As a product of colonial Kenya, Ngugi’s activism was heavily influenced by a ringside view of the impact of modernity on African traditions. Ngugi’s socialist dream was however cut short by foreign interests in Kenya during an era of intense competition between communism and capitalism. As Ngugi’s generation hands over national duty to the Gen Zs, a pertinent question is what lessons have been learnt from the 62 years of our democratic experiment. One lesson is that Ngugi’s post-independence generation was partly right in seeking an indigenous ideology to inform politics and economics. Going forward and just as Karl Marx turned Hegel’s logic on its head, it is time to turn Ngugi’s thesis the right way up.

Source: Standard Digital January 12, 2026 21:18 UTC