Love For The Nation And Betrayal Of The Revolution In Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s A Grain Of Wheat (1978) And Rachid Mimouni’s Le Fleuve Détourné (1982)

Résumé: This piece of research aims to analyse the issues of love for the nation and betrayal of the revolution in the African postcolonial literature, namely the Algerian novelist Rachid Mimouni’s Le fleuve détourné (1982), and the Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat (1978) literary works. We will support our analysis with Frantz Fanon’s theories developed in his book The Wretched of the Earth (1963) mainly the chapter entitled The pitfalls of National Consciousness. Both novels deal with the post independence era of both Algeria and Kenya. Their aim is to denounce and criticize the corrupt aspect of the revolution and its betrayal by the local bourgeoisies. We will try to illicit the role of the peasants and lower class populations in the two countries and the betrayal of middle class intellectual that led to the failure of these revolutions. All of this resulted in a massive decay in the socioeconomic and political spheres of these two countries. Our paper aims to analyze aspects of this decay and the effects on the lives of those who fought against the former coloniser to gain independence and to live in peace and dignity.

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