Education Versus Colonial Hardships in Ngugi's Dreams in a Time of War (2010)

The 1952-1959 state of emergency is a milestone in Kenya’s colonial history. It was declared by the colonial government when the Mau Mau fighters, in their struggle to chase the British settlers away and give back to Kenyans the land which these Europeans took from them, started to attack indigenes loyal to the government. Thus, one can see why, in the autobiographies/memoirs by many Kenyan authors born before independence, the latter also deal with this period of their country’s history. The Kenyan writer’s work, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Dreams in a Time of War comes back to the hardships of colonialism in which school is depicted as a breath of fresh air for the author. In this memoir, the writer has expressed his gratefulness to his mother as well. Using postcolonial theory and biographical criticism, this study will deal with Education versus Colonial Hardships in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Dreams in a Time of War. However, one may wonder how school is taken as a breath of fresh air for the writer and why he is so grateful to his mother. This article is fully entrenched in postcolonialism, biographical criticism, racism and psychology during the British occupation of Kenya.