FINAL CHANCE TO SEE NGUGI CLASSIC THIS WEEKEND

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted october 14, 2022)

Having seen Ngugi wa Thiong’os and Ngugi wa Mirii’s ‘I will marry when I want’ twice already, once in English, once in Kikuyu, I marvel that the show – transformed from play to musical by Nairobi Performing Arts Studio – is still as fresh and relevant after as it must have been some 45 years.

That was confirmed last Friday night when the show reopened at Kenya National Theatre to a full house crowd. The cast was just as rigorous and righteously enraged by the cruel conduct of the petty bourgeois black landlords deemed watchdogs for their foreign imperialist bosses. The set design seemed even more impeccable with its well-painted backdrops placing the peasants Kiguunda (Bilal Mwaura) and Wangeci (Nice Githinji) deep in the heart of Central Province. It’s a lush green tea plantation that’s about to be turned into the site of a cancer-causing chemical factory for foreigners to make products that would poison the locals while making profits for the rich ‘imperialists’ and their local lackies.

And the sound also seemed much clearer now that more microphones have been added to enhance the clarity of the Ngugis’ message, which was and still is all that the country needs a revolutionary change in order to achieve the goals of liberty, equality, and fraternity that Independence had promised to bring but instead retained the neocolonial status quo. The color complexions of the bosses may have changed, but the exploitation of the locals had not. The extraction of Kenya’s wealth in the form of the people’s sweat and blood was still going straight into the pockets of the few while the rest suffered under even more exploitative conditions than before.

I will marry when I want, the Musical was endorsed by Ngugi who sent his greetings and appreciation of NPAS for reviving the script which had got him jailed for a year back in 1977 and 1978. The cast, including its principles, Martin Kigondu, Bilal Mwaura, and Nice Githinji were unmatched.

But after checking all the boxes to admit the show was like brand new and maybe better than the first re-stagings of the play back in May of this year, one had to reappraise Ngugi’s message too. And that is where one had to marvel that the Kenyatta clique took nearly a month to jail Ngugi after shutting down the Kamiirithu stage, the original site of the play. For the playwrighters’ message was plain: Kenya was ripe for revolution!

The conditions that exploited both workers like Gicaamba (Martin Kigondu) and peasants like Kigunda, Wangeci and their daughter Gathoni were extreme. The hardships affected all aspects of everyday life, including the ease with which a petty bourgeoise boy like Gathoni’s boyfriend could take advantage of her, and still get away without any recourse for her or her family to fight back.

‘I will marry’ turns out to be a tragedy in the end when Bilal and Nice lose everything, even that precious piece of land that Kigunda was tricked into giving up. Even they were robbed of their daughter’s innocence after she was fooled by the treacherous lies that lousy lovers make when taking advantage of naïve girls. Indeed, Ngugi even exposed the way Kenyan society favors boys at the expense of the lives of girls, thus driving them into trades like prostitution as one of the few lucrative means of making money to survive.

The truth teller of ‘I will marry’, Martin Kigondu’s character, Gicaamba, needed the spotlight place squarely on his final performance as the man who tells us truly why Kenya needs a revolution. He lifts the whole musical up to heights that clearly terrorized the Home Guard class of African watch dogs who Ngugi made clear were and still are greedy buggers who serve foreign interests and enjoy their protection in the process.

I will marry when I want’ reflects a raw moment in contemporary Kenyan history when the country was ripe for revolution once the majority took heed of Ngugi’s advice to organize and mobilize the people’s power to change the system and bring about real independence. It was a message that resonated 40 years ago, and it is still an aspiration that resonates today. It still calls upon Kenyans to demand a better life for themselves

Bravo to NPAS for bringing back the show for those who didn’t get a chance to see it earlier this year. And thanks to Ngugi who deserved seeing his seminal play staged again for the world to recognize his importance in our country’s and our continent’s cultural heritage