Ngugi Wa Thiong’o

By Nehru Odeh

Professor Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s foremost writers, thinkers and revolutionaries, has died at the age of 87. According to a statement released by the accomplished writer’s family and shared on his daughter Wanjiku Wa Ngugi’s  Facebook page, he died in the early hours of Wednesday, 28 May 2024.

The statement read: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad,  Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, this Wednesday morning, 28th May 2025. He lived a full life, fought a good fight. As was his last wish, let’s celebrate his life and his work. Rîa ratha na rîa thŭa. Tŭrî aira!

“The family’s spokesperson, Nducu Wa Ngugi, will announce details of his celebration of life soon.”

“Africa and the African Diasporas have lost their Legend and a Literary Warrior! May His Giant Gentle Soul Rest in Power. Aluta Continua,” said Nana Ayebia Clark, United Kingdom-based Ghanaian-born publisher.

“Wow! He played it well. Travel well, Mwalimu wa Taifa, and cycle back as you rest,” Akin Adesokan, novelist, writer, scholar and Professor of comparative literature and cinema and media studies at  Indiana University, Bloomington, said.

“It tears my heart to say that my father, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, passed away earlier today. I am me because of him in so many ways, as his child, scholar and writer. I love him – I am not sure what tomorrow will bring without him here.  I think that is all I have to say for now,” Mukoma wa Ngugi, son ot the late writer, posted on his Facebook page.

Okey Ndibe, journalist, writer and academic wrote on his Facebook page: “Ngugi was not only a phenomenal writer, he was also one of the kindest people I had the fortune of meeting. Incidentally, I had video conversations with him on Sunday and Monday. While he looked unusually fatigued, he still exuded his accustomed exuberance. I’m still stunned by news of his death earlier today. I’ll gather myself for a few days and then write some more about my debt to this extraordinary man I called Mwalimu.”

The 87-year-old literary giant was renowned for his internationally acclaimed novels and incisive political writings on imperialism, neo-colonialism, and the decolonisation of the African mind and knowledge.

Beyond his literary achievements, Ngũgĩ was a passionate revolutionary who vehemently opposed successive Kenyan regimes and tirelessly fought for a truly independent and free Kenya.

Born James Ngugi (the name he later changed to Ngugi Wa Thiong’o) in Kamirithu village, Limuru, Kenya, on January 5 1938, he was described as East Africa’s leading novelist.

He was known for critically acclaimed works such as  Weep Not Child, The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, and The Wizard of Crow. His plays include The Black Hermit, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (which he co-wrote with Micere Githae Mugo), and I Will Marry When I Want.

Ngugi presented his ideas on literature, culture, and politics in numerous essays and lectures, which were collected in Homecoming (1972), Writers in Politics (1981), Barrel of a Pen (1983), Moving the Centre (1993), and Penpoints, Gunpoint, and Dreams (1998).

As a scholar, Ngugi made a definitive statement with his book, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, where he. argued for African-language literature as the only authentic voice for Africans and stated his intention of writing only in Kikuyu or Kiswahili from that point on. That work earned him a reputation as one of Africa’s most articulate social critics.

His award-winning novel, Weep Not Child, published in 1964, was the first major novel in English by an East African and tells the story of a Kikuyu family drawn into the struggle for Kenyan independence during the state of emergency and the Mau Mau rebellion.

Ngugi became sensitised to the effects of colonialism in Africa, and he adopted his traditional name and wrote in the Bantu language of Kenya’s Kikuyu people.

His landmark play Ngaahika Ndeenda, co-written with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii, was a commercial success, but it was shut down by the authoritarian Kenyan regime six weeks after its opening.

As an activist, Ngugi had several brushes with the then-authoritarian regime of President Arap Moi. He was subsequently imprisoned for over a year. Adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, the artist was released from prison and fled Kenya. After a long exile from Kenya, Ngugi

Ngũgĩ returned in 2004 with his wife to promote Mũrogi wa Kagogo. Several weeks later, they were brutally assaulted in their home; the attack was believed by some to be politically motivated.

After their recovery, the couple continued to publicise the book abroad. Ngugi later published the memoirs Dreams in a Time of War (2010), about his childhood; In the House of the Interpreter (2012), which was largely set in the 1950s, during the Mau Mau rebellion against British control in Kenya; and Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening (2016), a chronicle of his years at Makerere University.

Ngugi received a bachelor’s degree from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, in 1963 and from Leeds University, Yorkshire, England, in 1964. After doing graduate work at Leeds, he served as a lecturer in English at University College, Nairobi, Kenya, and as a visiting professor of English at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, U.S. From 1972 to 1977, he was senior lecturer and chairman of the department of literature at the University of Nairobi.

He was appointed Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine. He previously taught at Northwestern University, Yale University, and New York University.

Ngũgĩ was frequently regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He won the 2001 International Nonino Prize in Italy and the 2016 Park Kyong-ni Prize.

In 1995, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and told he had three months to live; nevertheless, he recovered. In 2019, he had triple bypass heart surgery, and around this time, he began to struggle with kidney failure.

Among his children are authors Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ and Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