Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the towering figure of African literature and a relentless advocate for writing in indigenous languages, died on Wednesday morning in the United States. He was 87. His daughter, Wanjiku wa Ngugi, made the announcement in a Facebook post: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad… He lived a full life, fought a good fight. As was his last wish, let’s celebrate his life and his work.”
Plans for a public celebration of life will be revealed by the family’s spokesperson, Nducu wa Ngugi, in the coming days.
A Voice for Decolonisation
Born James Githuka Ngugi on January 5, 1938, in Kamiriithu near Limuru, he took on his Kikuyu name in defiance of colonial conventions. He attended Alliance High School before earning a degree in English at Makerere University in Uganda in 1963. There, he staged his first play, The Black Hermit, at the inaugural Ugandan National Drama Festival.
Ngũgĩ’s early novels—Weep Not, Child (1964), The River Between (1965) and A Grain of Wheat (1967)—secured his place as East Africa’s leading novelist. Yet he later rejected writing in English. In his seminal essay collection Decolonising the Mind (1986), he argued that African writers must embrace their mother tongues to break free from colonial legacies.
Drama, Detention and Exile
In 1977, Ngũgĩ and his collaborator Ngũgĩ wa Mirii built the Kamiriithu Community Education and Cultural Centre. Their play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) was a critical success—and a political risk. The Kenyan government shut it down after six weeks. Ngũgĩ was jailed without trial for over a year and declared an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. On release, he went into self-imposed exile in England and later the United States.
Academic Stature and Later Works
In exile, Ngũgĩ taught at Yale, Northwestern, New York University and, from 2005, at the University of California, Irvine, where he was Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English. He won awards across the world, including Italy’s International Nonino Prize (2001) and Korea’s Park Kyong-ni Prize (2016).
Just weeks before his death, he spoke to the Associated Press about a new volume, Decolonizing Language: And Other Revolutionary Ideas, released in early May. “I hope I can write at least one more book,” he said, underscoring his lifelong commitment to the craft.
A Lasting Legacy
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s work reshaped global conversations about language, power and identity. He showed that the choice of tongue can itself be an act of resistance. His passing marks the end of an era—and the beginning of a new chapter for writers who follow in his footsteps.
