This article is about a person whose name includes apatronymic. The article properly refers to the person by their given name, Ngũgĩ, and not as wa Thiong'o.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Gikuyu:[ᵑɡoɣewáðiɔŋɔ];[1] bornJames Ngugi; 5 January 1938 – 28 May 2025) was a Kenyan author and academic, who has been described asEast Africa's leading novelist and an important figure in modern African literature.[2][3][4]
Ngũgĩ wrote primarily in English before switching to writing primarily inGikuyu and becoming a strong advocate for literature written in nativeAfrican languages.[5] His works include novels such as the celebrated novelThe River Between, plays, short stories, memoirs, children's literature and essays ranging from literary to social criticism. He was the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journalMũtĩiri. His 2016 short story "The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright" has been translated into more than 100[6] languages.[7]
In 1977, 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 in the performances.[8] His project sought to "demystify" the theatrical process, and to avoid the "process of alienation [that] produces a gallery of active stars and an undifferentiated mass of grateful admirers" which, according to Ngũgĩ, encourages passivity in "ordinary people".[8] Although his landmark playNgaahika Ndeenda (1977), co-written withNgũgĩ wa Mirii, was a commercial success, it was shut down by the then authoritarian Kenyan regime six weeks after its opening.[8]
Ngũgĩ was born on 5 January 1938[15][2] inKamiriithu, nearLimuru[16] inKiambu district,Kenya Colony of theBritish Empire. He is ofKikuyu descent, and was baptisedJames Ngugi. His father, Thiong'o wa Ndūcũ,[17][18][19] had four wives and 28 children; Ngũgĩ was born to his third wife, Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ.[20][21][22][23] His family were farmers whose land had been repossessed under the British Imperial Land Act of 1915.[17] During Ngũgĩ's childhood, they were caught up in the 1952–1960Mau Mau Uprising; his half-brother Mwangi was actively involved in theKenya Land and Freedom Army (in which he was killed), another brother was shot during the State of Emergency, and his mother was tortured at the Kamiriithuhome guard post.[18][24][25]
Ngũgĩ left Limuru in 1955 to go to theAlliance High School, a boys' public school about 20 kilometres away.[26] He would later write about the scene of desolation he found on returning home after his first term there: "...the British had razed the entire village to the ground. Kenya was under State of Emergency, the colonial state’s way of trying to isolate the forces of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, waging war against the settler state. My village destroyed, Alliance High School, for the next four years became the new base, from which I looked back at Limuru, the region of my birth. By losing my home, I became more aware of it, the home that I had lost."[26]
Ngũgĩ went on to study atMakerere University College inKampala, Uganda, from 1959 to 1963, and he said it was in those years in his new country of residence that he found his voice as a writer: "The novelsThe River Between andWeep Not, Child were the early products of my residency in the country of my educational migration. Uganda enabled me to discover my Kenya and even relive my life in the village. I discovered my home country by being away from the home country."[26] As a student, he attended theAfrican Writers Conference held at Makerere in June 1962,[27][28][29][30] and his playThe Black Hermit premiered as part of the event at The National Theatre.[31][32] At the conference, Ngũgĩ askedChinua Achebe to read the manuscripts ofThe River Between andWeep Not, Child, which were subsequently published in theHeinemann African Writers Series, launched in London that year, with Achebe as its first advisory editor.[33] Ngũgĩ received his B.A. degree inEnglish from Makerere University College in 1963.[2]
Ngũgĩ's debut novel,Weep Not, Child, was published in May 1964. It was the first novel in English to be published by an African writer from East Africa.[33][34]
Later that year, having won a scholarship to theUniversity of Leeds to study for an MA, Ngũgĩ travelled to England, where he was when his second novel,The River Between, came out in 1965.[33]The River Between, which has the Mau Mau Uprising as its background and describes an unhappy romance between Christians and non-Christians, was previously on Kenya's national secondary school syllabus.[35][36][37] He left Leeds in 1967 without completing his thesis onCaribbean literature,[38] for which his studies had focused on Barbadian writerGeorge Lamming, about whom Ngũgĩ said in his 1972 collection of essaysHomecoming: "He evoked for me, an unforgettable picture of a peasant revolt in a white-dominated world. And suddenly I knew that a novel could be made to speak to me, could, with a compelling urgency, touch cords[sic] deep down in me. His world was not as strange to me as that ofFielding,Defoe,Smollett,Jane Austen,George Eliot,Dickens,D. H. Lawrence."[33]
