Karega, wanting the “truth” about “the history and political struggles of Kenya,” asked for Black-authored history and political science. The lawyer’s response—that readers must interpret all writing through the lens of the writers’ material interests—indicates that Karega won’t find “neutral” “truth” anywhere: each writer comes from a particular socioeconomic viewpoint. When Karega wonders what he and his Siriana classmates went on strike to get, he’s wondering whether an Africa-centric curriculum of African writers would be sufficient to get closer to the truth. The novel seems to imply that an Africa-centric curriculum is
necessary to combat colonialism but not sufficient to get the truth, because capitalism and colonialism can corrupt African writers as well as European ones.