NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — In a bookstore in Kenya’s capital, the proprietor organized a shelf completely carrying books by Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who died Wednesday in the US.
Nuria Bookstore proprietor Bennet Mbata, who has bought African literature for greater than 30 years within the capital, Nairobi, stated he loved studying Ngũgĩ’s writing and is unhappy “he’ll never write again.”
Kenya President William Ruto on Thursday paid tribute to the person he referred to as “the towering giant of Kenyan letters,” saying Ngũgĩ’s braveness formed ideas round social justice and abuse of political energy.
“His patriotism is undeniable, and even those who disagree with him will admit that Prof Thiong’o’s discourse always sprang forth from a deep and earnest quest for truth and understanding, devoid of malice, hatred or contempt,” Ruto wrote on X.
Following Ngũgĩ’s demise at 87 in Bedford, Georgia, Kenyans are reminiscing concerning the days his literature criticized an autocratic administration and was arrested and imprisoned within the Nineteen Seventies.
Macharia Munene, a professor of historical past and worldwide relations at United States Worldwide College-Africa in Nairobi, instructed The Related Press on Thursday that Ngũgĩ’s writing was “hard hitting” but additionally a “true reflection of the society.” Munene stated he regrets Thiong’o didn’t obtain the Nobel Prize for Literature regardless of a number of nominations.
Munene described the writer as one of many few African writers whose writing was totally different.
“He wrote English like an African, another gift that very few people have,” Munene stated, noting that Ngũgĩ later transitioned to solely writing in his native Kikuyu language.
Munene urged present writers to be “true to themselves” and write from their hearts, however cautioned there could also be some “hard consequences like was the case for Ngũgĩ.”
Ngũgĩ lived in exile for many years and escaped tried assassination twice following his criticism of President Daniel Moi’s administration within the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties.
Present Kenyan opposition chief Raila Odinga despatched condolences to the writer’s household, saying “a giant African has fallen.”
The writer’s son and fellow author, Mukoma Wa Ngũgĩ, posted a tribute on X: “I am me because of him in so many ways, as his child, scholar and writer.”
Born in 1938, Ngũgĩ’s first books instructed the story of British colonial rule and the rebellion by Mau Mau freedom fighters.
Because the Nineteen Seventies, Ngũgĩ’ largely lived in exile abroad, emigrating to England and finally settling in California, the place he was a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature on the College of California, Irvine.
