The River Between

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.

Many African authors write in English in part because it is considered the official