The Kenyan writer and academic Ngugi wa Thiong’o has died at the age of 87. He was considered one of East Africa’s greatest intellectuals worldwide. Ngugi passed away in the United States, where he spent the last years of his life.
Ngugi was born in Kenya in 1938, when it was still a British colony. His family was forced to live in internment camps during the Mau Mau uprising, the resistance against British colonial rule. Ngugi studied English at the prestigious Makerere University in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
His debut novel Weep Not, Child from 1964 was the first work by a writer from East Africa to be published in English. The story tells the love between a Christian and a non-Christian during the Mau Mau uprising.
In 1977, his book Petals of Blood was published, in which he focused on the now independent Kenyan state. The work was not well received by the then government of President Uhuru Kenyatta. Ngugi was arrested and imprisoned in a heavily guarded prison.
During his imprisonment, he wrote his first novel in his native language. According to the BBC, he wrote this book on toilet paper for lack of anything better. When President Kenyatta was no longer in power, Ngugi was released.
In 1995, Ngugi was told that he had prostate cancer and that he only had a few months to live. Although he recovered, his health deteriorated in recent years. In 2019, he had a triple bypass surgery and suffered from kidney failure.