Ngũgĩ wa Thion’o – a giant of African literature

Ngũgĩ wa Thion’o who died at 87 years old., He was a titan of contemporary African literature – a storyteller who refused to be bound by prison, exile and illness.

His work covers approximately six decades, mainly documenting the transformation of his country – Kenya – from a colonial object of democracy.

Ngũgĩ was welcomed to win the Nobel Prize for Literature countless times, leaving fans to be terrified every time the medal slipped through his fingers.

He will be remembered not only as a writer worthy of Nobel, but also as a fierce supporter of literature written in native African languages.

Ngũgĩ was born James Tionw’o NGũgĩ in 1938, when Kenya was under British colonial rule. He grew up in the city of Limuru among a large family of low -income farmers.

His parents attacked and saved themselves to pay for their education at an alliance, a boarding school managed by British missionaries.

In interviewNgũgĩ recalled that he had returned home from alliance at the end of the term to find that his entire village was destroyed by the colonial authorities.

His family members were among the hundreds and thousands, forced to live in the detention camps during the repression of Mau Mau, the movement of independence fighters.

UpisingLaunched from 1952 to 1960, touched the life of ngũgĩ in numerous, devastating ways.

In one of the most disturbing, the brother of NGũgĩ, Gitogo, was fatally shot in the back to refuse to comply with the command of the British soldier.

Gitogo had not heard the command because it was deaf.

In 1959, while the British struggled to maintain their grip on Kenya, NGũgĩ left to study in Uganda. He enrolled at the University of Makere, who remains one of the most prestigious universities in Africa.

During a writing conference in Makerere, NGũgĩ shared the manuscript about her debut novel with the revered Nigerian author Chinua Acebe.

Achebe forwarded the manuscript of its publisher to the UK and the book called Weep Not, Child, was launched in 1964. This is the first major English -language novel written by the East African.

Ngũgĩ quickly followed with two more popular novels, grain wheat and the river between them. In 1972, the UK’s Times newspaper said NGũgĩ, then 33, was “accepted as one of the exceptional contemporary writers in Africa.”

Then came 1977 – a period that marked a huge change in the life and career of NGũgĩ. For starters, it was the year in which he became NGũGĩ WA Thion and threw his name at birth, James. Ngũgĩ made the change as he wanted a name without a colonial influence.

He also missed English as a major language for his literature and swore to write only in his mother tongue, Kikuyu.

He published his last English novel, The Petals of the Blood in 1977.

NGũGĩ’s previous books were critical of the colonial state, but the petals of the blood attacked the new leaders of independent Kenya, presenting them as an elite class, who betrayed ordinary Kenyans.

Ngũgĩ didn’t stop there. That same year, he co -authored the play NGAAHIKA NDEENDA (I will marry when I want), which was a terrible look at Kenya’s class struggle.

His theater was closed by the government of then -President Jomo Kenya and NGũgĩ was imprisoned for maximum security for a year without experience.

However, this was fruitful for 12 months – as NGũgĩ wrote her first novel on Kikuyu, Devil on the Cross while in prison. He is said to have used toilet paper to write the whole book as he had no access to a notebook.

Ngũgĩ was released after Daniel Arap replaced my d -Kennia as president.

Ngũgĩ said that four years later, while in London to launch a book, Learn that there is a plot to kill him On his return to Kenya.

NGũgĩ began self -exile in the UK and then the United States. He did not return to Kenya for 22 years.

When he finally returned, he received a hero welcome – thousands of Kenyans turned out to greet him.

But the return was darkened when the attackers invaded NGũgĩ’s apartment, brutally attacked the author and rape their wife.

Ngugi insisted that the attack was “political”S

He returned to the United States, where he had held a professor at universities, including Yale, New York and California Irvine.

In the academic circles and beyond, NGũGĩ has become known as one of the most important defenders of literature written in African languages.

Throughout her career – to this day – African literature has been dominated by books written in English or French, official languages ​​in most countries on the continent.

“What is the difference between a politician who says that Africa cannot do without imperialism and the writer who says that Africa cannot do without European languages?” asked ngũgĩ in a seminar, fiery collection of essay called decolonizing the mind.

In one section, the NGũGĩ called Chinua Achebe – the author who helped start his career – to write in English. Their friendship was destroyed as a result.

Far from her literary career, NGũgĩ was married – and divorced – twice. He had nine children, four of whom were published authors.

“My own family has become one of my literary rivals,” jokes NGũgĩ in 2020. Interview with La TimesS

His son Mukoma Wa Ngũgĩ claims his mother was physically abused by ngũgĩ wa thing’o.

“Some of my most memories are that I will visit her with my grandmother, where she will seek asylum,” his son wrote in a social media publication, to which NGũgĩ wa thion did not answer.

Later in his life, the health of NGũgĩ has deteriorated. In 2019, he had a triple heart bypass and began to fight kidney failure. In 1995, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was given three months to live.

NGũGĩ, however, has recovered by adding cancer to the continuous list of struggles it has overcome.

But now one of the leading lights of African literature – like Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi once called it – he is gone, leaving the world of words a little worse.