Ngugi wa Thiong'o

The individual stories of characters both powerful and ordinary create a kaleidoscopic portrait of postcolonial Africa in the twentieth century, in a novel set in the Free Republic of Aburiria.

Wizard of the Crow

Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo

In the days immediately preceding Kenyan independence, Mugo, a local farmer and hero of the villagers, is asked to make a speech honouring the memory of his friend Kihika, who was hanged by the colonial administrators.

A Grain of Wheat

Christian missionaries attempt to outlaw the female circumcision ritual and in the process create a terrible rift between the two Kikuyu communities on either side of the river.

The River Between

The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi

The Perfect Nine

Kevin O'Connor

Ngũgĩ (wa Thiong'o)

Ng̃ug̃i wa Thiongʼo

A summary of some of the issues in which Ngugi has been passionately involved.

The Politics of Language in African Literature

Decolonising the Mind

Ngugi wa Thiongo

This remarkable and symbolic novel centers on Wariinga's tragedy and uses it to tell a story of contemporary Kenya.

Devil on the Cross

This is a simple and powerful tale of the effects of the Mau Mau war on individuals and families in Kenya.

Weep Not, Child

The baffling murders of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery are set against the backdrop of the intertwined stories of the four suspects in the crime, in a novel, first published in 1977, about the struggles of a modern Third World nation. Reprint.

Petals of Blood

Ngugi wrote his first novels and plays in English but was determined, even before his detention without trial in 1978, to move to writing in Gikuyu.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong̕ o

James Ngũgĩ

Ngũgĩ wa Mĩriĩ

Ngugi wa Mirii

Wa Mirii Ngugi

Ngugi wa Maria

This is the renowned play that was developed with Kikuyu villagers at the Kamiriithu Cultural Centre at Limuru.

I Will Marry when I Want

The second volume of memoirs from the renowned Kenyan novelist, poet and playwright covers his high school years at the end of British colonial rule in Africa, during the Mau Mau Uprising. 15,000 first printing.

A Memoir

In the House of the Interpreter

Wangũi wa Goro

Who is Matigari? Is he young or old; a man or fate; dead or living...or even a resurrection of Jesus Christ? These are the questions asked by the people of this unnamed country, when a man who has survived the war for independence emerges from the mountains and starts making strange claims and demands. Matigari is in search of his family to rebuild his home and start a new and peaceful future. But his search becomes a quest for truth and justice as he finds the people still dispossessed and the land he loves ruled by corruption, fear, and misery. Rumors spring up that a man with superhuman qualities has risen to renew the freedom struggle. The novel races toward its climax as Matigari realizes that words alone cannot defeat the enemy. He vows to use the force of arms to achieve his true liberation. Lyrical and hilarious in turn, Matigari is a memorable satire on the betrayal of human ideals and on the bitter experience of post-independence African society.

Matigari

Should Remi, the first of his tribe go to university, return to his people from the city, marry his brother's widow under the tribal custom, or should he continue to be a "black hermit" in teh town visiting the night-clubs with his friend Jane? Should he be supporting the African Party when his people feel that colonial oppression has just been replaced by another form? These are the main dramatic conflicts in the play.

The Black Hermit

Prologue -- The wound in the heart -- A wounded land -- Reds and blacks -- Benzes, sneakers, frisbees, and flags -- Penpoints and fig trees -- Writing for the money of it -- Black dolls and black masks -- Transition and that letter from Paris -- Boxers and black hermits -- Pages, stages, spaces -- Coal, rubber, silver, gold, and new flags -- Working for the nation -- Notes and notebooks -- A hell of a paradise

