The renowned Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o passes away at age 87.
Through works such as “The Devil on the Cross” and “Matigari,” author Ngugi wa Thiong’o illuminated the shortcomings of Kenya following colonization. For this, Ngugi lost his house. A trailblazing author and visionary has passed away.
Throughout his life, Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o fought for his nation and the African continent to break free from Western cultural hegemony.
Confirmed baptism, James Ngugi was born on January 5, 1938, in the Limuru district of central Kenya. He was 87 when he passed away on Wednesday.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, this Wednesday morning,” Wanjiku Wa Ngugi wrote. “He lived a full life, fought a good fight,” she stated.
Ngugi attended the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and the notorious Makerere College (now Makerere University) in Kampala, Uganda, in the early 1960s.
He made literary history when he launched a writing career at the age of thirty.
“The Black Hermit” by Ngugi was played as part of Uganda’s 1962 independence festivities. In 1964, his book “Weep Not, Child” became the first East African novel to be published. There would be more novels in English after that.
Following his stay in the UK, Ngugi abandoned his Christian name and renounced Christianity, seeing it as an indication of Anglo-American neocolonialism.
In 1967, he changed his name to Ngugi wa Thiong’o and started teaching English literature at the University of Nairobi.
The influence of one’s mother tongue
In 1977, Ngugi wa Thiong’o had a turning point in his life when he and colleague author Ngugi wa Mirii were approached to compose a play for a theatre outside of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Both of them were unsure about the best words to use.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o subsequently said: “The very fact that we had to ask ourselves in what language we were going to write the play is in itself a telling point about how far gone we were, because the answer should have been obvious.”
The writers chose Gikuyu, the native vernacular of the area and their mother tongue as well.
The play “Ngaahika Ndeenda” (which translates to “I marry when I like”) received positive reviews. It drew viewers from all throughout the Kikuyu region. The play’s impact was partly due to its use of the language of farmers and laborers, who also helped produce it.
The Kenyan government, concerned about Ngugi’s potential influence as a stand-alone thinker, also focused unwanted attention on it. “Ngaahika Ndeenda” was prohibited after only the ninth performance, and Ngugi was imprisoned for a year.
Detention, however, did little to deter Ngugi. It significantly strengthened his decision to write in Gikuyu, his mother tongue. While incarcerated, Ngugi penned “Devil on the Cross,” his debut Kikuyu novel, using toilet paper.
“The purpose of prison toilet paper is to punish inmates, which is why it is extremely rough,” the author clarified years later. “But what is bad for the body, can sometimes be very good writing material.”
Colonial heritage
Before Ngugi’s time, African-language literature was few. When Ngugi abandoned writing in English, he fueled a contentious argument.
Nigerian legend Chinua Achebe supported taking the colonial language and modifying it for local contexts. For Ngugi, however, colonial languages in Africa represented neocolonial subjugation that went beyond political autonomy.
In 1986, Ngugi asserted in an essay that “psychological violence in the classroom” followed physical violence on the battlefield. Ngugi was living in exile in England at that time after learning that the administration of President Daniel arap Moi intended to have him killed.
The Kenyan government remained displeased with Ngugi’s works.
In the 1987 book of the same name, his valiant lead character, Matigari, is a returning veteran of the independence fight whose hopes of triumph are quickly dashed when he discovers that the freed nation is becoming a police state in which the former colonialists have only been replaced by a second class.
Despite Ngugi’s observation that the time period and location were arbitrary, many people saw this work as a thinly veiled critique of Kenya’s governmental structure.
No future in Kenya
Ngugi only returned to Kenya in 2004 after Daniel arap Moi was removed from office, after living in exile for 22 years. Ngugi’s wife was raped and the writer was tortured by burglars who broke into his apartment two weeks later. Three defendants were found guilty of rape and theft and given death sentences.
However, Ngugi thought the attack was motivated by political reasons. The dangers in his homeland had grown too great.
He had found refuge in the United States by 1989. Yale, New York University, and the University of California were among the US universities where he taught.
There are more than thirty translations of Ngugi’s books. He frequently did his own English translations. His ambition has been to translate works of literature produced in African languages, such Luo or Yoruba, into other African languages directly, without the need for English to act as a translator.
“That would allow our languages to communicate directly with each other,” he stated.
Mukoma wa Ngugi, his son, said in 2024 that he had physically mistreated Nyambura, his first wife, who passed away in 1995. Ngugi wa Thiong’o never responded to the charges.
Ngugi’s 2006 book “Wizard of the Crow” was widely praised for its criticism of corrupt governments and won numerous awards.
Since then, he has been considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature and has received honorary degrees from Yale University and other universities throughout the world.
“Ngugi had shown us the potential of literature to incite change and promote justice,” Yale said.
The Perfect Nine, Ngugi’s most recent book, was written in Gikuyu and published. It was the first book in an indigenous African language to be nominated for the International Booker Prize.
Tee Ngugi, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Nducu wa Ngugi, and Wanjiku wa Ngugi are four of Ngugi’s nine offspring who are also writers.
