order to shift the blame from himself and to

increase the support and trust from the other animals.

From the perspective of the Historical approach, our attention is drawn to Stalin who used

this type of tactic in Russia by evoking a demonised image of Trotsky. During much of the

twentieth century, it is recorded that the communists served as a convenient demon for

governments in the West: both German and American governments used the threat of

communism to excuse or cover up their own aggressive behaviors. (Accessed from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia on 30/01/2014).

More broadly, we can argue that the windmill represents the pigs’ continued manipulation of

the common animals. They not only force the animals to break their backs to construct the

windmill by threatening to withhold food; they also use the windmill’s collapse—the blame

for which, though it is caused by a storm, rests with the pigs for not having the foresight to

build thicker walls—to play on the animals’ general fear of being re-enslaved. By deflecting

the blame from themselves onto Snowball, they prevent the common animals from realising

54
how greatly the pigs are exploiting them and harness the animals’ energy toward defeating

this purported enemy.

Reading the text from the viewpoint of the Historical approach, we could argue that the

windmill can be considered a symbol of the Soviet Five-Year Plans, a concept developed by

Trotsky and adopted by Stalin, who, after banning Trotsky from the Soviet Union, claimed

them to be his idea. The failure of the windmill to generate the expected comforts and

subsequent search for saboteurs is probably a reference to accusations and a trial against

British engineers who were working on electrification projects in the USSR. It is important

to note that unlike Napoleon, who opens trade relations with neighbouring farms as a result

of the windmill, Stalin was conservative about foreign trade. Thus, rather than representing

a specific event in history, it can be argued that Napoleon’s decision to conduct business

with other farms is Orwell’s intention to point out Stalin’s hypocrisy and revisionism by

means of the pigs’ rejection of the original principles of the Rebellion. The very basis for

Animalism is the idea that humans are the enemy and not to be trusted—“four legs good,

two legs bad.” By negotiating with humans, Napoleon undermines Animalism completely.

By having Napoleon show such disregard for Animalism, Orwell suggests that Stalin was

more a proponent of his personal interests than he was of the cause of Communism. Like

Napoleon, Stalin did not seem to believe in the greater good for which he forced his people

to work so tirelessly. (Accessed from http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-

guide/section/ on 16/01/2014)

Thus, it is clear from these instances that propaganda is used for political control in the text.

Napoleon is able to take complete leadership because of the use of propaganda. Historically,

Stalin and his propagandists plastered the Soviet Union with propaganda in the form of

posters, songs, art, and countless other media. Squealer’s version of this pattern is to
55
continually re-paint the Seven Commandments to reflect Napoleon’s changes in policy.

Orwell humorously suggests a Soviet agent going around the Soviet Union, personally

scratching out and rewriting the slogans on posters. The point is that the propaganda changes

to suit those in power and to keep a controlled acquiescence among the rest.

In addition to language and propaganda, violence and fear are also used as means of control

in Animal Farm. Orwell demonstrates this quite clearly with Napoleon’s defamation of

Snowball and his assurances that Snowball could attack the animals at any minute. He uses

similar fear tactics regarding Frederick and Pilkington. Each time the animals dare to

question an aspect of Napoleon’s regime, Squealer threatens them with Jones’s return. This is

frightening to the animals because it would mean another battle and consequent return into

submission and cruel treatment.

We also see Napoleon use violence in the execution of some animals that are falsely accused,

and this causes fear among the animals. They can no longer rebel or complain for fear of

being executed. From a moral point of view it could be said that the insatiable desire for

power and political control can breed violence and fear.

From the historical point of view, Orwell’s text highlights the kind of propaganda, terror and

abuse of language that characterised Stalin’s era. Stalin’s use of terror was especially essential

in his political career. For example during his reign opposition to his kind of rule grew. Some

party members were publicly criticising Stalin and calling for the readmission of Trotsky to the

party. When the issue was discussed at the Politburo, Stalin demanded that the critics should be

arrested and executed. Stalin cleverly began manipulating his opponents. Sergey Kirov, who up

to this time had been a staunch Stalinist, argued against this policy. When the vote was taken,

the majority of the Politburo supported Kirov against Stalin. Kirov was now a major threat to

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Stalin's power. Kirov was assassinated by Leonid Nikolayev, on 1st December, 1934. Stalin

claimed that Nikolayev was part of a larger conspiracy led by Trotsky against the Soviet

government. This resulted in the arrest and trial in August, 1936, of Lev Kamenev, Gregory

Zinoviev, Ivan Smirnov and thirteen other party members who had been critical of Stalin. All

were found guilty and executed. (Accessed on 6 march 2014 from

http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/stalin/section8.rhtml)

According to Robert (1968: xvi), the trials and executions of these former Communist leaders

were a minor detail of the purges, which, together with man-made famines, had led to 20

million deaths in estimation. Other executions in the Great Purges of 1934-39 included the

Army. In 1937, the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army and seven leading generals were

shot. In 1938–39, all the admirals and half the Army’s officers were executed or imprisoned.

The Churches were not spared as religious leaders were imprisoned and churches closed

down. In addition Stalin enforced Russification of all the Soviet Union consequently leading

to the killing of various ethnic groups. Ordinary people were denounced, arrested and sent to

the Gulag (the system of labour camps), while others were sent to camps, where perhaps half

of them died. Many people lived in fear and the few ‘Apparatchiks’ (party members loyal to

Stalin) got all the new flats, jobs, and so on. His apparatus of terror included the secret police,

the Cheka and the NKVD, the Great Purges, Russification and others.

4.4 Power’s ability to corrupt

According to Lord Acton, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.5 Tembo

(1996) argues that the ascent to power by most politicians is usually based on opportunism

5
This is a quotation of a sentence in Lord Acton’s letter to Bishop Creighton concerning the judging of the Pope
and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. (Accessed from
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2013/02/lord_acton_on_p.html)

57
and latent greed for political power and once in power many of them can be cunning and

ruthless towards those who helped them assume power.

In Animal Farm when the animals take over the farm from Jones, they agree to run the farm

collectively and lead a life of equality and justice. However, the leaders become selfish and

corrupt as a result of being in power. The pigs who are the leaders begin to abuse power and

become corrupt at the expense of other animals. The situation under Napoleon’s leadership is

even worse. After Snowball is exiled, Napoleon assumes complete control of the farm. He

emerges as an utterly corrupt opportunist and speaks relatively little because he has Squealer

speak for him. He eliminates all chances of open protest when he gets rid of the public

meetings, saying that it is better if things are decided by committees, which will be presided

over by him. In general his public image is very tightly controlled:

In these days Napoleon rarely appeared in public, but spent all his time in the farm

house, which was guarded at each door by fierce-looking dogs. When he did

emerge, it was in a ceremonial manner, with an escort of six dogs who closely

surrounded him and growled if anyone came too near (Orwell 1945: 66).

Napoleon protects himself on all fronts and with the help of Squealer and the other pigs, he

re-writes history, turning Snowball into a villain, and exaggerating his own role in the

rebellion. He relies on the gullibility of the strongest animals, like Boxer the horse, and the

apathy of the wisest, like Benjamin the donkey. When anyone questions Napoleon's version

of history, he has a herd of sheep chant loudly over their protests. Thus, soon after he

emerges leader of the farm, Napoleon begins to show how corrupt he has become. He is not

committed to the ideas of the revolution and wants to rule and be recognised as the sole ruler,

high above the rest of the animals. His desire to become more powerful is seen first in his

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raising of a pack of dogs which he later uses to squash all opposition on the farm. With these

dogs as security guards Napoleon manages to terrorise Snowball and have him out of the way

so that he could obtain absolute power on the farm. The dogs and not the other animals

become his source of power as he uses them to force the other animals to submit to him

completely. Whatever he wishes to do he does without any animal opposing, as any

opposition would attract an attack from the dogs:

When Napoleon abolished the Meetings, four young pigs raised their voices

timidly, but they were promptly silenced by the tremendous growling from the

dogs. Then, as usual, the sheep broke into "Four legs good, two legs bad!" and the

momentary awkwardness was smoothed over (ibid: 67).

Further Napoleon begins to seclude himself from other animals so as to have absolute control

over them. By associating with them, Napoleon would definitely have betrayed himself as the

animals would still see him as their equal. Realising this Napoleon quickly secludes himself

from the other animals making it very difficult for them to ever see him as their equal.

Napoleon was now never spoken of simply as “Napoleon.” He was always referred

to in formal style as “our leader, comrade Napoleon,” and the pigs liked to invent

for him such titles as Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, and Protector of

the Sheep-Fold, Ducklings’ Friend, and the like (ibid:79-80).

From this we could argue that Napoleon’s power grows from relative humility to absolute

power and consequently to corrupt power. This ultimately leads to the total failure of the

revolution, as the abuse of power that brought down Jones is the same that the pigs adopt.

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now,

what had happened to the faces of the pigs? The creatures outside looked from pig
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 to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was

impossible to say which was which. (ibid:120)

It should be noted that while Napoleon and the pigs as a whole change in many ways, it is not

moving into the house or wearing clothes or walking on two legs that makes them like the

humans – it is the abuse of power.

From the perspective of the Moral and Intellectual critical approach one of the lessons from

Animal Farm is that the thirst for power is insatiable. As the pigs gain power on the farm they

become greedy for more power. Through Animal Farm Orwell provides us with an insight

into the negative effects of power and some of the methods people in power use to maintain

it. Many people rise to power on the basis of claiming that they will do the best for the people

but once they get into power, they become corrupted by it. The text suggests that when some

political leaders gain control they begin to abuse their power in order to protect and promote

selfish interests. They become addicted to power and cling to it at all costs.

Another lesson we learn from Orwell’s narrative is that if a person has absolute power and he

becomes corrupt the whole nation is ruined because that tyrant controls everything. This is

exactly what we see when the pigs gain power and become corrupt. They ill-treat the other

animals and control everything. They even control the way the other animals such as Boxer

think.

Historically, Hitler and Stalin are examples of how power corrupts. They were at the head of

a totalitarian society and had absolute, unquestionable authority over their entire nations.

They held absolute power and were corrupted by it to the point where their corruption

destroyed the lives of millions of innocent people. One common feature of the three

characters - Napoleon in Animal Farm, Hitler in Germany and Stalin in Russia is their

obsession with police and military strength and not allowing any opposing viewpoints to
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 reach the public.

Napoleon continues to pay lip service to the principles of the revolution, but his actions are

far removed from the principles of Animalism. He and the other pigs begin to claim

privileges for themselves, and eventually he uses the dogs to purge those who question his

authority. Snowball is driven from the farm for dissent, and gradually, the pigs become more

like the humans they fought to overthrow. The corruption of the principles of the revolution is

illustrated by the changing Seven Commandments, which are perverted over the course of the

narrative to the point where, at the end, they read only "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT

SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS."

• 4.5 Rebellion does not produce a perfect society

Another theme that may be drawn from Animal Farm is the use of rebellion in bringing about

political change. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005: 1259), defines a

rebellion as an attempt by some people in a country to change their government, using force.

It is the opposition to authority within an organisation or a political party. According to the

Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1971), rebellion is armed resistance to

the ruler or government of one’s country. It is further defined as an insurrection or a revolt,

an open or determined defiance or resistance to any authority or controlling power.

It is evident from the text under study that rebellion is a tool for imposing political change. In

Animal Farm, the animals are dissatisfied with Jones’ rule and decide to change their status.

They believe such change could only happen by changing the administration from man to

animal through rebellion. According to the animals, man is the source of all their misery. This

is seen in the speech by Old Major when he stirs the other animals to rebellion.

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 No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year

old. No animal is free in England. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that

is the plain truth....Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? ...The

answer is summed up in a single word-Man. Man is the only real enemy we have.

Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is

abolished forever. What then must we do? Rebellion! I do not know when that

Rebellion will come... but I know that sooner or later justice will be done (Orwell

1945: 3-5).

It is evident from the passage that the animals believe the only way to change things on

the farm is through a rebellion aimed at removing Jones. Therefore, through a rebellion,

Jones’ administration is replaced with that of the animals.

However, the spirit of rebellion is not eliminated from the midst of the animals despite being

ruled by Snowball, one of the pigs. Napoleon a fellow pig is dissatisfied and so begins to

oppose Snowball in every aspect. For instance, he opposes Snowball’s idea of building a

windmill by urinating on the plans of the windmill drawn by Snowball. Further, he abandons

meetings called by Snowball, saying “it is better to train the young for future leadership, than

waste time in meetings.” Under this pretext, he gets away the little puppies from their

mothers as soon as they are weaned and begins to train them as a secret army. Finally when

the dogs are grown enough, he uses them to revolt against and expel Snowball from the farm.

Napoleon then appoints himself as the leader of the farm. This brings in another regime under

Napoleon.

It should be noted that Napoleon could not have been leader on the farm without rebelling

against Snowball or expelling him. This is because without the seizure of state apparatus one

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cannot become leader of the state or nation. This also relates to the argument by Post and

Wright (1989) that for a revolution to have full meaning, in the sense that the process of

transformation of the old society can be set in train, the state apparatus has to be seized. Thus,

we can argue that administration on the farm is transferred to Napoleon because of his

rebellion against Snowball. If other animals were to be as rebellious as Napoleon, they might

have taken over leadership. For example Boxer though hard working and the oldest on the

farm does not grab power, but we see Napoleon wrestling power even when he is

unproductive. One scholar notes: “Napoleon, the boar lacks productive skills yet is able to

grasp power and subsequently becomes the net beneficiary of the socialized system, but

Boxer, the horse who is endowed with highly productive skills does not acquire power and

gradually depletes his resources as the net loser in the system” (Hamlen 1942:34). This is

because Napoleon uses force and rebellion against Snowball to gain power and authority

while Boxer fails to do so because he is too naive and loyal to the pigs; and unable to rebel

against the pigs even when he sees that they are corrupt.

As Napoleon becomes more and more dictatorial and ill-treats his fellow animals, the spirit of

rebellion continues to haunt the farm. Under his leadership, the pigs begin to change the

commandments which act as the laws for administering the farm. This makes Muriel and

Clover begin to counter-check the changes with the initial laws and awaken other animals to

the fact that the pigs were changing laws to suit their behaviour. This makes the animals

begin to spy on the pigs and they consequently learn that the pigs have actually become like

man. Thus, owing to the changes in the commandments, various reactions from other animals

follow, as a way of rebellion. For instance, the hens rebel against the law put up by Napoleon

to surrender their eggs for sale. It is agreed by the animals and enforced as a law that “no

animal shall kill any other animal,” yet when Napoleon begins to lead he brings a law of

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making the hens surrender their eggs for sale to the neighbouring farm. This is equivalent to

murder and so the hens protest against this directive. Instead of surrendering the eggs, they

smash them as a way of rebelling against Napoleon’s policies. They are punished and their

rebellion is not successful.

From the point of view of the Moral and Philosophical approach, it would be possible to

conclude that the text suggests that a utopian society, whether attempted through revolution

or the ballot is not possible. The other lesson that we learn from the above instances of

revolution is that violence and illegal political behaviour are detrimental to the interests of

any nation.

