Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Fiction, Essays, Memoirs (11 books)

NGŨGĨ WA THIONG'O (b. 1938) is a Kenyan writer, formerly working in English and now working in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He has frequently been regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Ngũgĩ published his first novel, WEEP NOT, CHILD, in 1964, which he wrote while attending the University of Leeds in England. It was the first novel in English to be published by a writer from East Africa.

In 1976, Ngũgĩ embarked upon a novel form of theatre in his native Kenya that sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he held to be "the general bourgeois education system" by encouraging spontaneity and audience participation in the performances. His project was shut down by the authoritarian Kenyan regime six weeks after its opening and Ngũgĩ was subsequently imprisoned for over a year. Adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, the artist was released from prison and fled Kenya.

His later works include DETAINED, his prison diary (1981); DECOLONISING THE MIND: THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN AFRICAN LITERATURE (1986), an essay arguing for African writers' expression in their native languages rather than European languages, in order to renounce lingering colonial ties and to build an authentic African literature; and MATIGARI (1987), a satire based on a Gikuyu folktale.

His first new novel in nearly two decades, WIZARD OF THE CROW (2006), was translated to English from Gikuyu by the author. His most recent books are SOMETHING TORN AND NEW, a collection of essays published in 2009 making the argument the crucial role of African languages in "the resurrection of African memory," and two autobiographical works: DREAMS IN A TIME OF WAR (2010) and IN THE HOUSE OF THE INTERPRETER (2012).


The following books are in either EPUB or PDF formats:

* DECOLONISING THE MIND: The Politics of Language in African Literature (Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1987) -- PDF

* DETAINED: A Writer's Prison Diary (Heinemann, 1981) -- PDF

* DREAMS IN A TIME OF WAR: A Childhood Memoir (Pantheon, 2010) -- EPUB

* HOMECOMING: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture and Politics (Heinemann, 1972) -- PDF

* IN THE HOUSE OF THE INTERPRETER: A Memoir (Pantheon, 2012) -- EPUB

* MATIGARI (Heinemann, 1990) -- PDF

* MOVING THE CENTRE: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms (East African Educational Publishers, 1993) -- PDF

* SOMETHING TORN AND NEW: An African Renaissance (Basic Civitas Books, 2009) -- PDF

* WEEP NOT, CHILD (Heinemann, 1964) -- PDF

* WIZARD OF THE CROW (Anchor, 2007) -- EPUB

* WRITERS IN POLITICS: Essays (Heinemann, 1981) -- PDF