The African literary neighborhood was thrown into mourning within the closing week of Might because the loss of life of Kenyan activist and literary large, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, made front-page information throughout the continent.
He handed away on the morning of twenty eighth Might, 2025, in keeping with a message shared by his daughter, Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ, in a Fb put up.
“He lived a full life, fought a superb combat,” she wrote. “Rîa ratha na rîa thŭa. Tŭrî aira!”—phrases in Gĩkũyũ that roughly translate to: “Allow us to bear in mind and honour the dwelling and the useless. We’re the youngsters.”
His son Mukoma wa Ngugi additionally shared a heartfelt notice on Fb: “It tears my coronary heart to say that my father, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o handed away earlier as we speak. I’m me due to him in so some ways, as his youngster, scholar and author. I like him – I’m not certain what tomorrow will carry with out him right here. I believe that’s all I’ve to say for now.”
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o was a Kenyan author and educational who was born in Kamiriithu, close to Limuru, on January 5, 1938. He attended Alliance Excessive Faculty earlier than finding out at Makerere College Faculty in Kampala, Uganda, the place he obtained his B.A. in English in 1963.
As a pupil, he attended the African Writers Convention held at Makerere in June 1962, and his play The Black Hermit premiered as a part of the occasion on the Nationwide Theatre in Kampala.
Ngũgĩ’s debut novel, Weep Not, Little one, the primary in English by a author from East Africa, was printed in Heinemann’s African Writers Collection with Chinua Achebe as its advisory editor in Might 1964. He would go on to put in writing many different novels, together with The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Caitaani Mutharaba-Ini (Satan on the Cross, 1980), Matigari ma Njiruungi (1986) (Matigari, translated into English by Wangui wa Goro, 1989), Mũrogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow, 2006), and The Excellent 9: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi (2020).
He wrote the memoirs Detained: A Author’s Jail Diary (1981), whereas detained at Kamiti Jail, Goals in a Time of Conflict: a Childhood Memoir (2010), Within the Home of the Interpreter: A Memoir (2012), Beginning of a Dream Weaver: A Memoir of a Author’s Awakening (2016), and Wrestling with the satan: A Jail Memoir (2018).
Within the Nineteen Seventies, he determined to cease writing in English and as a substitute publish in his mom tongue, Gĩkũyũ. As he as soon as put it in a lecture on the College of the Witwatersrand: “In colonial conquest, language was meant to finish what the sword had began; to do to the thoughts what the sword had completed to the physique.” His refusal to put in writing in English turned a defining act of literary decolonisation.
African writers plying their commerce on the continent and within the diaspora, in addition to public figures, have handed of their ideas (at various lengths) to specific their grief and eulogise the departed icon who contributed immensely to Africa’s literary ecosystem.
“The literary world is a dimmer area as we speak as a result of the inimitable Ngugi wa Thiong’o has danced his final dance and joined the ancestors”, Nigerian author Okey Ndibe wrote on his X (previously Twitter) account.
“Studying Ngũgĩ decolonised my thoughts so essentially that I turned a Crusader for my language. Assembly him was a elegant pleasure as a result of not solely did I meet a author I adored, one in every of his sons Mukoma turned a pricey buddy. Thanks, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, for lighting my life”, Zimbabwean creator and lawyer Petina Gappah stated.
“Africa mourns the lack of the literary large whose writing challenged to us to embrace our African heritage and decolonise our minds”, acknowledged Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa. “His unwavering dedication to writing in African languages and his contributions to African philosophy have left an indelible mark.”
Ngũgĩ’s loss of life marks the passing of an period of writers who made the twentieth century a culture-shifting interval within the evolution of African literature. With Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta, Mabel Segun, Cyprian Ekwensi, Kofi Awoonor, and plenty of others, he helped lay the foundations for African literature as we all know it as we speak. He fought to carry African voices to the worldwide stage and gave different writers the language to inform tales rooted in their very own histories and cultures. The kids are weeping, and he will probably be sorely missed.