Reading Order
Devil on the Cross Reading Order
Devil on the Cross (Caitaani Mutharaba-ini, 1982) by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a landmark in African literature for reasons both formal and political: it is the first major novel written in Gikuyu (Ngũgĩ's mother tongue), written while he was in political detention in Kenya, on toilet paper because no other writing materials were available, as a direct response to his imprisonment by Daniel arap Moi's government after the performance of his Gikuyu-language play I Will Marry When I Want. The novel is also a political fable of extraordinary savagery — a Kafkaesque, Swiftian satire of the Devil's feast at which the most accomplished exploiters of the Kenyan people compete for the prize of greatest thief. The novel follows Wariinga, a young Kenyan woman who has been sexually exploited by the Rich Old Man from Ngorika (her boss) and abandoned, who goes on a bus journey to Ilmorog that takes her through a series of visions and encounters with the forces of neo-colonial capitalism and their victims. The central episode is the Devil's feast — a competition held in a cave in Ilmorog in which the wealthiest Kenyan exploiters compete for the Devil's prize by presenting their methods of theft, exploitation, and betrayal of the Kenyan poor. The novel is allegorical, grotesque, and deliberately coarse: Ngũgĩ uses the language of Gikuyu oral tradition (folk tales, songs, proverbs) to create a popular novel that could be performed as well as read, aimed at ordinary Kenyans rather than at the international literary market.
Where to start
Devil on the Cross — Ngũgĩ's own translation from Gikuyu is the standard English version. The novel is episodic and allegorical — read it as political fable rather than psychological realism.
Complete Devil on the Cross Book List
- 1Buy
Devil on the Cross (trans. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o)
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o·1982·Ngũgĩ's self-translation from Gikuyu — the first major African novel written on toilet paper in political detention; a savage satire of neo-colonial capitalism. - 2Buy
Petals of Blood
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o·1977·Ngũgĩ's preceding English-language novel — the political critique of post-independence Kenya that got him imprisoned; more realistic than Devil on the Cross but equally savage. - 3Buy
A Grain of Wheat
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o·1967·Ngũgĩ's masterpiece — the Conradian independence novel that preceded his political radicalization; essential context for understanding his development. - 4Buy
Decolonising the Mind
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o·1986·Ngũgĩ's essays — his argument for writing in African languages rather than English; the political theory that explains Devil on the Cross's linguistic choice. - 5Buy
The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon·1961·Fanon's anti-colonial theory — the political framework for Devil on the Cross's analysis of neo-colonial capitalism as the continuation of colonial exploitation. - 6Buy
Animal Farm
George Orwell·1945·Orwell's political allegory — the satirical fable that Devil on the Cross belongs to; the exposure of exploitation through grotesque fantasy; Ngũgĩ's allegory is more specifically African. - 7Buy
Weep Not, Child
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o·1964·Ngũgĩ's first novel — earlier, more realistic, less politically radical; the beginning of the trajectory that led to Devil on the Cross. - 8Buy
So Long a Letter
Mariama Bâ·1979·Bâ's Senegalese epistolary novel of women's suffering under patriarchal African culture — the feminist companion to Ngũgĩ's anti-capitalist fable; Wariinga's story from a different African perspective.
Devil on the Cross — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Devil on the Cross about?
Devil on the Cross follows Wariinga, a young Gikuyu woman who has been sexually exploited by the Rich Old Man from Ngorika (her employer) and abandoned after becoming pregnant, on a bus journey from Nairobi to Ilmorog. On the bus she meets Muturi (a worker), Wangari (a peasant woman), Gatuiria (a Nairobi University student), and Mwireri wa Mukiraaĩ (a small businessman). The central episode of the novel is the Devil's feast — a competition held in a cave in Ilmorog, presided over by the Devil, in which the wealthiest Kenyan exploiters compete for the prize of greatest thief. The competition is a grotesque satirical pageant in which each competitor presents their methods of theft and exploitation. Wariinga's story ends with a revenge against the Rich Old Man that transforms the allegorical novel into something more personally devastating.
Why did Ngũgĩ write Devil on the Cross in Gikuyu?
Devil on the Cross was written in Gikuyu because of Ngũgĩ's political decision, announced in 1977, to stop writing fiction in English. He argued that writing in the colonial language — the language of the oppressor — perpetuates cultural colonialism even when the content of the work is anti-colonial. A novel in Gikuyu is written for Gikuyu and Kenyan readers; a novel in English is written for the international literary market that is dominated by the former colonial powers. The novel was also written under extreme conditions: Ngũgĩ was imprisoned in Kamĩtĩ Maximum Security Prison from 1977 to 1978 after the performance of his Gikuyu-language play I Will Marry When I Want, and he wrote the novel on toilet paper — the only material available — while in detention. The novel was smuggled out and published in Gikuyu in 1980 (Caitaani Mutharaba-ini); Ngũgĩ translated it into English himself in 1982.
What is the Devil's feast and what does it satirize?
The Devil's feast is the central allegorical episode of the novel — a competition held in a cave, announced publicly in newspapers and sponsored by international corporations, in which the wealthiest and most successful exploiters of the Kenyan people compete for the Devil's prize by presenting their methods of theft, corruption, and exploitation. The competitors represent different categories of neo-colonial capitalism: corrupt politicians who sell government contracts; multinational corporations that extract Kenya's resources for foreign profit; local entrepreneurs who exploit their workers; landowners who dispossess peasants. Each competitor's presentation is grotesque and hyperbolic, deliberately evoking the satirical tradition of Jonathan Swift. Ngũgĩ's target is what he calls 'neo-colonial capitalism' — the system in which the formal political independence of Kenya has been used by a small Kenyan elite to replace British colonial exploitation with a Kenyan version of the same exploitation, backed by the same international capital.
How does Devil on the Cross use Gikuyu oral tradition?
Ngũgĩ deliberately writes Devil on the Cross in a style that draws on Gikuyu oral storytelling traditions — folk tales, proverbs, songs, communal narrative modes — rather than on the conventions of the European realist novel. The narrator is a fictional Gicaandi player (a Gikuyu oral poet and musician), and the novel is framed as a performance: 'I am Gicaandi player, the voice of the people.' This allows Ngũgĩ to address the audience directly, to include songs and proverbs, to shift between modes without novelistic transition, and to aim the novel at the kind of communal performance — reading aloud in village meetings — that characterized Gikuyu oral literature. The novel was in fact performed in this way in Kenyan villages after its publication.
What should I read after Devil on the Cross?
After Devil on the Cross, Ngũgĩ's Matigari (1986, also originally in Gikuyu) continues the allegorical mode; Wizard of the Crow (2006) is his most ambitious recent work, a massive satirical novel of a fictional African state. His essays Decolonising the Mind (1986) provide the theoretical framework for his linguistic choices. For African political allegory in a comparable mode, Ahmadou Kourouma's Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote (1998) and Alain Mabanckou's African Psycho (2003) are important. For the Gikuyu cultural tradition Ngũgĩ draws on, Wangari Maathai's Unbowed (2006) provides a complementary Kenyan woman's perspective.
Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.