This paper analyses the NGURARIO or marriage ceremony in fiction and real life. We will study Ngugi’s I Will Marry When I Want, a subversive book and Manthia Diawara’s documentary film Who Is Afraid of Ngugi? The first text is the English version of Ngaahika Ndeenda, a play in kikuyu, critical of the regime and performed by peasants and workers. The film is showing how Ngugi was crowned on his return in 2002 to Kenya despite the tragedy that results in his return. The two texts include the performance of the Ngurario, the final step in a marriage ceremony. The film echoes cultural pessimism raised by the play.