Library Weekly

On January 5, 1938, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was born. "His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, is translated into 94 languages from around the world.

In 1977, Ngũgĩ embarked upon a novel form of theatre in his native Kenya that sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he held to be "the general bourgeois education system", by encouraging spontaneity and audience participation in the performances. His project sought to "demystify" the theatrical process, and to avoid the "process of alienation [that] produces a gallery of active stars and an undifferentiated mass of grateful admirers" which, according to Ngũgĩ, encourages passivity in "ordinary people".  Although his landmark play, Ngaahika Ndeenda, co-written with Ngugi wa Mirii, was a commercial success, it was shut down by the authoritarian Kenyan regime six weeks after its opening.

Ngũgĩ was subsequently imprisoned for over a year. Adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, the artist was released from prison, and fled Kenya. In the United States, he taught at Yale University for some years, and has since also taught at New York University, with a dual professorship in Comparative literature and Performance Studies, and at the University of California, Irvine. Ngũgĩ has frequently been regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. ..."
(From the English Wikipedia)

Selected works

Memoirs

Wrestling with the devil : a prison memoir / Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. - Vintage: London, 2018.

Birth of a dream weaver : a writer's awakening / Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo. - Harvill Secker: London, 2016.

In the house of the interpreter : a memoir / by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. - Harvill Secker: London, 2012.

Dreams in a time of war : a childhood memoir / Ngugi wa Thiong'o. - Vintage Books: London, 2011.

Novels

Kenda mũiyũru : rũgano rwa Gĩkũyũ na Mũmbi / Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. - East African Educational Publishers Limited: Nairobi, 2018.

Wizard of the crow / Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʾo ; a transl. from Gĩkũyũ by the author. - Harvill Secker: London [etc.], 2006.

Critical essays on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o / ed. by Peter Nazareth. - Twayne Publishers: New York, 2000.

Matigari / Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o ; transl. from the Gĩkũyũ by Wangũi wa Goro. - Heinemann: Oxford, 1989.

Devil on the cross / Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o ; transl from the Gĩkũyũ by the author. - Heinemann: Oxford [etc.], 1987.

Slechts een korrel graan : roman / Ngugi wa Thiong'o ; vert. [uit het Engels] door Lieke Frese ; [naw. door Jan Kees van de Werk]. - Zelen: Maasbree, 1979.

Petals of blood / [by] Ngugi wa Thiong'o. - Heinemann Educational: London [etc.], 1977.

A grain of wheat / [by] James Ngugi. - Heinemann Educational Books: London, 1967.

The river between / James Ngugi. - Heinemann: London [etc.], 1965.

Weep not, child / James Ngugi. - Heinemann: London [etc.], 1964.

Short stories

Minutes of glory : and other stories / Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo. - The New Press: New York, 2019.

Secret lives, and other stories / Ngugi wa Thiong'o. - Heinemann: London [etc.], 1975.

Plays

I will marry when I want / Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Ngũgĩ wa Mĩriĩ ; transl. from the Gĩkũyũ by the authors. - Heinemann: London [etc.], 1982.

The trial of Dedan Kimathi / Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Micere Githae Mugo. - Heinemann: London [etc.], 1977.

This time tomorrow : (3 plays) / Ngugi wa Thiong'o (= James Ngugi). - East Afr. Lit. Bureau: Nairobi [etc.], 1973.

The black hermit / James Ngugi. - Heinemann: Nairobi [etc.], 1968.

Essays

In the name of the mother : reflections on writers & empire / Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo. - James Currey [etc.]: Suffolk [etc.], 2013.

Moving the centre : the struggle for cultural freedoms / Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. - James Currey ;;East African Educational Publishers ;;Heinemann: London;Nairobi;Portsmouth, N.H., 1993.

For more publications see the ASCL Library Catalogue.

2018 PEN World Voices Festival: Nũgĩ Wa Thiong’o talks to Rob Spillman about the writing and resistance that has marked his life and enriched our literary universe.

Timeline for Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o via Wikidata