The writings of East African nationalist leaders as sites of representation of their identities

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that independence did not deliver the African masses from the burden of g. lt is thus necessary to persist in the attempts to elucidate those murky aspects of k colonial past and postcolouial present which may resolve the conundrum of failed CB. The literary scholar can intervene in this undertaking by endeavouring to examine he mind-work of the leaders who steered the nationalist project and determined to a large extent 5 omeome. This mind-work, which crucially involves the nationalist leaders’ understanding and fl of their own selves, finds expression in their writings, which the student of literature B hm ezpipped to investigate. This study, therefore, concerned itself with the representation by % Afiicau nationalist leaders of their identities in their writings, i.e. speeches and ingaphres. The objectives of the study were to establish how Jomo Ker1yatta’s Srgffizring Iilimr Brrrerness (1968), Julius Nyerere’s Freedom and Unity/Uhuru na Umoja (1968), and Yoberi Museveni’s Sowing the Mustard Seed ( l 997) construct the identities of a nationalist leader; Iktify the literary strategies used by the authors in this construction; and to establish the ways i Iiidi the anticipation of audience shapes the construction of thesegidentities. The study was &d on the assumptions that in the three texts Kenyatta, Nyerere and Museveni engage in the corsmiction of their identities as nationalist leaders; that the three authors use various literary miegies to construct these identities effectively; and that the anticipation of particular audiences flags a part in the way they construct their identities. The study used the postcolonial theory of iabiography. This theory deals, most importantly, with cultural identity in formerly colonised sndaia; the dilemmas of developing a national identity after colonial rule; and the ways in which Inters articulate, celebrate and interrogate that identity (often reclaiming it from and maintaining stung connections with the coloniser). Interpretivisrn was the research methodology for the study. The spwches and autobiography provided the primary data. Scholarly work and other secondary ierial complemented it. Data was analysed interpretively. The study established that the three tns project identities desired by the three authors — the father of the nation (Kenyatta), Mwalimu tN)"erere), and revolutionary saviour (Museveni). In the context of the problematic unfolding of tie nationalist project these identities serve to mask negative aspects of the leaders’ personalities. This construction is made possible by Kenyatta’s use of myth, Biblical allusion, metaphor, and pziorcj Nyerere’s use of repetition, historical allusion, parallelism, and figurative language; and !~b:\eni’s use of Biblical parables and imagery. Identity construction incorporates the leaders’ |Qloucling to sceptical, dissatisfied and critical views of them through placation, reassurzmce, clmght dismissal and counter-accusation. The study was able to conclude that identity rqxesentation for the three leaders became a complex process of projecting selves that were at naked variance with their true inner core. A dichotomy was created between the leaders’ desires of how they wanted to be perceived by the masses and the deviations from this ideal that they gradually became, shaped by personal ambitions for power before all else. This was a dichotomy the leaders never tried to overcome; instead they focused their energy and attention on concealing mar ambition-deformed personalities behind the masks of the positive self-identities they constructed. In the resultant hide-and-seek game with their peoples, the opportunity for selfless leadership and genuine service to nation-building was lost. The study helps to understand East Afiican nationalist leaders from a new perspective and in so doing expands the understanding of dc region’s historical, political, literary and ethical heritage, which has a bearing on its present.