Ngũgĩ's 1967 novelA Grain of Wheat marked his embrace ofFanonistMarxism.[39] He subsequently renounced writing in English, and the name James Ngugi ascolonialist;[40] by 1970 he had changed his name toNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o,[41] and began to write in his native Gikuyu.[42] In 1967, Ngũgĩ also began teaching at theUniversity of Nairobi as a professor of English literature. He continued to teach at the university for ten years while serving as a Fellow in Creative Writing atMakerere University. During this time, he also guest-lectured atNorthwestern University in the department of English and African Studies for a year.[32]
While a professor at the University of Nairobi, Ngũgĩ was the catalyst of the discussion to abolish the English department. He argued that after the end of colonialism, it was imperative that a university in Africa teach African literature, includingoral literature, and that such should be done with the realization of the richness of African languages.[43] In the late 1960s, these efforts resulted in the university dropping English Literature as a course of study, and replacing it with one that positioned African Literature, oral, and written, at the centre.[40]
Ngũgĩ was imprisoned in a cell with other political prisoners. During part of theirimprisonment, they were allowed one hour of sunlight a day. In Ngũgĩ's words: "The compound used to be for the mentally deranged convicts before it was put to better use as a cage for 'the politically deranged.'" He found solace in writing and wrote the first modern novel in Gikuyu,Devil on the Cross (Caitaani mũtharaba-Inĩ), on prison-issuedtoilet paper.[25][44]
During his time in prison, Ngũgĩ decided to cease writing his plays and other works in English and began writing all his creative works in his native tongue, Gikuyu.[32]
Ngũgĩ's time in prison also inspired the playThe Trial of Dedan Kimathi (1976). Written in collaboration withMicere Githae Mugo,[45]The Trial of Dedan Kimathi was performed atFESTAC 77 inLagos, Nigeria.[46] The play recreates the indomitable courage of the Mau Mau revolutionary and his right-hand person – a woman warrior. WhileKimathi remains in jail, it is 'the woman' – representing Kenyan mothers – who tries to free him and in turn train the next generation for the struggle. The role of Kenyan women in the Mau Mau movement (Kenyan freedom struggle) is a historical reality."[47]
After Ngũgĩ's release in December 1978,[32] he was not reinstated to his job as professor atNairobi University, and his family was harassed. Because he wrote about the injustices of the dictatorial government at the time, Ngũgĩ and his family were forced to live in exile. Only afterDaniel Arap Moi, the longest-serving Kenyan president, retired in 2002, was it safe for them to return.[48]
While in exile, Ngũgĩ worked with the London-based Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya (1982–98).[9][32]Matigari ma Njiruungi (translated byWangui wa Goro into English asMatigari) was published at this time. In 1984, he was a Visiting Professor atBayreuth University, and the following year was Writer-in-Residence for theBorough of Islington in London.[32] He also studied film atDramatiska Institute inStockholm, Sweden (1986).[32]
Ngũgĩ's later works includeDetained, his prison diary (1981),Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986), an essay arguing for African writers' expression in their native languages rather than European languages, in order to renounce lingering colonial ties and to build authentic African literature, andMatigari (translated by Wangui wa Goro), (1987), one of his most famous works, a satire based on a Gikuyu folk tale.[49] Describing himself as a "literary migrant", he also stated: "I had to be away from my mother tongue to discover my mother tongue."[26]
Ngũgĩ was Visiting Professor of English and Comparative Literature atYale University between 1989 and 1992.[32] In 1992, he was a guest at the Congress of South African Writers and spent time in Zwide Township withMzi Mahola, the year he became a professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies atNew York University, where he held theErich Maria Remarque Chair. He served as Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and was first director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at theUniversity of California, Irvine.[50]
