Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Early years and education

Ngũgĩ was born on 5 January 1938 in Kamiriithu, near Limuru in Kiambu district, Kenya Colony of the British Empire. He is of Kikuyu descent, and was baptised James Ngugi. His father, Thiong'o wa Ndūcũ, had four wives and 28 children; Ngũgĩ was born to his third wife, Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ. His family were farmers whose land had been repossessed under the British Imperial Land Act of 1915. During Ngũgĩ's childhood, they were caught up in the 1952–1960 Mau Mau Uprising; his half-brother Mwangi was actively involved in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (in which he was killed), another brother was shot during the State of Emergency, and his mother was tortured at the Kamiriithu home guard post.

Ngũgĩ left Limuru in 1955 to go to the Alliance High School, a boys' public school about 20 kilometres away. He would later write about the scene of desolation he found on returning home after his first term there: "...the British had razed the entire village to the ground. Kenya was under State of Emergency, the colonial state’s way of trying to isolate the forces of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, waging war against the settler state. My village destroyed, Alliance High School, for the next four years became the new base, from which I looked back at Limuru, the region of my birth. By losing my home, I became more aware of it, the home that I had lost."

Ngũgĩ went on to study at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda, from 1959 to 1963, and he said it was in those years in his new country of residence that he found his voice as a writer: "The novels The River Between and Weep Not, Child were the early products of my residency in the country of my educational migration. Uganda enabled me to discover my Kenya and even relive my life in the village. I discovered my home country by being away from the home country." As a student, he attended the African Writers Conference held at Makerere in June 1962, and his play The Black Hermit premiered as part of the event at The National Theatre. At the conference, Ngũgĩ asked Chinua Achebe to read the manuscripts of The River Between and Weep Not, Child, which were subsequently published in the Heinemann African Writers Series, launched in London that year, with Achebe as its first advisory editor. Ngũgĩ received his B.A. degree in English from Makerere University College in 1963.

Family

Four of his children are also published authors: Tee Ngũgĩ, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, Nducu wa Ngũgĩ, and Wanjikũ wa Ngũgĩ.

Illness and death

In 1995, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was told he had three months to live; nevertheless, he recovered. In 2019, he had triple bypass heart surgery, and around this time, began to struggle with kidney failure. He died in Buford, Georgia, United States on 28 May 2025, at the age of 87. At the time of his death, Ngũgĩ was reportedly receiving kidney dialysis treatments, but his immediate cause of death was not announced.

After Ngũgĩ's death, Western news outlets highlighted his efforts to fight colonialism and other social critiques. Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, fellow Kenyan writer David Gian Maillu, Kenyan President William Ruto, and politicians Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, and Raila Odinga paid tribute to Ngũgĩ following his death.