## Celebrated Kenyan Writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Passes Away at 87

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, a Kenyan writer whose life was marked by censorship, imprisonment, and exile under the regime of dictator Daniel arap Moi, has died at the age of 87. Known for his significant contributions to literature in indigenous African languages, he was frequently considered a frontrunner for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

His daughter, Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ, announced the news on Facebook, expressing her sorrow: "It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, this Wednesday morning." Reflecting on her father's impact, she added, "He lived a full life, fought a good fight." His son, Mukoma Wa Ngũgĩ, conveyed his deep sense of loss on X, stating, "I am me because of him in so many ways, as his child, scholar and writer. I love him - I am not sure what tomorrow will bring without him here."

Ngũgĩ was renowned for his exploration of colonialism's complex legacy through his essays, plays, and novels like "Weep Not, Child" (1964), "Devil on the Cross" (1980), and "Wizard of the Crow" (2006). For many years, he was a strong contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, narrowly missing out in 2010 to Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa. Despite the near-miss, Ngũgĩ displayed good spirits, saying he was less disappointed than the photographers who showed up at his home: "I was the one who was consoling them!"

Born in 1938, during British colonial rule in Kenya, Ngũgĩ navigated a turbulent era marked by the Mau Mau uprising in his teenage years. His father, one of the Gikuyu—the largest ethnic group in Kenya—lost his land, and two of his brothers were killed during the conflict. These experiences influenced his debut novel, "Weep Not, Child," which was published a year after Kenya gained independence and revolves around Njoroge, the first member of his family to attend school.

In 1977, Ngũgĩ published his novel "Petals of Blood" and co-authored the Gikuyu play "I Will Marry When I Want," leading to his arrest and imprisonment in Mamiti maximum security prison. Reflecting on his incarceration in a 2006 interview with The Guardian, he said, "In prison, I began to think in a more systematic way about language. Why was I not detained before, when I wrote in English?" This revelation prompted him to write exclusively in Gikuyu.

After his release in 1978, Ngũgĩ went into exile in 1982 following a threat to his life. He eventually moved to the United States and became a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. Despite his exile, he continued writing in Gikuyu, and his works, like "Matigari," even led to fictional characters being issued arrest warrants in Kenya. In 2004, he returned to Nairobi, where a harrowing attack on him and his wife underscored the persistent threats he faced.

"Wizard of the Crow," published in 2006, was a satirical take on African kleptocracy, and Ngũgĩ proudly stated that the most beautiful sentence in the novel was a self-translation from Gikuyu. His dedication to indigenous languages was further demonstrated when he became the first author to be nominated for the international Booker Prize for a work written in an indigenous African language with his epic novel-in-verse, "The Perfect Nine," in 2021.

Survived by nine children, four of whom are also authors, Ngũgĩ’s legacy is one of resistance and steadfast adherence to cultural and linguistic identity. As he told The Guardian in 2018, "Resistance is the best way of keeping alive. It can take even the smallest form of saying no to injustice. If you really think you're right, you stick to your beliefs, and they help you to survive."