In the name of the father: The politics of today and yesterday

NAIROBI: Once again, it’s been nice seeing Kenya and Africa’s great writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, back in our midst, momentarily knocking politicians off the front page.

His moment with former PM Tinga was particularly succinct, although the historicity of the moment was hardly recognised by the scribes present.

In 1969, in Ngugi’s first cycle of exile, he resigned from the University of Nairobi, citing lack of academic freedom, after Tinga’s father, Jaramogi, was denied a chance to address students at the institution’s Taifa Hall.

Those were the days of Cold War, and local politicians were aligning themselves with different political camps – those looking West allied to capitalism and others looking towards East where socialism had taken root.

What’s remarkable about 1969 isn’t just that Jaramogi was denied an opportunity to address students, he was also placed under house arrest after his party, the Kenya People’s Union, was proscribed by the founding President Jomo, whose son, Prezzo UK, is in power.

Yet, there is a greater paradox in that Prezzo UK, whose father was pro-West, is increasingly looking East. And the son of Jaramogi is sounding and looking like a Western proponent whose economic base is capitalism.

About Ngugi’s own political evolution, he has transcended those ideological divisions to simply identify himself as an artist.