Decolonizing African Literature by Deconstructing Mono Genre-Centrism in Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Petals Of Blood (1977)
Prof. Hellen Roselyne L. Shigali PhD

Abstract
Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o is anardent advocate of decolonization as demonstrated in both his creative writing and critical texts. In the former he has achieved decolonization by various strategies. In Petals of Blood (1977) he achieves this through deconstruction of mono genre-centrism that defines western literatures. The text has received extensive critical analysis from various perspectives. In this paper I argue that the many interpretations are validated by the multiple genres in the four parts of the text. The book has aspects of various genres of modern Literature and Orature including poetry, narrative fiction and elements of drama. It contains it contains tragedy, comedy, romance, satire, allegory, epic, myth and folklore in varying degrees .It fits into various thematic categories such as socialist realism, postcolonial discourse, gender perspectives in literature and so on. Add to that multilingualism--including vernacular sub-texts that are deliberately left untranslated , complex stylistic strategies of deviation and foregrounding, the numerous stylistic devices by which the strategies are achieved and you get a literary artifact that transcends any one genre. wa Thiong’o has even been accused of creating a propagandist text. That is yet another sub-genre.His deconstruction of mono genre- centrism is part of his strategy of “ moving the centre” from Eurocentrism to Afrocentrism in multiple ways. This in turn defines post-colonial writing at its best by way of problematizing the rigid boundaries that are imposed on literary art in modern Literature.

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