Published in 1986 in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's native language, Gĩkũyũ, Matigari ma Njiruungi follows the story of a mythologized revolutionary who survives a revolution in an unnamed country. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o wrote Matigari largely in exile in a one-bedroom flat in London in 1983. The novel was later translated by Wangui wa Goro into English and published in 1987. At Ngũgĩ's insistence, all translations of Matigari were translated directly from the Gĩkũyũ source material in order to encourage academics and readers to respond to and learn African languages.
Matigari ma Njiruungi combats neocolonial cultural oppression in both its narrative and its form. In fact, the novel's call for armed revolution, rendered in a local language, provoked the Kenyan government to seize all copies of the novel after its publication. In the preface to the English translation of the text, Ngũgĩ notes that, a few months after the novel was published, intelligence agencies reported people in Central Kenya talking about a mysterious man called Matigari, who roams the country demanding truth and justice. The authorities even issued warrants for Matigari's arrest, only to be humiliated when they later found out that they had been looking for a fictional character.
The novel is partially based on a Gĩkũyũ oral story about a man looking to cure an illness. Just like the oral tale, Matigari is addressed to a "reader/listener" and does not have a fixed time or place, as it is an allegory of the struggle for freedom and prosperity in the post-colonial, capitalist world. Matigari is satirical and uses the story of Jesus of Nazareth as an allegory to explore themes of Truth and Justice, Resistance, and Rearming.
