Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o dies at 87, The man who loved home but died away from home

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

A person is born, grows old, dies that is the way of nature -Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. (I will marry when I want) 

… and nature had its way on May 28,2025 in Buford, Georgia,USA. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o died at the age of 87 but it is quite ironic that a man who loved his land did not die in his land. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was born in colonial Kenya, January 5,1938. He was born at a time when “hope was a broken thing" for the people of Kenya. His first step towards redemption was renouncing his birth name "James Ngũgĩ” to naming himself a more cultural name “Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o” as he claims “To name ourselves is to reclaim our memory and our history. Our names carry the voices of our ancestors.” Ngũgĩ grew up in Kamiriithu, a village in Kiambu in a polygamous family and as a teenager he witness the Mau Mau conflict 1952-1960, “a fight for freedom and an act of resistance by the people of Kenya to reclaim stolen lands, end colonial domination and secure Kenyan independence (which was gotten in 1963 after numerous deaths, mass arrests and oppression). Wallace Mwangi, his older brother joined in the conflict. His mother was arrested and tortured for helping the Mau mau army, his father, Thiong’o wa Nducu lost his land and livestock, which was devastating to the family. In his memoir Dreams in a Time of War (2010), Ngũgĩ recounts that when their family lost their land, his father became deeply embittered, harsh, and abusive that his mother left him and took the children including Ngũgĩ along and he rarely saw his father ever since. 

These events were the basis of his writings. The first English novel to be published by an East African author “Weep not child" was his first novel with a back drop of Colonialism, Education and hope, Disillusionment and family betrayal, Land and Identity “A man without land was nothing”, a contrast of war, education and faith, loss and loyalty, love and class: In the book Njoroge falls in love with Mwihaki, the daughter of Mr.Howlands, a colonial loyalist.Their love is forbidden, strained by politics and class. He commented that “Weep Not, Child was born out of pain, confusion,hope and trying to make sense of the world he had grown up in which was muddled with war, colonialism, and dreams (unfulfilled dreams). His first play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) which he co-authored with Ngũgĩ wa Mĩriĩ and was first performed in 1977 was his most controversial novel due to its political and radical content portraying the intentional oppression of the poor by African elites in post- independent kenya. The play attracted many peasants and grassroot citizens that the government feared the start of a revolutionary movement and this led to the arrest of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o in December 1977. While in prison, Ngũgĩ wrote Devil on the Cross (Caitaani Mutharaba-Inĩ) on toilet papes, entirely in Gikuyu language. This was his act of cultural resistance continued behind bars.

In 1982, he went into Exile, living outside Kenya for over two decades fearing rearrest under the Moi-regime. In 2004, he returned during Kibaki’s regime a government more open to reforms and it lifted bans on former political dissidents giving Ngũgĩ the confidence to come back home. Sadly, he and his wife were attacked again in Nairobi. Ngũgĩ was tortured and burned with cigarettes and his wife, Njeeri was brutally assaulted. They had to relocate to the United States where they spent most of the rest of their lives only paying infrequent visits to Kenya. He kept writing even during his exile some of his prominent works were:

. Caitaani Mutharaba-Inĩ - Devil on the cross (1980)

.Matigari ma Njirũũngi (1986)

.Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary (1981)

.Dreams in a Time of War (2010)

.The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi (2020)

.Secure the Base (2016)

.Wizard of the Crow (2006)

He advocates that everyone has a voice and must speak, that's true freedom. Peace to his soul.

-Jesunifemi 

-Orcas press

-Jekphrasa 

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