ENG 4U1 20132014 The Return（ENG 4 u1 20132014返回）.pdf

R. Efpatridis – ENG 4U1 – 2013-2014 The Return In 1965, Ngugi wa Thiongo, then known as James Ngugi, published a short story entitled The Return in which he recounts the sad return of Kamau after years of incarceration in detention camps for his involvement in the struggle for independence. Kamau arrives home to discover to his delight that River Honia, the source of life and symbol of resilience of the human spirit, still flows but the village is no longer the same. Karanja, his fellow inmate in detention, who had been released earlier, had misinformed the people that he (Kamau) had died in detention. On his arrival, the villagers look at Kamau as a ghost. His agony is compounded by the fact that his expectation of a heros welcome is never realised. But the worst of it all is that Karanja had taken his wife, Muthoni, away. The Mau Mau Uprising was a military conflict that took place in Kenya[B] between 1952 and 1960. It involved Kikuyu-dominated anti-colonial groups summarily called Mau Mau and the British Army, the local Kenya Regiment mostly consisting of white Kenyans, auxiliaries and anti-Mau Mau Kikuyu.[1] The capture of rebel leader Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signalled the ultimate defeat of Mau Mau, and essentially ended the British military campaign.The uprising created a rift between the European colonial community in Kenya and also resulted in violent divisions within the Kikuyu community. The Return showcases Ngugi’s attempt to expose the trauma suffered by the Kenya’s Gikuyu people, both as individuals and on a community level, during the period that the British declared a state of emergency as it was struggling to contain the Mau Mau uprising.The story takes you on a long road of hope that ends in disillusionment, it goes with a reader through the labyrinths of betrayal, it exposes the expectations of a man who longs to meet his wife after a f