The Leopard (Reid novel)

The Leopard is a novel by Jamaican writer, V. S. Reid. It portrays the hardships of the Kenyan people during the time of the Mau Mau Rebellion. Novels similar to The Leopard, such as Caroline Elkins’s Imperial Reckoning (2005), as well as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s Petals of Blood (1977) also reflect events during the Mau Mau uprising. The Leopard, however, distinct from any other novel of its kind, mainly focuses on the controversies of human nature with respect to the co-existence of violence and hatred between Africans and Europeans.

Published in 1958, The Leopard, Victor Reid’s second novel, marks a shift from his earlier concerns of illustrating struggles in Jamaica to illustrating a symbolic similarity in Africa. The title is representative of the character in the novel that symbolizes a blend of the counteracting white and black tendencies.^[1]