Del cristianismo colonial a la cristianización política. Misioneros imperiales y sacerdotes kĩkũyũs en A grain of wheat (1967) de Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o

Abstract

A grain of wheat (1967), Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o's third novel, involves a series of procedures anchored in Christianity that make up not only its allegorical character but also much of its ambiguity. However, in addition to the intertextual relationships with The Bible and the corresponding allegories in the Old and New Testament, the narrative places a series of minor figures: missionaries and priests who establish two poles of meaning in relation to Kikuyu culture: evangelization as violent pedagogy in the context of British colonization as political articulation in independent Kenya. We will demonstrate that the novel does not only try to expose the negative character of Christianity in its colonial aspect in the character of Reverend Jackson but also to reveal the socialist dimension of the Christian world in the country of the future in the figure of Kingori. Variants, in effect, that displace the usual conflict between Kikuyu tradition and Christianity to return to its complexity and contingency.