Grace Ogot The Green Leaves Pdf Freel: A Story of Gender and Power in Traditional and Colonial Socie

One thief is lying on the ground, wounded. The villagers come upon him and beat him until the man no longer moves. Seeing that the man is nearly dead, Omoro claims that it is bad luck to witness the thief s death and that they should return to their huts before this happens. The villagers then cover the dying man in green leaves and agree to bury him tomorrow at dawn. The men walk back to the village in the dark. Nyagar helps Omoro, although his shoulder no longer bleeds. Omoro tells Nyagar before he turns in that they should meet early in the morning before the women go down to the river where the dead thief is located.

Nyagar thinks that the thief lying beneath the green leaves must have money on him, and he is determined to get it. Dawn is approaching as he makes his way to where the thief s body is. Nyagar thinks that someone is following, but it is the echo of his own footsteps. As he gets closer to the body, he thinks that the other thieves may have returned for him but then dismisses the idea. Finally, he sees the bunch of green leaves and is nearly paralyzed with fright, but he continues on.

Grace Ogot The Green Leaves Pdf Freel

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In the meantime, other people have gathered at the tree, including the wives of Nyagar. Whereas Nyamundhe looks for her husband, her co-wife does not seem to be that interested. The group begins to walk towards the river where the thief is buried. As they walk, Nyamundhe notices how wet the grass is and then comments to the co-wife that a black cat crossed their path earlier. Two trucks show up carrying a European policeman, several African policemen, and the men who had walked from the village. They drive up to the mound of green leaves. The white officer asks for the clan elder and demands to know the story behind the murder of the thief. Olielo explains everything to him through a translator. A discussion ensues between the two leaders about the nature of the crime, with the white officer accusing the clansmen of being savages. Olielo stands by his argument that the village killed the thief and that they should all be arrested.

The nameless thief who is first beaten and then buried beneath a pile of green leaves is left for dead. Unfortunately for Nyagar, the thief has only been knocked unconscious and will end up murdering him.

Green leaves appear in the story when the villagers kill (or think they have killed) one of the cattle thieves. At least the man is nearly dead, and they don't think he can survive very much longer. Because he is a thief, they cover him up with green leaves and leave him to die rather than stand around and watch him or take him back to the village. They will bury him the next morning.

But Nyagar gets the idea that the cattle thief might just have some money on him, and he goes back at night to search, thinking that the thief will certainly be dead by then. He is pleased to find a bag around the man's neck, but as he is taking it, he receives a blow to the eye that kills him. The thief is not dead at all, and he kills Nyagar and then covers Nyagar's body up with green leaves before he escapes. The next morning, the villagers are stunned to find Nyagar's body when they brush the leaves away.

The green leaves, then, become a symbol of concealment and deceit. This is actually quite fitting. The leaves are green and seem to be alive and fresh and even growing, but since they are removed from the tree, they are no longer living at all. Their freshness is a deception, and this symbolizes the deception of what they conceal, namely, the thief that is not dead and then Nyagar's body. Nothing is quite what it seems in this story, even the leaves.

The Green Leaves deals primarily with the question of law and justice, and who wields the authority to enforce the law, and whose law primarily prevails like in Things Fall Apart where the colonizers take control over legislation. The policeman presents the logic of white law and courts, and is therefore emblematic of the racial condescension expressed through the language of the oriental otherness. This is evident in the need to punish one individual, and with the subsequent discovery of Nyagar under green leaves, to take away the body for autopsy. This practise, since ancient times, denies completely their cultural agency and disrespects the funeral rituals of the clan which have been practised since ancient times.

The heap of green leaves came in sight. A numb paralysing pain ran through his spine. He thought his heart had stopped beating. He stopped to check. It was still beating, all right. He was just nervous. He moved on faster, and the echo of his footsteps bothered him.

The thief had just regained consciousness and was still very weak. But there was no time to lose. He managed to get up on his feet after a second attempt. His body was soaked in blood, but his mind was now clear. He gathered all the green leaves and heaped them on Nyagar. He then made for the bridge which he had failed to locate during the battle.

The two lorries pulled up by the heap of green leaves. A European police officer and four African officers stepped down. They opened the back of one of the lorries and the thirty men who had been sent to the police station by the clan came out. 2ff7e9595c