Urging African Writers to Write in their Native Language – NGUGI WA THIONGO

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (ᵑɡoɣe wá ðiɔŋɔ )

Birth Name: James Ngugi

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938-2025) is a Kenyan author and academic, widely recognised as East Africa’s leading novelist. He originally wrote in English but later decided to write primarily in Gikuyu (Kikuyu), the language of his ethnic group.

His literary works include novels, plays, short stories, and essays. He founded and edited the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. Ngũgĩ also established The Kamiriithu Community Education and Cultural Centre with literary associates, which played a key role in re-establishing African theatre. 

One of his famous works, the play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), co-written with Ngugi wa Mirii, was a commercial success but was banned by the authoritarian Kenyan government just six weeks after its opening. Ngũgĩ was imprisoned for over a year due to his outspoken criticism of the government’s injustices. Due to his political writing, Ngũgĩ and his family lived in exile until 2002, when it was safe to return after President Arap Moi’s retirement.

Important Works

• The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright (short story), translated into over 100 languages.
• Weep Not, Child (1964), his debut novel and the first novel in English by an East African writer.
• The River Between (1965), set during the Mau Mau Uprising, explores a tragic romance between a Christian and a non-Christian.
• A Grain of Wheat (1967), where he embraced Fanonist Marxism.
• Petals of Blood (1977), a political novel dealing with social and economic issues in post-independence East Africa.
• Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) (1977), a play that angered the Kenyan Vice-President and led to Ngũgĩ’s arrest.
• While imprisoned in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, he wrote Devil on the Cross (Caitaani mũtharaba-Inĩ), on prison-issued toilet paper. It is the first modern novel in Gikuyu.
• Detained: His Prison Diary (1981).
• Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986), advocating for African writers to write in native languages rather than English.
• Wizard of the Crow (2006), his first novel in nearly 20 years, was written in Gikuyu and translated to English by himself.
• Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing (2012).
• Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance (2009), a collection of essays.
• Autobiographies: Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir (2010) and In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir (2012).
• The Perfect Nine (2019), originally published in Gikuyu as Kenda Muiyuru: Rugano Rwa Gikuyu na Mumbi, was translated into English in 2020. It was the first work written in an indigenous African language to be longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is celebrated not only for his literary contributions but also for his strong cultural activism, particularly his fight to revive African language and literature.  He challenged colonial legacies through his work and public life.

With essays like The Language of African Literature (From Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature), he stands tall as a prominent postcolonial writer from Africa.