Devil on the Cross

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1980

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary

The first section of Chapter 4 consists of a long monologue by the master of ceremonies for the Devil’s feast. He tells a parable, in the style of a Biblical tale, about the imperialism that Kenya suffered: how white people conquered and forced the Indigenous population into servitude; how the imperial powers eventually left after the revolution, and yet continued to affect Kenya’s future due to their monetary investments; and how the rich elite of both countries use money and employment as a way of oppressing the masses.

Following the speech, all the thieves and robbers rise to their feet and give the master of ceremonies a rousing standing ovation, with some muttering about how the speech confirmed their love of foreign investment. The master of ceremonies explains how the competition will work: Every competitor will tell their personal story of theft and robbery and their methods of perfecting their skills, followed by ideas of how to further develop the partnership between foreigners and Kenyans. An American, representing the foreign delegation of the International Organization of Thieves and Robbers, takes the stage and explains that the organization works to unite thieves of all nationalities, and that he respects the commitment to theft and robbery by the Kenyans, despite the youth of their chapter. The American explains that he’s looking to recruit seven disciples to be “representatives of our representatives, thieves to teach other thieves, robbers to teach other robbers, experts to teach other experts” (95), and that if chosen, the disciple will never be rejected from any financial institution in Kenya again, ensuring their future as a professional thief. Finally, the American gives the competitors some encouragement, telling them that the West was built on the “river of blood of their own workers and peasants” and that “we believe in the democracy of theft and robbery, the democracy of drinking the blood and eating the flesh of our workers” (97).

As all this is happening, Warĩĩnga, Gatuĩria, Mũturi, Wangarĩ, and Mwaũra are sitting in the back of the cave, watching. Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ is placed at a different table, farther from them. The foreign delegation in the front is dressed bizarrely, wearing hats with horns on them, and the floor of the cave is polished to a mirror shine. Wangarĩ privately plans to contact the police to report the thieves and robbers once she hears what they have to say and learns what their plans are. Mũturi turns to Mwaũra and asks about his connection to the “killers who call themselves the Devil’s Angels” (101), a question to which Mwaũra reacts with surprise and fear.

Suddenly, the competition begins. The first competitor takes his place at the platform. He tells the audience his name is Ndaaya wa Kahuria and that he steals primarily to eat, as he is impoverished. However, he also claims to have skills in theft and robbery, telling a story of how he creatively stole chickens. However, he is interrupted by the master of ceremonies, who says that the thieves in the competition need to reach international standards, and thievery in poor villages is shameful in the eyes of the real experts. Petty thieves and robbers, unlike the international type, are criminals. Ndaaya wa Kahuria is hustled off the stage by the guards to the delight of the crowd. The master of ceremonies sets a rule stating that every competitor must have stolen at least $1 million to contribute to the competition. Following some spirited discussion, the audience decides on seven rules each competitor must follow.

A man named Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ presents his testimony first. He tells the audience that he also has a Christian name, which is Rottenborough Groundflesh Shitland Narrow Isthmus Joint Stock Brown. Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ describes his life with his family, his mistresses, the houses he owns in Nairobi, Nukuru, and Mombasa, and his cars, all of which seem exaggerated to ridiculous proportions. His father was a lawyer, a profession which Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ followed, and before his father’s death, he gave him a packet of letters from white friends instructing him on the benefits of theft and robbery. Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ took no sides in the Mau Mau Rebellion, and afterward, profited from purchasing expropriated land at a low cost and reselling it to the poor in smaller lots at higher cost. In doing so, he also concluded that the famine in his country meant profit for him and that his cunning meant that he could profit off land, which he never transformed and never truly owned.

Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ tells the assembled thieves about his two ideas for the future. First, he tells them that he desires to find ways of “increasing hunger and thirst for land in the whole country,” leading to further profits for “top-grade tycoons” (117). Second, he proposes bottling the air to sell, just as other countries have bottled water to sell. At the end of his speech, Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ shouts “I am the kind of thieves and robbers!” and collapses (118).

