Ngugi Defence Campaign

NGUGI DEFENCE CAMPAIGN The Ngugi Defence Conmittee recently organised a public meeting in Iondon to demand the release of ¡gugi Wa Thiong'o. attended The meeting was a great success, by over 300 neople. Belor we print extmote from the speeches made at the meeting: Mex La Guma:...Our campaign to free Ngugi is an identification with the ideas he expressed, not only for the people of Kenya, but those ideas which all the people of Africa embraced and entertainand which all progressive humanity ent- Let me add that Ngugi Wa Thiong'o is not only a Kenyan, he belongs to the world of literature and he will not be freed only by the people of London, by the students of the universities of Britain, but will be freed also by progressive mankind, by progressive writers And I dare to pledge all over the world. to you that all those writers with whom I have contact over two continents will be drawn into the struggle to free Ngugi, to free one of the giants of literature: a giant has been imprisoned: we cannot allow the Lilliputians to keep him prisoner! " Horace Campbell:... "We hear of Delmonte, Union Carbide and all the Unilevex, multi-nationals who have now been invited to participate in the process that began with colonialisn, to participate in the process of rape - I dont think it is just a simple question of exploiting labour: the conditions which Kenyan peasants, the Kenyan small farmers and Kenyan workers face is nothing but rape. what we have under the rape of the multinational corporations is that these socalied 'leaders' in Kenya only find it possible to reap a little through the interstices of the system............ We are here today not to cry about Ngugi, we are here today because we have the opportunity to speak out about the incarceration of Ngugi and to register to the Kenyan government that we will continue speaking out against not only Ngugi's incarceration, but also the incarcer ation of all Kenya's progressive workers And it is impand peasants (applause). ortant that we re inforce this because while Ngugi is known, so many other people who are arrested in Kenya are not • known. We have to register our voices because we have the possibility to raise In areas of Nairobi that ere preserved for the international bourgeoisie, 15 Plantation workers sorting coffee beans after the day's pickings the working people are not even allowed to go...Io make Nairobi safe and the streets safe for tourists, the unemployed of Kenya,. are not supposed to walk in streets, or else they will be stopped by the police. And it is this kind of draconian arrest of the working people, arrests and anti-working class laws, to which we are opposed". Amooti Wa Irumba: .. "In the play Ngugi wrote with Micere Mugo - the Trial of Dedan Kimathi . he said that writers of Africa, and particularly himself, cannot You have afford to stand on the fence. got to choose: either to gide with the imperialists, and therefore fight against the masses of Africa, or to side with the people who are fighting against exploitation. And Ngugi has opted fox the side of the masses - that is where he stands.. writers like Ngugi. and Wole Soyinka... are arrested because these people are increasingly pointing out the fact that the masses, the peasants and the working class in their countries on the continent Of Africa are forced to live in wretchedness by the petit bourgeoisie in collaboration with the imperialists..." EH