Ngugi's literary war and why he chose Kikuyu
National
By
Anjellah Owino
| May 30, 2025
To Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o, language was not merely a formation of words to communicate thoughts, but an expression of identity, history, culture, and the pride of a community.
Throughout his life, the celebrated literary figure championed vernacular languages as instruments of decolonisation and preservation of African identity and cultures.
He spoke about how colonisers used foreign languages to erase African cultures and take the continent captive. He strongly equated writing and speaking in foreign languages with participating in neo-colonialism - an abandonment of African culture and an act of homage to the lands those languages originate from.
In his 1986 non-fiction book, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, Ngugi explains that writing in the Kikuyu language was a form of protest against imperialism.
In the book, he outlines how imperialism, through language, affected Africa's politics, cultures, and economy - beginning with the partitioning of the continent into zones of foreign languages.
"The choice of language and the use to which language is put is central to a people's definition of themselves in relation to their natural and social environment, indeed to their relation to the entire universe,"
- Excerpt from Decolonising the Mind
From his personal experiences, he recalled growing up listening to stories told in Kikuyu. However, this changed when he went to school, where speaking Kikuyu attracted punishment, while achievements in English were rewarded with praise and accolades.
He challenged the reception of African indigenous languages - which, if not met with humiliation in schools, were treated with humour - while English was accorded reverence.
As part of his personal decolonisation journey, he recounted the need to stop expressing his thoughts in English in order to vividly capture African nuances and speech in his works.
"I have endeavoured in my words to keep as close as possible to the vernacular expressions. For, from a word, a group of words, a sentence, and even a name in any African language, one can glean the social norms, attitudes, and values of a people," he wrote.
Ngugi attributed his native town, Kamirithu, as the inspiration for writing in Kikuyu. Before 1977, he had written in English for 17 years, producing works such as The Black Hermit (to celebrate Uganda's independence) and This Time Tomorrow.
In the same period, he dropped his English name and began writing in his mother tongue to reclaim his literary and African voice. He also founded a Kikuyu journal, Mutiiri, where he served as editor to share his unapologetic views on politics, culture, and literature.
His first major work in Kikuyu was a play, Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), which he co-wrote with the late Ngugi wa Mirii. He later wrote his first novel in Kikuyu, Caitaani Mutharaba-Ini (Devil on the Cross), famously written on toilet paper while imprisoned without trial for a year at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, starting on December 31, 1977. The novel was published in 1980.
He went on to write a musical drama, Maitu Njugira (Mother Sing for Me), three children's books, among many other works.
When he was awarded the Premi Internacional Catalunya (Catalonia International Prize) in 2020 by the President of Catalonia, Spain (for the 2019 edition), he delivered his acceptance speech in Kikuyu.
"The Premi Internacional Prize has touched my heart in special ways. When I received the news in December 2019, I was lying on a hospital bed at UC Medical Center, feeling completely helpless because I had just undergone heart surgery - a triple bypass.
Before the surgery, I had already written my will. So when I received the news of the award, I felt as if I was being met with ululations of a welcome back home from the land of the dead. Tears of gratitude and joy welled up in my eyes."
He continued:
"I was very pleased to see the impressive list of names of those who had received the prize before me: Bishop Desmond Tutu, Malala Yousafzai, Nawal El Saadawi, Jimmy Carter, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and especially, Haruki Murakami, the Japanese writer.
Although we have never met face to face, I have always felt as if I know Murakami. Year after year, his name and mine are always at the top of the list of those expected to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
I would like to say a special thank you to Professor Vincent Cerf, who received the prize last year. I am happy to receive the baton from one of the Fathers of the Internet."