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Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was a Kenyan author and academic, who has been described as East Africa's leading novelist and an important figure in modern African literature.
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culture · Kenyan writer and academic (1938–2025) · playwright · novelist · essayist · university teacher · philosopher · writer · also Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Thiong'o
Born 5 January 1938 · Died 28 May 2025 · Q302910
41 published statements · 0 followers
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In a flash, I was convinced that the growth of the British Empire was the development of a great moral idea: it means, it must surely lead to the creation of one British nation, embracing all peoples of all colors and creeds, based on the just proposition that all men were created equal.
Awarded Catalonia International Prize (2020).
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“In a flash, I was convinced that the growth of the British Empire was the development of a great moral idea: it means, it must surely lead to the creation of one British nation, embracing all peoples of all colors and creeds, based on the just proposition that all men were created equal.”
The Guardian: Take away our language and we will forget who we are: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the language of conquest – podcast
The Guardian: Take away our language and we will forget who we are: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the language of conquest
Global Voices Online: What is the role of Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o in French-speaking Africa?
The Guardian: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o belonged to an age of prophets – we must honour his teaching
The Guardian: From the archive: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature – podcast
WUNC: Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who rejected writing in the language of the colonizer, dies at 87
The Guardian: ‘In his company you could not be lazy’: remembering my friend Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Yahoo: Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Kenyan novelist and playwright, dies at 87
WWNO: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kenyan literary giant who fought colonialism, dies at 87
Yahoo: Five things you should know about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, one of Africa’s greatest writers of all time
The Guardian: A life in quotes: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
The Guardian: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, giant of African literature, dies aged 87
Died 2025-05-28.
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Commented "In Kenya, even today, we have children and their parents who cannot speak their mother tongues
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The Guardian: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature – podcast
The Guardian: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature
Whether Kenyan English or Nigerian English were now local languages, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o responded: "It's like the enslaved being happy that theirs is a local version of enslavement
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standardmedia.co.ke: Ngugi wa Thiong'o play 'I Will Marry When I Want' ends today
The Guardian: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o nominated as author and translator in first for International Booker
Awarded Catalonia International Prize (2020).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Upright Revolution, Or Why Humans Walk Upright, illustrated by Sunandini Banerjee, was published by Seagull Books
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Had triple bypass heart surgery, and around this time, began to struggle with kidney failure
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The Guardian: Bank heists, political satire and Ngugi wa Thiong’o: top 10 books about Kenya
The Guardian: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: 'Resistance is the best way of keeping alive'
Making the argument for the crucial role of African languages in "the resurrection of African memory", about which Publishers Weekly said: "Ngugi's language is fresh; the questions he raises are profound, the argument he
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The American publishers Random House published his first new novel in nearly two decades, Wizard of the Crow, translated to English from Gikuyu by the author himself
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Awarded honorary doctor of the University of Auckland (2005).
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Awarded International Nonino Prize (2001).
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Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was told he had three months to live; nevertheless, he recovered
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Was a guest at the Congress of South African Writers and spent time in Zwide Township with Mzi Mahola, the year he became a professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University, where he
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Was a Visiting Professor at Bayreuth University, and the following year was Writer-in-Residence for the Borough of Islington in London
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Provoked the then Kenyan Vice-President Daniel arap Moi to order his arrest
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Ngũgĩ embarked upon a novel form of theatre in Kenya that sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he held to be "the general bourgeois education system", by encouraging spontaneity and audience participation
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Ngũgĩ helped to establish The Kamiriithu Community Education and Cultural Centre which, among other things, organised African Theatre in the area
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Awarded Lotus Prize for Literature (1973).
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Without completing his thesis on Caribbean literature, for which his studies had focused on Barbadian writer George Lamming, about whom Ngũgĩ said in his 1972 collection of essays Homecoming: "He evoked for me, an unforg
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Ngũgĩ also began teaching at the University of Nairobi as a professor of English literature
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Studied at Makerere University, Bachelor of Arts (1963).
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To go to the Alliance High School, a boys' public school about 20 kilometres away
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Born 1938-01-05.
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