Veteran Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o dies aged 87

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the esteemed Kenyan author and literary scholar whose work challenged colonialism and championed African languages, passed away on May 28, 2025, at the age of 87.

His death was confirmed by his daughter, Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ, who announced it on social media, stating, “He lived a full life, fought a good fight”.

Ngũgĩ died in Buford, Georgia, U.S., where he had been residing. He had been undergoing kidney dialysis treatments, though the immediate cause of death was not disclosed.

Throughout his life, Ngũgĩ was a towering figure in African literature, known for his profound critiques of colonialism and post-independence governance in Kenya. His notable works include Weep Not, Child (1964), the first novel in English published by an East African, and the epic satire Wizard of the Crow (2006), which was hailed by The New York Times as “a masterpiece of magical realism and political critique.”

He was also a staunch advocate for writing in indigenous African languages, particularly Gikuyu, as a means of cultural preservation and resistance against colonial influence.

Legacy

Born in 1938 in Kamiriithu, Kiambu County, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o rose from modest beginnings to become one of Africa’s most influential intellectuals and literary voices. Over a career spanning six decades, he authored over 30 works, including The River Between and The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, a short story that was translated into over 100 languages.

Ngũgĩ’s literary journey began in English but evolved into a passionate advocacy for African languages. “African writers must learn to write in African languages. We must reject the linguistic colonization of our minds,” he famously argued. His 1986 critical work, Decolonising the Mind, became a manifesto for post-colonial literature, influencing generations of scholars and writers around the world.

In the late 1970s, Ngũgĩ was imprisoned by the Kenyan government for his political activism and the staging of the Gikuyu-language play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), which critiqued social injustice. He continued his literary work while incarcerated, writing the novel Devil on the Cross on toilet paper.

Following his release, he went into exile for over two decades, holding academic positions at institutions such as Yale, NYU, and the University of California, Irvine, where he served as Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature.

In recent years, he was widely regarded as a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, a distinction many African readers believed he richly deserved.

Tributes have poured in from across the globe. Kenyan President William Ruto mourned Ngũgĩ as “a beacon of African pride, courage, and intellectual independence.” Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka called him “a literary warrior whose pen remained unbroken despite the prisons and exiles.”

Closer to home, younger writers paid homage to his influence. “Ngũgĩ gave us permission to believe that our stories, our languages, and our struggles are valid and powerful,” said Kenyan author Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor.

“My father’s life was always bigger than one person — he belonged to movements, to ideas, to a continent.” Ngũgĩ’s son, novelist and academic Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ shared in a past interview.

Ngũgĩ’s legacy endures through his extensive body of work, which continues to inspire discussions on language, identity, and resistance.