ON Wednesday, May 28, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s most celebrated literary giants, breathed his last aged 87. Ngugi, a pioneering African novelist, playwright, critic and memoirist who bestrode the global literary scene for decades and stood up to the forces of retrogression whether foreign or local, unbowed by prison or exile, died in Buford, Georgia, United States. His daughter, Wanjiku wa Ngugi, said in a Facebook post: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, this Wednesday morning, 28th May, 2025. He lived a full life, fought a good fight. As was his last wish, let’s celebrate his life and his work.” According to his son Nducu, the foremost writer and unmatched embodiment of resistance to colonial and post-colonial state terrorism died in a hospital. It was indeed the end of a glorious, most unforgettable era in African and global literature, for Ngugi ranks along with giants such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka as a writer whose creative oeuvre and universe inspired successive generations of African writers. It is not for nothing that he was singled out, along with Achebe, by the late literary critic, David Cook, as a writer whose works amply documented the trajectory of his society from the colonial era to the present day.
Born on January 5, 1938, in Limuru, Kenya, Ngugi had his primary education at the Kamandura Primary School in Limuru, and secondary education at the Alliance High School in Kiambu, Kenya. For his higher education, he attended the Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda (1959-1964) and Leeds University, United Kingdom (1964-1967), where he studied literature. Ngugi served as Lecturer in English (1967-1969) and Senior Lecturer in English (1970-1977) at the University of Nairobi. In the United States, he was Visiting Professor, Northwestern University (1982) and Visiting Professor, University of California, Irvine (1985). He also served as Professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University (1992-2003). He would, from 2003, go on to serve as Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. Ngugi also taught at various other universities worldwide, sharing his vast knowledge and expertise in literature and performance studies.
To say the least, Ngugi was a force for the good of Africa. He fought for the continent his entire life. One of the fathers of modern African literature, Ngugi used his works as a liberating force, documenting and critiquing the horrors of colonialism and of the post-independence era when Africa’s political leaders more or less embraced the dictatorial tendencies of the colonial rulers they had reviled, and made public service a tool for self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement. A writer and academic of immense repute, Ngugi often addressed questions around decolonization and post-colonialism, language and cultural identity, social justice and human rights. His works read like fire in the bones of oppressors.
Initially published in English under his name James Ngugi, Ngugi later abandoned English identity and reverted to his Kikuyu name Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Ngugi son of Thiong’o) and indeed stopped writing in English altogether, in preference for his native tongue, Gikuyu, the language in which he subsequently published his creative writings, which were later translated into English. His aim was to make a change in society by addressing people in the language of their immediate environment. As many critics have pointed out, Ngugi’s writings use Gikuyu and incorporate African oral traditions, exploring the intersection of personal and national identity.
As a writer, Ngugi frequently critiqued imperialism, neocolonialism and cultural erasure. He advocated for indigenous languages and cultural preservation and is just celebrated for his powerful writings on colonialism, identity, and social justice. Shortlisted for the Nobel Prize on several occasions, Ngugi was the author of more than 40 books. He was a thorn in the flesh of colonialists and neocolonialists of all hues. From his debut novels, namely The River Between, published in 1965, and “Weep Not, Child” (1964), the latter written in response to the decision of publishers in the United Kingdom not to publish the former, Ngugi took the literary world by storm, exemplifying in a unique, largely unexampled way, the place of the writer as society’s righter, and as reflector, teacher and change agent often in mortal combat with the powers that be. Weep not, child, the story of a Kenyan family confronting the challenges thrown up by the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule, was widely recognised as the first major novel in English by an East African author. By contrast, Devil on the Cross, published in 1980 and written in Gikuyu as Caitaani Mutharaba-Ini, is regarded as the first modern novel in the Gikuyu, a language spoken by Kenya’s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu.
Ngugi’s works, including, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, The Black Hermit, This Time Tomorrow and I will marry when I want, took no prisoners in their critical temper, and it was no accident that he suffered imprisonment in Kenya and was forced, like many of his colleagues across the continent, to flee into exile, yet he never lost touch with his roots and often agonised over the appalling conditions in which ordinary people on the continent lived. For some six decades, Ngugi documented the transformation of Kenya from a colonial subject to a democracy. His novels were, and still are, popular on the continent and around the world, and have been used as examination texts by examining bodies on the continent and elsewhere for decades. Ngugi received numerous honorary degrees from various universities worldwide in recognition of his literary contributions, but it is the service that he rendered to the African society as a liberating force that he will be mostly remembered for.
Adieu, Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Africa couldn’t have asked for a more committed writer.
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