Cultural Revival and National Consciousness as Alternatives to Corruption in the 21st century: A Study of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood and Wizard of the Crow

Abstract

Literature is not necessarily history but it can be as it has the ability to forecast an unacceptable future by providing a model in fiction to construct that future. Literature, therefore, relates to history by being a product upon which it depends for its various constituents. Literature can take from the historical process of the past and the present to shape the future. This paper, therefore, examines the need for arousing cultural awareness through cultural a revival in an attempt to overcome the challenges of nationhood in the 21st century: a period that is bedeviled with corruption, insecurity, oppression, unemployment and neo-colonialism. The paper focuses on Ngugi Wa Thiongo‟s Petals of Blood and Wizard of the Crow in which the author advocates for the resumption of the colonial struggle to tackle the present challenges in neo-colonial Africa. The paper examines the role of the artist as a historian and a nationalist in the midst of socio-cultural problems and explores Ngugi‟s treatment of the dominant themes of corruption, dictatorship and protest in the two novels as some of the prevailing problems of Africa in the 21st century that need to be tackled by all while exploring the need for cultural revival. It also makes recommendations.