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Mail & Guardian
06-06-2025
- General
- Mail & Guardian
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o as town crier of Africa
Africa's writer NgugiwaThiong'o. Town crier of Africa. The title evokes Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo's lines when he demonstrates that he is the sole witness to his homecoming and it applies to the late Kenyan scholar, novelist and public intellectual, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o quite well. It characterises his resistance and stance, globally. Ngũgĩ is regarded as a member of the first generation of modern African writers who emerged just before and after African countries became independent. He was the youngest of them when he made his appearance in the literary public. For sure, he was one of those writers who were educated in colonial institutions. These writers were committed to social justice and human rights, as well as cultural roots. All the post-colonial writers were perfectly aware of what they borrowed or transferred from the West. It was not adopting the Western assumptions, it was a way of transforming them for a new literary public and culture. Ngũgĩ was widely noted for his campaign for writing in native languages to challenge Western denigration of African culture, which he believed was steeped in English. For him, language was not just a communication tool — it was a medium of alienation which held Africans back from their own culture. The seeds of his seminal work, Decolonising the Mind, were established at the first African writers' conference held at Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, in 1962. Writers from across Africa who chose to write in English gathered to discuss English as a medium of modern African literature. It ended up in division. The most ardent advocate of African literature in African languages was Nigerian literary critic Obi Wali, who dismissed writing in European languages, as Ngũgĩ subsequently did. Though this position garnered much attention, and sparked lively debate in the post-colonial world, it was hardly the main preoccupation of post-colonial writers, and also did not convince African writers of the time to recourse to their mother languages. Most post-colonial critics were obsessed with discourse and its effect on oppressed cultures. Because the discourse was not embedded in the language of natives, or simply languages, it was oriented by the language of power, and alienation was not all that bad — alienation might even open a new way of seeing your own culture differently. In time, Ngũgĩ's autochthonous approach almost faded into obscurity. Though the language debate dominated Ngũgĩ's intellectual and literary oeuvre, his tackling issues was no different from Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Gabriel Okara, Cheikh Hamidou Kane and others. One can read Achebe and Ngũgĩ in a deep conversation in terms of returning to their roots. For instance, Achebe's guiding approach is clearly seen in his debut novel, Weep Not, Child, which has a bearing on Things Fall Apart . Achebe and Ngũgĩ were afraid of being attached to Euro-modernist forms, which they believed would alienate them from their own society. Ngũgĩ strives to restore the dignity of his people, which was taken away by the 'colonial library'. In his novel, Petals of Blood , the narrator, raising issues of history, aptly argues: 'For there are many questions in our history which remain unanswered. Our present-day historians, following on similar theories yarned out by defenders of imperialism, insist we only arrived here yesterday.' For Ngũgĩ: 'The novelist is haunted by a sense of the past. His work is often an attempt to come to terms with 'the thing that has been', a struggle, as it were, to sensitively register his encounter with history, his people's history.' His preoccupation with the past led him to claim and reconstruct history through his work. His rendering of his past basically relies on three revolutionaries: Frantz Fanon, Vladimir Lenin and Walter Rodney, to whom he owes his critical approach. Ngũgĩ scholar James Ogude reads his works as 'writing from below', a Marxist approach initially employed by the Marxist English historian EP Thompson. The most precious gift he passed on to his nation is his latest book, The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi , which ranks alongside the famous Malian epic Sundiata . I believe the epic will survive time and continue to honour the continent; it embodies all human suffering and dignity throughout the centuries, and the happiness of the time being and the time ever present and the time passed over present. Time never passed for Ngũgĩ, which always is invoked through memories that never age, as Harry Garuba reminds us. It is crystallised in moments that contain overlapping terrains and lived through everlasting mourning, chants and praises. Hence Ngũgĩ as a praise singer, a town crier of his nation that never stops chanting for Africa. Here is how the narrator of the epic's chants bear the hope of the future fostered through storytelling: 'Time flows on like an endless river, Time Yesterday into Time Today, Time Today into Time Tomorrow. Now is Now and it is not Now because Time does not stop. Yesterday is Yesterday and it is not Yesterday because Time did not stop. Tomorrow is Tomorrow and it is Tomorrow because Time will not stop.' His words are weaponised with the strength and resilience that were sustained to his last breath. The Perfect Nine, in which Ngũgĩ pays his strong tribute to his nation, placed him alongside the great African griots who never tired of carrying the burden of the history of their nations, holding the power of storytelling to resist the time of destruction. It is a masterpiece that hails from his nation, which he carefully treats as a pearl glistening in his eyes with relentless tears toward a world. Ahmet Sait Akçay is a literary critic and African Studies scholar, he is teaching at the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town.
eNCA
31-05-2025
- eNCA
Tributes to Ngugi Late Kenyan author was a great literary figure
JOHANNESBURG - Writer and activist Veli Mbele credits the late Professor Ngugi Wa Thiong'o with shaping Black Consciousness. His book 'Decolonising The Mind, the Politics Of Language In African Literature' is a post-colonial classic. During his imprisonment, Thiong'o decided he would never write in English again, a defiant move that helped put literature in African languages firmly on the map. Ngugi died at the age of 87 on Wednesday, his daughter announced on Facebook.
