Ngugi Wa Thiong'o (1938–)

Ngugi wa Thiong'o, a Kenyan, is one of Africa's foremost thinkers, commentators, and writers; a progressive and socially engaged intellectual. His works stand [Page 1032]out for their unequivocal criticism of colonialism, the subjugation of African cultures by the imperially minded West, and the oppression of the African masses by the ruling neocolonialist elite.

Ngugi attended Makerere University College, Uganda, and Leeds University, United Kingdom. In 1967, Ngugi was appointed special lecturer in English at the University of Nairobi. He resigned his position in 1969 in protest against government interference with academic freedom at the university.

After teaching at Makerere (1969–1970) and Northwestern University (1970–1971), Ngugi rejoined the University of Nairobi as a lecturer and rose to become associate professor and department chair. He was part of a successful three-man campaign to abolish the Department of English and replace it with the Department of African Literature and Languages. The argument was that literary and cultural studies in African universities had to be seen from African and not neocolonialist and Eurocentric perspectives.

Starting from the late 1970s, Ngugi has appealed to African writers to abandon English (and other foreign languages) as a medium of expression, because, as a former colonial language, it perpetuates colonial values. He himself made a determined shift toward writing his creative work in his native Kikuyu. In 1994, he became the founding editor of Mutiiri, a Kikuyu social and cultural journal.

In 1976, Ngugi staged an innovative play with a community education and cultural center in the village of Kamiriithu. His coauthored Ngaahika Ndeenda (1980; translated as I Will Marry When I Want, 1982) bravely exposed the plight of the ordinary Kenyan workers. A powerful example of community theater, this venture was seen as subversive by the political establishment, and Ngugi was detained the following year. He became an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. As a result of international pressure on the Kenyan government, he was released in 1978, but he was denied his teaching post at the University of Nairobi.

An increase in government harassment forced Ngugi into a self-imposed exile in 1982, first in Britain and then America. He has since taught, given lectures, and taken part in major cultural and literary forums worldwide. Ngugi is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation, University of California, Irvine.

Ngugi's pioneer creative works Weep Not, Child (1964), The River Between (1965), and A Grain of Wheat (1967) focus on colonial intrusion into the life of his people and examine the alienating effects of this onslaught on the consciousness of the colonized. Petals of Blood (1977), Caitaani Mutharaba-ini (1980; translated as Devil on the Cross, 1982), Matigari ma Njiruungi (1986; translated as Matigari, 1989), and Mũrogi wa Kagoogo (2004; “Wizard of the Crow”) interrogate the oppressive and corrupt leadership in postindependence Kenya. Ngugi has also experimented with film production.

In his essays in Decolonizing the Mind (1986) and Moving the Center (1993), Ngugi underscores the importance of African culture in liberating the African people from the effects of imperialism and neocolonialism. The relationship between art and political power in African societies is examined in Writers in Politics (1997) and Penpoints, Gunpoints, and Dreams (1998). Ngugi argues that art has to be engaged and active in order to check the excesses of the modern predatory African state.

...