Thiong'o, Ngugi Wa
Thiong'o, Ngugi Wa , formerly known as James T. Ngugi ( 1938 – ),Kenyan novelist, born at Limuru, Kenya, and educated at the University of Makerere and at Leeds University. Weep Not, Child ( 1964 ), a novel of childhood that draws largely from his own upbringing and mission-school education, ends by rejecting the romantic individualism of its protagonist. The River between ( 1965 ; the first written, though the second to be published, of his novels) also ends with a reversal, in which Waiyaki recognizes on his deathbed the need for political activity if clannish divisions and cultural fragmentation are to be overcome; education can bring individual but not national advancement. A Grain of Wheat ( 1967 ) blends the realism and compassion of his undergraduate short stories with the messianic political search of his first two novels. When Ngugi took to writing in his own language, Gikuyu, his...
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