Kenyatta's Jiggers

by Charles Mangua

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Charles Mangua is a Kenyan fiction writer. His novels explore, among other issues, the "hardship and urban poverty" experienced by ordinary people in places such as Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

Mangua's style is irreverent and often humorous. His early works, Son of Woman (1971) and A Tail in the Mouth (1972), sold more copies than any previous works of literature published in East Africa. His work had an influence on other Kenyan writers and he was awarded the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature for A Tail in the Mouth.

Reviews

[Nukes · Rating 4 out of 5]

At Text book centre one day I picked this book with a funny title. I thought it was going to explain to me why Kenyatta wore only open shoes, (call them sandals and a long brown jacket). I opened to scheme through it for that info. Lo and behold I was paying for the book and could not keep it down till I saw the other cover.
Charles Mangua is a master of Mau mau stories. Tells them with relish and paints such a vivid picture, I feel like I have lived through those hard times of the freedom struggle. Like I was there in the village, in the forest and on the foot paths.

[Andrew Staples · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lost classic of post-colonial literature. While Mangua's Son of Woman has become required reading for those interested in African literature, Kenyatta's Jiggers has become very hard to find.

So. Jiggers are nasty little bugs that infest the feet and lower legs, causing itching and sometimes pain. No matter how much you scratch, you can't get them out. Kenyatta was the first president if Kenya. Kenyatta's Jiggers are the Kenyan people.

The book is a fictionalised account of Kenya's struggle for independence, from the point of view of a young man who wants nothing to do with it but ends up exploring almost every aspect of it: indifferent worker, reluctant oath-taker, colonial cop hunting the forest fighters, and finally joining the forest fighters.

He even manages to visit England with the Boy Scouts, where he not only loses his virginity with an English girl, but discovers the ordinary English folk are unaware of the struggle in Kenya.

Mangua manages to maintain a pretty neutral stance throughout the book. Every side in the conflict has heroes and villains, good and bad, and he paints them all with compassion and wry humour.