Beyond Bars: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Linguistic Revolution
- Editorial
- Jun 6
- 5 min read
By Sharon Gatebi
“The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation.” These haunting words by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o cut to the heart of a colonial legacy that lingered far beyond independence, language. For decades, Ngũgĩ stood not only as a literary giant but also as a rebel with a pen, challenging the supremacy of English in African storytelling. His bold decision to abandon English and embrace his native Gikuyu in writing was not just radical, it was revolutionary, igniting a new consciousness about identity, power, and cultural liberation.
Ngungi wa Thiong'o was born in the year 1938, 5TH January in Kiambu county. He started his primary education in Manguu and Kinyogori primary schools, after finishing his primary education he continued to Alliance boys highschool. When he came back from school he found that the British had razed the entire village to the ground. He had no other choice but to make his highschool a home base for 4 years since his whole village had been destroyed. This time Kenya was under State of Emergency and this was the colonial state’s way of trying to isolate the forces of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, waging war against the settler state. Ngungi later moved to Kampala, Uganda where he studied in Makerere University from 1959-1963.
Ngungi wa Thiong'o wrote his first novel in Uganda 1964 with the title “Weep not, Child " which was the first novel written in English by an African from the east. Later that year, having won a scholarship to the University of Leeds to study for an MA, Ngũgĩ travelled to England, where he wrote his second novel, “The River Between”, that came out in 1965. The novel had the Mau Mau as it's background which expressed the unhappy romance between Christians and also the non-Christians.
In 1967 Ngungi embarked on his 3rd Novel “A Grain of Wheat” which was marked to embrace Fanonist Marxism. Ngugi wa Thiongo renounced both his name James Ngungi and writing in English saying promoted colonialism. By 1970 he had changed his name to Ngungi wa Thiong'o had began to write in his native gikuyu language.
Ngungi began his teaching journey in 1967 as a professor of English Literature at the University Of Nairobi and taught for 10 years while still as a creative writer at Makerere University.
In 1976, Ngugi helped to establish the Kamiriithu Community Education and Cultural center which was among the major things organized in the African Theatre. He later saw the publication of “Petals of Blood” which gave a strong political message and also a play by the title “I Will Marry When I Want” which was in the year 1977 that later proved the then Kenya vice-president Daniel Arap Moi. He was arrest and sent to Kamiti Maximum Security prison where he stayed a whole year without any trial.
Ngungi was imprisoned with other political prisoners and during his time in prison he went on to write the novel by the title “Devil on the Cross”. He also ceased to write his play in English and began writing all his creative works in his native mother tongue. His time in prison inspired him to write about a play "the trial of Dedan Kimathi" in the year 1976 which recreated the remarkable courage of the Mau Mau revolution and his right- hand person which was a woman warrior.
In 1977, after staging a politically charged play in Gikuyu, he was detained without trial. It was in his cell that he chose to write "Devil on the Cross" on toilet paper and in Gikuyu. This act of defiance was more than survival; it was a declaration of war against cultural erasure. By turning to his mother tongue, Ngũgĩ challenged the colonial framework that equated intelligence with fluency in English, and instead reclaimed language as a weapon of resistance and healing.
He was later released in the year 1978 on December and unfortunately was not reinstated to his job as a professor while his whole family was also greatly harrased because he had written about the injustice of the dictatorial government at the time. Ngungi and his family were forced to live in exile and could only return after the president retired.
While in exile he worked with the London-based committee for the release of the political prisoners in Kenya from 1982-1998 and wrote the book "Matigari" that was later translated from Kikuyu to English by Wangui wa Goro and published in 1984. He also studied film at Dramatiska Institute in Stockholm Sweden 1986.
On August 2004, Ngungi returned back to Kenya which was part of the month long tour of East Africa. Sadly on 11 August his house was broken into by the robbers where he was badly assaulted and his wife was sexually assaulted, later 5 men were arrested on the suspicion of the crime and the most shocking thing was that one of his nephew was captured.
Ngungi later books include Globaletics which was the theory and the politics of knowing and something torn. In 2016 he wrote a short story which was “the uplifting Revolution” which was the single most translated short story in the history of African writing. In March 2021 The perfect nine became the first book to be written in an indigenous African language and to be long listed for the International Booker Prize that made Ngungi to become the first nominee as both an author and a translator of the book.
In 1995, Ngungi wa Thiong'o was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and had been told he had 3 months to live but he recovered in 2019. He had triple bypass heart surgery around the time and began to struggle with kidney failure. He died in Buford, Georgia United States on 28th May 2025,at the age of 87.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o leaves behind a towering legacy as one of Africa’s most influential literary figures. Through his fearless commitment to decolonizing the mind of the African languages, he has reshaped the landscape of postcolonial literature and also the cultural thought. His works will continue to inspire generations of writers, scholars, and activists around the world. As we mourn his passing, we also celebrate a life that was fiercely dedicated to truth, justice, and the enduring power of words.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s legacy is not just etched in the pages of African literature, but in the awakening of a continent’s voice. His choice to write in Gikuyu was a bold rejection of cultural imperialism and a call for African writers to find power in their own languages. By daring to decolonize his mind and his pen, Ngũgĩ redefined what it means to tell African stories on African terms. His journey reminds us that language is more than a tool, it is identity, memory, and liberation. In choosing his mother tongue, Ngũgĩ didn’t just change his story; he challenged generations to reclaim theirs.
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