Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

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

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

Recounts the story of the author's childhood, covering his early years in World War II-era Kenya as the fifth child of a third wife, his thirst for learning that singled him out, and the political struggles that shaped his life.

A Childhood Memoir

Dreams in a Time of War

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

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

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

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

"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"--Publisher's blurb.

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

For more than sixty years, Ngugi wa Thiong'o has been writing fearlessly the questions, challenges, histories, and futures of Africans, particularly those of his homeland, Kenya. In his work, which has included plays, novels, and essays, Ngugi narrates the injustice of colonial violence and the dictatorial betrayal of decolonization, the fight for freedom and subsequent incarceration, and the aspiration toward economic equality in the face of gross inequality. With both hope and disappointment, he questions the role of language in both the organization of power structures and the pursuit of autonomy and self-expression. Ngugi's fiction has reached wide acclaim, but his nonfictional work, while equally brilliant, is difficult to find. Secure the Base changes this by bringing together for the first time essays spanning nearly three decades. Originating as disparate lectures and texts, this complete volume will remind readers anew of Ngugi's power and importance. Written in a personal and accessible style, the book covers a range of issues, including the role of the intellectual, the place of Asia in Africa, labor and political struggles in an era of rampant capitalism, and the legacies of slavery and prospects for peace. At a time when Africa looms large in our discussions of globalization, Secure the Base is mandatory reading.

Making Africa Visible in the Globe

Secure the Base

Alongside the impact of his early novels and plays, and his more recent memoirs, these essays give new insights into Ngugi's and other writers' responses to colonialism - there is new material here for students of literature, politics and culture.

Reflections on Writers & Empire

In the Name of the Mother

Mga talulot na dugo

This book reflects many of the concerns found in Decolonising the Mind and Moving the Centre.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo

About

Books

Join the club