I Will Marry When I Want Lesson Plan

How do song and dance provide more texture to the overall play?

It is oftentimes difficult for Western readers/audiences to appreciate African drama, as there are dramatic elements they are not used to - in particular, the songs and dances that permeate the text. Ngugi uses these strategies to flesh out the events and themes of his play, as well as to universalize the drama. Additionally, the songs and dances exist to put us back in another time and place (as with the Mau Mau uprising) or to get into the minds of the characters (as later in the text when Wangeci and Kĩgũũnda imagine their church wedding).

Songs and dance are intrinsic to the culture of Kenya, so Ngugi...