From the point of view of the Historical approach, revolutions in Russia arose from the need

to change political authorities such as the Tsar and Stalin. For example, during the 18th

century, the Tsardom of Russia had become the huge Russian Empire, stretching from the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth eastward to the Pacific Ocean. Russian serfdom was

abolished in 1861, but its abolition was achieved on terms unfavourable to the peasants and

served to increase revolutionary pressures. Between the abolition of serfdom and the

beginning of World War I in 1914, the Stolypin reforms, the constitution of 1906, and State

Duma introduced notable changes to the economy and politics of Russia, but the tsars were

still not willing to relinquish autocratic rule or share their power. This led to the rise of

Communism. The nation’s workers and peasants, assisted by a class of concerned

intellectuals known as the intelligentsia, rebelled against and overwhelmed the wealthy and

powerful class of capitalists and aristocrats. They hoped to establish a socialist utopia based

on the principles of the German economic and political philosopher Karl Marx. Consequently

these led to the 1917 Russian Revolution in which the Bolsheviks took on power, thereby

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bringing about political change in terms of administration and policy. (Accessed from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia on 30/01/2014).

Therefore, from these examples in the text and from history, it can be argued that Orwell

suggests that rebellion or revolution does not lead to a perfect society but may lead to more

rebellion.

4.6 The rule of the few over the many

Oligarchy is said to be the rule by the minority. In Animal Farm the animals collectively

overthrow Jones but soon afterwards the pigs emerge as leaders of the farm while the other

animals are thrust back into servitude. The pigs though in the minority alter the laws to suit

themselves while the other animals watch helplessly. All the benefits of the revolution are

shared by the minority of the animals who are the pigs while the majority do not benefit.

Consequently the pigs return the farm to its original name ‘Manor Farm’ thus, depicting the

fact that things have not changed. Through fraud and violence, which are prevalent in an

oligarchical system, the pigs become rulers over the rest of the animals.

Further, Napoleon obviously knows that the pigs are fewer in number on the farm and so we

see him begin to increase the number of the pigs on the farm. Thirty-one pigs are produced

simultaneously by four sows. We can argue that it is not difficult to guess who sired these

piglets since Napoleon is the only boar on the farm. While the pigs’ population grows, other

animals are kept down by a subtle process of social engineering. For instance production has

to be stepped up so the hens are expected to produce six hundred eggs a week for the pigs.

This is not just an act of murder but an intelligent way of Napoleon reducing the population

of other animals and increasing that of the pigs. By having so many piglets Napoleon is

already raising a generation that would take over leadership; since Napoleon believes in

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training the young for future leadership. This also entails that the pigs feel indispensable and

believe they will rule forever.

Oligarchy in Animal Farm is further amplified by the other animals who are the majority. The

animals contribute to the status quo because they do not take interest in education which

could have helped them to revolt against the rule of the minority. Smith (2011) argues that

the animals (except the pigs, of course) are prone to following what they are told and

although they have the might, both in strength and numbers, they are incredibly docile and

obedient. It is also worth mentioning that despite efforts to teach them to read, many are

unable to learn and thus they are taken advantage of more often. The effect of the lack of

education is seen in the changes made by the pigs in terms of laws. One example is when

there is a murder on the farm committed by one animal against another. Since there is a lack

of education among the animals and the sense that they do not need to know anything beyond

that which they have been told, they quickly forget that such an act is a crime and an

unforgivable offence. They are convinced by the pigs that they misunderstood the law in the

first place and surely when they check they find the law is not according to what they assume.

The law now reads: “No animal shall kill any other animal without a cause.” The last three

words the animals perceived had slipped out of their memory. We can argue that Orwell

deliberately does this to show how naive the animals are in comparison with the pigs. We are

actually shown that when they see the commandment they are easily convinced and ask no

further questions. “But now they saw the Commandment had not been violated; for clearly

there was a good reason for killing the traitors who leagued themselves with Snowball”

(Orwell:98).

In this case the majority of the population at the farm are ignorant because they cannot read

and even more obvious because they are unwilling to see the signs of dictatorship. The
66
minority pigs continue to rule because they easily manipulate the other animals. From the

Moral and Philosophical point of view it could be argued that the rule of the minority is

unsustainable.

4.7 Education and knowledge as tools for effective participation in the political process

It is evident from reading the text that the animals pay the price for ignorance and illiteracy.

One of the themes of the text, therefore, is that education and knowledge are critical to

effective participation in the political process as it plays out on the farm. As soon as the

rebellion happens, Snowball institutes literacy classes for all animals. The pigs learn to read

and write almost perfectly. Benjamin also acquires complete literacy but refuses to use his

ability since in his opinion there is nothing worth reading. Among the other animals that

acquire some education are the dogs but these are not interested in reading anything except

the seven commandments. Mollie is also capable of reading but is interested only in reading

the six letters that spell her name. Muriel is able to read and occasionally reads to the other

animals from scraps of newspapers she finds on the rubbish heaps. The rest of the animals on

the farm are illiterate and uneducated and this turns out to be very unfortunate for them. For

example, because of their ability to read and write perfectly the pigs take on the leadership

role which gives them immense advantage over the other animals. They reduce Old Major’s

teachings into seven commandments under the principle of animalism and later begin to

amend the commandments because they are able to read and write while the other animals are

illiterate and those who are literate refuse to meddle in the administrative affairs of the farm.

The pigs are able to change the laws because they realise that the other animals are ignorant;

and even when the laws are changed they do not notice. For example, Squealer taking

advantage of the ignorance of the animals lies to them that the milk and the apples contain

essential nutrients which the pigs need for their well-being. Squealer’s constant changing of
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the commandments may refer to the constant line of adjustments to the Communists ruling

Russia. In addition, Squealer’s manipulation of the animals by twisting past events is

reminiscent of the revision of history texts to glorify Stalin during his regime. The pigs

manipulate the other animals because of their lack of education. If the animals had taken

interest in learning especially to read and write, the pigs would not have had it easy because

the animals would have been constantly counter checking the laws against the behaviour of

the pigs.

It is worth noting that the pigs actively try to keep the other animals ignorant and illiterate in

order to entrench their dictatorship. For example, they order that all artefacts of the animals’

oppression be burned. The pigs thus burn a children’s book they used to teach themselves to

read and write, and the resource is no longer available after the book-burning. Although the

pigs remove the literacy resources from the farm, we can argue that the animals themselves

are the ones that contribute greatly to the illiteracy at the farm and consequently to the

corruption by the pigs. Clover, Boxer, Benjamin and Muriel are able to lead a revolution

against the pigs, but they do not because of their inability to learn further and their decision

not to be involved in farm matters as was the case with Benjamin. The pigs take advantage

and no revolution takes place to dislodge them from power. Knowing that the other animals

have weak retention memories, the pigs continue rewriting history and amending the

commandments to suit their interests. The poor literacy level among the other animals

presupposes low levels of analysis and this is what the pigs capitalise on.

From a moral point of view the text suggests that revolutions are successful and effect radical

improvements only when the masses are alert and well informed on various issues that affect

them. If the animals were alert and well educated on the principles of Animalism, the pigs

would not have prevailed in manipulating the animals and the animals would have
68
successfully rebelled against the pigs.

4.8 Inevitability of exploitation and abuse of human rights where corrupt leadership

exists

From the Moral perspective, the text suggests that exploitation and abuse of human rights are

inevitable when corrupt leaders are in charge. In every society the protection of human rights

is vital. It includes the protection of their lives, liberty, property and other privileges. It is

clear from the text that many of these rights are denied or infringed on. For example during

Jones’ reign, the animals are exploited. They are killed, they have no freedom or liberty as

they are always caged and none of their property is taken care of. The animals do not realise

that this is wrong and thus take it as normal until Old Major enlightens them.

“Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face

it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we

are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies,

and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last

atom of our strength; and the very instance that our usefulness has

come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No

animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after

he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an

animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth” (Orwell

1945:8).

Old Major’s speech is a revelation of how much the animals are exploited and their rights

denied. Major explains to the animals that they are enslaved and exploited because of Man.

He teaches them not only what exploitation means, but also the fact that it is preventable. It

should be noted that it is when the animals realise they are being exploited by Jones that they
69
unite. Those animals that were not united such as the cat and the rats are all brought together

to fight for their rights and end exploitation. The moral lesson suggested by the text is the

importance—and scarcity—of human rights in an oppressive regime. Gaining freedom does

not necessarily mean becoming rich but rather becoming free even in the midst of poverty.

When the animals take over the farm, the reader expects to see an end to the reign of

exploitation and infringement of rights but this does not happen. What actually happens is

that the animals continue being exploited and their rights infringed upon. They continue to

experience pain, hunger, murder and lack of liberty. For example, they have no liberty to

speak against the pigs’ behaviour as doing so would mean, being murdered by Napoleon’s

dogs. They are whipped when they do not work to the satisfaction of the pigs. Further, they

are denied rest and medical care as we see happen to Boxer. From the perspective of the

Moral-Philosophical approach when an individual is ill or tired and stressed, they need

medical care and rest. Thus, by not giving Boxer rest and medical care when he needed it,

the pigs are guilty of denying and violating his rights. It should be noted that when Boxer

gets very ill, the pigs do not provide any assistance to him; instead, they call on the knackers

who carry Boxer away to kill him. By helping Boxer to die the pigs are guilty of murder and

this compromises their moral standing.

It should also be noted that the cases of exploitation and infringements of rights do not

only affect the animals outside Napoleon’s inner circle because even the dogs who are part

of Napoleon’s inner circle are also exploited. The dogs face perhaps even a worse form of

exploitation than the other animals because they are turned into agents of intimidation and

death. Whereas Napoleon exploits the other animals’ physical strength and their

ignorance, he exploits the dogs’ viciousness and turns them into villains.

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All this kind of exploitation results from a corrupt leadership. The pigs are so corrupt that

they use any method to keep power and remain the most privileged class on the farm. The

lower animals also contribute to a great extent because they have chosen to remain

ignorant of their rights and even when they sense that something is wrong, they fail to

articulate it. Hernandez (2007) argues that when populations are ignorant of their inherent

rights and follow government blindly, violations of human rights and dignity are sure to

ensue. Hence, people living in free nations around the world ought to learn why it so

important to educate those currently unaware of the principles of democracy, liberty, free

and open trade, fair election processes. (Accessed on 15/10/2013 from

http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/74731/joshua_mcmorrow hernandez.html.)

Historically, the lack of human rights and the exploitation in Animal Farm is reminiscent of

the lack of human rights and the prevalence of exploitation during Stalin’s reign in Russia.

After forcing Trotsky’s exile from Russia, Stalin continued to claim the existence of

Trotskyist plots throughout Soviet society just as a way of denying people their freedom.

During the 1930s, he staged a number of infamous “purges,” sham trials during which

Stalin and his allies essentially forced government officers and citizens to “confess” their

complicity with Trotskyist or other anti-Stalinist conspiracies. In many cases, the purge

victims would admit to activities in which they had never engaged, simply to put a stop to

their torture. But after confessing, the alleged conspirators were executed as “enemies of

the people.” Stalin used his purges to eliminate any dissident elements in his government,

provide his people with a common enemy to despise, and keep both the populace and his

staff in a state of fear for their own safety, making them far less likely to disobey orders or

challenge his rule in any way, thereby denying them their human rights as well as

exploiting them. The quality of life for the average citizen continued to decline, even as the

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ruling class grew ever larger and consumed ever more luxuries (Accessed from

www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/summary.html on 03/01/2014) There is therefore

reason to conclude that exploitation and human rights abuse are unavoidable in a society

ruled by corrupt leaders.

4.9 The tendency of the masses to become apathetic when dissatisfied with

leadership

From the beginning of the text the animals in Animal Farm exhibit a lot of apathy because

they are dissatisfied with their leaders. For example, during Jones’ reign, the animals do

nothing to change their situation. They accept their status as animals that should be exploited

and made to work to produce for man and not themselves. It is not until Old Major inspires

them and awakens them to reality that they attempt to change their situation. After Major’s

speech the idea of revolution, freedom and equality motivates them and they begin preparing

themselves for the rebellion except for Benjamin, Mollie and the Cat.

Another example of apathy on the part of the animals is when they are made to learn to read

and write by the pigs. Most of the animals are not interested in learning and those who learn

choose not to use this resource. For example, Benjamin is able to read and write but refuses

to use this ability for anything because he sees no reason or benefit for doing so. In his

opinion there is nothing worth reading. The dogs are able to read and write but they are not

interested in reading anything except the seven commandments. Like the dogs Mollie is also

able to read but she chooses to read only the six letters that spell her name. Muriel is able to

read and is the only animal that tries to use her faculty by reading newspapers from rubbish

heaps to the other animals. The rest of the animals are not interested in reading and so do not

learn and will not since this resource is removed from them by the pigs when they burn the

materials they used for teaching reading and writing.

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Boxer’s zeal for work is another element that points us to the apathetic attitude of the

animals. From the beginning Boxer shows great interest in Old Major’s message and is

faithful to it. Immediately after the rebellion he fetches and destroys the straw hat that

protects him from flies in summer, an indication that he is willing to do away with everything

that is linked to oppression. However, we later see him develop apathy and accept everything

that he is told by the pigs. He works more not because he wants to but because he has just

come to accept his circumstances as normal. To affirm his apathy he develops the two

maxims “Napoleon is always right” and “I will work harder.” Through the two maxims,

Orwell is able to show how apathetic Boxer has become as he does not resist the oppression

from the pigs as he had resisted the oppression from human beings. His action therefore

highlights the theme that there is a tendency of the masses to become apathetic in the face of

oppression and corrupt leadership or when dissatisfied with leadership.

Boxer’s betrayal by the leaders also lays bare another instance of apathy—that of the pigs, in

the text. Instead of considering Boxer as a loyal comrade, the pigs treat him as apathetically

as they would a mere object. Through the dogs, they threaten him with violence, but he reacts

by attacking one dog only to release it on Napoleon’s orders. Later on when Boxer’s health

worsens, the pigs make a profit out of him by having him sold to the knackers who eventually

turn him into literal objects—glue and bone meal, the exact way the human beings treated

animals.

While Benjamin emotionally detaches himself from situations, whether good or bad, as a way

of avoiding disappointment, Boxer exhibits profound loyalty and enthusiasm, yet gains

nothing. The pigs become indifferent towards the animals and do not care about them or their

end as long as they remain leaders and in a comfort zone. It is actually clear that by the end of

the book, the animals have become too apathetic and demotivated to effect any revolution or
73
to contribute to the decision-making process. Orwell actually shows us at the end of the novel

that only a few animals remember the revolution. Although some animals that lived during

the revolution die, the ones that are still living are apathetic towards the leadership of the pigs

and the revolution which they only remember vaguely. The rest of the animals are now driven

by the hope of a better future and an illusion of freedom, while the pigs drive the farm back

into human hands.

From the Moral and Intellectual point of view, apathy does not help in dealing with political

leaders or situations but leads to the denying of freedom, brings about demotivation to the

general populace and prevents one from being a solution to many problems. We also learn

that ignorance and fear are what lead to apathy. If the animals were not ignorant of the law

and were not afraid of the pigs, they would have overthrown them just like they overthrew

Jones.

