Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Matigari can be analyzed as a postcolonial novel in terms of its characters, settings, and themes. In the novel, the author presents a complex, imperfect hero who inspires others to oppose the injustices perpetrated by oppressive owners and the corrupt state they support. The book is set in an unnamed country where the masses struggle for class, racial, and ethnic equality in the years after the nation won independence from European imperialist rule.

In Matigari, the title character and protagonist is a Messianic figure who reluctantly gives up his dreams of peaceful resistance, first by killing his abusive boss and later by leading an armed resistance movement. Increasingly persecuted by the police and courts, his followers are drawn from the lowest rungs of society. These include homeless children who scavenge in a dump and a prostitute who has become an outlaw through trying to avenge the death of her freedom-fighter father. After Matigari is killed, his young disciple, Muriuki, both takes up the struggle and spreads the tales that establish Matigari’s nobility and martyrdom for the popular cause.