Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a writer of Kenyan descent. One of the foremost living African novelists, he has also developed a reputation as a post-colonial theorist, and he has taught at universities around the world.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was born James Thiong’o Ngũgĩ in Limuru, Kenya in 1938. He studied at Makerere University in Uganda; as a student there, he published his first short stories. After graduating, he pursued a second bachelor’s degree at Leeds University in England. He eventually became a professor of English, and he has taught all over the world. As an adult, he dropped his Western first name and adopted his current Bantu name to emphasize his cultural pride. This is why some early...