4.10 Conclusion
The main political themes of Animal Farm centre on the machinations of power and the

mechanisms of control. Animal Farm serves not so much to condemn tyranny but to expose

the horrifying hypocrisy of tyrannies that base themselves on, and owe their initial power to,

ideologies of liberation and equality. Through all the themes discussed in this section, it could

be said that the text demonstrates how selfishness of leaders and ignorance of the masses can

lead to total destruction of society and morality.

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 CHAPTER FIVE: POLITICAL THEMES OF MATIGARI

5.0 Introduction

While the previous chapter was concerned with political themes in Orwell’s Animal Farm,

this chapter focuses on political themes in Ngugi’s Matigari. The themes are as follows:

(i) Power’s ability to corrupt;

(ii) The ruling elite’s failure to adequately meet the needs of the people;

(iii) The cyclical nature of politics;

(iv) The negative effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism on the lives of the

colonised;

(v) Language, propaganda and terror as tools of political change;

(vi) Rebellion does not produce a perfect society;

(vii) The role of the police, media, religion and women in politics;

(viii) Education and knowledge as tools for effective participation in the political

process.

In addressing these themes in the text, the study will apply the Moral-Philosophical (Moral-

Intellectual) critical approach, supported by the Marxist critical approach, especially in view

of the Marxist inclinations of the author.

5.1 Power’s ability to corrupt

In the previous chapter, we considered Lord Acton’s quote: “Power corrupts and absolute

power corrupts absolutely.” This quote indicates that there is a tendency among politicians to

become corrupt once they get into power and that they become more corrupt as they become

more powerful. Simply defined corruption is the abuse of power by a public official for

private gain. We could argue that power is usually abused thus leading to corrupt practices by

the leader or person in power.

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The text Matigari is a clear example of how power tends to corrupt and to corrupt absolutely.

Ngugi records instances of corruption when he shows the deeds and misdeeds of the

privileged few to chronicle the injustices of those in authority. For example, the behaviour of

the Minister of Truth and Justice when resolving the dispute between the factory workers and

the factory owners is an indication of corruption. The Minister is supposed to judge between

the two parties and in playing the role of judge we expect that he will be objective. However,

what we see is the Minister lying and defending the oppressors. This is corruption. It is

corruption of the criminal justice system; the justice that Matigari is searching for.

Additionally, bribery is also at play as the Minister tries to resolve the conflict. Bribery must

be and is regarded as the quintessential form of corruption (Noonan 1984 and Pritchard 1998).

The person who accepts a bribe is expected to provide a benefit to the briber, and this is

exactly what happens when the Minister is given money by John Boy and Settler William.

William intends to secure the contract of running the factory in the country. This also shows

that corruption is not only practised for financial gain but also for other reasons such as the

desire to exercise power for its own sake.

Another example of the corrupting effect of power in Matigari is the behaviour of the police.

The police make children pay for picking pieces of garbage. They also beat and rape women

just because of the great influence they have in maintaining order in the village. The police

commit such wrong because they are encouraged by a misplaced system of justice. They seem

not to be answerable to anyone and largely appear to be encouraged by the corruption from

the top leadership such as the ministers and His Excellency Ole Excellence.

From these incidences, it is clear that power has the capacity to corrupt. According to Ross

(2002), extensive corruption seems to be at the heart of politics. This is simply because we

cannot eliminate government corruption by electing principled individuals to roles of power

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as power itself is what corrupts. In Matigari’s case we can argue that Ngugi deliberately

makes Matigari a mysterious man so as to emphasise the fact that the traits of a good leader

have nothing to do with tribe or ethnic affiliation, sex or gender issues, and natural or

supernatural qualities, but rather with his selflessness, objectivity and integrity - his ability to

use power in the right way.We can argue that from the foregoing power corrupts and absolute

power corrupts absolutely.

From a Moral and Intellectual approach the text shows that corruption is not simply a matter

of law but is fundamentally a matter of morality. It involves those in power meting out cruel

and unjust treatment to their subjects. This is because the people who are in power are

motivated by sadistic pleasure. In another sense this means dehumanising individuals that are

subject to those in power and this is morally wrong. It should be noted that although

corruption can lead to human rights violations, or indeed, that some human rights violations

are also acts of corruption, not all human rights violations are as a result of corruption. For

example, wrongfully and unlawfully jailing one's political opponent can be a human rights

violation as well as an act of corruption as the political and judicial processes are

compromised. However, if the opponent is rightly jailed for criminal offences they commit,

yet in an environment that may cause damage to their health, then their right to health is

violated. In other words the violation is due to being placed in an unhealthy environment, not

because of corruption. This then shows that there may be a distinction between human rights

violations and corruption.

Another example of moral significance in the text is that of leaders changing their personality

traits once they get into power. The very traits that helped the leaders accumulate control at

first all disappear once they rise to power. They become impulsive and dishonest instead of

being polite and honest. For example in Matigari this happens because of all the
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uncontrollable greed and need for power by the leaders such as the Minister of Truth and

Justice. What this entails is that there is influence that comes with authority. Authority usually

makes one less sympathetic to the concerns and emotions of others and those with authority

tend to be corrupt. According to Foucault, the dynamics of power can profoundly influence

how we think. He adds that corruption renders governments unable or unwilling to maximise

the welfare of the public.6 The limitations of power reflect the moral boundaries of the leader.

This is because when too much power is centralised in the hands of one person or group of

people, bad things happen to far more people than the few who benefit.

From the Marxist view point the events in the text are not just about the corrupting effects of

power, but the struggle for power that usually exists between various classes in a capitalist

society. Matigari shows the history of the ruthless capitalist exploitation of the masses by

those in privileged positions. The masses among who are labourers struggle to get to an upper

class and gain ownership of the means of production while the capitalists also struggle to

remain in the upper class and have mastery over the means of production. We should note that

the class that has mastery over production is said to have more power than the labourers. The

high class in this sense is more likely to be corrupt just to keep power and status. According to

the Marxist approach this direction of power is a form of materialistic idealism. The

bourgeoisie have an insatiable lust for power and money and ruthlessly pursue these ends.

However, the bourgeoisie from Marxist point of view can still be praised for their

revolutionary actions. It is argued that the bourgeoisie created more massive and more

colossal productive forces than (had) all preceding generations together. It was responsible for

the subjection of nature's forces to man, for the application of machinery to industry and

6
Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Foucault: On Power." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory.
http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/newhistoricism/modules/foucaultpower.html.

78
agriculture, steam navigation railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for

cultivation, canalization of rivers, for making entire deserts bloom like the rose. Through its

breaking up of the stagnation of feudal society it has been the most important agent in the

social-dynamics which will ultimately lead to the triumph of the proletariat.

Yet throughout this text, we see nothing of Ngugi’s praise of the bourgeoisie. The peasantry,

on the contrary, is always praised and glorified. This was also Fanon’s view. According to

Fanon there was a distinction between the Western bourgeoisie and the colonial bourgeoisie

and the poor peasantry as the most genuinely revolutionary class in the Third World. The

starving peasant, outside the class system, is the first among the exploited to discover that

only violence pays (Fanon 1967:47). Thus, in Matigari the Ministers represent those in

authority and the capitalist bourgeoisie who team up with Western businessmen to suck

Kenya of her resources and to keep power.

In concluding we could argue that from the moral perspective the novel teaches that those

who hold power will often do much, and often very unpleasant things to keep it. From a

Marxist point of view the text signifies how most nations persistently struggle with the

problems of bad leadership occasioned by immense corruption and greed. This is especially

true of African countries such as Kenya, Zambia, Ghana and other countries as seen in some

of the works by writers from these countries. Many African countries have had the bitter

experiences of brutalities perpetrated by tyrannical regimes. According to Addei and Osei

(2013:164) life in post-colonial Africa is characterised by a great deal of political

disillusionment and corruption. This therefore leads to a general feeling of disillusionment

and betrayal of the masses by the ruling class. The text Matigari through scenes such as the

scandals, lies, abuse of power and arrogance being displayed by different characters thus

demonstrates power’s ability to corrupt.

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5.2 The ruling elite’s failure to adequately meet the needs of the people

One of the themes that are prominent in Ngugi’s Matigari is the failure of the ruling elite to

adequately meet the needs of the people. This theme appears all through the text as we see

Matigari searching for justice and truth. For example one of the needs of the people is

freedom. From the text it is clear that the dream of freedom is only a mirage.

Matigari tells the story of a man who survives the war of freedom, comes out of the bush and

buries his AK47 under a fig tree (mugumo). He girds himself with a strip of bark from the tree

as a symbol of peace. After this, he goes in search of his family to rebuild his home, start a

new life and pursue a peaceful future. He however finds life in the newly independent state to

be very far from his dreams. Colonialism continues just as much as it did before. Various

characters in Matigari also speak out against colonialism and its masters and believe that

African leadership would bring about freedom. However, this is not so as the Africans who

take over from the colonialists also abuse offices and bring misery upon the people. They

arrest and punish them even when they have not committed any crime, when the people need

justice and truth.

Thus, the behaviour by the ruling elite shows how they fail to meet the needs of the people

despite being given a mandate to do so. Addei and Osai (2013: 165) argue that for the masses

in many African countries, the post-colonial era does not offer them anything too different

from the colonial era itself. The only difference, however, is that their white colonial masters

have simply metamorphosed into their own natives, the elite few, who have assumed control.

In other words it is a period of change of batons where white colonial masters have given

way, after independence, to black masters lording over their fellow black people.

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From the Marxist point of view, society is bound to have gaps between the haves and the

have-nots. This vulnerability is brought about by the system that formulates policies that are

supposed to address the welfare or the plight of the poor. Thus social injustices and the failure

to meet the needs of the people result from the class structures of a society with corrupt

political systems.

Secondly the people are in need of ownership of the means of production. This is apparent as

Matigari fights Settler Williams with the hope of owning the house that Williams had grabbed

from him. He constantly reiterates the fact that he built the house yet Williams came and got it

away from him:

You see, I built the house with my own hands. But settler Williams slept in it and I

would sleep outside on the veranda. I tended the estates that spread around the

house for miles. But it was Settler Williams who took the harvest. I was left to pick

anything he might have left behind. I worked all the machines and all the

industries, but it was Settler Williams who would take the profits to the bank and I

would end up with the cent that he flung my way…. I produced everything on that

farm with my own labour. But all the gains went to Settler Williams (Ngugi

1989:21).

From this passage we are able to perceive the desire for ownership that the people have and

the failure of the ruling elite to meet the people’s desire. According to Karl Marx, pre-

capitalist forms of production are characterised by the fact that the individuals as members of

the community own the means of production, primarily the land. (Accessed from

http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/precapitalist/ch02.htm on 9/03/14) However, in

capitalist societies the means of production are owned by the ruling elite while the labourers

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work for the elite and benefit little or nothing from their labour. The workers produce

commodities, the production of which requires capital; the commodities are placed on the

market by private entrepreneurs and sold with a view to increasing their capital through

profits and enhancing further production of commodities. The workers, through the wage they

earn, surrender to the capitalist the product of their labour which having become a commodity

is subsequently made available to them on the market as an exchange value. The

underprivileged class of workers is stripped of any means of production. This is exactly what

Ngugi shows us through Matigari and others as they search for homes and labour for the

colonialist and elite. Matigari actually tries to fight capitalism. He argues that the labourers

must benefit from the product rather than just be used by the capitalists to enrich themselves.

Matigari believes that the government ought to have done a lot more for its people, giving the

abundance of human and natural resources rather than denying them their needs. He is equally

angry with the masses for accepting the status quo without questioning. In his opinion, more

than anything else, it is the people’s complacency that has encouraged the intelligentsia or

ruling elite to batter the economies of his country and plunder the continent’s wealth for

selfish reasons. Thus, he says fear breeds misery.

According to Marcus and Herbert (1955:277), “a worker, who is alienated from his product, is

at the same time alienated from himself. His labour itself becomes no longer his own, and the

fact that it becomes the property of another bespeaks an expropriation that touches the very

essence of man.” Thus, in a capitalist mode of production, man is alienated from himself,

since he is incapable of objectifying himself through labour. This process of alienation can be

put to an end only through the abolition of capitalist class society by the socialist revolution.

From a Moral and Intellectual point of view the text exposes the hypocrisy of leaders as they

soon become more corrupt and filthier than the leaders they chased out of power. It also
82
shows State failure. State failure according to Sudarsan Kant (2011) is when the State

functions very well for the few, that is, the elite, the connected, ruling families, chiefs and the

wealthy, while excluding the rest, usually the workers or lower classes, from having access to

resources and opportunities (http://crosbiew.blogspot.com/2011/04/revolution-and-state-

failure.html). This is exactly what we see in Matigari. The state cares only about the elite such

as the Minister and John Boy and ignores the masses.

This is also a typical reflection of African politics where changes in leadership do not better

the lives of the masses. For example Kotzé and Steenekamp (2008) note that after the

establishment of a constitutional state in South Africa in 1994, the new regime obtained the

right to restructure the relationships between the state, the economy and society. Numerous

expectations were raised during this process, with the developmental needs of the population

urgently needing to be addressed. These expectations were based on the normative

assumption that the government should strive to meet the needs and wants of the population.

One of the prerequisites for achieving this expectation was a commitment on the side of the

governing elite to work towards good governance and to enhance the quality of democracy in

South Africa. However, the ruling government under Thabo Mbeki failed to adequately meet

the needs of the people.

From a Moral and Intellectual point of view when those who take on the mantle of leadership

after independence behave like the oppressors, against whom the masses struggled, then the

people's development becomes a mere word not a philosophy. This is because independence

in itself is a necessary condition for development but not a sufficient one. Sufficiency comes

from having selfless leaders; leaders who look beyond their belly and hear the groaning of

other people; leaders who want to lead rather than be led; leaders who have vision for the

betterment of the country rather than for their own betterment.

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According to Aristotle any constitution that ignores the interests of all the people, or has

"unwrought" aims, is a government not based on the telos of good, but evil. We can argue that

Aristotle’s view is true in that the consequences of State failure are profound and distressing;

it often results in the normalisation of extra-legal and informal activities by otherwise decent

and good people. The failure of the State to secure the basic needs of people often forces

ordinary citizens to step outside the law to get what they need in order to survive as they must

and this may involve evil behaviour.

5.3 The cyclical nature of politics

Ngugi in Matigari shows that politics are cyclical in nature. This is apparent when Matigari

leaves the forest and thinks through the colonial days.

How the settlers had loved shedding blood! They would dress in red, and the rider

who got to the fox first would cut off its tail in triumph; then he would smear the

blood of the fox on the face of a woman… Yes, it felt like a long time back… Well

there was no night so long that it did not end with dawn…He had hoped the last of

the colonial problems had disappeared with the descent of Settler William into hell

(3).

Ngugi shows us from this passage that during colonial rule, people endured miserable lives

because of the behaviour of the colonial masters. Thus, Matigari returns home with the hope

of finding the problems that had existed during colonial days gone. However, he finds that life

for some of the people in his village remains the same. Freedom has been attained,

government has changed, yet the policies have remained as they were during colonial rule.

For instance, the new government still bans public gatherings and opposition parties, thus

making the country a one party state.

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 A voice drifted to where he stood: This is the Voice of Truth… All gatherings of

more than five people have been banned by a decree of His Excellency Ole

Excellence. No explanations were offered for the ban.... Government bans the

opposition Party… His Excellence Ole Excellence has that this is a people’s

government… The people do not want opposition parties, as they only cause

disorder in the country (7).

