Planting a tree for Ngugi and an accent on the humanities

Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s stellar literary career started in a rather comical way.

Ngugi tells us of how, as a young man at Makerere University, he had boasted to Jonathan Kariara that he had “written” a story.

Kariara, his senior at the English Department, and then-editor of the famous Penpoint literary journal asked him to submit the story immediately for possible publication.

Ngugi had, however, not quite written the story, yet. He had some scribbles to work from, and he had to shut himself up in his Northcote Hall cubicle and cobble out the tale in a few hours.

That saved him the embarrassment of admitting to Kariara that the story was far from fully done.

Anyway, that is a version of how Ngugi’s first short story, “The Mugumo Tree”, came to be published.

These memories came to mind earlier this week as we watched Makerere Vice-Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe plant a tree in the Arts Quadrangle, in honour of Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o.

This was in recognition of his contribution to world literature and, implicitly, the glory that he has brought to Makerere.

Indeed, Ngugi had been expected to deliver a keynote lecture at the International Humanities Conference held this week as part of the University’s centenary celebrations.

He was, however, not able to travel to Uganda for the occasion.

But the planting of the Ngugi Tree at the traditional heart of what used to be the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences was the fulfilment of a long-felt desire to name a landmark after the giant writer at the cradle of his academic and creative career.

We in Literature (formerly English) had considered naming the famous Lecture Room Four, at the end of the corridor on the ground floor of the right wing of the Quadrangle, after Ngugi.

That is where he and a host of other literary greats, like Micere Mugo, Peter Nazareth, Ciarunji Chesaina, Timothy Wangusa and the late David Rubadiri, John Ruganda and Rose Mbowa, attended most of their undergraduate lectures.

The Quadrangle

But maybe a tree in the open space of the Quadrangle is more appropriate and certainly more conspicuous.

The Quadrangle itself is a prominent part of the historic skyline of the Makerere administrative and teaching area.

Built in colonial style in the mid-1940s, it stands out with its pseudo-Doric columns front, covered in luscious ivy and the three-storied block to the right, left and back of the open square.

Variously named Queen’s Court, Arts Court and currently Arts Quadrangle, it was the original graduation area, until the growing numbers necessitated a bigger venue.

Anyway, my one regret about the Makerere Ngugi Tree is that it is not a mugumo (Ficus natalensis/Ficus thonningli).

I understand that what was planted is a musizi (Maesopsis eminii), quite a respectable species, with the capacity to grow, pretty fast, to impressive heights and sizes.

I am sure that, in Uganda’s exuberant climate, the Ngugi Tree will be quite impressive in the next five or six years.

It will, however, not have the cultural and spiritual significance that Ngugi’s people attribute to the mugumo, and which Ngugi uses to great symbolic effect in his work.

Indeed, nature and the environment play a prominent role in much of his work. Several titles of his early (English) books, though often quotations, The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, allude to nature and the environment.

This brings me to the two main thoughts emerging in my mind as I followed the planting of the Ngugi tree and the circumstances around it.

The first, indeed, is the tree, and the few simple little things we can do with it to ensure or improve our survival.

The second, in view of the International Humanities Conference, to which the tree planting was a prelude, is the reassuring gesture that Makerere still respects the humanities as an important service to humankind.

Regarding trees, we all know the ravages that deforestation is wreaking on our planet.

Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation and its impact on our quality of life and, indeed, on our continued existence as a species, is the most worrying problem in history.

The destruction of trees without replacing them is a major contributing factor to the crisis in which we are.

For about three decades now, environment activists have been struggling to sell us the slogan and concept, “if you cut down one, plant two”.

Maybe if we had heeded this advice, we would not be where we are now, with weather extremes, from unprecedented droughts to devastating floods, deadly heatwaves to below-below everything chills, rising sea-water levels and continental forest fires.

Obviously, we are headed for disaster, or already in it, unless we change our behaviour drastically right now.

Maybe we could effect some change with regard to trees if we changed our slogan and concept to: “with every celebration, let’s plant a tree.”

This might work, especially in Uganda, where the people seem to be addicted to celebrations.

If we welcomed every childbirth with a new tree, every naming with a tree, every initiation with a tree, every birthday with a tree, every marriage with a tree and every funeral with several trees, we might soon be on the way to restoring our woods and forests.

Regarding Makerere’s hosting of an International Humanities Conference, I cannot say much. I only watched from the sidelines.

It saved me from turning my bellicosity into belligerence. You know how upset I get at the ceaseless and thoughtless degradation and neglect of the humanities in our educational systems, allegedly in favour of the so-called “sciences” (“STEM” and all that).

Many perceptive and intelligent presentations at the three-day Makerere conference aptly validated the centrality of the human sciences in scholarship and in development.

I hope that those in a position to make sensible decisions were listening and that they will take positive action.

Prof Bukenya is a leading East African scholar of English and [email protected]