Walking the talk: Ngugi wa Thiong’o addresses a global audience in Kikuyu

Renowned novelist and essayist Ngugi wa Thiong'o was awarded the Catalonia International Prize on Thursday. [Standard]

“Mother Wanjik?, wherever your soul rests, I beg you to forgive me for all the years I had abandoned the tongue you gave me at birth; the language through which you sang me lullabies; and told me stories that thrilled the heart. I have come back home: I embrace my mother tongue. The prodigal son is back,” he told a virtual audience this week.

True to his standpoint on the equality of languages, renowned novelist and essayist Prof Ngugi Wa Thiong’o didn’t deliver his acceptance speech in English when, on Thursday, he was honoured as the 31st recipient of the Catalonia International Prize for his daring and distinguished literary work and defense of African languages.