From the passage, it is clear that the new government is not a democratic government, but

dictatorial. We can argue therefore that no freedom or liberation has been attained by the

people. Liberation is attained when the people are said to be truly free and in control of all the

tools or instruments of their physical, economic, political, cultural and psychological being.

According to Gustavo Gutierrez (1988) liberation expresses the aspirations of the oppressed

peoples and social classes emphasizing the conflicting aspects of the economic, social, and

political process which puts them at odds with wealthy nations and oppressive classes. Thus,

in the text Matigari Ngugi clearly shows that in the place of the liberation that the nationalists

fought for is neo-colonialism in all its manifestations: oppression, exploitation, social abuse

and injustice. The people fight for freedom from white domination, only to come under black

bourgeoisie domination. Ngugi helps us to see this by creating in Matigari a search motif.

Matigari is in search of his family, truth and justice, and Settler William, but he is also being

searched for by the police and people of his country. The search is futile for both Matigari and

the police and as such symbolic of the cyclical nature of politics. This is also what we find in

Devil on the Cross where Ngugi shows that the expected discontinuity between the colonial

and post-colonial times is illusory. In fact, any idea about a new political order as a result of

the liberation struggle is being queried and eventually crushed.

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Another instance in Matigari where Ngugi shows that politics are cyclical in nature is when

Matigari goes into prison. Matigari is not only a story of the bitter experience of post-

independence African society, but it is a picture of timeless suffering and struggle for justice.

In a dictatorship, questions of truth and justice are paramount because these two are the first

to disappear in such an environment. Therefore, through the setting of the prison, we are able

to question the existence of justice. The state of the prison is terrible and the prisoners hardly

have any food and are arrested without any reasons. This is because the leaders who take over

do nothing to change the prisons but enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and do the

same things that the colonial masters did.

‘It is true that our present leaders have no mercy,’ the farmer added. ‘First they

arrest us for no reason at all; then they bring us to a cell with no toilet facilities…

‘Even if there were toilets,’ the one accused of theft said, ‘I would have absolutely

nothing to put in them. When was the last time I put a morsel into this belly. (55)

Our country is truly as dry as this concrete floor. Our leaders have hearts as cold as

that of Pharaoh or even colder than those of the colonialists. They cannot hear the

cry of the people (53).

It is clear from the above that justice is denied. For instance, Matigari is arrested for no

reason, and so is the farmer. While in jail, Matigari is brought up to date on the underlying

and overt changes that have taken place in his country since he went into the mountains. He

learns that people are charged with vagrancy because they have no work, with murder because

they kill in anger for not being paid for their hard labour, with theft because they are hungry

and steal to feed their families; and there is a lack of democracy and freedom of speech. These

were the tendencies of the colonialists, yet they are repeated even when independence is

attained. From this it is clear that politics are cyclical in nature. Ngugi shows us that from the
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times of colonialism until the regime of the Africans, the political order remains unaltered in

policy and leadership. By making biblical comparisons Ngugi emphasises the absence of

justice and philosophically makes a comparison between the old and the new. Pharaoh ruled

the Israelites with cruelty, denying them justice and freedom to worship their God and so his

cruelty is used in this text to emphasise the conditions of man in Ngugi’s world and

emphasise that politics are cyclical in nature. Cruel and selfish leaders will always surface,

with the same political behaviour of mistreating their subjects and being corrupted by power.

This also shows the absence of justice and truth. Truth and justice were denied the Israelites

by Pharaoh and so is the case with the masses in Matigari. Those who need truth and justice

such as Matigari are not given but they are given to those who have committed crimes. Thus,

Matigari takes it upon himself to search for truth and justice but finds none. The indication

here is that colonialism is not completely abolished but merely replaced with neo-colonialism.

In his work Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965) Kwame Nkrumah argues

that “in place of colonialism as the main instrument of imperialism we have neo-colonialism.”

He argues that the essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in

theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty yet in

reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside. Therefore,

we can argue that what we see in Matigari is an aspect of neo-colonialism. People do not get

justice and the white colonialists represented by Robert William are still in control. Thus,

from this we can argue that Ngugi presents to the reader the idea that history tends to repeat

itself and so politics are repetitive or cyclical in nature. Leaders change but policies and laws

upon which they govern remain the same.

From a perspective of the Moral-Philosophical approach the expected discontinuity between

the colonial and post-colonial times is illusory. However, just as Matigari believes that there
87
is no night too long that it does not lead to dawn, the reader is optimistic that no matter how

long truth and justice are submerged, and the people are oppressed one day truth will come to

the surface and justice will triumph over injustice and peace will triumph over oppression.

We also learn as readers that political events happen with certainty, and are therefore

predictable. According to Christian (2013) political nature is cyclical and its structure is

predictable. He thus proposes a structure that shows the cyclical nature of politics as follows:

He argues that politics run in a perpetual cycle, one that mirrors human nature in a rather

frightening way (Accessed from http://christianmichael.org/2013/01/29/a-comparative-on-the-

nature-of-cyclical-governance/ on 4th March 2014).

5.4 The negative effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism on the lives of the colonised

In Ngugi’s Matigari, we are informed about how Matigari labours only for his boss, Williams,

to reap and enjoy the fruits of his labour. It is Matigari who toils to put up a house but he has

to sleep outside while his white boss, Williams, sleeps in the house. This is one of the effects

of colonialism as well as neo-colonialism. One aspect of neocolonialism and colonialism was

that of capitalist exploitation of the masses by those in authority. The masses are made to

labour and produce for their master while they suffer and are treated with cruelty despite

labouring. Matigari is about the brutal suppression of freedom and the merciless exploitation

of the people by the colonialists and neo-colonialists. Marxism viewed colonialism as part of

the global capitalist system which led to exploitation, social change and uneven development.

Thus, one negative effect of colonialism and neo-colonialism is that they lead to capitalist

88
exploitation of human life and society as a whole. This is one way in which Ngugi condemns

the colonial and neo-colonial masters.

The banning of the opposition is another effect of colonial and neocolonial societies. In

Matigari Ngugi presents a politically tense atmosphere in which the opposition party is

banned and all gatherings of more than five people are banned. By a decree the government of

His Excellency Ole Excellence bans the opposition party, claiming that this was a people‘s

government and that the people did not want opposition parties, as they only caused disorder

in the country. The statement by His Excellency is very typical of all military governments

and is also a very useful strategy of neo-colonialists to perpetuate their existence. This means

that disobeying Ole’s order is a punishable offence. Any gathering of five or more people is

by law forbidden since it is deemed detrimental to the government’s rule. There is therefore

no freedom of association. In a capitalist society it is the norm that those who champion the

cause of the poor are considered inimical to the interest of the state. It is also common

knowledge that opposition parties tend to mobilise the masses to fight for their rights. Thus,

by banning the opposition parties, the ruling party was indirectly ending the arguments on the

rights of the people. The intention is actually manifest when Matigari is thrown into jail,

Ngaruro is killed and the university is closed and students arrested. This is to eliminate those

that champion the cause for the poor.

Another effect of colonial and neocolonial rule is the abuse of human rights. One example of

the abuse of human rights in the text is the picture of the deplorable state of factory workers

as well as the inhuman attitudes of employers towards employees as depicted by the

descriptions below:

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 The factory building itself was inside a wall of metal sheeting, while barbed wire

fenced the workers ‘quarters like prison …the guard sat on a stool. He wore a

khaki uniform and a red-fez with a black tassel on the jacket. On the jacket were

the words, Guard, company property. At his feet was a tin with charcoal …He was

roasting sweet potatoes (p.10).

From the passage we are able to tell that the workers have no freedom of movement as the

factory building is inside a wall of metal sheeting and barbed wire fenced the workers

quarters. They cannot even associate with the outside world because of this barrier. We can

argue that this barrier is put there for no reason other than to have the workers alienated from

the external world and to hinder them from seeing the inhuman attitudes that were directed

towards them by their colonial masters.

The above passage also indicates to us that the colonial masters did not treat the workers as

human beings but as property. This is evident on the Guard’s jacket where the words, Guard,

company property were written. By the writings on the jacket, we know that the colonial

master’s attitude towards the workers is inhuman as they consider the workers personal

property with which they could do as they wished. Under this system the colonial subjects are

actually reduced to objects. From a Moral-Philosophical point of view this indicates that the

colonial master’s view of the black workers is that man no longer exists as an individual. This

consequently affects the moral improvement of man as it leads to the loss of capacity to think.

Great philosophers of old times such as Karl Marx and Jean Paul Sartre advocated for anti-

colonial thinking and encouraged colonized countries to resist colonialism through rebellion.

For instance the Marxists’ view is that men make their own history, but not of their own free

will; not under circumstances they themselves have chosen, but under the given and inherited

circumstances with which they are directly confronted (Marx 1973:146). Sartre also argued
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that individuals had to be wholly determined by circumstance, economic or historical,

suggesting rather that they possessed a responsibility over themselves and their way of being

in the world (Sartre 1964: x). This also relates to Fanon's view that white colonialism imposed

an existentially false and degrading existence upon its black victims to the extent that it

demanded their conformity to its distorted values. The colonised is not seen by the coloniser

as a human being; this is also the picture the colonised is forced to accept. The privileged one

makes himself a man by freely exercising his rights; on the other hand, ‘the other’ is denied

all rights and is condemned to misery, hunger and ignorance and reduced to subhuman status.

The view of the three scholars indicates the negative effects of colonialism as well as

neocolonialism.

The issue of street kids also appears in the text and indicates the abuse of human rights.

Rights such as the right to shelter, food, health and others are denied. This is evident

especially in the case of child characters. Children who are supposed to be in the comfort of

their homes with their parents are instead found at the green market, battling it out with the

dogs, vultures, rats, and other scavengers for pieces of leather, patches of cloth, rotten

tomatoes and even bones.

Each child now carried a small bundle or bits of thread, papers, plastic sheets,

pipes and patches of cloth…some of the children had stuffed their mouths with

rotten tomatoes, while others were busy cleaning bones with their teeth, hoping to

find a scrap of meat still clinging to them (Ngugi, 1989:12).

It is quite disappointing to learn that these children do not only eat from the rubbish dump, but

they also use wrecked cars as shelter. According to Muriuku, the orphan: “Each one of us has

his own house. Mine is a Mercedes-Benz…” (ibid.16).

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Human ideals are betrayed to such an extent that the plight of the children as discussed above

does not attract anybody’s sympathy but rather serves as fertile ground for further

exploitation, corruption and betrayal. In fact Ngugi reveals to us, through a conversation

between Matigari and Muriuku the orphan, that in spite of the misery of the children,

policemen collect tax from them before they are allowed onto the rubbish dump. True to

Muriuku’s words Matigari finds the policemen, the tractor driver and the two men who have

already collected the council tax from the children in conference behind a bush, apparently

sharing their booty. Indeed, these adults simply rob the children of their gains. Muriuku says

to Matigari: “When they see that they have found things like shoes, belts, pieces of leather or

cloth in good condition, they pretend to be angry at us … adults, people like you or others”

(p.13).

It is ironical that adults who should act responsibly by driving children away from danger

rather drive them into it in order to profit from them. Yet all this results from colonialism and

neocolonialism in addition to capitalism which in the text is at its peak during and after

colonialism. Ngugi’s text is very significant here as it shows the reality of African societies

after the colonial masters left. After African countries gained their independence from their

colonial masters, one would have expected a happy life in African societies but this is not so.

Africans have rather made life unbearable for one another through their selfish desires and

this has resulted into challenges that affect human life. As has been demonstrated above,

therefore, colonialism and neo-colonialism produce negative effects on society.

5.5 Language propaganda and fear as tools of political control

Matigari is full of examples of the use of language, propaganda, fear and misery for political

control. The arrest of Matigari and Ngaruro is one example of the use of propaganda. Matigari

and Ngaruro are arrested for speaking out against the evils of government. This is to blind

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people from thinking these two are heroes who intend to obtain justice for the people, and to

make the masses begin to see them as criminals. Faced with the prospect of arrest and

punishment the people are more likely to abstain from rebellion. Matigari is even taken to the

mental institution just to make people believe he is truly mad and not a patriot and to keep

them away from rebellion. This actually constitutes psychological propaganda. The Minister

and others know very well that Matigari is not mad yet they take him to a mental institution so

that his popularity is checked by perceptions of madness and to distract the populace from the

injustices they go through at the hands of the new government. All efforts to discredit or

capture Matigari however prove fruitless, as the villagers become less fearful of the

government and more willing to stand up for their rights.

Propaganda in Matigari is also through lies that are created by both Matigari and the Minister

who represents government. Many lies are told about Matigari aimed at enhancing his fame

and power and consequently helping him overcome the colonialists and bourgeoisie

government. The Minister of Justice and Truth also lies about various aspects to make the

government more popular and favoured in the eyes of the people. For instance, he lies that

Matigari is a madman and later that the actions of the government are normal in a Christian

democracy. The government also lies about the closure of the university, claiming this was

done because of the students’ riots, yet we are aware as readers that students only gathered for

prayers and not riot. Absattarov argues that manipulation or propaganda is based on lying and

discrediting an argument by making unfounded or irrelevant charges against a party rather

than by rationally addressing what is being argued. Absattarov adds that this is actually also

known popularly as character assassination (Accessed on 13th march 2014 from

http://www.rusnauka.com/12_KPSN_2012/Politologia/3_107760.doc.htm). Thus, from these

instances, propaganda is projected as a tool for political control.

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The use of propaganda to maintain power is also exhibited in terms of songs that are sung by

various characters. Matigari is filled with songs, poems, and slogans, which are all used as

tools for propaganda by the characters in leadership. For example, the songs are used by the

masses when confronting the government and when speaking of Matigari. They see Matigari

as a hero and thus compose a song in praise of him:

Show me the way to a man whose name is Matigari

ma Njiruungi, Who stamps his feet to the rhythm of bells,

And the bullets jingle. And the bullets jingle (71).

This song indicates Matigari’s power and ability to conquer. Through song we are able

to see the absence of justice and the presence of oppression. Matigari asks the

whereabouts of truth and justice using a song or a poem, but is merely told, by the

Minister of Truth and Justice, to stop speaking in parables (113). Earlier the Minister

promises to speak “the plain truth” (101), and his discomfort with Matigari’s parable

suggests a suspicion of his ability to maintain political control through unjustified

means. It is through the songs of Matigari that we are actually able to note that the

Minister’s language is politically all-powerful; especially that his decrees become law

immediately they are voiced: “His decision is just and true. It is now law” ( Ngugi:118).

Therefore, we can argue from this that songs are a form of propaganda and a tool to obtain

power in politics. In African tradition, music is used as a vehicle for expressing or recording a

people’s history, their dynasties, migrations, hardships and sufferings, defeats and victories

(Cantulop 1995:76) and this is what we see in Matigari. The songs are used mostly to express

hardship, suffering, defeat and victory by the masses. They are also used to promote rebellion

and conquest of the white colonialists. The narrator’s use of song is particularly important

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given the emphasis on it within the Gikuyu culture itself. Hooper (2005) argues that the

incorporation of song can be said to evoke mood and a participatory element from the

audience.

