Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

5 January 1938 – 28 May 2025

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was a Kenyan novelist, playwright and essayist, author of Weep Not, Child, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood and the essay collection Decolonising the Mind. Imprisoned without trial in 1977 after staging a Gikuyu-language play, he later lived in exile and taught at universities in the United States, writing chiefly in Gikuyu.

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Life events

Born in Kamiriithu, near Limuru, Kenya Colony
5 January 1938

He was born James Ngugi into a large Gikuyu family during British colonial rule.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Graduated from Makerere University College in Uganda
1963

He earned a BA in English at Makerere, where his first play, The Black Hermit, was staged in 1962.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published his first novel, Weep Not, Child
1964

Weep Not, Child was the first English-language novel by an East African writer to be published.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Published A Grain of Wheat
1967

The novel, set on the eve of Kenyan independence, was written while he studied at the University of Leeds.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published Petals of Blood
1977

The novel offered a critical portrait of post-independence Kenyan society.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Detained without trial at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison
December 1977 – December 1978

He was arrested after the staging of his Gikuyu play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) and held for about a year, during which he wrote Devil on the Cross on prison toilet paper.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Went into exile from Kenya
1982

While abroad promoting Devil on the Cross he learned of plans to arrest him on his return and remained in exile, first in Britain and later in the United States.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published Decolonising the Mind
1986

The essay collection argued for African writers to work in African languages and announced his own decision to write in Gikuyu.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Joined the University of California, Irvine
2002

He became Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and director of the International Center for Writing and Translation.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Buford, Georgia, United States
28 May 2025

He died at the age of 87.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