| Back Ngugi wa Thiong'o was born in Kenya in 1938 into a large peasant family. As an adolescent, he lived through the Mau Mau war of Independence, the central historical episode in the making of modern Kenya and a major theme in his early works. Ngugi burst onto the literary scene in East Africa with the performance of his first major play, The Black Hermit, at the National Theatre in Kampala, Uganda, in 1962. In a highly productive literary period, Ngugi published and wrote stories, plays, novels, and a Sunday newspaper column. In that period, his novel, Weep Not Child, was published to critical acclaim in 1964. This publication was followed by The River Between and A Grain of Wheat, a turning point in the formal and ideological direction of his works. In 1967, Ngugi became lecturer in English Literature at the University of Nairobi, eventually becoming Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Literature. He taught there until 1977 while also serving as Fellow in Creative writing at Makerere in 1969-1970, and as Visiting Associate Professor at Northwestern University in 1970-1971. In 1969, his first volume of literary essays, Homecoming, appeared in print. 1977 forced dramatic turns in Ngugi's life and career. His first novel in ten years, Petals of Blood, was published in July of that year. The novel painted a harsh and unsparing picture of life in neo-colonial Kenya. It was received with even more emphatic critical acclaim in Kenya and abroad. That year Ngugi's controversial play, Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), written with Ngugi wa Mirii, was performed in an open air theatre in Limuru, with actors from the workers and peasants of the area. Sharply critical of the inequalities and injustices of Kenyan society, publicly identified with unequivocally championing the cause of ordinary Kenyans, and committed to communicating with them in the languages of their daily lives, Ngugi was arrested and imprisoned without charge in a maximum security prison at the end of the year. In prison, Ngugi wrote the novel Caitaani Mutharabaini, later translated in English as Devil on the Cross. He also wrote down notes that later became the basis of his memoir, Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary. After Amnesty International named him a Prisoner of Conscience, an international campaign secured his release a year later. He was barred by the State from jobs at colleges and university in the country. He resumed his writing, however, and activities in the theater. More works followed; Ngugi continued to be an uncomfortable voice for the government. In 1982, while Ngugi was in Britain for the launching of Devil on the Cross, he learned about plans of his arrest and imprisonment or worse. He stayed on in Britain, in exile, during the 1980's and moved to the U.S. in 1989. His next Gikuyu novel, Matigari, was published in 1986 and its contents prompted the Kenyan government to feel that the novel's main character was a real living person. As a result, an arrest warrant was issued for the main character, Matigari, but, finding he was a fictional character in a book, the government "arrested" the novel; between 1986 and 1996, the book could not be sold in Kenyan bookshops. Ngugi has continued to write prolifically and to speak around the world at numerous universities and as a distinguished speaker. These appearances include: the 1984 Robb Lectures at Auckland University, New Zealand; the 1996 Clarendon Lecture at Oxford University; and the 1999 Ashby Lecture at Cambridge. He has spoken in many different countries and held visiting appointments at varied universities including Temple, Amherst, Smith, and Yale. He is the recipient, recently, of the 2001 Nonino Prize. Ngugi's books have been translated into more than thirty languages and they continue to be the subject of books, critical monographs, and dissertations. 7/10/02 |