Today, we celebrate the 85th birthday of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan author and academic who is widely considered East Africa’s leading novelist. Ngũgĩ’s work spans multiple genres, including novels, plays, short stories, and essays, and covers a range of topics from literary and social criticism to children’s literature.
He is also the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. Ngũgĩ is perhaps best known for his 1964 novel Weep Not, Child, which was the first major English-language novel written by an East African.
In 1968, he published Decolonising the Mind, in which he argued that African-language literature was the authentic voice for Africans. In line with this belief, Ngũgĩ announced his intention to write only in Kikuyu or Kiswahili from then on.
In 1977, Ngũgĩ attempted to revolutionize theatre in Kenya by encouraging spontaneity and audience participation in performances. However, his landmark play Ngaahika Ndeenda, co-written with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii, was shut down by the Kenyan government just six weeks after opening.
Ngũgĩ was subsequently imprisoned for over a year and was adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. After his release, he fled to the United States, where he currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine. He has also taught at Northwestern University, Yale University, and New York University.
Ngũgĩ has been frequently mentioned as a potential Nobel Prize in Literature laureate and has received numerous other awards, including the International Nonino Prize in Italy and the Park Kyong-ni Prize. His children, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ and Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ, are also authors.
