The Trial of Religion and Politics in Soyinka’s The Trial of Brother Jero and Ngugi and Mugo’s The Trial of Dedan Kimathi

Abstract

Trial is a central motif in Soyinka’s The Trial of Brother Jero and Ngugi’s The Trial of Dedan Kimathi co-authored with Micere Githae Mugo. However, the recurring interpretive kernel of the former has consistently hovered the precincts of proliferation of churches and the dubious approach of those who posture as men of God while merchandising the Christian faith. The latter has also variously been interpreted from the prism of revolutionary ethos which encapsulates the struggle of Kenyans to achieve self-rule from British imperialists. While the two different analytical planks have contributed to the appreciation of the two texts, they prove inadequate to capture further existential parameters where religion and politics are implicitly on trial. Using Jaques Derrida’s Deconstruction, this paper advances the above existing interpretive spectrum by arguing that the trials which the two protagonists in the plays, Brother Jero and Dedan Kimathi face are synecdochical for religion and politics. The paper reveals that the trials recreated in the texts continually rehash religion and politics in contemporary times. Thus, Brother Jero’s trials and his disingenuous responses to them are symbolic of the trials which churches go through. Also, Dedan Kimathi’s trials and the attendant social dislocations in Kenya during the precolonial era are redolent of the trials African societies go through in the face of capitalist, exploitative predilections of the ruling class. Therefore, the trials in the texts provide a mirror for examining churches on one hand and socio-political struggles on the other hand.