Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, considered one of east Africa’s greatest literary figures, died on Wednesday, his daughter announced on Facebook. He was 87.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong’o this Wednesday morning,” wrote Wanjiku Wa Ngugi.
“He lived a full life, fought a good fight,” she added.
Messages of support and respect quickly poured in for the celebrated author, whose decision to stop writing in English and start using only his native Kikuyu made him a powerful symbol of post-colonial African identity.
“My condolences to the family and friends professor Ngugi wa Thiongo, a renowned literary giant and scholar, a son of the soil and great patriot whose footprints are indelible,” wrote Martha Karua, an opposition leader in Kenya, on X.
In 1977, Ngugi was jailed without charge after the staging of their play “Ngaahika Ndeenda” (“I Will Marry When I Want”), which was considered a harsh critique of post-colonial Kenyan society.
Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience, before a global campaign secured his release from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in December 1978.
“Thank you Mwalimu (teacher) for your freedom writing,” wrote Amnesty International’s Kenya branch on X on Wednesday.
“Having already earned his place in Kenyan history, he transitions from mortality to immortality,” it said.
Ngugi went into self-imposed exile in 1982 after a ban on theatre groups in Kenya, moving first to Britain then to the United States.
In 1986, he published one of his best-known works, “Decolonising the Mind”, a collection of essays about the role of language in forging national culture, history and identity.
His published works include several novels, such as Weep Not, Child (1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967, 1992), Petals of Blood (1977), Caitaani Mutharaba-Ini (Devil on the Cross, 1980), Matigari ma Njiruungi (1986), translated into English as Matigari by Wangui wa Goro in 1989, Mũrogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow, 2006), and The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi (2020).
He also published short-story collections, including A Meeting in the Dark (1974), Secret Lives, and Other Stories (1976, 1992), and Minutes of Glory and Other Stories (2019).
His plays include The Black Hermit (1963), This Time Tomorrow (a collection of three plays, including the title play, “The Rebels,” “The Wound in the Heart,” and “This Time Tomorrow”) (1970), The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (1976), co-written with Micere Githae Mugo and Njaka, Ngaahika Ndeenda: Ithaako ria ngerekano (I Will Marry When I Want) (1977, 1982), co-written with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii, and Mother, Sing For Me (1986).
His memoirs comprise Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary (1981), Dreams in a Time of War: a Childhood Memoir (2010), In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir (2012), Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Memoir of a Writer’s Awakening (2016), and Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir (2018).
Other non-fiction works include Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture and Politics (1972), Education for a National Culture (1981), Barrel of a Pen: Resistance to Repression in Neo-Colonial Kenya (1983), Writing against Neo-Colonialism (1986), Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986), Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms (1993), Penpoints, Gunpoints and Dreams: The Performance of Literature and Power in Post-Colonial Africa (1998), Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance (2009), Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing (2012), Secure the Base: Making Africa Visible in the Globe (2016), and The Language of Languages (2023).
For children, he wrote Njamba Nene and the Flying Bus (translated by Wangui wa Goro) (Njamba Nene na Mbaathi i Mathagu, 1986), Njamba Nene and the Cruel Chief (translated by Wangui wa Goro) (Njamba Nene na Chibu King’ang’i, 1988), Njamba Nene’s Pistol (Bathitoora ya Njamba Nene, 1990), and The Upright Revolution, Or Why Humans Walk Upright (2019).
Credit: Citizen Digital