A Writer's Awakening

Birth of a Dream Weaver

A masterful writer working in many genres, Ngugi wa ThiongÕo entered the East African literary scene in 1962 with the performance of his first major play, The Black Hermit, at the National Theatre in Uganda. In 1977 he was imprisoned after his most controversial work, Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), produced in Nairobi, sharply criticized the injustices of Kenyan society and unequivocally championed the causes of ordinary citizens. Following his release, Ngugi decided to write only in his native Gikuyu, communicating with Kenyans in one of the many languages of their daily lives, and today he is known as one of the most outspoken intellectuals working in postcolonial theory and the global postcolonial movement. In this volume, Ngugi wa ThiongÕo summarizes and develops a cross-section of the issues he has grappled with in his work, which deploys a strategy of imagery, language, folklore, and character to "decolonize the mind." Ngugi confronts the politics of language in African writing; the problem of linguistic imperialism and literature's ability to resist it; the difficult balance between orality, or "orature," and writing, or "literature"; the tension between national and world literature; and the role of the literary curriculum in both reaffirming and undermining the dominance of the Western canon. Throughout, he engages a range of philosophers and theorists writing on power and postcolonial creativity, including Hegel, Marx, Lvi-Strauss, and Aim Csaire. Yet his explorations remain grounded in his own experiences with literature (and orature) and reworks the difficult dialectics of theory into richly evocative prose.

Theory and the Politics of Knowing

Globalectics

Un compendio de los temas centrales de la obra del autor: la confrontación entre el neocolonialismo y la clase trabajadora, y su reflejo en la cultura africana. Descolonizar la mente es una referencia ineludible en el debate lingüístico que tiene lugar en el marco de los estudios poscoloniales. Reúne cuatro conferencias que el autor realizó entre 1981 y 1985, cuyo hilo conductor no es solo una reflexión sobre el papel de la lengua en la construcción de la identidad nacional, cultural, social e histórica, y su función en la descolonización, sino también sobre los acontecimientos vitales que han contribuido a elaborar el pensamiento del autor. En última instancia, Ngugi wa Thiong'o -escritor, pensador, humanista y exiliado- concibe este libro como una declaración de intenciones: en la medida en que la lengua materna es un aspecto crucial de la propia identidad, cree necesario despedirse del inglés y utilizar el kikuyu como su principal lengua de creación literaria. La presente edición contiene un prólogo de Marta Sofía López Rodríguez, reputada especialista en literatura africana y estudios postcoloniales. La crítica ha dicho... «Un clásico controvertido.» Gayatri Spivak «Ngugi es el escritor africano más célebre. Ofrece ni más ni menos que un nuevo camino para la literatura africana.» British Book News «En la cima de sus logros como artista de gran imaginación, la decisión del autor keniano de escribir en kikuyu es realmente valiente.» The Guardian

La política lingüística de la literatura africana

Descolonizar la mente

With clear, conversational prose, this is the first book dedicated entirely to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's writings on translation. Through his many critically acclaimed novels, stories, essays, plays, and memoirs, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has been at the forefront of world literature for decades. He has also been, in his own words, "a language warrior," fighting for indigenous African languages to find their rightful place in the literary world. Having begun his writing career in English, Ngũgĩ shifted to writing in his native language Gikũyũ in 1977, a stance both creatively and politically significant. For decades now, Ngũgĩ has been translating his Gikũyũ works into English himself, and he has used many platforms to champion the practice and cause of literary translations, which he calls "the language of languages." This volume brings together for the first time Ngũgĩ's essays and lectures about translation, written and delivered over the past two decades. Here we find Ngũgĩ discussing translation as a conversation between cultures; proposing that dialogue among African languages is the way to unify African peoples; reflecting on the complexities of auto-translation or translating one's own work; exploring the essential task translation performed in the history of the propagation of thought; and pleading for the hierarchy of languages to be torn down. He also shares his many experiences of writing across languages, including his story The Upright Revolution, which has been translated into more than a hundred languages around the globe and is the most widely translated text written by an African author. At a time when dialogues between cultures and peoples are more essential than ever, The Language of Languages makes an outspoken case for the value of literature without borders.

The Language of Languages

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Micere Githae Mugo

James Ngugi

Ngugi and Micere Mugo have built a powerful and challenging play out of the circumstances surrounding the trial of one of the celebrated leaders of the Mau Mau revolution.

The Trial of Dedan Kimathi

Ngugi wa Thiong'o's powerful prison memoir begins half an hour before his release on 12 December 1978. A year earlier, he recalls, armed police arrived at his home and took him to Kenya's Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. There, Ngugi lives in a block alongside other political prisoners, but he refuses to give in to the humiliation. He decides to write a novel in secret, on toilet paper - it is a book that will become his classic, Devil on the Cross. Wrestling with the Devilis Ngugi's unforgettable account of the drama and challenges of living under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He captures not only the pain caused by his isolation from his family, but also the spirit of defiance and the imaginative endeavours that allowed him to survive.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

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