I stand corrected. The fete surrounding the inauguration of the Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Cultural and Arts Centre in Limuru is slated for August 29, and it’s free and open to the public, a family spokesperson has clarified. The error is regretted.
One of the most prominent authors to emerge from the continent, Ngũgĩ died last May at the age of 87, after a long illness. His expansive oeuvre comprising fiction, non-fiction, essays and criticism places him at the pantheon of world literature.
Ngũgĩ went into exile while on a month-long book tour in England in 1982, which expanded to a 40-year sojourn abroad. A brief homecoming in July 2004 ended in tragedy, after he and his wife were brutally attacked.
Despite his estrangement from his country of birth, Ngũgĩ really never left. All his work is centred around Kenya, with all its triumphs and tribulations. A somewhat overlooked chapter of his life are the sketches that he produced in the lead-up to and post-Gen-Z protests of June 2024, which he co-produced with leading spoken work artist and activist, Ndungi Githuku
Githuku, who admits to being surrounded by Ngũgĩ books that he read quickly in his teens, reveals that they hit it off at first encounter in New York, when he received an award for his human rights activities.
A personal friendship evolved through the years, as did their artistic collaborations, their best known sketch being Magooti ma Mwaura-Andu lampooning a dictator who simply taxes the citizens to the point of death, without any benefit to the people.
