The author, one of Africa's leading writers, explores the relationship between art and political power in society, taking as its starting point the experience of writers in contemporary Africa, where writers are often seen as enemies of the post-colonial state. This study raises the wider issues of the relationship between the state of art and the art of the state, within territorial, temporal, social, and even psychic contexts. 224 pp.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o^r, an acclaimed novelist, playwright, and critic, is Professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University.

• Preface


• Introduction


• 1: Art War with the State: Writers and Guardians of a Postcolonial Society


• 2: Penpoints, Gunpoints, and Dreams: The Conflict Between the Crafts of Art and the State


• 3: Enacting Power: The Politics of the Performance State


• 4: Voicing Silence: Language, Democracy, and a New World Order


• 5: Renaissance or Orature: Freeing Creativity from the Literary Colonisation of Orality


• Conclusion