Review
Ngugi wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan teacher, novelist,
essayist, and playwright, whose writing spans the period from
British colonialism to the current day. His early works were
written in English, which he later abandoned in favor of Gikuyu,
his native tongue. Although he no longer writes in English
he still translates his books into English himself.
Wizard
of the Crow, a vast, sprawling, satirical allegory written
in 6 parts, took about 10 years to write and two years to
translate. Critics knowledgeable of his writing have declared
it to be his magnus
opus.
Speaking in an interview last year Wa Thiong'o commented, "When
people talk about Africa, they often only talk about it through
one lens - so they blame its lack of progress on its people, or
its landscape. In...
Beyond the Book
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
(pronounced GU-gi wa-ti-ONG-go) was born into a
large peasant family, in the Kiambu
district of Kenya in 1938. He was the
fifth child of the third of his father's
four wives and is of Kikuyu descent. He
was baptized James Ngugi, and later
became a devout Christian while at
missionary school; but around 1967 he
rejected his baptismal name, and changed
his name to Ngugi wa Thiong'o. His
family was caught up in the Mau Mau
rebellion (an insurgency by Kenyan
freedom fighters against the British
colonial administration (1952 - 1960)
during which
he lost his...