On 8 August 2004, Ngũgĩ returned to Kenya as part of a month-long tour of East Africa. On 11 August, robbers broke into his high-security apartment: they assaulted Ngũgĩ, sexually assaulted his wife and stole various items of value.[51] When Ngũgĩ returned to the U.S. at the end of his month-long trip, five men were arrested on suspicion of the crime, including one of his nephews.[48] In 2006, the American publishersRandom House published his first new novel in nearly two decades,Wizard of the Crow, translated to English from Gikuyu by the author himself.[52]
On 10 November 2006, while inSan Francisco at Hotel Vitale at theEmbarcadero, Ngũgĩ was harassed and ordered to leave the hotel by an employee. The event led to a public outcry and angered both African-Americans and members of the African diaspora living in America,[53][54] which led to an apology by the hotel.[55]
Ngũgĩ's later books includeGlobalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing (2012), andSomething Torn and New: An African Renaissance, a collection of essays published in 2009 making the argument for the crucial role of African languages in "the resurrection of African memory", about whichPublishers Weekly said: "Ngugi's language is fresh; the questions he raises are profound, the argument he makes is clear: 'To starve or kill a language is to starve and kill a people's memory bank.'"[56] This was followed by two well-received autobiographical works:Dreams in a Time of War: a Childhood Memoir (2010)[57][58][59][60][61] andIn the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir (2012), which was described as "brilliant and essential" by theLos Angeles Times,[62] among other positive reviews.[63][64][65]
There was perennial speculation about Ngũgĩ being a likely candidate to win theNobel Prize in Literature,[66] and he had been considered a firm favourite in 2010.[11][12][67] However, that year it was awarded to Peruvian writerMario Vargas Llosa, and afterwards Ngũgĩ was reported as saying that he was less disappointed than the photographers who had gathered outside his home: "I was the one who was consoling them!"[68]
Ngũgĩ's 2016 short storyThe Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright became "the single most translated short story in the history of African writing",[69] now with versions in more than 100 languages.[6] Originally written in Gikuyu (as "Ituĩka Rĩa Mũrũngarũ: Kana Kĩrĩa Gĩtũmaga Andũ Mathiĩ Marũngiĩ"), with an English translation by the author himself, alongside translations into numerous African languages, it was released by the Jalada Africa Trust, a Pan-African writers' collective, in its inauguralTranslation Issue,[70][71] starting a project that aimed to translate each story into 2,000 African languages.[7][69] In 2019,The Upright Revolution, Or Why Humans Walk Upright, illustrated by Sunandini Banerjee, was published bySeagull Books.[72]
Ngũgĩ's bookThe Perfect Nine, originally written and published in Gikuyu as Kenda Muiyuru: Rugano Rwa Gikuyu na Mumbi (2019), was translated into English by Ngũgĩ for its 2020 publication, and is a reimagining in epic poetry of his people'sorigin story.[73] It was described by theLos Angeles Times as "a quest novel-in-verse that explores folklore, myth and allegory through a decidedly feminist and pan-African lens."[74] The review inWorld Literature Today said:
"Ngũgĩ crafts a beautiful retelling of the Gĩkũyũ myth that emphasizes the noble pursuit of beauty, the necessity of personal courage, the importance of filial piety, and a sense of the Giver Supreme – a being who represents divinity, and unity, across world religions. All these things coalesce into dynamic verse to makeThe Perfect Nine a story of miracles and perseverance; a chronicle of modernity and myth; a meditation on beginnings and endings; and a palimpsest of ancient and contemporary memory, as Ngũgĩ overlays the Perfect Nine's feminine power onto the origin myth of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya in a moving rendition of the epic form."[75]
Fiona Sampson writing inThe Guardian concluded thatThe Perfect Nine is "a beautiful work of integration that not only refuses distinctions between 'high art' and traditional storytelling, but supplies that all-too rare human necessity: the sense that life has meaning."[76]
In March 2021,The Perfect Nine became the first work written in an indigenous African language to be longlisted for theInternational Booker Prize, with Ngũgĩ becoming the first nominee as both the author and translator of the book.[77][78]
When asked in 2023 whetherKenyan English orNigerian 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. English is not an African language. French is not. Spanish is not. Kenyan or Nigerian English is nonsense. That's an example of normalised abnormality. The colonised trying to claim the coloniser's language is a sign of the success of enslavement."[40] In 2025, he commented "In Kenya, even today, we have children and their parents who cannot speak their mother tongues... They are very happy when they speak English and even happier when their children don’t know their mother tongue. That’s why I call it mental colonization." He also commented that he had no issue speaking English, but that "I don’t want it to be my primary language... if you know all the languages of the world, and you don’t know your mother tongue, that’s enslavement, mental enslavement. But if you know your mother tongue, and add other languages, that is empowerment."[79]
