Kenya’s foremost literary scholar and writer, Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o, died in Buford, Georgia, United States, on May 28, at the age of 87 after a protracted illness. Born on January 5, 1938, as James Ngugi in Limuru, Kenya, he later changed his name to Ngugi wa Thiong’o in March 1970 as part of the decolonisation process. After attending the Alliance High School, Ngugi was educated at the Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. He also had his postgraduate studies at the University of Leeds, Yorkshire, England.
Generally regarded as East Africa’s leading novelist and an important figure in modern African literature, Ngugi started writing in English before switching to writing primarily in Gikuyu. He later became a strong advocate of literature written in indigenous African languages. His notable works include Weep Not, Child (1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Matigari wa Njiruungi (1986), and Wizard of the Crow. The renowned novelist and polemicist also wrote plays, short stories, memoirs, children’s literature and essays ranging from literary to social criticism. He was the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal, Mũtĩiri.
As a student, he attended the Conference of African Writers of English expression held at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, in 1962, where he met Chinua Achebe, the editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series, and handed him two manuscripts of his novels, Weep Not, Child and The River Between. The novels were later published as James Ngugi. Apart from dropping his English name and adopting his native language name, he also stopped writing in English language and used Gikuyu language in his later fiction. He believed that African writers should write in their native language as part of the decolonisation process.
Ngugi was a nonconformist with a rebellious streak. As a student at the apex colonial college, Alliance High School, Nairobi, where he was being trained to become a member of the colonial elite that would take over Kenya after independence, he left the boarding school when the British colonialists massacred his kinsmen for their role in the Mau Mau uprising. The tortuous experience under British colonialism largely influenced his works. This can also explain the revolutionary aesthetics in his works. Ngugi’s writing was highly influenced by D.H. Lawrence and Joseph Conrad. He was also particularly influenced by Marxism as championed by Karl Marx and Frantz Fanon.
His early writings were steeped in African socio-political dilemmas. Ngugi’s The River Between examines the impact of colonialism on traditional Kenyan society. His writing was critical of the post-independence Kenyan government of Jomo Kenyatta in the 1970s. After staging the play, I Will Marry When I Want, in 1977, he was arrested and detained. While in prison, he wrote his next novel, Devil on the Cross, in Gikuyu language on toilet paper.
Following his release from prison, Ngugi left Kenya for the US on self-exile. He was appointed the Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine. Hitherto, he had taught at University of Nairobi, Northwestern University, Yale University and New York University. He won many literary prizes including the 1966 UNESCO First Prize for his debut novel Weep Not, Child, the 1973 Lotus Prize for Literature, at Alma Atta, Khazakhistan, the 2001 International Nonino Prize in Italy and the 2016 Park Kyong-ni Prize.
His last novel, Wizard of the Crow, published in 2006, is a satire on bad governance in Kenya. It is also a humorous depiction of the mistreatments he suffered at the hands of the colonial and post-colonial Kenyan regimes. No doubt, Ngugi was a great storyteller and politically committed writer. He did not shy away from the politics of decolonisation and prioritising the use of indigenous African languages in writing his latter novels.
Writing in his native language was Ngugi’s most revolutionary decision, which he religiously lived with till his death. In this period of language endangerment and extinction, we hope that young African writers will emulate Ngugi in writing primarily in indigenous African languages.
Considering Ngugi’s monumental contributions to the development of Kenyan literature, education and culture, we urge the Kenyan government to immortalise the great African writer. We commiserate with the Ngugi family for the great loss. Although Ngugi has joined his ancestors, his legacy will continue to resonate across many generations and cultures.