130. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o on Himself

The great Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o joins us to speak about his career, his influences, and the power and politics of language.

The book edited by Chike that impressed Prof Ngugi so much, as mentioned at the start (and end!) of the episode, is:

• C. Jeffers (ed.), Listening to Ourselves: A Multilingual Anthology of African Philosophy (Albany: 2013). Ngugi provided the book with a Foreword.

And here again is a partial list of Prof Ngugi's works (duplicated from the bibliography of the previous episode):

• J. Ngugi, Weep Not, Child (London: 1964).

• J. Ngugi, The River Between (London: 1965).

• J. Ngugi, A Grain of Wheat (London: 1967).

• N. wa Thiong'o, Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture and Politics (London: 1972).

• N. wa Thiong'o and M.G. Mugo, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (London: 1976).

• N. wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood (London: 1977).

• N. wa Thiong'o and N. wa Mĩriĩ, Ngaahika Ndeenda (Nairobi: 1980).

• N. wa Thiong'o, Caitaani Mũtharaba-inĩ (Nairobi: 1980).

• N. wa Thiong'o, Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary (London: 1981). 

• N. wa Thiong'o, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (Nairobi: 1986).

• N. wa Thiong'o, Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms (Oxford: 1993).

• N. wa Thiong'o, Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir (New York: 2010).

• N. wa Thiong'o, In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir (London: 2012).

• N. wa Thiong'o, Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening (New York: 2016).