Times of Oman
29-05-2025
- General
- Times of Oman
Giant of African literature, Kenya's Ngugi wa Thiong'o dies aged 87
Nairobi: Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, considered one of the greats of African literature, passed away at the age of 87, a spokeswoman for his Nairobi publisher confirmed. Thiong'o, who died in the US state of Georgia, leaves behind a long legacy of critical works. Born in 1938 under British colonial rule, he lived in exile in Britain, before moving on to the United States. He only briefly returned to Kenya. An author and an academic, Thiong'o's works range from novels including "Weep Not, Child," to non-fiction including his much-acclaimed "Decolonising the Mind" - a collection of essays about the role of language in constructing national culture, history and identity. Thiong'o, who was tipped to win the Nobel Prize for Literature countless times, first wrote in English, before switching to his native Kikuyu, in a move that can be seen as part of his desire to decolonise culture.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Acclaimed Kenyan writer and dissident, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, dies at 87
Renowned Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o has died at age 87, his family members have announced. 'It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong'o,' his daughter Wanjiku Wa Ngugi wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. 'He lived a full life, fought a good fight,' she said. At the time of his death, Ngugi was reportedly receiving kidney dialysis treatments, but his immediate cause of death is still unknown. Born in Kenya in 1938, Ngugi will be remembered as one of Africa's most important postcolonial writers. Formative events in Ngugi's early life included the brutal Mau Mau war that swept British-ruled Kenya in the 1950s. Ngugi's work was equally critical of the British colonial era and the postcolonial society that followed Kenya's independence in 1963. Other topics in his work covered the intersection between language, culture, history, and identity. Ngugi made a mark for himself in the 1970s when he decided to switch from writing in English to the Kikuyu and Swahili languages – a controversial decision at the time. 'We all thought he was mad… and brave at the same time,' Kenyan writer David Maillu told the AFP news agency. 'We asked ourselves who would buy the books.' One of his most famous works, 'Decolonising the Mind', was published in 1986 while living abroad. The book argues that it is 'impossible to liberate oneself while using the language of oppressors', AFP reports. Besides holding the position of acclaimed writer, Ngugi was a prisoner of conscience. In 1977, he was jailed in Kenya for staging a play deemed critical of contemporary society. He once described the country's new elite class as 'the death of hopes, the death of dreams and the death of beauty'. In 1982, Ngugi went into self-imposed exile in the UK following a ban on theatre groups and performances in his home country. He later moved to the US, where he worked as a professor of comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine. He also continued writing a range of works, including essays, memoirs and novels about Kenya. Following news of Ngugi's death, praise for his life and work quickly appeared online. 'My condolences to the family and friends of Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o, a renowned literary giant and scholar, a son of the soil and great patriot whose footprints are indelible,' Kenya's opposition leader Martha Karua wrote on X. 'Thank you Mwalimu [teacher] for your freedom writing,' wrote Amnesty International's Kenya branch on X. 'Having already earned his place in Kenyan history, he transitions from mortality to immortality.' Margaretta wa Gacheru, a sociologist and former student of Ngugi, said the author was a national icon. 'To me, he's like a Kenyan Tolstoy, in the sense of being a storyteller, in the sense of his love of the language and panoramic view of society, his description of the landscape of social relations, of class and class struggles,' she said.
Al Jazeera
29-05-2025
- General
- Al Jazeera
Acclaimed Kenyan writer and dissident, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, dies at 87
Renowned Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o has died at age 87, his family members have announced. 'It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong'o,' his daughter Wanjiku Wa Ngugi wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. 'He lived a full life, fought a good fight,' she said. At the time of his death, Ngugi was reportedly receiving kidney dialysis treatments, but his immediate cause of death is still unknown. Born in Kenya in 1938, Ngugi will be remembered as one of Africa's most important postcolonial writers. Formative events in Ngugi's early life included the brutal Mau Mau war that swept British-ruled Kenya in the 1950s. Ngugi's work was equally critical of the British colonial era and the postcolonial society that followed Kenya's independence in 1963. Other topics in his work covered the intersection between language, culture, history, and identity. Ngugi made a mark for himself in the 1970s when he decided to switch from writing in English to the Kikuyu and Swahili languages – a controversial decision at the time. 'We all thought he was mad… and brave at the same time,' Kenyan writer David Maillu told the AFP news agency. 'We asked ourselves who would buy the books.' One of his most famous works, 'Decolonising the Mind', was published in 1986 while living abroad. The book argues that it is 'impossible to liberate oneself while using the language of oppressors', AFP reports. Besides holding the position of acclaimed writer, Ngugi was a prisoner of conscience. In 1977, he was jailed in Kenya for staging a play deemed critical of contemporary society. He once described the country's new elite class as 'the death of hopes, the death of dreams and the death of beauty'. In 1982, Ngugi went into self-imposed exile in the UK following a ban on theatre groups and performances in his home country. He later moved to the US, where he worked as a professor of comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine. He also continued writing a range of works, including essays, memoirs and novels about Kenya. Following news of Ngugi's death, praise for his life and work quickly appeared online. 'My condolences to the family and friends of Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o, a renowned literary giant and scholar, a son of the soil and great patriot whose footprints are indelible,' Kenya's opposition leader Martha Karua wrote on X. 'Thank you Mwalimu [teacher] for your freedom writing,' wrote Amnesty International's Kenya branch on X. 'Having already earned his place in Kenyan history, he transitions from mortality to immortality.' Margaretta wa Gacheru, a sociologist and former student of Ngugi, said the author was a national icon. 'To me, he's like a Kenyan Tolstoy, in the sense of being a storyteller, in the sense of his love of the language and panoramic view of society, his description of the landscape of social relations, of class and class struggles,' she said.