Following Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ comes the testimony of Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca. He claims that the real estate speculation skills of his predecessor are nothing impressive and are in fact amateurish. Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca also gives his Christian name, which is Lord Gabriel Bloodwell-Stuart-Jones. He claims his children speak English exclusively and that his preference for women is other people’s wives since adultery is another kind of theft. Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca says that before Uhuru, he worked as an elementary school teacher in Rũũwa-inĩ, but following an epiphany, quit his job and started a nursery school, which he thought might turn a profit; however, upon advertising it as a Black nursery school staffed entirely by Kenyans and taught in Swahili, he never got a single child to enroll. Once he switched the advertisement to be focused on Europeans and foreign languages, however, parents started calling to reserve spots for their children.

Using the same strategy, Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca opened four other nurseries in Nairobi. Following this, he entered politics, which seemed like a better racket, alternately bribing, threatening, and beating his political opponents to ensure his own victory. Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca then started to invest foreign money into local cheap housing projects, pocketing the profit. In this role, Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca expanded his empire and was offered seats on the boards of foreign companies. Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca tells the assembled his idea, which is to build houses the size of bird’s nests, to be folded and put in a pocket for travel, and when a weary traveler needs to rest, they can just place their head on the nest and go to sleep.

Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca descends the platform, baffled as to why nobody is applauding him. Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ heaves himself up the platform and complains to the Chairman that Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca spent too much time insulting him and his business practices, and that he harbors a secret desire to influence ordinary Kenyan workers toward communism. Another man, named Ithe wa Mbooi, takes the stand and asks whether Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca is ashamed since his European-style nursery schools are designed to steal from the rich rather than the poor. A third man, named Fathog Marura wa Kĩmeengemeenge, demands that Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca be removed from consideration of the competition, as he has bragged about sleeping with other’s wives, which would be acceptable for the wives of the poor but not the wives of the rich.

Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca takes the stage to defend himself, accusing the men present of not satisfying their wives sufficiently and telling Fathog Marura wa Kĩmeengemeenge that he wouldn’t have slept with his wife even if she was the only option available. However, what Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca mostly objects to is the assertion that he is a secret communist. He denies this and tells Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ that if he desires a duel, Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca accepts. Finally, he challenges the charge that he robs members of his own class, asking what sort of thief and robber Ithe wa Mbooi is if he doesn’t take the opportunity to steal from anyone possible.

The cave erupts into chaos. Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca, Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ, and Ithe wa Mbooi pull out guns, and people scramble to flee from the inevitable gunfire. However, the potential violence is quelled by the master of ceremonies, who reminds the attendants why they’re there and tells them not to lose the opportunity for foreign investment.

He gives the audience a break, and the band starts to play as the passengers from the matatũ go outside the cave for a break. Mwaũra begins to feel suspicious of some of his passengers, as he believes that Wangarĩ and Mũturi are there for some nefarious purpose, as both claim to support the popular revolution of decades before.

Chapter 5 Summary

Outside the cave, Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria stand together, contemplating. After the bitterness of what they just witnessed, the two ironically recite a nationalistic poem praising Kenya. The two leave to walk around Ilmorog and find roasted goat’s meat. Warĩĩnga describes Ilmorog for Gatuĩria: the town is divided into two neighborhoods, one called Golden Heights and the other called New Jerusalem; the former boasts all the wealthy residents and the latter consists of slums and industrial zones. The two of them arrive at a location called the New Ilmorog Butchery, owned by a man named Tumbo, who sells them the meat they’re looking for. They discuss Gatuĩria’s musical project, which he feels discouraged about, and his history as the son of a wealthy businessman who rejected the family business to build his own path. Gatuĩria went to America to study music at Harvard, but after seeing how Americans treated their own Black population, he was reminded of the way his father treated the poor workers in his hometown and chose music permanently to make sure that “money should never rule my life” (150).

As Warĩĩnga grew up in the same town as Gatuĩria, she asks for his father’s name. However, he won’t tell her because he doesn’t want her to hate him for being the child of such a bad man. Just then, the meat arrives, and the two eat in silence, contemplating the strange events of the previous 24 hours. Warĩĩnga wonders why Gatuĩria would care if she dislikes him, considering that they just met each other. They begin to discuss the plight of women in the country, particularly how they are sexually exploited by men with power, and they wonder how the participants of the feast can live with themselves considering how many lives they’ve destroyed in pursuit of profit.