In 1995, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was told he had three months to live; nevertheless, he recovered. In 2019, he had triple bypass heart surgery, and around this time, began to struggle with kidney failure. He died inBuford, Georgia, United States on 28 May 2025, at the age of 87. At the time of his death, Ngũgĩ was reportedly receiving kidney dialysis treatments, but his immediate cause of death was not announced.[85][86][87][88]
1992 (6 April): ThePaul Robeson Award for Artistic Excellence, Political Conscience and Integrity, in Philadelphia, U.S.[97]
1992 (October): honoured byNew York University by being appointed to the Erich Maria Remarque Professorship in Languages to "acknowledge extraordinary scholarly achievement, strong leadership in the University Community and the Profession and significant contribution to our educational mission."[98]
1993: The Zora Neale Hurston-Paul Robeson Award, for artistic and scholarly achievement, awarded by the National Council for Black Studies, inAccra, Ghana[97]
1994 (October): The Gwendolyn Brooks Center Contributors Award for significant contribution to The Black Literary Arts[97]
1996: The Fonlon-Nichols Prize, New York, for Artistic Excellence and Human Rights[97]
2002 (July): Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UCI.[97]
2002 (October): Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Cabinet Awarded by the International Scientific Committee of thePio Manzù Centre, Rimini, Italy.[97]
2003 (May): Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[101]
2006:Wizard of the Crow is No. 3 onTime magazine's Top 10 Books of the Year (European edition)[102]
Penpoints, Gunpoints and Dreams: The Performance of Literature and Power in Post-Colonial Africa (The Clarendon Lectures in English Literature 1996), Oxford University Press, 1998,ISBN0-19-818390-9[136]
^"Biografski dodaci" [Biographic appendices].Republika: Časopis Za Kulturu I Društvena Pitanja (Izbor Iz Novije Afričke Književnosti) (in Serbo-Croatian).XXXIV (12).Zagreb,SR Croatia:1424–1427. December 1978. Archived fromthe original on 15 October 2020. Retrieved3 September 2020.
^abCook, David; Okenimkpe, Michael (1997).Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o: An Exploration of His Writings. J. Currey. p. 3.ISBN978-0435074326.
^abJagne, Siga Fatima (17 July 1998).Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 318.ISBN978-1567508802.
^"Dreams in a Time of War: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o".Granta (110): 300. 2009.
^Scott-Kilvert, Ian; Jay Parini (1987). Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o;British Writers Supplement VIII,8: 211
^Cintrón, Lynette; Lindfors, Bernth; Sander, Reinhard (2006).Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o Speaks: Interviews with the Kenyan Writer. James Currey. p. 17.ISBN978-0852555804.
^Nicholls, Brendon.Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Gender, and the Ethics of Postcolonial Reading, 2010, p. 89.
^"Ngugi Wa Thiong'o Man of Letters".Leeds: Magazine for alumni of the University of Leeds UK. No. 12, Winter 2012/13. Leeds: University of Leeds. 15 February 2013. pp. 22–23.
^Brown, D. A. Maughn (1987). "Decolonising the Mind by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o".The International Journal of African Historical Studies.20 (4):726–28.doi:10.2307/219661.JSTOR219661.S2CID166094230.
^"Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Family interview - June 2015". 29 May 2025. Retrieved2 June 2025 – via YouTube.Larry Madowo interviews Ngugi wa Thiong'o and his children as he celebrates 50 years of his books. Originally aired onThe Trend with Larry Madowo on 5 June 2015.
Toh, Zorobi Philippe. "Linguistic Mystifications in Discourse: Case of Proverbs in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Matigari".Imaginaire et représentations socioculturelles dans les proverbes africains, edited by Lèfara Silué and Paul Samsia, Paris: L'Harmattan, 2020, pp. 63–71.
Wise, Christopher. 1997. "Resurrecting the Devil: Notes on Ngũgĩ's Theory of the Oral-Aural African Novel."Research in African Literatures 28.1:134–140.
Leonard Lopate,"Writing in Exile", 12 September 2006. Interview with Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo onThe Leonard Lopate Show,WNYC, New York public radio, following publication ofWizard of the Crow.
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