To modernize is to individualize. To be cliché, it's every man (and woman) for his (her) self. This focus on individualism and unisex classification of individuals in the workplace is a total contrast to the traditional social system of Africa. The customary way of life in Africa is a total separation of male and female. Female, although subservient to male, worked long days in the fields, cooked, cleaned, bore children and raised them all for the glory of the husband she shared with several other women. A woman proved her dignity by producing a child to carry on the father's name and title. Men and women were not friends, but worked in a community that was self-sufficient to the community. Everyone contributed to the well being of the community, and each individual was responsible for the other. The arrival of colonials and eventually capitalism in Africa suddenly broke down all barriers of gender separation. Suddenly, the countries of Africa were enslaved and impoverished. In this new modern society, every African had to produce for himself. No longer did community strive off the citizens, but now the citizens strived off the city. With Africans learning from western worlds to live a dog eat dog lifestyle, there grew a gigantic separation of genders and social classes. There were men, women, very rich, and very poor. A clear division of those with "good heart[s]- and those with "bad heart[s],"" you are a robber, thief, or peasant. (54) It is this world that Ngũgĩ writes from, and from this world emerges his main character Warĩĩnga.
Warĩĩnga is Ngũgĩ's warrior. Warĩĩnga is a female living in the "soulless and corrupt- Nairobi. (15) She has been sold, betrayed, seduced, and denied. She is an African woman. Warĩĩnga has been beaten by the society of a man's economy, that is a stronger force. Ngũgĩ gives us Warĩĩnga in a confused and vulnerable state, because this is the state his people are in.