The songs in Matigari also tell us more on the political state of affairs. For instance, how life

was before colonialism and neo-colonialism: we shared even the single bean that fell upon the

ground (55); how it is under the bourgeoisie: you foreign oppressor, Pack your bags and

leave! For the owner of this house is on his way! The call to resist oppression: Show me the

way to a man whose name is Matigari ma Njiuungi and hope for the future: Even if you detain

us / Victory belongs to the people Victory belongs to the people! / Even if you kill us...Victory

shall be ours. The power of these songs is actually felt by the government as we see the

Minister reacting by banning subversive songs; and the Provincial Commissioner declares that

no song, no story or play or riddle or proverbs mentioning Matigari ma Njiruungi will be

tolerated (Ngugi:122). Thus, propaganda is used in various forms to gain political control.

Fear or terror is also used in the text to obtain and retain political control. In Matigari terror is

exhibited when the students are arrested just because they had called for a prayer meeting to

pray for peace and love in the country. We see the policemen killing twenty-five students

instantly and the government concocts a story to show the nation that the students are in the

wrong. The Voice of Truth announces that the University has been closed because the

students went on strike over food. Thus, His Excellency Ole Excellence and his assistant the

Minister of Truth and Justice, maintain political control by causing fear in the people, by

violence and through the Voice of Truth radio broadcast, which informs the public of the

punishment that awaits those who oppose the government. Those who oppose the government

are arrested and this causes more fear in the people.

The government becomes a dictatorship and causes fear in the people as they suppress
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freedom of expression and of assembly. This is actually one of the reasons why the society

remains as it was during the colonial era. We are told that among the people there is the

problem of fear. Arthur Lupia and Jesse O. Menning (1993: 90) examined how select

attributes of fear lead to a politician's ability to scare citizens into supporting policies that they

would otherwise reject. They argue that politicians' use of fear will depend on critical aspects

of mass psychology. For example, manipulation is more likely when the public does not

understand an issue or is unlikely to be able to overcome the fear created by politicians. By

contrast, the easier it is for citizens to observe that the politician has made false statements;

the less likely it is that politicians will attempt to use fear at all. From the foregoing, we can

argue that fear is a component of politics the ruling class uses effectively to maintain and

sustain their hegemony. Bad governments exploit the masses by using propaganda and fear

and other unacceptable methods.

From a moral view point Ngugi through this text shows how Kenya has got its scale of values

miserably distorted. He brings to the fore the helplessness of the poor masses at the hands of

the Kenyan police and those in authority; a helplessness which sometimes constitutes sexual

harassment and instills in the people fear to speak out. For instance, in Matigari, during

Guthera’s father’s arrest and detention in police custody, the police officer in charge proposes

a compromise so that her father is freed: “My superiors do not know about this yet we can

settle this matter between us here and now. Give me your purity … you are carrying your

father‘s life between your legs” (Ngugi:35).

Guthera vehemently refuses to compromise. She prays fervently to God, her heavenly father,

for a way out. Eventually, her father is killed. It is as a result of this bitter experience with the

police officer that Guthera now has her eleventh commandment which is her personal

philosophy. “I will never go to bed with a policeman” (p.37). This is typical of people of the
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underprivileged class as they have no freedom of speech, expression or assembly and are

treated as mere objects by the ruling class.

It is apparent that language is used as a tool for political control in Matigari. Various

characters use language in a way that puts them in control and they manipulate others. For

example the Minister uses language that makes his word to become law immediately it is

uttered. On the other hand Matigari also uses language that forces various groups of people to

sympathise with him as well as to follow him. Further, we see other characters such as John

Boy using language in a way that derogates his fellow Africans. From the Historical

approach’s perspective, we may argue that this behaviour by John Boy in Ngugi’s text

suggests that language was used by both Christian Missionaries and European Colonial

Masters to gain political control over the Africans. Schools that taught children European

languages were opened and these schools forced the deprecation of the use of local or native

languages as Africans were forced to speak European languages as a means of enforcing their

control. Language became the tool that was used to separate communities and children from

families, culture and history. Those who attended the schools managed by Europeans were

taught to criticise their native cultures and consider their cultures and communities as

uncivilised. Thus, we may argue that just as Orwell suggests that language is a tool for

political control, so does Ngugi.

Therefore, we may argue that language, propaganda and terror as has been shown are tools for

political control. They dehumanise the natives and the exploiter uses this dehumanisation as a

pretext to step up his political control.

5.6 Rebellion does not produce a perfect society

The use of rebellion as a means of bringing about change is another theme found in Matigari.

From the beginning of the text it is clear that for change to occur in the situation presented by
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the novel rebellion is inevitable. First, the name “Matigari” whose interpretation is “the

patriots who survived the bullets or the patriots who survived the liberation war” (p.20) is

suggestive of the inevitability of rebellion. We are told through Ngaruro that “Patriots are

those who went to the forest to fight for freedom” (p.20). Through the name Matigari Ngugi is

able to show us the desire for freedom, the need to oust the colonialists and the need for a new

government. A patriot is said to be a person who loves his country and fights the enemy to

protect it. Thus, by suggesting the name Matigari, Ngugi clearly shows that rebellion was

inevitable in efforts to bring about the needed change.

Another instance of rebellion in Matigari is when Matigari wrestles with Settler Williams in

the mountains.

You know that the fire of freedom was first lit in the forests and mountains,’

Ngaruro explained.

‘That is true,’ Matigari said. These children were too young to know. Take me, for

example. Settler Williams and I spent many years in those mountains you see over

there, hunting one another down through groves, caves, rivers, ditches, plains,

everywhere. I would sometimes catch sight of him in the distance, but by the time I

was ready to fire, he had disappeared in the bush, and he would be swallowed by

the darkness of the forest. ‘At times he would push me into a corner, but by the

time he fired, I had already ducked. … And so, day after day, week after week,

month after month, many years rolled past. ‘‘Neither of us was prepared to

surrender (Ngugi:20).

The wrestling duel between Matigari and Settler Williams is as a result of Matigari’s belief in

rebelling against colonialists to bring hope and transformation to society. Matigari believes

the only way to regain his house is to overthrow Settler Williams and thus, we see him going
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into the forest to fight Williams. However, although he manages to fight Williams, Matigari

does not occupy his house nor get the rewards or benefits of independence. The house

Matigari built and intends to repossess is now in the hands of John Boy and Robert Williams

and the administration of the country is now in the hands of the black bourgeoisie and not the

freedom fighters. He thus vows never to allow John Boy to sleep in the house. At first he

believes in peace and so approaches John with words alone. When this fails he uses force.

He realised that one cannot defeat the enemy with arms or words alone. And with

that, he plunged into the forest to retrieve his weapons to fight John Boy and

Williams (ibid:131).

“Since last night, I have now learned a new lesson-or, rather, learned a new and an

old lesson. The enemy can never be driven out by words alone, no matter how

sound the argument. Nor can the enemy be driven out by force alone. But words of

truth and justice, fully backed by armed power, will certainly drive the enemy out”

(ibid:138).

This scenario indicates the presence of rebellion in bringing about change. However, the

benefits of the war go to those who never fought for freedom.

It is at the climax of the novel that this theme is especially more pronounced. The novel rises

towards a climax as Matigari realises that words alone cannot defeat the enemy. He then vows

to use his buried weapons to achieve his true liberation. He takes off his belt of peace and

tramples upon it, remembering that “justice for the oppressed comes from a sharpened spear”

(p.131). Matigari thus destroys John Boy’s house and motivates the crowd to burn the

properties of the government.

Matigari drove towards the garage and swung the wheel to one side. The nose of the car now
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pointed towards the main entrance of the house. He drove straight into the door, taking it

along with him right into the building. Suddenly a ball of fire burst out of the windows of the

house. And now it was as though the people’s mouths were suddenly opened. They shouted

and scrambled. The crowd surged forward towards the house. The soldiers were completely

taken by surprise. They could not hold back the surging crowd.

“Bad Boy’s house is burning! Boy’s house is burning!” they sang. Some people

tried to climb into the house through those windows which seemed free of smoke.

They wanted to loot the house. They each wanted to ensure that they took

something however small, from the house…. Bad Boy’s house is burning! Bad

Boy’s house is burning! They sang on.

The tongues all merged into one great bonfire. The flames lit up the whole

compound, the fields and the surrounding country.

It was the children who started the events which followed. They shouted, “Even

these other houses should burn!” They turned the call into a refrain:

Everything that belongs to these slaves must burn!

Yes, everything that belongs to these slaves must burn!

Their coffee must burn!

Yes their coffee must burn!

Their tea must burn!

Yes their tea must burn

The rest of the people made more torches now from the burning house and they

joined in the singing:

Their cars must burn!

Yes, their cars must burn!

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 They started burning all Mercedes- Benzes that were in sight. Their owners ran for

their lives. The only ones which escaped were those parked at the edges of the

compound and by the main road. The people split into two groups and moved to

the different houses and estates. They thus rendered the security forces helpless.

They set the houses on fire (Ngugi:167-169).

From the above quotations it is clear that the people wanted change but did not get it prior to

this. Matigari’s actions lead the people into insurrection and they begin to demand the

changes they had always expected.

As they did this, they intensified their singing, as if they were now at war with the

oppressors:

Burn detention without trial - burn!

Burn the exiling of patriots - burn!

Burn the prisons holding our patriotic students-burn!

Burn Parrotology - burn! (ibid1:68)

From these occurrences in the text, it is clear that rebellion is used to force political change

but as it is the case with Animal Farm, the rebellion does not necessarily bring about joy for

the masses. In The Wretched of the Earth Fanon argues that rebellion may be necessary for

taking society out of an intractable stretch of quagmire. He further argues that the use of

violence to overthrow injustice was justified to break the emotional oppression caused by

colonialism. In democracy revolution often occurs because of the irresponsible behavior of

political leaders. He also views African literature as being rebellion or struggle, besides

assimilation or escapism. However, though he advocates for revolution to bring about change,

Fanon also contends that revolution does not confer freedom, but instead may hinder it. Jahn

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Jan Heinz (1966) expresses a similar view of literature when he says “there are very few

African or Afro-American writers who did not write to rouse the people, their fellow victims.”

Ngugi through Matigari urges the oppressed people to fight against new capitalism preached

by the heirs of colonialists. He invites the exploited people to unite for efficient

productiveness in order to meet their own needs such as shelter, clothes, food and other needs.

Ngugi a Marxist seems to want to make his past his future: he would revive social and cultural

structures of the past as a reality of the future, and what he calls for to accomplish this is a

present revolution not to achieve something new but to restore an ideal pre-colonial state that

he, at least, takes to have been of original peace, harmony, justice, and goodness (Olney 1973:

284).

From the viewpoint of the Moral-Philosophical critical approach, rebellion does not

necessarily lead to a perfect society.

5.7 The role of the police, media, religion and women, in politics

5.7.1 The police

As earlier discussed the police in Matigari are corrupt and abusive. Ngugi reveals to us the

corrupt nature of post-independent Kenyan police both in character and attitude and goes

ahead to demonstrate how helpless the masses are under the authority of the police. For

instance, they violate the people’s freedom of expression by arresting, torturing or detaining

those who speak against the government of the day, they violate the people’s freedom of

assembly and association when they deny the masses the permission to hold meetings. The

oppression of the citizens by the police is facilitated by Ole Excellence’s government and

enforced with brutality by its police force. Further the police beat and rape women, and make

children pay to pick items from the dump. For example we see Matigari stop a police officer

from beating Guthera, and he seems invincible. Soon the poor are celebrating him as a hero.

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 A crowd of people stood around Guthera, watching the policeman unleash terror

on the woman. She was kneeling on the ground the dog would leap towards her,

but each time its muzzle came close to her eyes, the policeman who held the lead

restrained it. Guthera‘s wrapper lay on the ground. Each time she stood up to

retreat, the dog jumped at her, barking and growling as though it smelled blood.

Some people laughed, seeming to find the spectacle highly entertaining. A gush of

urine rushed down her legs; she was staring death in the face (Ngugi:30).

Another incident which buttresses the point that the police take undue advantage of the blacks

especially the helpless women is brought to the fore when Matigari is arrested and placed in

police custody. This happens after Matigari has boldly and courageously rescued Guthera

from her encounter with the policeman and his dog. Guthera, upon learning of Matigari‘s

arrest and subsequent detention seems to have no option but to break her eleventh

commandment by sleeping with the police officer so as to have Matigari released. These

incidents show the extent to which the Kenyan police can go in their attempt to have their

own way. From a Marxist view this is an act of criminality in the sense that it involves the

struggle for power between social classes. The police want to remain powerful as a higher

social class and so do Guthera and Matigari who are of the lower social class. Marxist theory

views crime as the result of conflict between the social and economic classes. Marx viewed

crime through the prism of a struggle for power and resources. Those in power write laws that

benefit and protect themselves, while at the same time oppressing and criminalising the lower

classes. According to Marxism, inequality is the engine that propels society: those with great

resources exploit those with few resources, using their power to influence the very definition

of crime (Marcus and Herbert 1955).

Despite being corrupt and abusive, the police in Matigari ensure law and order are maintained
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in the country. They do not tolerate any opposition to the government and tend to arrest any

people or groups that threaten the peace of the country or that intend to bring about political

unrest in the country. It is the military and police that create the means for opposition to be

silenced. The protesters such as Matigari campaigning against the activities of some rich

subversive elements are attacked, killed, or arrested by the law enforcement agents in order to

reduce chaos in the country. Ian Roxborough (1979) notes that “the military is a central part

of the state apparatus and to view it as somehow outside politics is frequently misleading.”

From a Marxist viewpoint the behaviour of the police was necessary in bringing about a

transition in society. According to Karl Marx dictatorship was necessary in the efforts to

transform society. He argued that the first stage of socialism is that the dictatorship of the

capitalists, of the ruling class, would be replaced by a dictatorship of the proletariat, of the

workers and oppressed. Marx and Engels saw the concept of equal pay under socialism as

transitory, just as they saw the dictatorship of the proletariat as transitory (Accessed on

02/01/2014 from http://www.workers.org/2012/us/socialism_0301/).

From the Moral-Philosophical approach it may be argued that the fact that the work of the

police is constantly mentioned is testimony to the crucial role they play in this society. Within

the line of their work, they accomplish some seemingly positive things. For example, they

may break up fights, arrest killers and bring sanity to society. On the other hand, they always

defend the boss’ interests, and at times are abusive. We can argue that Ngugi suggests to us

that the existence of the police is directly tied to the maintenance of the State and capitalist

property relations rather than defending the society in which the lower classes are included.

5.7.2 The media

In Matigari the “Voice of Truth” as a medium seems to be biased towards the government

and thus reports about government programmes and also defends government’s corrupt
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practices. The national radio proclaims only propaganda and consequently portrays the

government as good and the citizens as bad.

