Re-narrating The Past: Historical Reconstruction And The Postcolonial African Novel: The Case Of Ngugi And Armah

Both Armah and Ngugi have grappled with the trajectory of the continent’s history. Whether in their prose narratives or polemical essays, they offer deep philosophical reflections on “the trouble with Africa”, then and now. I believe that both novelists do write fiction that reconstructs a historical narrative or is in dialogue with the past. Given the broad scope of the historical framework and the wide range of historical material that pervades most of their narratives, I will refer briefly to the writers’ late novels which exemplify best the ideological moorings that shape their historical vision. This attempt is double-fold because on one side it will show the interrelation between history and fiction as narrative mediations of reality. On the other side, it will maintain the claim that despite their divergent ideological orientations and contrary to many critical assertions, both Ngugi’s and Armah’s visions do intersect.