Ngugi wa Thiong' O , is a Kenyan writer . He was born in 1938. He is currently professor and director of International Center for Writing & Translation at the University of California with Irvine.

Dominant figure of the literature of the years Me, it very early adopted radical positions on the “policy néocoloniale of the Kenyan Establishment”. Starting from 1967, it teaches successively in Kenya and in Uganda. In 1971, it publishes a first collection of tests, Rentrer at home . Then, while working with his chronicle Petals of blood (1977, translated into French), the “afro-Saxon” writer, as it is defined, devotes to the theater with the Lawsuit of Dedan Kimathi (1975) and Ngaahika Ndeenda (1977), “I will marry when I want”). This last part, played in Kikuyu in front of an increasingly broad popular public, disturbs the highest levels of power. Ngugi is stopped in December 1977.

It will spend one year in prison and this stay radicalizes this marxisant author, who adopts an increasingly critical tone towards the government. It rewrites in kikuyu Caithani Matharaba-ini (“Devil on the cross) written in prison in the margins of its Bible and on toilet paper. Its following part, Maitu Njugira (1982) is prohibited, and the theater where it was to be played, shaven. The coup attempt of State of 1982 surprises Ngugi in Europe; it will not return to the country. to decolonize the spirit, is its good-bye with the English writing - since then, it writes its novels only in its native tongue, kikuyu (and of this language they are translated into English, swahili, and others).

Exiled with London, then in California, professor with the University of New York, Ngugi wa Thiong' O continuous to publish parts and tests regularly, to this last book, Murogi wa Kagogo launched in 2004 in Nairobi at the time when it decides to return of exile. “We spoke much about the exile politique//Ta soft figure recalled me our ground natale/Ma house to Limuru and holds it in Mang' u/Un day we will return to nous/Et we will speak our own language. ” Thus Ngugi wa Thiong' O was expressed, in the poem “Kuri Njeeri” which it had dedicated to his wife.

Murogi wa Kagogo , which wants to say “wizard of the corbel indeed” is the longest book ever composed in a language of sub-Saharan Africa.

The years of exile eroded the glory of the writer, little taught in the Kenyan schools, criticized for its “remote” engagements while others, on the spot, continued to fight sometimes with the danger of their life.

See too

Related article

• Culture of Kenya

External bonds

• biographical Information, the University of California with Irvine (English)