Master Storyteller and Titan Of Modern African Literature Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Dies At 87

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Source: Africa Publicity

A titan of modern African literature and a master storyteller whose work spanned nearly six decades, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, has died, age 87.

Ngũgĩ  literary work mainly documented the transformation of his country – Kenya – from a colonial state to a democracy.

On several occasions, Ngũgĩ was tipped to win the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature but did not succeed in that regard.

Born James Thiong’o Ngũgĩ in 1938, when Kenya was still under British colonial rule, the late writer grew up in the town of Limuru among a large family of low-income agricultural workers.

His parents worked hard and saved to pay his school fees at Alliance, a boarding school run by British missionaries.

Ngũgĩ’s relatives were among the hundreds and thousands of Kenyans forced to live in detention camps during a crackdown on the Mau Mau, a movement of Kenya’s independence fight.

In several painful ways, the Mau Mau uprising from 1952 to 1960, touched Ngũgĩ’s life, with his brother, Gitogo, being shot in the back and killed for refusing to comply with a British soldier’s command. Gitogo had not heard the British soldier’s command because he was deaf.

Ngũgĩ left his country in 1959 to study in Uganda as the British colonial administration struggled to maintain its grip on Kenya.

He will be remembered as a fierce proponent of literature written in native African languages.

He released his first book titled ‘Weep Not, Child’ to critical acclaim in 1964. The book was the first major English-language novel to be written by an East African.

He followed up with two other books, ‘A Grain of Wheat’ and ‘The River Between’.

In 1972, the Times newspaper in Britain wrote that Ngũgĩ was “accepted as one of Africa’s outstanding contemporary writers.”

In 1977, he became Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, shedding his birth name, James. He made the change as he wanted a name free of colonial influence. He went on to drop English as the primary language for his literature and promised to only write in his mother tongue, Kikuyu. In 1977, he published his last English language novel, ‘Petals of Blood.’