Further, on the Voice of Truth some of the most bizarre announcements are made, and this

portrays those in power in a ludicrous light and instils fear in the general populace. It is

apparent that because the media institutions usually tend to be biased towards certain political

parties they give uneven coverage to different political parties. According to Banda (1997),

the media already so close to the structures in which these political actors and institutions

operate inadvertently or otherwise, fall prey to bias and transmit it to their audience as the

political reality of the day. He also argues that political propaganda has been around for as

long as there have been human societies, but the advent of mass media has given politicians

countless ways to manipulate public opinion. Rockwell (1974) argues that television usually

attempts to show the public the personal reputation of politicians, but they create a pseudo-

image, thus the politician is not really known to the viewer, but is presented and marked in the

form that his or her managers think the viewer wants to see. The public reacts to his looks, his

apparent ‘niceness’ or charisma, and he himself remains really unknown. In a similar manner

television also falsifies events, not merely by selecting what to show, by creating pseudo-

events, by being present with camera crews to record them, and by lying about them, but more

essentially by giving the public an illusory sense of participation, and even of decision

making, in events which they have really only been shown or told about. This is an indication

of how biased and corrupt the media can be in performing their role as political actor.

Marxists view the media as part of the ideological power structure and claim that the media

was party to the construction and maintenance of the ideas and values that support capitalist

systems.

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Thus, the Voice of Truth radio in Matigari is a reflection of the media and their uneven

handling of political parties.

5.7.3 Religion

The role of religion in politics is usually critical. From the text, we can argue that the author

shows that the church is a political actor and has a role to play in politics.

In Matigari Ngugi uses the priest, Guthera’s father, Matigari and Pharaoh to show the role of

the church in politics. The Biblical references made through these characters convey ethical

perspectives and morals. For example there are sets of the commandments written out in full

in Matigari; one in the beginning of the novel, where Guthera talks about her father and her

becoming a born again Christian, and the other at the public meeting where they are read out

by the priest. The use of the commandments is meant for the comparison of moral laws from

the human and biblical point of view. This comparison also depicts the disparity between the

personal and political adherence to the laws. For instance Guthera because of her ethical code

and values decides to sacrifice her father and save her virginity. She further adopts an 11th

commandment of never sleeping with policemen. This shows how her values differ greatly

from those of the politicians and settlers who bear false witness, commit adultery, steal, covet

others’ things, and murder. This gives us a clue that the author has questions on the moral

issues found in politics. Some of the practices such as corruption, political opportunism, and

arresting or executing subjects without cause are some of the moral issues that are raised in

the text.

The priest is also a symbol of the church and the role it plays in politics. The priest is

portrayed as being scared of going to hell, since he heard stories about the second coming of

Christ. When Matigari comes to him seeking for justice and truth, he is immediately kind to

him, only because he feared that this stranger may be Christ. When Matigari explains to him
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what really happened, we see the real side of him, as he dismisses Matigari. He only cares for

himself, and what would happen to him in the afterlife; he does not really care about others. If

he had, he would have continued his conversation with Matigari, instead of dismissing him.

The priest is expected to support Matigari, because he is searching for something that the

priest must be preaching and clearly has an understanding on, yet he dismisses him. He

distances himself from the fight for justice because he like John Boy and Giceru are all

interested in themselves alone and not the community. Another example of the failure of the

priest to uphold justice is in the third section, when the madmen escape from prison. The

priest fell to his knees and prayed again for his own safety. Again he was scared of the second

coming of Christ and foolishly thought that Christ may be disguised and out for revenge

against the people who were not kind to him. The role of the priest here makes us question the

sincerity of the church in politics. The church has a role to defend the oppressed from the

oppression of the leaders, but instead may shun the oppressed and not stand up for their cause.

This is exactly what we see the priest do to Matigari. Therefore, we can argue that from the

text, the author endeavours to show that the church has a role to play in politics though many

times it does not live up to the expectation of the citizens.

5.7.4 Women

The participation of women in politics is evident in the text. Ngugi presents the female

characters in the text in such a way that their role seems critical to the politics in the texts.

Guthera is one example. She comes from an oppressed background, but stands firm on her

principles in order to fight corruption. Her power lies in the fact that she keeps her virginity

even when she is threatened by the police. However, she gives it away to save Matigari. She

vows to fight to the end and we see her bond with Matigari in fighting the corrupt police and

government. What we see from the time she is betrayed by the police is an iron lady ready to

pay back the police for their behaviour. Thus, she helps Matigari to escape from prison and
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joins forces with him when he destroys John Boy’s house. We can argue that her role is

significant as we see her participate effectively to change the political situation. Without her

plans Matigari would not have escaped from prison and he would have consequently lost the

battle with Robert William and John Boy.

According to Cantalupo (1995), the female characters emerge from the culture of silence, to

become more receptive to understanding the real causes of their positions in the material

world and the possibility of making concrete changes in the power structures, and this is what

we see in Guthera. Guthera’s background is that she has to fend for her young ones and then

when Matigari arrives on the scene she begins to change the search for material gain to the

desire to attain power. It can be argued that Guthera is actually a model for resistance. She

transitions from being oppressed to being a patriot with influence. She abandons her eleventh

commandment “never open my legs for any policeman,” in order to save Matigari from the

policemen who are traitors and loyal to the oppressive governments. Thus, we can see that

Guthera was ready to die by teaming up with Matigari to fight the oppressor. This proves that

she wants to save a patriot who is in search of justice and truth. In Detained (1981:10-11 )

Ngugi writes, “Because women are the most oppressed and exploited section of the entire

working class, I would create a picture of a strong determined woman with a will to resist and

struggle against the conditions of her present being.”

The portrayal of women as an important figure in the political order can also be seen in Devil

on the Cross (1982) another of Ngugi’s works. In this text both Wangari and Wariinga come

out of the shell of silence and begin to resist colonial domination. Wangari represents the

freedom fighters that fought for liberation from British domination. She is seen as a small girl

carrying bullets for freedom fighters and says, “Who would not have sacrificed his own blood

for those glorious aims” (Ngugi, 1982:40). Thus, Wariinga represents the resistance heroine.
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Although she suffers from exploitation by men, she chooses to follow the path of resistance.

In addition to this, she learns karate and becomes a mechanic.

Although Ngugi tries as much as possible to emphasise the importance of women, we can

argue that he still marginalises women. This is apparent when Guthera first interacts with the

character Matigari.

It was difficult not to stare at her. What was such rare beauty doing in a dingy bar?

Guthera walked up to Matigari and without more ado sat on his lap, put her arms

around his neck and looked at him with feigned love in her eyes.

Why do you look at me like that, dad? Aren’t you going to offer me anything to

drink? Or how much do you want to pay for a little pleasure? Pleasures are very

expensive, you know. But at this time of the month, the prices are usually low. We

even give favours on credit. You can pay at the end of the month. But that is if

only you are employed. …Let me tell you something. These days it does not

matter whether it’s your father or your son, whether it’s your brother or your sister.

The most important thing is money (Ngugi:28).

This picture gives us a view that Guthera is a prostitute and only wants money and beer from

men. From a moral point of view her sentiments are indicative of incestuous behaviour. It is

only when she meets Matigari that we begin to see her change into a tough lady. From this,

we get to question whether women can stand independently without men. However, we can

argue that because Ngugi’s women come from abusive, oppressive backgrounds and are

subject to the control of fathers, husbands, lovers and bosses, they are traditionally defined by

negation, opposition, limitation and lack. Thus, these women flee one position of subjugation

for another, becoming “sugar-girls” or prostitutes. The women are then redeemed and given a

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second chance to re-define themselves (Terry DeHay1995).

According to Gill (2011) Ngugi’s portrayal of Guthera’s hatred of the policemen in Matigari

reflects the genesis of women’s subjugation and exploitation in independent Kenya. Women

are perceived merely as objects and sexual beings. Guthera says: “You see, my entire life has

been dominated by men, be they our Father in heaven, my Father on earth, the Priest or all

the men who have bought my body and turned me into their mattress” (p.140). Thus, by

refusing to collaborate, Guthera resists the hegemonic domination of an exploitative society

and offers an example to others who must do the same. Therefore, through the character

Guthera we can argue that women are instrumental in continuing the participation of women

in politics. We see that when justice and truth are absent in a society, the most hit are the

women as they end up in prostitution and other forms of misconduct to earn a living.

Matigari’s journey for “truth and justice” is free of gender bias and knows no limit of time,

therefore we see women in the text playing an important role.

We can argue therefore that the moral significance of the text is that women play an important

role in politics. Women form a collective voice and through their voices they organise a

political leadership in a way that is able to break the seemingly impenetrable barrier of male

dominance, especially in a changing political environment like that seen in Matigari.

5.8 Education and knowledge as tools for effective participation in the political process

One theme that is apparent in this novel is the fact that education and knowledge are tools for

effective participation in the political process. Education is used as a tool for oppression by

the oppressors as indicated in the text. The changeover from communalism (caring for all) to

individualism (each fights for himself), as purported by John Boy, clearly indicates the use of

education as a tool for oppression. John Boy, whose education is funded by the community,

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refutes the ideology of communalism and advances the individualism agenda. Through this

oppression, the academia sold themselves by seeking government appointments, toeing the

line of the government and submitting and singing praises when they are called upon. They

act like puppets, responding to the strings of the puppet master. Matigari explains: “There are

two types of people in this country. There are those who sell out, and those who are patriots”

(Ngugi: 126).

We may argue that political participation derives from the freedom to speak out, assemble and

associate and the ability to take part in the conduct of public affairs. This comes with gaining

knowledge about various political issues or democracy. However, we do not see this in

Matigari. The people do not speak out or even assemble because there are some amongst

them who are sell-outs and so their freedom is inhibited. We must note that among the sell-

outs, it is apparent that there is a possession of knowledge and education as we perceive this

from the character John Boy. He uses education to his advantage, selling out his fellow

Africans. This makes him have political influence over them and as such possesses the house

that Matigari built. Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out that, each new generation is a new

people that must acquire the knowledge, learn the skills, and develop the dispositions or traits

of private and public character that undergird a constitutional democracy. Those dispositions

must be fostered and nurtured by word and study and by the power of example (Accessed on

18/03/2014 from http://civiced.org/papers/articles_role.html). From this then we may argue

that education and knowledge are tools for effective participation in politics. However, what

we find in Matigari is different. Education is not possessed by many who are oppressed and

so they fail to participate effectively in the political process of their country. Matigari is

himself not knowledgeable as we are shown that he does not know what was happening in the

country until he is arrested. Matigari claims to have been around since the beginning of time

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yet from his actions it is apparent that he has no knowledge about the political environment of

his country. To be able to think critically about a political issue, for example, one must have

an understanding of the issue, its history and its contemporary relevance and this is what

Matigari lacks.

It may further be argued that education is cardinal in any effective participation in a political

process when we study the attitude of the masses in Matigari. Many have various unrealistic

expectations of their political leaders. They believe the leaders are appointed to bring total

change from slavery to democracy and that democracy is utopian. Democracy is not utopian,

and the masses in Matigari because they do not understand this have become cynical and

simply withdrawn from the political life. The reason is that their unrealistic expectations are

not met. Education and knowledge help people to be realistic and understand the central truths

about political life. Education, whether formal or informal gives people the knowledge or

content of the subject matter in politics. It helps them understand what politics are, how to be

effective participants in political processes and what their role as citizens of a nation is. We

should note that if citizens are to exercise their rights and discharge their responsibilities as

participants in the political process, they not only need to acquire a body of knowledge, they

also need to acquire relevant intellectual and participatory skills. The masses in Matigari fail

to acquire such intellectual and participatory skills. What we see is a group of people who are

passive even when oppressed by the politicians. Therefore, from the foregoing we may argue

that education and knowledge are tools for effective participation in the political process.

5.9 Conclusion

This chapter has discussed the various themes that are found in Ngugi’s Matigari. These

include: power’s ability to corrupt, the ruling elite’s failure to adequately meet the needs of

the people, the cyclical nature of politics; the negative effects of colonialism and neo-
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colonialism on the lives of the colonised; language, propaganda and fear as tools of political

control; rebellion does not produce a perfect society; the role of the police, women, religion

and media in politics; and education and knowledge as tools for effective participation in the

political process. The novel seeks to draw the attention of society to certain ills or evils that

eat into the fabric of the post-colonial Kenyan society especially due to political factors.

Although Matigari was written in Gikuyu and modeled on a traditional Gikuyu tale, it could

be set anywhere in post-independence Africa. This is because it serves as a mirror, showing

the true picture of life in post-colonial African countries.

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 CHAPTER SIX: FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION

6.0 Introduction

Though fiction is defined as something made up and not real, it is apparent that some

fictional texts are similar in terms of their themes, characterisation, symbolism and even

setting. From the texts under study, it would be justified to say that though they may belong

to different societies, cultures, histories and genres, the two texts have various political

themes that are similar. This chapter is therefore an analysis of the nature of the similarities

of the political themes in the two texts and an examination of the significance of the

similarities.

6.1 The Nature of the Similarities of Political Themes in Matigari and Animal Farm

6.1.1 Rebellion does not produce a perfect society

Although it is clear that the use of rebellion as a means of bringing about political change is

evident in the texts, we can argue that one common theme in both Ngugi’s and Orwell’s

works is that of rebellion not producing perfect societies. To begin with, we must first

understand the aims or causes of the rebellions in the texts and then analyse the results of

these rebellions in relation to their aims or causes.

According to Brinton (1938) in The Anatomy of Revolution, revolutions begin with problems

in the pre-revolutionary regime. These include functioning-government deficits, complaints

over taxation, conspicuous governments, favouring of one set of economic interest over

another, administrative entanglements and confusions. In short, the ruling class becomes

inept (Accessed from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the-anatomy-of-revolution, on 21/03/2013).

Aristotle argues that revolutions in politics arise from inequalities, numerical or qualitative

and that the conditions which lead up to the revolution are the desire of many for equality and

the desire of the minority for effective superiority (Accessed from

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www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html on 21/3/2013). Further, Bulaya (2012) argues that a

revolution does not take place by accident but is a natural product of the material conditions

of society’s life at a definite stage of its development. Therefore, from these arguments, it

may be argued that revolutions or rebellions are started by certain conditions or situations that

the lower classes, exploited subjects or oppressed face. It may further be argued that

revolutions or rebellions in the two texts were ignited by certain conditions or situations that

the characters faced, and so the successes of the revolutions in producing a perfect society

can be weighed against the objectives of the revolutions.

In both texts it would appear that one objective for revolution was to end misery and

suffering of the masses. In Animal Farm (1945) it is clear that before the major rebellion

which sees the expulsion of Jones from the farm, the animals suffer at the hands of Jones and

his workers. They get barely enough food to eat, sleep in cold stalls, are over worked and sold

or slaughtered whenever their master Jones desires. For them life is miserable and short and

so they feel oppressed. Thus, their aim in rebelling against Jones is to change the status quo,

have an oppression free life and govern themselves under the principles of equality. This is to

be done by removing man from the farm. This is also what we see in Matigari (1987) the

people suffer pain and anguish at the hands of the colonialist and black bourgeoisie

government, thus they seek to overthrow the government so as to end misery and suffering.

Therefore, we can argue that rebellion does not produce a perfect society. This is so because

in either instance despite the overthrow of the ruling elite, suffering still persists. Through the

animals’ suffering in Animal Farm and the masses’ suffering in Matigari, both Ngugi and

Orwell show that things have not changed and that the rebellions were unsuccessful. For

instance Orwell shows us that the state of affairs on the farm does not change even when

Jones is overthrown. The animals’ suffering continues as they still work as slaves and their

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food is rationed when they do not work:

All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work;

they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for

the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and

not for pack of idle, thieving human beings (Ngugi:37).