Warĩĩnga decides to tell Gatuĩria her life story. She was born in Kaambũrũ, Gĩthũngũri Kĩa Wairera, in 1953, under the imperialist rule of the British, who at that time had colonized Kenya. In this time, the Mau Mau guerilla forces had risen up in rebellion against the British, leading to the imprisonment of Warĩĩnga’s father in 1954 and her mother in 1955. Warĩĩnga grew up impoverished in the care of her aunt, taking particular joy every Sunday attending services at the Church of the Holy Rosary. She explains that during these services, Warĩĩnga noticed that Jesus and the Disciples were always depicted as white, but the Devil and his minions were depicted as Black. When Warĩĩnga’s parents were released from prison in 1960, they discovered that their family land had been sold by the colonial regime, so they relocated to Ilmorog to build a shelter. Warĩĩnga was talented at math and was a bright student at the local secondary school.

However, her innocence was shattered after she was offered to a rich white man by her uncle, who desired the man’s business. Warĩĩnga was unaware of what had been promised but found the Rich Old Man to be constantly present, arriving where she was and driving her home. Unable to resist his advances, Warĩĩnga gave in and began to accept money and gifts in exchange for her love. Warĩĩnga “grew wings” and began to experience what a rich life is like, becoming bored with school and the engineering degree she’d previously desired. Sometimes, the Rich Old Man would take her to a remote area where they’d play a game in which the Rich Old Man played a Hunter, chasing Warĩĩnga as the Hunted through the trees with a gun.

One day, Warĩĩnga discovered that she was pregnant. When she told the Rich Old Man, he became angry that she hadn’t been using birth control, and he became convinced that she was sleeping with other men. He dropped her back off home, and Warĩĩnga understood that the life of luxury she’d been hoping for was now beyond her grasp. She went to get an abortion but left before going through with it. In despair, Warĩĩnga then decided to die by suicide and headed toward the swimming pool at the high school, hoping to drown. However, she was caught by a security guard and turned back toward Nairobi. After this, she went to the train tracks but again was saved at the last minute by a mysterious unidentified person. Warĩĩnga then went home and confessed the entire story to her aunt.

Chapter 6 Summary

At around 3 pm, Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria return to the cave for the afternoon session of the competition. They discover Mwaũra waiting at the entrance for them, saying that they must leave immediately or risk being involved in fighting due to the actions of Wangarĩ and Mũturi. Mwaũra then tells them the story of what happened when they went outside the cave.

Mwaũra, Wangarĩ, and Mũturi had all gone into town in Mwaũra’s matatũ to get some food. When they’d sat down, Mũturi told them a story of a time in which he stopped a girl “in a certain school” from drowning herself, and later found her about to throw herself in front of a train and stopped her again, revealing that he was the watchman and the mysterious stranger from Warĩĩnga’s story. Mwaũra continues his story, telling them that they went on to have a discussion regarding theft, and whether being a thief is worse than being a witch (as a thief steals your property, while a witch steals your life). However, when it became time to leave for the cave, Wangarĩ refused to go and instead said that she would go to the police to report this gathering of thieves and robbers. Inspired by this, Mũturi too says he’ll stay in town, in his case to gather up the poor masses and show them the people who’d been stealing from them all this time. Mwaũra then returned to the cave to warn Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria before Wangarĩ returns with the police and Mũturi returns with the exploited workers.

However, Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria decide to stay, as they would merely be spectators to the conflict rather than participants. As they sit down, Mwaũra asks Gatuĩria his opinion as to whether Mwaũra should enter the competition to demonstrate his own cleverness with theft and moneymaking. Gatuĩria refuses to tell him not to or to give him permission, leaving the decision entirely up to Mwaũra.

Next up to give his testimony is passenger Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ from the night before. He tells the group about his wife, his various affairs (in which he typically pursued Asian or white women), and his children. He then goes on to talk about his philosophy, which centers around how people should have fewer children because of population increases. Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Association, who have one goal: “to find ways and means of decreasing conflict between nations, and especially conflict between those of us who have grabbed wealth and those from whom we have grabbed” by letting “the wives of the poor bear only the number of children that they can support with the food we have left them in their granaries, or according to the size of their salaries” (181). Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ also brags about his multitude of degrees and his membership in various prestigious business associations. As he speaks, he’s interrupted by another member who’d spotted him getting out of the matatũ and questions his wealth and the number of cars that he owns. Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ describes two vehicles he owns as a defense, but he is continually mocked until Mwaũra backs up his reasoning for taking a matatũ to the competition. The committee tells Mwaũra to sit down, but he remains standing and demands to be allowed to enter the competition. He also tells the assembled competitors about the threats made by Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria, blaming Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ for inviting them in the first place. However, Mwaũra is told to keep it to himself, and he sits back down, angry.

Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ continues his testimony. His philosophy is that modern thieves and robbers consist of the same people who are experts in determining wealth and investment, and historically those were the same people who contributed the most to the development of modern civilization. He declares that modern theft is of two kinds: domestic theft and national theft, with domestic theft being internal to a country and national theft occurring when foreigners become involved. Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ says that he believes only in domestic theft, as he believes the “national experts in theft and robbery” of Kenya should not allow foreigners to seize their national wealth. He goes on to encourage the attendees to not share the loot of their theft with the foreigners on the judging panel.

Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ then tells his own personal story. He’d worked previously for a number of foreign-owned firms but felt as if he was never allowed into the inner circle or made decisions, because of who the companies chose to value over others. However, during crisis situations, his employers would often make him the public face of the company, leading Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ to wonder whether he was being employed for the color of his skin instead of for his abilities. Instead of continuing to work for foreign companies, he instead starts his own cooking oil business, then a skin-lightening cream business, then one for rubber condoms, finding out each time that he can’t compete with the cheaper foreign products. To live, he goes back into business with foreigners, this time as a wholesaler, which is where Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ works to this day. He ends his speech with a call for the country to unite around the mining and manufacture of iron.

Chapters 4-6 Analysis

The primary setting for Chapters 4 through 6 is the Devil’s Feast, which takes place in a cave at the edge of Ilmorog. This event, in which thieves and robbers compete to demonstrate their skills in exploitation, functions as a satire of capitalist practices and neocolonial economic structures. The satirical tone is heightened by the absurd and exaggerated nature of the competition, with participants boasting about their exploitative practices and proposing outlandish schemes for future theft. This exaggeration serves a few purposes, each thematically supporting Exploitation and Theft Under Capitalism. First, exaggerating the language and behavior of the participants makes the satire clear, allowing the ideas the narrative is attempting to impart to come through clearly. Secondly, just as how a caricatured painting typically overemphasizes real-life distinguishing characteristics of its subject, exaggerating the rhetoric in Devil on the Cross allows a reader to recognize the same impulse in real life.

Characters like Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ and Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca are portrayed as grotesque caricatures, their exaggerated stories and ridiculous Christian names serving to emphasize the absurdity and moral bankruptcy of their positions. These characters represent distinct individual exploiters as well as broader archetypes found in any society. The scenes in the cave are further characterized by their distinct visual and symbolic language. The cave has a floor polished to a mirror shine, demonstrating a Kenyan society forced to confront its own corruption. The foreign delegation’s bizarre attire, particularly their horned hats, visually associates them with the Devil, reinforcing the concept of foreign exploitation as a demonic force.

In these chapters, the narrative structure becomes more complex, moving from a fairly straightforward linear tale to the competition format in the cave, allowing embedded narratives as each contestant shares their own story. This structure enables the novel to present a panoramic view of corruption and exploitation in Kenya, from petty theft to large-scale economic manipulation. However, the disagreements and arguments between the participants show how exploiters are not a singular monolithic force; rather, they instead are often at cross-purposes, with one participant’s exploitation harming the financial efforts of the other competitors.

The competitors’ collaborations with foreign investors and imitation of Western economic practices highlight the ongoing influence of colonial powers in post-independence Kenya, suggesting The Legacy of Colonialism continues to affect populations long after colonization. This is particularly evident in Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca’s story about his nursery schools, which succeeded only when marketed as European-style institutions. However, the novel highlights not just economic exploitation, but also the cultural dominance of the West, particularly through Gatuĩria’s reflections on his musical project and his experiences studying in America. His struggle to create authentically Kenyan music parallels the larger national struggle to define a post-colonial identity.

The Treatment of Women in the Workforce continues to be a concern throughout the narrative, with many of the competitors evincing sexist views and bragging about the number of mistresses that they have. Their arrogance is contrasted with the story Warĩĩnga tells regarding her relationship with the Rich Old Man, illustrating how economic and sexual exploitation often intersect, with women being particularly vulnerable. The game they played together, the “Hunter” and the “Hunted,” pointedly underscores the predatory nature of such relationships, where the woman’s security is fully dependent on the continued good graces of the man.