In his latest collection of critical essays, novelist, dramatist, and literary critic Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o explores a selection of African and Caribbean texts, focusing on their political function and their literary merits. Though the choice of texts is disparate, the collection is unified by each essay’s consideration of the continuing effects of colonialism in postcolonial (or neocolonial) states and the means by which literature serves a social and political function through what Ngũgĩ refers to as “the aesthetic of resistance.”

That the collection is the end result of a project that began many years ago is evident in the choice of texts discussed, which range in publication date from the 1950s to the 1980s (with a brief discussion of film from the early 1990s). Readers hoping for a consideration of more contemporary works and their relation to the current state of affairs in the various locales and literary milieus that Ngũgĩ (accents are missing) explores will not find it in this collection which, nevertheless, offers a good introduction to the authors and texts he has selected. He remarks that “literary and critical theory would gain by being anchored in texts and close reading,” and this is the approach he takes throughout the essays in the collection. He does not engage substantially with the critical theory of others, but instead offers readers his own insight into his chosen texts.

The collection consists of nine essays, the first being a discussion of the author’s personal publication history with Heinemann in the African Writers series. He references the debate over whether the publishing of African writers abroad may be seen as part of a “neocolonial enterprise,” and neocolonialism is a theme he returns to throughout the collection. The following two essays both discuss Caribbean novelist George Lamming, focusing on five of his texts. Though these essays concentrate on Lamming, their preoccupation with what Ngũgĩ calls the “cultural significance of ‘Mother Country’” is a subject that informs other essays in the collection.

Following his discussion of Lamming (the most extensive examination of any single author), he considers the work of South African writer and political activist Alex la Guma, particularly what he refers to as la Guma’s “optimism . . . rooted in realism.” The next essay continues this discussion of optimism, this time in relation to the writing of Ousmane Sembène (reverse order of names and add accent), which he describes as “one of the greatest epical tributes to the capacity of the oppressed to change the conditions of their being and in the process change themselves.”

Ngũgĩ is less positive in his comments on African cinema, the subject of the sixth essay in the collection, which he argues is too disconnected from the “progressive aspects of African literature.” This essay on film lacks the same close analysis of specific works that is found in the chapters on literature, but it does allow readers to consider ways in which the neocolonial forces at play in African societies are manifest in various cultural and artistic forms.

The next two essays explore Angolan literature, beginning with Pepetela’s Mayombe. The observation that the forces of nationalism and democracy “have changed the face of the twentieth century” reveals that this essay emerges out of work begun many years ago, which may leave some readers wishing for a greater engagement with contemporary issues. Yet this chapter benefits from providing what is perhaps the most in-depth discussion of any single text analysed in the collection. The detailed consideration of Angolan literature continues in the following essay on the writing of José Luandino Vieira. The last essay in the collection makes a valuable contribution by considering the work of African women writers (specifically Tsitsi Dangarembga) and provides an interesting discussion of the similarities and the connections between patriarchy and the forces of colonialism.

Each of the essays is written in easy, accessible prose, making this collection one that will appeal not only to other established critics and scholars in the field, but also to students for whom In the Name of the Mother: Reflections on Writers & Empire will serve as a good introduction to the critical writing of Ngũgĩ in particular, and African and Caribbean literature more generally.