The idea here is not that the animals are working for themselves, but that the animals work

like slaves when they had initially hoped the rebellion would cause them to be free from

laborious work on the farm. In addition, though the animals work for themselves, the pigs are

the immediate beneficiaries of the labour. Therefore, we get to question the success of the

rebellion. The animals themselves actually begin to doubt the sincerity of the pigs in

administering the farm and so attempt some rebellions. For example the chickens and the

porkers oppose Napoleon’s policies. From the outset we can applaud the chickens for such

bravery, but on clear analysis of their action, we can argue that they are not successful in their

quest. This is so because first the chickens are themselves guilty of murder when they do not

let their eggs hatch, but instead smash them. This act betrays their revolution as they cannot

quote the sixth commandment “No animal shall kill any other animal” when they have

actually killed their own species by smashing the eggs. Thus, their intention is not justified.

Secondly their behaviour does not lead to a successful revolution because as soon as they

disobey Napoleon, their rations are withdrawn and they relent. Later they are executed

alongside the four porkers who oppose Napoleon’s decision to end the Sunday meetings.

Nothing is ever heard of such rebellion again and eggs continue to be sold to the

neighbouring farm. These attempted rebellions are a failure as the intended objectives are not

achieved.

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The situation in Animal Farm is also what we find in Matigari. The freedom fighters do not

bring about social or political changes even when independence is attained and thus suffering

still continues. For instance, it is observed that after the fighting in the forest and the

attainment of freedom from colonial domination, Matigari and others still continue suffering.

Hunger, poverty, police brutalities and corruption by leaders are still rampant. This is evident

when Matigari finds a group of children picking from the rubbish.

I wonder what they are queuing for! The tractor drove into the yard, with the

vultures now hovering over it and dogs running alongside, sniffing in anticipation.

A terrible stench filled the air. The driver tipped the rubbish in three heaps. No

sooner had he finished than the dogs, the vultures and the children went

scrambling for the heaps of rubbish. He now understood what was going on. Each

child had to pay a fee to enter. A ticket to enable them to fight it out with dogs,

vultures, rats, all sorts of scavengers and vermin, for pieces of string, patches of

cloth, odd bits of leather, shoe soles, rubber bands, threads, rotten tomatoes,

sugarcane chaff, banana peels, bones…anything (Ngugi:11).

He found the two policemen with the dog, the tractor driver and the two men who

had collected money from the children in conference behind a bush near the road.

They held their heads close together, and money jingled between them. So these

five were busy dividing among themselves the money they had taken from the

children? So a handful of people still profited from the suffering of the majority,

the sorrow of the many being the joy of the few? (ibid: 2)

This passage indicates to us what changes Matigari expects to find when he returns but alas

these changes do not take place. From Matigari’s view the fight for independence was to

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bring about both political and social change but this is not so as the fight has just changed the

oppressor from white colonialist to black bourgeoisie. In addition, the black or African

bourgeoisie are working hand in hand with the white colonialists to oppress the Africans.

This undermines the independence fight and renders it unsuccessful. Therefore, one

indication that the rebellions in the two texts are unsuccessful is the failure to fulfil the

intended or promised objectives.

The question of the success of the revolution in the two texts can further be raised when we

look at the aspect of revolutionary leaders, revolutionary ideologies and channels used to

revolt. Revolution in Animal Farm is not successful because of poor leadership, weak

ideologies, weak propaganda and the propagation of terror. What we see in the text is that the

elements that bring success to a revolution are either missing or are too weak to make any

difference. According to Post and Wright (1989) ideas are enormously important in shaping

human action, even though that may find its origin in material circumstances and the social

relations which spring from them. People do not act socially in blind instinctive reactions, but

with the mediation of pictures in their heads, however blurred and inaccurate. They further

argue that negativity of ideas coupled with a lack of realism can render a revolution

unsuccessful. This is exactly what we find in Animal Farm. For instance, it is clear that the

pigs who are the key leaders of the revolution are only concerned about themselves and use

others only to support their selfish agenda. Napoleon, Snowball and Old Major have a lot of

charisma and confidence and are looked upon as heroes by other animals. They are able to

draw the support of other animals using propaganda; they lead the animals in a successful

revolution. However, after the animals depose Jones and obtain power, it becomes evident

that the pigs only have personal interest in the revolution and are not committed to the

welfare of all the animals.

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The other animals fail to revolt against the pigs because of lack of leaders and ideas to spur

them into revolution. The animals lack confidence and determination and so the pigs take

advantage of them. For instance, both Benjamin and Boxer who are the oldest animals on the

farm and a bit more literate than the other animals do not have the determination and

confidence that would help bring about change on the farm. Instead of leading others to

revolution, they decide not to speak out and just accept the status quo. This is typical

especially for Boxer who believes that “Napoleon is always right and that hard work is all it

takes to survive.” He tries to be rebellious when he differs with Squealer over the role of

Snowball in the Battle of the Cowshed, but he is numbered among the traitors and thus is

eliminated. Benjamin is also unreliable. According to Carr (2010) Benjamin’s inaction would

seem to make him blame-worthy because his failure to speak up politically displays a

passivity that works to the benefit of the pigs. This suggests that if he had spoken out earlier

on the behaviour of the pigs, the animals would have revolted and freed themselves from

slavery yet again.

In Matigari the success of the rebellion can be questioned because of the attitude of those

who should have been fighting for the community. Those members of the African community

who are the elite and are supposed to educate others do not believe in the revolution or in

communalism. An example is John Boy who refutes the ideology of communalism and

advances the ideology of individualism. This is apparent in the fact that his education though

funded by the community, alienates him from it and instead causes him to pursue the benefits

of the bourgeoisie. “I would ask you to learn the meaning of the word ‘individual’. Our

country has remained in darkness because of the ignorance of our people. They don't know

the importance of the word "individual", as opposed to the word ‘masses’... (Ngugi: 23).

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From this, it is clear that the revolution could not be successful. Matigari himself says, ‘There

are two types of people in this country. There are those who sell out, and those who are

patriots” (p.126). With sell-outs such as John Boy, we do not expect change or even rebellion

to be successful. Paraphrasing Fanon’s view, “colonialism has a tendency of holding a people

in its grip and emptying the native’s brain of all form and content” (Fanon, 1967). Thus, both

Orwell and Ngugi show us the failure of revolution to produce a perfect society as they

present two different societies that have achieved independence or freedom yet the bondage

of slavery still remains because people are not free, but are brought under new slave masters.

In conclusion, it may be argued that in both texts the authors posit a vision of utopia, which

must be obtained through armed struggle. In Animal Farm Orwell paints a vivid picture of a

violent revolution of farm animals against the farmer and how this revolution is betrayed by

the all-too-familiar corruption that undermines the goal of the revolution. We can argue that

he sees revolution as a method of achieving utopian goals but questions how successful this

revolution can be. This is the view that Trotsky (1937) holds in his work The Revolution

Betrayed. Trotsky insists that even in inevitable counter-revolution, the nation is never

brought all the way back to its starting point. Thus, though we see Orwell’s speculations

about revolution as a method for achieving socialist goals, he is less confident that real

progress would be achieved through revolution. This is what Ngugi also shows us in

Matigari. Those leading the revolution rally the masses not so much for the good of the

masses, but so that the leaders can assume the role of master; complete with all of the

oppressive conduct that goes with an authoritarian regime (Acessed from

www.mondopolitico.com/library/animalfarm/html on 21/03/2013).

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6.1.2 Education and knowledge as tools for effective participation in the political

process

Another common theme in the two texts is that education and knowledge are tools for

effective participation in the political process. In Animal Farm the animals collectively

overthrow Jones but soon afterwards the pigs emerge as leaders of the farm while the other

animals are thrust back into servitude because of lack of education and knowledge. The pigs

who are able to read and write, alter the laws to suit their interests, while the other animals

watch helplessly as they can neither read nor write. All the benefits of the revolution are

shared among the pigs because the other animals are unable to realise that the pigs do all this

with selfish motives. This inability to see the selfishness of the pigs emanates from the

animals’ ignorance. Smith (2011) argues that the animals (except the pigs, of course) are

prone to following what they are told and although they have the might, both in strength and

numbers, they are incredibly docile and obedient. It is also worth mentioning that despite

efforts to teach them to read, many are unable to learn and are thus taken advantage of more

often.

The effect of the lack of education is seen in the changes made by the pigs in terms of laws.

One example is when there is a murder on the farm committed by one animal against another.

Since there is a lack of education among the animals and they think that they do not need to

know anything beyond that which they have been told, they quickly forget that murder is a

crime and an unforgivable offence. They are convinced by the pigs that they misunderstood

the law in the first place and surely when they check they find the law is not in line with their

assumptions. The law now reads “No animal shall kill any other animal without a cause.”

The animals assume that the last three words had slipped out of their memory- a clear

indication of their naivety. Evidently, the animals are gullible: “But now they saw the

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Commandment had not been violated; for clearly there was a good reason for killing the

traitors who leagued themselves with Snowball” (Orwell: 98).

It is evident that most of the animals on the farm are unable to see the murder for what it is

and are easily manipulated and taken advantage of because of their ignorance and lack of

education. Carr (2010) notes that the illiteracy or inability of the animals to read is simply a

mark of their political stupidity. Their illiteracy should not just be seen in the fact that they

cannot read but also in the fact that they do not see the importance of the commandments to

the operations of the farm.

Similarly the people in Matigari exhibit lack of education and knowledge. William the only

white man and his colleague John Boy are seen to have an upper hand in the affairs of the

country and are supported only by a minority of Africans, who have knowledge and

education. Matigari is himself not knowledgeable as Ngugi clearly shows us that he only

learns of what the current situation is in his community when he is arrested. Further,

Matigari’s lack of education can be seen from the appeals he makes. He calls on people to

take what rightly belongs to them, because fighting for and achieving Independence is

enough for the citizens to attain power, have freedom and improve their welfare. Thus, he

says “I have killed Settler Williams and John Boy. We must go home light the fire and

rebuild our home together” (p.24). We may argue that Matigari’s view here is that the

colonisers have gone and so the people must have a better life. His dream of rebuilding the

home is shattered in the end because Ngugi shows us that this dream is good, yet not realistic

in the sense that it emphasises one thing and forgets the other. Matigari emphasises a better

life but forgets to tell the people that such a life is attainable only by hard work and self-

sacrifice on the part of both the people and the leaders. For him a better society is attainable

not by wearing a belt of peace, but by revolting against those who frustrate the people - the
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government or the bourgeoisie. This also reflects the speech by Kenyatta on the dawn of

Kenya’s independence when he said:

In the past, we used to blame the Europeans for everything that went wrong.... now

the government is ours. Maybe you will now be blaming Kenyatta, saying: we

elected you, but where is this or that? But you must all know that Kenyatta alone

cannot give you everything. All things we must do together. You and I must work

together to develop our country..... This should be our work, is the spirit...of

HARAMBEE (Kenyatta, 1968).

The expectations of Matigari and other citizens are unrealistic and show that much is fantasy

and a lack of knowledge rather than realism. Hayward and Labedz (1963) argue that freedom

is useless and even frustrating if it cannot be used to promote social and political change. The

freedom achieved can only be meaningful if people are educated and knowledgeable. The

different groups that Ngugi presents in the text are most surely the majority in many instances

of the book and of reality. However, these all suffer at the hands of the minority who are

more educated and knowledgeable than the majority. To this extent therefore we can argue

that education and knowledge are vital in transforming society. Education and knowledge

help one ascertain one’s position in society as well as at an individual level. Scheidel (1967)

explains man’s characteristics by showing that man ultimately strives for what cannot always

be achieved. His argument is that man’s behaviour is checked and limited because it is

adaptable. He argues that each person adjusts himself or herself to his or her world and that

this adaptive world is necessary for the survival of self and species. This relates to James

Cook’s (1996) argument that human personality and behaviour are influenced by the culture

in which they are raised. He argues that a person is a cultural creature with characteristics

peculiar to his or her culture. A person’s first concern everywhere is to live and to attain self-
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sufficiency. What this entails is that human beings are driven by survival just like the animal

species. Therefore, because of this need, man and animal adapt or adjust to the environment

so as to obtain what they need. Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation lists five basic needs

of humanity and these are physiological and or psychological, safety, belongingness and love,

esteem and self-actualisation. Physiological and psychological needs include food, water,

procreation or sex, homeostasis and so on, while safety needs include the desire to reach a

higher level than the one obtaining, the desire for an orderly, smooth functioning world in

which sudden unexpected and potentially dangerous events do not occur often. This is a

desire to feel settled and at ease rather than threatened. Belongingness is the need to be loved

by family and friends and the desire to belong and be a part of an acceptable group. Self-

esteem is the desire for self-respect, reasonably high evaluation of oneself, the desire for

status, recognition and appreciation. The last need is the attainment of self-actualisation or

fulfilment, which is man’s desire to be what he can be (Durojaiye, 1976). Therefore, because

of the various needs of individuals, it is impossible for any political administration to meet or

promise to meet its citizens’ expectations. It is therefore unreasonable for the general

populace to have very high expectations of political administrations because of the vastness

and diversity of their needs, but through education and knowledge, they participate

effectively in political processes.

6.1.3 Power’s ability to corrupt

The desire to be powerful is said to be one of the features of politics. Power is the essence or

fundamental nature of politics and so to comprehend politics one must look at the relationship

between those in power and those without power. According to Chiluba (1995), politics is

about power. Hans J. Morgenthau, sees politics as "the authoritative allocation of resources."

According to this view, politics is seen in terms of power which is both a means to an end and

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an end in itself. Power is defined as the ability to control or take charge of a country’s affairs.

It is the ability to influence events or people’s behaviour (Cobuild English Dictionary). Power

is obtained in many ways but politics is used as a forum to obtain power. Power is also the

ability to influence those who can determine outcomes, and the ability to influence others in

one's interest. From the texts it is clear that power is a component of politics the ruling class

uses effectively to maintain and sustain their hegemony and which has the ability to corrupt

(Chijioke: 2010).

In Animal Farm the animals take over the farm from Jones, and agree to administer it

collectively with equality and justice prevailing. However, because of power the leaders

become selfish, greedy and corrupt. The situation under Napoleon’s leadership is even worse.

After Snowball is exiled, Napoleon is in complete control of the farm. He emerges as an

utterly corrupt opportunist and speaks relatively little because he has Squealer do the

speaking for him. He disregards everyone and all chances of open protest are eliminated as he

gets rid of the public meetings, saying that it is better if things are decided by committees

presided over by him. Power’s ability to corrupt becomes apparent when he raises a pack of

dogs which he later uses to squash all opposition on the farm. With these dogs he manages to

terrorise Snowball and all other animals on the farm. From his behaviour we can argue that

Napoleon’s power grows from relative humility to absolute power and consequently to

corrupt power. This is the exact situation we find in Matigari. John Boy, one of the

characters, seems to grow from relative humility in which communism was embraced to an

absolutely corrupt character who upholds individualism.

Another character who shows us how power corrupts is the minister in Matigari. He is a

representation of the government but is quite corrupt. He is a dictator and using his power

removes freedom of expression and of assembly when he addresses the factory workers and
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has Matigari arrested for asking him about truth and violence. It may be argued therefore

from the perspective of the Moral and Intellectual approach that power has the ability to

corrupt individuals and that this corruption is usually worsened by people’s inability to speak

out or to attain some level of education or knowledge.

