A Grain of Wheat

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Betrayal and love at the time of the Kenyan break from British rule.

Betrayal and love at the time of the Kenyan break from British rule. Set against the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, a classic of world literature by Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

Written in 1967 and set four years earlier, on the eve of Kenyan independence, A Grain Of Wheat covers the years of the Mau Mau rebellion and is widely recognised as a classic of post-colonial African literature.

In his epigraph to the book, first published only three years after Independence, Ngugi states, "The characters are fictitious… But the situation and the problems are real – sometimes too painfully real for the peasants who fought the British yet who now see all that they fought for being put on one side."

Like all great stories, this depicts a Rite of Passage – cultural, political, personal – a story of the transformation from one state of being into another, the story of a nation being born from a struggle against colonialism through the liminal times of the Emergency and the half-life in the internment camps.  Every character, black and white, male and female is caught up and has a part to play in this ordeal of violent change.

The ‘Present’ of the story is the four days preceding the day of the Uhuru celebrations when Kenya became an independent nation, presided over by Jomo Kenyatta, Burning Spear, on 12th December 1963.


Cast, in alphabetical order:
Philip Jackson  as John Thompson
Ivanno Jeremiah as Kihika and Gikonyo
Denver-Isaac Kwashe as General R 
Sarah Lawrie  as Margery Thompson
Wela Mbusi  as Karanja
JC Niala as the Narrator
Bel Odawa as Mumbi
Jude Owusu  as Mugo

Written by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Adapted by Michael Eaton 
Creative Consultant" JC Niala
Directed by David Morley

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