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Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'oA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a prominent Kenyan writer and academic known for using his literary works to explore the effects of colonialism on African society and culture. Born in Limuru to a large Agikuyu family in 1938, Ngugi followed his mother’s urging and enrolled in a renowned boarding school at the age of 17. During this time, he wrote pieces lauding Christianity and the British education system, but his early literary works were still critical of the authoritarian control and violence of colonialism, and his early youth was characterized by hardship due to British colonial rule. Ngugi began his literary career by writing novels in English under his birth name of James Ngugi; later, he chose to write in his native Gikuyu, using the name Ngugi wa Thiong’o (which means “Ngugi, son of Thiong’o”). This shift was prompted by his one-year stint in a Kenyan federal prison: punishment for co-writing a play in Gikuyu. After fleeing Kenya, he eventually settled in Irvine, California and has taught at several prestigious American universities. Now, he is translating his early works from English into Gikuyu.
By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
A Grain of Wheat
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
A Meeting In The Dark
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Devil on the Cross
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Dreams in a Time of War
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
I Will Marry When I Want
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Matigari
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Petals of Blood
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Weep Not, Child
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Wizard of the Crow
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
African American Literature
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African Literature
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Colonialism & Postcolonialism
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Colonialism Unit
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Coming-of-Age Journeys
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Community
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Education
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Family
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Fathers
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Religion & Spirituality
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