Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has passed away, writes the Kenyan newspaper
He was born in 1937 in Kamiriithu in central Kenya, in a time marked by British colonialism. His upbringing during the struggle for independence from British rule left clear marks on his writing.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o studied at the University of Kampala, Uganda, and later in Leeds in the United Kingdom. There, he wrote his debut novel "Upp genom mörkret", under the name James Ngũgĩ. During the 1970s, he was inspired by Karl Marx and Frantz Fanon, abandoned his colonial name James and took back his Kikuyu name Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.
In 1977, his perhaps most famous novel, "A Flower of Blood", was published.
During his lifelong exile from Kenya, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o mainly lived in the United Kingdom and the USA. Between 1985 and 1986, he studied film at the Dramatic Institute in Sweden as part of a later failed plan to try to start an African film industry.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's political struggle also meant a longer pause in his writing. In 2006, the novel "Wizard of the Crow", his first in 20 years, was published.
Besides his writing, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o became an honorary doctor at several educational institutions and was the editor of a number of newspapers. He also became the head of the International Center for Writing and Translating in California and held a professorship in literature at the University of California.
Ngũgĩ was mentioned for several decades as a possible Nobel Prize winner in literature, often as a symbol of linguistic and cultural independence in post-colonial Africa.
Ngũgĩ had nine children, four of whom have themselves become published authors. He had heart problems and underwent bypass surgery in 2019. Prior to that, he had survived prostate cancer.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was 87 years old.
