Grady is a student in folklore and African studies. In this essay, Grady considers Ogot's story in relation to the postcolonial experience in Kenya.

Is colonialism dead? Or is it, as "The Green Leaves" relates, merely knocked unconscious, ready to reassert its destructive power through individual Africans acculturated into its values and ideas, willing to act outside the communal norms to seek individual success? Kenyan writer Grace Ogot illustrates this postcolonial dilemma in "The Green Leaves," a story that serves as a cautionary tale to the generation of Kenyan leaders gaining in power after the end of the independence struggle.

Grace Ogot was born into the generation that would struggle for and achieve independence from England, and "The Green Leaves" describes the identity crisis faced by those whose history is shaped by the conflict between African and European values. The nation of Kenya was created by the...