Colinzation and the erosion of traditional masculinity in Weep Not, Child

The aim of this thesis is to explore Ngugi's Weep Not, Child from a postcolonial and gender perspective. It sheds light on how colonization creates a masculinity crisis in the colonized subjects by the exercice of violence and oppression. The colonizer systematically attempts to destroy the sense of masculinty in men by depriving them from the pathways that leads to it. This thesis examines the transition of the Kikuyu people from their own notion of manhood to a state of questioning and doubting it. It attempts to convey that through analyzing the characters and scrutinizing their self-doubt and blame. It also focuses on how the colonizer marginalizes the men who previously had authority and had a a voice in their community, and how they silence them. It aims to demonstrate how the emasculation of men, eventually, leads to their uprising against the colonizer, and the emergence of violent groups who imitate the oppressor's practice of violence in order to assert their manhood and reclaim it.