On May 28, 2025, an African literary iroko fell. Ngugi wa Thiong’o departed the earth at 87 years old and joined the realm of the ancestors.
Born James Ngugi in 1938, he rejected his birth name in 1977 and adopted the name Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Ngugi son of Thiong’o) in line with the naming style of his Gikuyu people of Kenya. He also stopped writing in English and changed to Gikuyu as part of his efforts to reject Western imperialism and promote African independence in word and deed.
As a young man studying at Makerere University, Uganda, Ngugi met Chinua Achebe in 1962 during a writers’ conference taking place at the university. Ngugi shared his manuscript with Achebe, who was the founding editor of Heinemann’s African Writers Series, a position he held for many years without receiving any salary. Achebe liked the script and sent it to his publishers in London. In 1964, that manuscript was published in the African Writers Series as the novel Weep Not, Child. With that, an African literary giant emerged from Kenya and East Africa.
The versatile Ngugi, whose first name means, “The one who is truthful”, went on to write other even more thrilling books, some of which are: The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (1976) (with Micere Githae Mugo and Njaka), Petals of Blood (1977), Writing against Neo-Colonialism (1986), Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986). He wrote novels, plays, short stories, memoirs, non-fiction, children’s books, etc.
Any African child in school in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s would not forget Ngugi because of his large and exciting oeuvre. But most importantly, Ngugi is remembered for his storytelling skills and capacity to hold his readers captive. His books were also a rich source of history for readers. Especially for readers from outside Kenya and East Africa, not very conversant with the independence struggle in Kenya, Ngugi introduced them to the political history of Kenya through his novels and plays. The Mau Mau uprising, as well as words like uhuru (freedom or independence), mzungu (white person), and kiama (council of elders), became familiar to readers of his books.
The generation of Ngugi made scholarship a thing of pride in Africa. Children competed on who would out-read the other in the books written by these writers both in the African Writers series and other series. From Kenya came Ngugi, Mwangi Ruheni, and Oginga Odinga; from Ghana came Ayi Kwei Armah, Kofi Awoonor, Ama Ata Aidoo, and Amu Djoleto; Zambia gave us Kenneth Kaunda; from South Africa came Peter Abrahams, Dennis Brutus, Nelson Mandela, and Alex la Guma; Egypt produced Naguib Mahfouz; Uganda had Okot p’Bitek; The Gambia gave us Lenrie Peters; Senegal gave us Ousmane Sembene, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Mariama Ba and Birago Diop; Cameroon produced Ferdinand Oyono and Mongo Beti; Sudan gave us Tayeb Salih; Nuruddin Farah came from Somalia; Botswana gave us Bessie Head. Nigeria delivered Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Flora Nwapa, Chukwuemeka Ike, Onuorah Nzekwu, T.M. Aluko, Elechi Amadi, J.P. Clark, John Munonye, Nkem Nwankwo, Duro Ladipo, Obi Egbuna, Ola Rotimi, D. Ibe Nwoga, etc.
This could be described as the golden age of African literature and scholarship. One way to be seen as a cool and trendy boy or girl was by always holding a novel in your hand. It was not unusual for a boy to win the heart of a girl simply by being a known consumer of books.
One way to prove one’s voracious reading skills was by spicing love letters with quotes from novels, plays and poems. It was common to read students write letters or essays with lines like: “What matters in life in not what name a man is called but what difference his being around makes to the world him,” says Obi Egbuna; or “The monkey and gorilla may claim oneness but the monkey is monkey and the gorilla, gorilla,” says Ola Rotimi; or “When the evil plotter beats the drum for the downfall of the innocent, the gods shall not let it sound,” says Ola Rotimi. In the words of Ayi Kwei Armah, “The beautiful ones are not yet born;” or Like Achebe would say, “In dealing with a man who thinks you a fool it is good sometimes to remind him that you know what he knows but have chosen to appear foolish for the sake of peace;” or in the words of Soyinka, “The man dies in he who keeps silent in the face of tyranny.”
Authors were seen as celebrities with a difference. They were more of prophets whose words were not toyed with. Politicians and military dictators feared them and were always keen to imprison them for fear that their words could cause an insurrection against their administration.
Bookshops were stocked with books. There were publishing companies in major cities of the country and continent churning out books to a hungry audience eager to read the books. Books were not read simply because they were recommended texts required to pass an examination. People read books because they were available in bookshops and needed to be read. Even people who were running their businesses or shops read books in their spare time. People were proud to stock their personal libraries with books. And the books were not for decorative purposes. They were read and new ones were bought.
It was also the era of rich and scholarly debates. Ali Mazrui would fire a salvo. Achebe would counter Mazrui. Soyinka would counter Achebe. J.P. Clark would counter Soyinka. Ngugi would counter Clark. There were regular debates on history, socialism, capitalism, literature, Africanism, religion, culture, music, politics, etc. The public looked forward to these debates, took sides and continued the debates at home, newspaper stands, bars, parties, newspaper opinion pages, etc.
However, despite Ngugi’s stature in the literary world, many, including this writer, predicted that he was not going to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature because of his stance on the full liberation of Africa (body and soul) from all forms of imperialism. And with the death of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the Nobel committees, which give the six categories of awards, have confirmed once more that they don’t focus purely on the genius or quality of a person’s contributions to the relevant subject matter.
Instituting the prizes before he died in 1896, Alfred Nobel had specified that the Nobel Prizes should be awarded to individuals who, during the preceding year, had “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. He added that nationality should not be a factor in awarding the prizes and that the worthiest person, regardless of background, should receive the award.
Nobel never directed that a person be considered or disqualified based on the person’s political, religious, social or racial views. But many analysts have noted that the Nobel committees have used those factors to deny many worthy persons like Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Chinua Achebe, Henrik Ibsen, Gani Fawehinmi, George Orwell, Stephen Hawking, Nikola Tesla, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Arthur Miller, etc., the awards. Ngugi wa Thiong’o has become the latest casualty.
Fortunately, the fame of these figures has not been negatively impacted because of the whims and caprices of the Nobel committees not awarding the various Nobel Prizes to worthy and deserving individuals who have “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”. The masses have continued to honour their heroes despite the decisions of the various Nobel committees. Nobel Prize or not, Ngugi wa Thiong’o will continue to be a literary giant that cannot be forgotten.
X: @BrandAzuka
