Ngugi wa Thiong'o

The individual stories of characters both powerful and ordinary create a kaleidoscopic portrait of postcolonial Africa in the twentieth century, in a novel set in the Free Republic of Aburiria.

Wizard of the Crow

Decolonising the Mind

A 50th-anniversary edition of one of the most powerful novels by the great Kenyan author and Nobel Prize nominee A legendary work of African literature, this moving and eye-opening novel lucidly captures the drama of a people and culture whose world has been overturned. The River Between explores life in the mountains of Kenya during the early days of white settlement. Faced with a choice between an alluring new religion and their own ancestral customs, the Gikuyu people are torn between those who fear the unknown and those who see beyond it. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The River Between

Should Remi, the first of his tribe go to university, return to his people from the city, marry his brother's widow under the tribal custom, or should he continue to be a "black hermit" in teh town visiting the night-clubs with his friend Jane? Should he be supporting the African Party when his people feel that colonial oppression has just been replaced by another form? These are the main dramatic conflicts in the play.

The Black Hermit

Andre Naffis-Sahely

An Anthology of Exile Literature

Heart of a Stranger

In this collection of essays on African and Caribbean literature, culture, and politics, Ngugi wa Thiong'o delivers a groundbreaking critique of colonialism and capitalism in postcolonial Africa. In these essays, Ngugi wa Thiong'o eloquently interweaves a range of issues including religious oppression, consumerism, and independence with the powerful intellect and passion that has come to characterise his writing. These pieces are essential for readers wishing to uncover a critical perspective on African society and culture. Homecoming is a groundbreaking collection intended to provoke and encourage thoughtful debate on how best to 'restore the creative glory of Africa and of all Africans' in the wake of postcolonialism. 'One of the greatest writers of our time.' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 'A tremendous writer... It's hard to doubt the power of the written word when you hear the story of Ngugi wa Thiong'o.' Guardian 'One of Africa's greatest writers.' New York Times

Homecoming

Njamba Nene and the Flying Bus

Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo

This book reflects many of the concerns found in Decolonising the Mind and Moving the Centre.

A Re-engagement with Issues of Literature & Society

Writers in Politics

James Thiong'o NGUGI

Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture and Politics

Barack Obama, via Facebook: “A compelling story of how the transformative events of history weigh on individual lives and relationships.” The Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer’s best-known novel, featuring an introduction by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah Set in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952–1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

A Grain of Wheat

Novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o has been a force in African literature for decades: Since the 1970s, when he gave up the English language to commit himself to writing in African languages, his foremost concern has been the critical importance of language to culture. In Something Torn and New, Ngugi explores Africa's historical, economic, and cultural fragmentation by slavery, colonialism, and globalization. Throughout this tragic history, a constant and irrepressible force was Europhonism: the replacement of native names, languages, and identities with European ones. The result was the dismemberment of African memory. Seeking to remember language in order to revitalize it, Ngugi's quest is for wholeness. Wide-ranging, erudite, and hopeful, Something Torn and New is a cri de coeur to save Africa's cultural future.

An African Renaissance

Something Torn and New

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

James Ngugi

This story is fiction based in part on the life of Robert A. Boyd while he served in the United States Air Force in the mid 1960's. The story centers around the US Military during a time of civil unrest in America and the uncertanty of survival if a man joined the US Military from 1965 thru 1968 at a time American citizens fought not only the US Government, and each other, for race equality, peace, and freedom from oppression, but the unpopular, to its citizens and especially its military personnel, Vietnam War. Its writings detail the names and locations of actual top-secret US military bases that were used, located both inside and outside Vietnam in 1967 and 1968, and many highly detailed scout sniper missions that includes actual mission locations and targets. This is a story about the so called, 'best against the best', sniper against sniper, about one top-secret scout-sniper team sent out against emense odds on a deadly continent. The book includes detailed sexual content; its combat depictions include very graphic violence, torture, terrorism, period prejudicial language, slurs, and acts, plus race and theater of war specific slang language. These inclusions are necessary to the story for the period of which it was written, and are not meant to debase, slander, or affront anyone or any race. They are simply recreations of period historical fact.

Offers your students stories, poetry, biographical writings and essays from across Africa. This title includes work from nearly 40 writers from 19 different countries.

A grain of wheat

Essays

There has been a murder in the Kenyan village of Ilmorog. Four suspects are placed in detention: headmaster Munira, teacher and political activist Karega, spirited barmaid Wanja and storekeeper Abdulla. But there are no easy solutions to the crime in a place already filled with fear and intimidation. As the murder is investigated, it becomes clear how the lives of suspects and victims are inextricably linked to the fortunes of their village, and to the crisis of modern Kenya itself. Petals of Bloodwas published in 1977 to huge controversy, leading to Ngugi's imprisonment for his portrayal of a post-independence Kenya ruled by greed, corruption and brutality. Yet his blistering criticism of the legacy of colonialism still burns with hope for the future.

Petals of Blood

Wa Thiong'o Ngugi

James Ngũgĩ

Ngũgĩ wa Mĩriĩ

Ngugi wa Mirii

This is the renowned play that was developed with Kikuyu villagers at the Kamiriithu Cultural Centre at Limuru.

I Will Marry when I Want

Born in 1938 in rural Kenya, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o came of age in the shadow of World War II, amidst the terrible bloodshed in the war between the Mau Mau and the British. The son of a man whose four wives bore him more than a score of children, young Ngũgĩ displayed what was then considered a bizarre thirst for learning, yet it was unimaginable that he would grow up to become a world-renowned novelist, playwright, and critic. In Dreams in a Time of War, Ngũgĩ deftly etches a bygone era, bearing witness to the social and political vicissitudes of life under colonialism and war. Speaking to the human right to dream even in the worst of times, this rich memoir of an African childhood abounds in delicate and powerful subtleties and complexities that are movingly told.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

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