THE MAKING OF AN AFRICAN GOD: MWANGI’S APOTHEOSIS OF HARAKA IN CARCASE FOR HOUNDS

Abstract

Of all the few commentators on Meja Mwangi’s Carcase for Hounds, none has approached the explication of the text from the perspective that Mwangi created a god out of his major character in this novel. Why did Mwangi assign such super human qualities to the character of Haraka? Why is Haraka’s gun so powerful that it equalizes, if not surpasses, Haraka himself? And why was Haraka’s lieutenant (Kimamo) so devoted to the services of his principal until death? This paper sets out to explore all these issues and goes ahead to argue and demonstrate that given the treatment of Haraka, his gun (the patchett), and Haraka’s over all relationship with his lieutenant, that Mwangi created a god out of Haraka. The text Carcase for Hounds will form the primary text for explication. There shall be references to other works that are ancillary to the job the author intends to do in this paper. Given the foregoing therefore, the author shall explore the space within which Haraka operated by describing the texture and structure through which Mwangi has created and concretized human action. The paper concludes that given the interplay between Haraka, his lieutenant, and his gun, that Mwangi created a god out of a human being - Haraka.