Prof. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s pen has dried up and will write no more. The literary icon died on Wednesday in the USA, where he lived and worked for five decades. His death was announced by his daughter, Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ, in a Facebook post.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our father Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o,” the post read in part. According to the post, the renowned author, described by others as the Chinua Achebe of East Africa, died on the morning of Wednesday, the 28th.
Immediately, social media platforms were awash with messages of condolence pouring in from every corner of the country, in a pattern that left no doubt Ngũgĩ was revered in the literary world.
“I am deeply heartbroken by the passing of Prof. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. He was a literary giant, a fearless intellectual, and a man whose words shaped the very core of my being as a writer and scholar,” wrote Prof. Igara Kabaji, a creative writing lecturer at Masinde Muliro University, on his Facebook page as he mourned the fallen icon. Ngũgĩ, who died at age 87, had been battling ill health for the past couple of years. It is worth remembering that a false alarm about his death in 2022 circulated widely on social media, triggering panic among literature enthusiasts.
An alumnus of the famous Alliance High School and Makerere University, Ngũgĩ was born James Ngugi in 1938 in Kamirithu, Limuru, what is today Kiambu County. In 1963, he won a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree at Leeds University in England. It was around this time that he authored his famous books Weep Not, Child and The River Between, which became staples in secondary school literature. While teaching at the University of Nairobi in 1970, he abandoned the name "James," which he viewed as a colonial imposition, and adopted Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. During his time at the University of Nairobi, he proposed the abolition of the Department of Literature, arguing that the institution, and others across Africa, should focus instead on teaching African literature.
It was while at UoN that he authored Petals of Blood and Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want). Around this time, his run-ins with the autocratic Kenyatta regime began. He was arrested and detained at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison for several months. Departments of literature in universities are known targets for despotic regimes, given their critical role in spotlighting societal ills, often making authorities feel exposed or targeted.
While imprisoned in a cell intended for mentally ill prisoners, Ngũgĩ wrote Devil on the Cross, using toilet paper as his manuscript. In 1982, following persistent criticism of the government, he fled Kenya into exile, first in Europe, and later to the United States, where he settled. He taught at several universities, including the University of California, where he served as a distinguished professor of comparative literature.
Henry Chakava of East African Educational Publishers, who published some of Ngũgĩ’s works, once recalled attending a book fair in Zimbabwe with Ngũgĩ in 1986. The chief guest at the event was Chinua Achebe. Most writers in attendance advocated for Africans to write in African languages, a view Achebe did not support. He famously stood and countered:
“People should be allowed to write in the languages they are most at home in.”
Ngũgĩ, however, held a different view, which explains why most of his later works were originally written in his native Gikuyu language and had to be translated into English for a broader reach.
When President Kibaki came to power in 2002, ending KANU’s long reign of terror, many exiled Kenyans returned home. Prof. Ngũgĩ visited Kenya in 2004. Tragically, during his visit, thugs broke into their hotel room, assaulted the couple, and raped his wife, Njeeri. Three guards at the facility were later arrested and convicted for the crime.
Ngũgĩ, by far Kenya’s most prominent novelist and playwright, authored numerous books. Virtually every student educated in the Kenyan system has encountered his works at some level, which cements his iconic status in the country and region. In 2023, another rumor surfaced, alleging that Ngũgĩ was “sickly and lonely” in the USA, having been abandoned by his wife, Njeeri, whom he married after the death of his first wife, a union that had reportedly faced significant challenges. These rumors, however, were firmly refuted by his family.
Although the ink in his pen has dried, his words and legacy will surely outlive him for generations to come. His writings have definitely inspired many into writing, reading, and shaping their intellectualism.
He leaves behind a family of eight children, including four writers: Nducu, Tee, Mukoma, and Wanjiku.
By Jerome Ogola
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