The Avenging and the Avenged Body

The Paradox of Revenge in Kinyanjui Kombani’s "The Last Villains of Molo"

Abstract

This article examines revenge as a response to trauma in Kinyanjui Kombani’s The Last Villains of Molo (2004). It explores the motivations and the goal for revenge and the effects of this revenge on both the perpetrators and the victims of violence and trauma, and those who carry out the revenge. The trauma from violence that is deemed intentional attracts fantasies of revenge, which is aimed at not only inflicting pain on those who harm them but also taking back the power, they feel that they have been robbed from. The article, therefore, examines the use of revenge as a response to the frustration of the body’s inability to react “appropriately” at the time of the hurt and as a way of taking back power lost during traumatic situations by examining the effects of revenge on the avenger and the avenged. Using the ideas of Helsel, Etts, Horowitz, Grobbink, and Collens, among others, the article analyses revenge as a response to an injury that is deemed deliberate. Methodologically the article conducts a close textual analysis of the text to determine the trauma that the characters presented, their response to it at the time it occurred and their response later when they are considered physically and psychologically able to inflict retribution that equals their pain or one that exceeds the damage they once received, and further demonstrate the effect of revenge on those who carry out the revenge and the targets of the revenge. The findings reveal that the author presents revenge as a two-edged sword that affects both the perpetrator of this revenge and the victim.