Rethinking Agency in Kenyan Animal Conservations: Ng’ang’a Mbugua’s Terrorists of the Aberdare

ABSTRACT Species loss is a feature of the development intentions of post-colonial countries like Kenya. Kenya like other postcolonial regimes has often linked wildlife conservation with development agendas. The value of wildlife to post-development aims is evident in the approach taken by state-backed conservation efforts as well as in the language used. Thus, wildlife designates a category of animals that are also capital for the tourism industry, state property and a national resource. However, this is complicated when an animal causes harm to some people leading to the animal being seen as a nuisance. In this article I engage with the agency of language in creating the “problem animal” phenomenon in the context of Kenya's post-independence development agenda. I make my case with a close reading of Ng’ang’a Mbugua’s novella Terrorists of the Aberdare (2009). I argue that literary scholarship’s attention to subjectivity and empathy enables new ways of imagining human-animal engagement.