The Fanon Factor in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Children's Fiction

This article is a reading of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Njamba Nene trilogy as an example of the workings of children's literature during the Cold War era. A key political thinker whose ideas impacted African political thought, culture, and art during the Cold War is Frantz Fanon. Due to his articulation of the cause of the marginalized and the oppressed, Fanon became inspirational to people fighting for social justice in Africa and elsewhere. The article therefore focuses on points of intersection between Fanon's decolonization ideology and Ngũgĩ's decolonization agenda as expressed through the artistic strategies in his children's fiction. It interrogates the impact of ideological leanings in children's fiction by focusing on characterization and plot in the three Njamba Nene stories.