We would be justified to note that the way a society is organised, the operation of its

machinery of power, how and by whom that power is achieved, the class configuration and

the maintenance of power; and the ends to which the power is put are all issues in politics.

The two texts can be used to compare new movements that overthrow heads of a corrupt and

undemocratic government or organisation, only to eventually become corrupt and oppressive

as they succumb to the trappings of power and begin using violent and dictatorial methods to

keep it. According to Ross (2002), extensive corruption seems to be at the heart of politics.

This is simply because we cannot eliminate government corruption by merely electing

principled individuals to roles of power as power itself is what corrupts. In Matigari’s case

we can even argue that Ngugi deliberately makes Matigari a mysterious man so as to

emphasise the fact that the traits of a good leader have nothing to do with tribe or ethnic

affiliation, sex or gender issues, and natural or supernatural qualities, but rather his or her

objectivity and integrity - the ability to use power in the right way.

6.1.4 Language, propaganda and terror as tools of political control

It is evident from the two texts that language, propaganda and terror are tools that politicians

use for political control.

Language as a tool of political control appears to be critical when we study the works of both

Ngugi and Orwell. For example through the use of language by various characters, it is clear

that power and political controls are centralised in particular characters. In Animal Farm the

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pigs use language to manipulate policies, blind fold the other animals and gain various

benefits for themselves. Through Old Major and Squealer who is Napoleon’s spokesperson,

the pigs gain an upper hand in the political affairs of the farm. According to Sewall (2002)

Animal Farm abounds with instances of verbal trickery. Squealer, Napoleon’s arch-

propagandist, is a past-master of chicanery who can rationalise away any inconsistency or

departure from the principles of Animalism – the seven commandments. For example when

he has to account for the disappearance of the old, faithful Boxer who was seen driven away

in a knacker’s truck with the words “Horse Slaughterer” written on it, he explains that the

words appeared on the truck because it had previously been the property of a knacker before

being bought by the veterinary surgeon. “The animals were enormously relieved to hear this”

(Orwell, 1945: 104). According to Orwell political language is designed to make lies sound

truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind (Orwell,

1961:367).

Hodge and Kress (1993:128) remind us that language is ideological in another, more political

sense of the word: it involves systematic distortion in the service of class interest. For

example Major knows his audience. It consists mainly of uncritical listeners, hence his

language is contrived to appeal to their basic instincts, in this case, the allure of “freedom”.

His conclusion, “All men are enemies. All animals are comrades” is couched in simplistic,

binary terms, designed to appeal to the unsophisticated audience. Immediately after this a

vote is cast to determine whether wild creatures such as rats and rabbits are friends or

enemies. This is also what we find in Matigari where various members of the government use

language to gain political control over the masses. We see the Minister as well as Matigari

using language in ways that advantage them over others. For example we are told that the

Minister’s words become law immediately they are spoken and Matigari is arrested. “His

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decision is just and true. It is now law” (p.118).

Further, it is clear that language is used for political control when we consider various songs

and characters in the text. The songs which express the sentiments of rebellion are sung by

the masses so as to show how corrupt their society is and to call upon their corrupt leaders to

change their attitudes towards the people. For example the song “Show me the way to a man

whose name is Matigarima Njiruungi, Who stamps his feet to the rhythm of bells, and the

bullets jingle. And the bullets jingle” (p.71) is indicative of the political power that Matigari

has and how the people view him as a hero. The power of language in this and other songs is

exhibited when the government through the Minister reacts by banning the songs and

considering them as subversive. The Provincial Commissioner declares that no song, no story

or play or riddle or proverb mentioning Matigari ma Njiruungi will be tolerated (p.122) and

this is simply because the songs elevate Matigari’s political power and not that of the

bourgeois government.

The character John Boy is also an example of how language is used to gain political control.

He is sponsored by the community to learn the white man’s culture yet when he returns home

he alienates himself from the community and changes his language. Instead of speaking for

his people he asks them if they do not understand the meaning of individualism - a term

which obviously would not favour nationalism or patriotism. It may be argued from the

perspective of the Historical approach that an examination of the history of Kenya and other

African countries in relation to the text reveals that language was used by both Christian

missionaries and colonial masters. The missionaries and colonial masters opened schools

which taught European languages and forced Africans to speak them as a means of exerting

control over them. Language became the tool that was used to separate African communities

and to alienate school-going African children from their families, culture and history. Those
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who attended the schools managed by Europeans were taught to criticise their native cultures

and consider their cultures and communities as uncivilised. Thus, those who attained

European education began to promote individualism rather than supporting the causes of their

societies such as fighting colonialism.

Propaganda is also another tool that is used in both Matigari and Animal Farm. Propaganda

usually involves dehumanising and creating hatred toward supposed enemies. Propaganda

also involves controlling or influencing other people in a clever or unscrupulous manner. This

means that deceit and lies to justify an action exist in situations where propaganda is used as

a tool for political control. This is exactly what we see in both Animal Farm and Matigari. In

Animal Farm we see Squealer using propaganda as he lies and justifies the actions of the

pigs. It is clear from the text that Squealer could turn “black into white and white into black”

so as to win the confidence of the other animals. For example when the pigs begin to drink

the milk and eat the apples, Squealer quickly justifies the action by making it appear as

though there was no selfishness involved.

‘Comrades!’ he cried. ‘You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in

the spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples.

I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our

health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by science, comrades) contain

substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brain

workers. The whole management and organization of the farm depend on us. Day

and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that

milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in

our duty? Jones would come back! (32).

Squealer knows well that animals do not want Jones back so he uses this threat to intimidate

the animals and to stop them from asking questions about milk. We see Squealer lying about
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many other things and Orwell himself cautions us about such sophistry on the part of

politicians.He argues that politics is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia

(Accessedfromhttp://www.gvpt.umd.edu/oorhan/Lecture%202_What%20is%20Politics%20

&%20The%20Study%20of%20Politics.pdf 5.06. 2013).

Squealer’s deceitful tactics continue throughout the text simply because the pigs want to

remain leaders of the farm. Thus, they rewrite laws and lie to justify their wrong doings. The

pigs’ actions are a reminder of the words of Jack Burden in All the King’s Men that “the

reasons for an action must be justified, for that is what makes a man” (Warren 1946). This

then indicates that politics is viewed by many as a forum in which actions can be taken and

justified and a place in which lies are inevitable. The implication of this view is that

politicians can change and re-write history just to suit or justify their behaviour. This is

evident in Animal Farm as history is changed and re-written in the process of changing the

laws. This leads to the fading of the laws in the minds of the other animals. According to

Zwerdling (1974), in Animal Farm, the threat posed by the animals’ memory of the heroic

days of the revolution is solved by systematic recasting of what actually happened, a process

that culminates in the secret rewriting of the commandments on the barn door. This is also

what we find in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four in which the protagonist Winston Smith, a

member of the Outer Party and editor in the ‘Ministry of Truth’ is given responsibility for

propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to re-write past newspaper articles so that

the historical record always supports the current party line. We see the story of Winston

Smith begin on Fourth April 1984, yet Orwell shows us that he is uncertain of the true date,

because of the regime’s continual rewriting and manipulation of history. Thus, Smith can be

compared to Squealer as an agent of government propaganda (Orwell 1949). The re-writing

of history is an act of propaganda because the leaders intend to act dishonestly and thus

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amend history to suit their interests.

Like Animal Farm, Matigari is full of examples of the use of propaganda. As earlier

discussed the arrest of Matigari and Ngaruro for speaking out against the evils of government

is an act of propaganda aimed at blind folding the people and causing them to alienate

themselves from Matigari. Propaganda in Matigari is also propagated through lies created by

both Matigari and the Minister who represents government. Many lies are told about Matigari

aimed at enhancing his fame and power and consequently helping him overcome the

colonialists and bourgeois government.

Terror is also used in the two texts as a tool for political control. In Animal Farm, this is seen

when the animals on the farm are executed by Napoleon after they are forced to confess. We

should note that the slain animals are not guilty, but make confessions because the pigs want

to instil fear in the other animals and consequently cause them to obey. The terror of the dogs

as well as that of Napoleon makes the other animals fear Napoleon and thus obey all he says.

Opposition to his rule is minimised as his security dogs are always on guard to terrorise those

that oppose Napoleon. The farm becomes more dreadful for the other animals because of the

fear of the dogs and that of Napoleon. We should note that in the incident where the animals

are executed Orwell’s comic perspective is clearly abandoned and a more serious tone is

adopted. According to Zwerdling (1974) this indicates the serious political purpose and tone

of gravity Orwell employs to describe the reign of terror that now begins at Animal Farm.

Under such conditions as execution the animals are more likely to abstain from rebellion and

thus the pigs accomplish their objective. Therefore, through terror, the pigs control the farm.

The use of terror as seen in Animal Farm is also evident in Matigari. In Matigari, His

Excellency Ole Excellence and his assistant the Minister of Truth and Justice, gain political

131
control by causing fear in the people. Punishment is meted out on various people who seem

to speak against the evils of the government. For example, the students from the university

are arrested simply because they organise a prayer meeting for the country to have love and

peace. This arrest indicates to us that Ole’s government does not want peace or love in the

country because they themselves are corrupt and corruption never entails genuine peace and

love.

The people in the prison are also all arrested over petty issues and this is all done simply to

gain political control, lessen opposition and cause people to be afraid of rebelling. The

prisoners are kept in very unhealthy conditions because the government intends to use this as

a way to keep people away from rebellion. This is actually also a form of psychological

propaganda as by being in such unhealthy conditions, people would be resentful and never

want to go back to prison.

It is therefore clear from the two texts that political control is perpetuated through the use of

language, terror and propaganda. Both Ngugi and Orwell show us that the people in power

use corrupt ways to obtain power or political control.

6.1.5 Conclusion

This section has shown that various political themes in the two texts are similar though the

texts and authors are from different backgrounds. The themes discussed include: language,

propaganda and terror as tools of political control; power’s ability to corrupt; rebellion does

not produce a perfect society; and education and knowledge as tools for effective

participation in the political process.

6.2 Significance of the similarities

It would be justified to argue that the comparative study of political themes helps to identify
132
similarities between different texts, and that, despite being different in terms of cultural

context, background of the authors, language use, characterisation and style, the texts under

study provide proof that the nature of politics is largely the same regardless of which part of

the world. Certain ideas occur so frequently that they have become motifs. The themes in this

study express ideas that have meaning to many individuals regardless of the time or place in

which they live.

Further, the shared themes illustrate enduring values in politics and reflect a coincidence of

personal interest between authors. Both Ngugi and Orwell were interested in politics in their

society and thus addressed various political issues ranging from the fight for freedom to its

attainment; and the aftermath of independence. We may argue that in both works the authors

are committed to the people, revolution and transformation.

It is also significant that, despite being works of fiction, the two texts under study generally

echo the nature of politics in society. For example violence and fear still dominate the

political scene. According to Osha (2005), post-colonial Africa continues to contend with the

same old problems: poverty, illiteracy, disease, inhumane authoritarian state structures and

genocidal conflict situations. Nwankwo (1988) argues that the struggle for independence

called for a patriotic dedicated nationalist leadership corps capable of mobilising the people

to disengage the nation from the deleterious effects of colonial economic structure, yet it is

clear that this was not achieved as the colonialists were replaced by the new elite rulers who

forgot what the fight was about. One can argue that immediately they come to power, they

arrogate privileges to themselves and change their behaviour towards other human beings just

like we see the pigs do in Animal Farm. When the pigs take over leadership of the farm, they

become selfish and treat other animals unequally, thus forgetting Old Major’s desire for a

world where all animals are equal. The pigs arrogate privileges such as the monopoly of milk
133
and apples, and then they become supervisors, while the other animals with the sole

exception of the anti-collectivist, the cat, do the farm work. This is the same behaviour Jones

has towards the animals, yet once in power the animals behave in the same way towards each

other. Kettle (1970) argues that “good writing means creative writing and is the only way of

describing reality adequately.” Chekov (1966) argues that no literature can in its cynicism

surpass actual life. He adds that artistic literature is called so just because it depicts life as it

really is. Its aim is truth unconditional and honest. This also relates to Ngugi’s argument in

Writers in Politics that a novel is not a product of the imaginative feats of a single individual

but the work of many hands and tongues, and that a writer just takes down notes dictated to

him by life among the people which he then arranges in some form or other. He further

argues that nobody writes under circumstances chosen by him and on material invented by

him. He can only seize the time to select from material handed to him by whomever and

whatever is around him. Moyo (2010) suggests this from his research on Mythology in

Soyinka and Johnson, when he notes that the existence of a relationship between literature

and society implies existence of a close link between society and the artists which translates

into the work of art being a mere reflection of society. He argues that the writer picks actual

names of social members as the material for his work. He picks on actual issues going on in

his society and presents them as imaginations in narrative forms. We can argue that Moyo’s

view is that fiction is a form of reality in which writers deal with actual society rather than an

imagined one which might not immediately identify with the society in which it is produced.

This indicates that fictional texts are not merely for entertainment but to a great extent fiction

is a true reflection or mirror of society. Many literary scholars actually view fictional texts as

a mirror.. This also relates to Albert Cook’s (1960) view that the novel is a mirror conducted

along a highway. Thus, there is surely a relationship between fiction and reality and therefore

the themes studied in this dissertation are of great significance not just to the link between the
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two texts but also to the interpretation of politics in real life as well as the historical settings

of the societies in which the politics were produced.

We may also argue that both Matigari and Animal Farm are memorable satires on the

betrayal of revolution and on the bitter experiences of citizens under corrupt governments.

Ngugi is deliberately vague in establishing both the temporal and spatial settings of his novel;

he refuses to define where and when his story takes place, insisting in a prefatory song: This

story is imaginary. Yet we may take the view that all this is done to effectively speak of

various political situations without being restricted. Orwell also does the same by using

animals and through them mirrors various aspects of politics. Both Ngugi and Orwell

deliberately select a certain form of narrative to convey certain images, attitudes or ideologies

that consequently create a certain effect in the mind of the reader.

It would be possible to argue that the similarities also indicate that Comparative Literature

facilitates “dialogue between cultures, languages, literatures and disciplines” (p16). In this

study, the dialogue is not inter-disciplinary but rather intra-disciplinary: comparisons are

drawn between two texts from the discipline of literature. Thus, we are able to understand the

meaning of literature without really crossing boundaries. This also qualifies the view by

various scholars such as Ransom who have argued that literature can be understood on its

own without relating it to other fields (Strouf, 1998).

6.3 Conclusion
This chapter has been concerned with a comparative analysis of the political themes common

to Orwell’s Animal Farm and Ngugi’s Matigari which include: power’s ability to corrupt;

language, propaganda and terror as tools of political change; rebellion does not produce a

perfect society; education and knowledge as tools for effective participation in the political

135
process. The significance of the similarities is that comparative study of political themes

helps to identify similarities between different texts, and that, despite being different in terms

of cultural context, background of the authors, language use, characterisation and style, the

texts under study provide proof that the political systems have some similarities regardless of

the part of the world where they are found or the time of history they are associated with.

136
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