The Life of Kenyan literary giant Ngugi wa Thiong’o dies at 87

Throughout his life, Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o advocated for the African continent and his home country to free itself from Western cultural dominance. Baptized James Ngugi, he was born on January 5, 1938, in the central Kenyanregion of Limuru. He died Wednesday at the age of 87.

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong’o this Wednesday morning,” wrote Wanjiku Wa Ngugi. “He lived a full life, fought a good fight,” she added.

Ngugi studied at the renowned Makerere College (now Makerere University) in Kampala, Uganda, in the early 1960s, and the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

By the age of 30, he had established a writing career, making literary history in the process.

Ngugi’s drama “The Black Hermit” was performed during Uganda’s 1962 independence celebrations. His 1964 work “Weep Not, Child” was the first published novel from East Africa. More English language novels would follow.

After Ngugi’s time in the United Kingdom, he renounced Christianity and shed his Christian name, because he believed it was a sign of Anglo-American neocolonialism.

He took the name Ngugi wa Thiong’o in 1967, the same year he began teaching English literature at the University of Nairobi.

The power of native language

A key moment in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s life came in 1977 when he was asked to write a play with fellow writer Ngugi wa Mirii for a theater near Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The pair wondered which language would be most appropriate.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o later reflected: “The very fact that we had to ask ourselves in what language we were going to write the play is in itself a telling point about how far gone we were, because the answer should have been obvious.”

The writers decided on the local language Gikuyu, which was also their own mother tongue.

The theater piece “Ngaahika Ndeenda” (“I marry when I like”) was a success. It attracted audiences from the entire Kikuyu region. The play hit home partly because it was written in the language of laborers and farmers, who also contributed to the play’s production.

But it also attracted unwanted attention: the prospect of Ngugi’s influence as an independent thinker alarmed the Kenyan government. After just the 9th performance, “Ngaahika Ndeenda” was banned and Ngugi was detained for a year.

But detention did little to discourage Ngugi. In fact, it cemented his conviction to write in his mother tongue, Gikuyu. Ngugi wrote his first Kikuyu novel “Devil on the Cross” on toilet paper while in prison.

“Toilet paper in prison is meant to punish prisoners, so it is very coarse,” the author explained years later. “But what is bad for the body, can sometimes be very good writing material.”

Colonial legacy

Literature in African languages barely existed before Ngugi’s time. When Ngugi turned his back on writing in English, he stoked a heated debate.

Writers like Nigerian icon Chinua Achebe believed in appropriating the colonial language and adapting it for local realities. But for Ngugi, colonial languages in Africa symbolized neocolonial oppression beyond political independence.

In an essay published in 1986, Ngugi wrote that after “psychological violence in the classroom” followed physical violence on the battlefield. By then, Ngugi lived in exile in England after hearing that President Daniel arap Moi’s government planned to have Ngugi killed.

Ngugi’s writing continued to ruffle feathers with the Kenyan government.

His heroic protagonist Matigari, in the eponymously named 1987 novel, is a returning independence war veteran whose enthusiasm for victory is soon stifled when he realizes the liberated country is turning into a police state where the old colonialists had simply been replaced by a new elite.

Though Ngugi remarked that the setting and era was arbitrary, many interpreted this work as a thinly veiled commentary on Kenya’s political system.

No future in Kenya

Ngugi lived in exile for 22 years, only returning to Kenya in 2004 when Daniel arap Moi was no longer president. But just two weeks later, intruders broke into Ngugi’s apartment, torturing the writer and raping his wife. Three of the accused were sentenced to death for rape and theft.

But Ngugi believed there were political motives behind the attack. His home country had become too dangerous.

In 1989, the United States had become his haven. He taught at US universities, including Yale, New York University, and the University of California.

Ngugi’s novels have been translated into over 30 languages. He often translated his works into English himself. He has held on to the vision that literature written in African languages such as Luo or Yoruba would be translated directly into other African languages without using English as an intermediary.

“That would allow our languages to communicate directly with each other,” he reasoned.

In 2024, his son, Mukoma wa Ngugi, alleged that he had physically abused his first wife, Nyambura, who died in 1995. Ngugi wa Thiong’o never addressed the accusations.

Ngugi’s 2006 novel “Wizard of the Crow” — an award-winning satire about corrupt leaders — gained international acclaim.

Since then, he has been in the conversation for the Nobel Prize in Literature, earned honorary degrees from universities worldwide, including Yale University.

“Ngugi had shown us the potential of literature to incite change and promote justice,” according to Yale.

Ngugi’s most recent work, “The Perfect Nine”, published and written in Gikuyu, became the first work written in an indigenous African language to be nominated for the International Booker Prize.

Ngugi had nine children, four of whom are authors: Tee Ngugi, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Nducu wa Ngugi, and Wanjiku wa Ngugi.