Ngugi wa Thiongo
From ArticleWorld
Ngugi wa Thiongo is an acclaimed Kenyan author who was the first East African writer published in English. He now writes exclusively in his native language of Gikuyu.
Biography
Ngugi was born on Jan. 5, 1938 in Kamiriithu, Kenya. He was a devoted Christian while attending mission schools and was christened James Ngugi. Ngugi later studied English at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda.
In the mid-1960s, Ngugi renounced English and Christianity and changed his name to Ngugi wa Thiongo. He was ultimately imprisoned for his 1977 play I Will Marry When I Want. At the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, Ngugi wrote Devil on the Cross on prison-issued toilet paper.
Upon his release, Ngugi exiled himself from Kenya and moved to London. In 1992, Ngugi taught at New York University. Currently, he is the Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine.
After a 20-year absence on August 8, 2004, Ngugi returned to Kenya as part of an East African tour. Three days later, he was robbed and assaulted and his wife was raped.
Partial list of writings
- Weep Not, Child (1964), novel
- The River Between (1965), novel
- A Grain of Wheat (1966)
- I Will Marry When I want (1977), play
- Devil on the Cross (1980), novel
- Detained (1981) prison diary
- Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986), essay
- Matigari (1987), satire