Reevaluating the Place of The Trial of Dedan Kimathi in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Drama

ABSTRACT: This essay uses archival evidence to reevaluate the timeline of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s dramatic writing from 1961 to 1984. Specifically, I examine manuscripts from unstudied 1984 performances of his and Mĩcere Gĩthae Mũgo’s play The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (1976) in London to understand how Kenyan theater took shape globally in response to Western neocolonial governance. Ngũgĩ’s account of revolts in Kenyan theater across his nonfiction tends to accentuate the well-known play he produced with Kamĩrĩĩthũ peasants, I Will Marry When I Want , whose performances eventually led to his unlawful arrest in 1977. I instead demonstrate that The Trial of Dedan Kimathi not only laid the groundwork for the Kamĩrĩĩthũ experiment but also shaped its afterlife in a globalizing world. In this way, Ngũgĩ’s argument that Kamĩrĩĩthũ was an “epistemological break” must be expanded to appreciate his contested involvement as a defender of Kenyan culture while exiled abroad in England.