Decolonization, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, & Beyond

Today…we will explore the work of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o with Dr. Josh Myers, Assistant Professor in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (b. 1938) is one of the African world’s most prolific writers, thinkers, cultural workers, play-write, activist. Growing up in colonial Kenya, his dream of a free Africa has shaped his works. In 1977, with ‘Ngaahika Ndeenda', Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he considered “the general bourgeois education system.” Despite its success, the authoritarian Kenyan regime shut it down and he was subsequently imprisoned for more than a year. He was eventually released and left for the U.S., where he still resides... Early on Ngũgĩ understood the interdependent relationship between the politics of memory, language, and resistance…a process that prompted him to write in his language—Kikuyu. Among his extensive works, are novels, plays, short stories and essays, such as, but not limited to, Writers in Politics (1981 and 1997); Decolonising the Mind (1986); Moving the Center (1994); and Penpoints Gunpoints and Dreams (1998);‘Weep Not, Child’ (1964), ‘Petals of Blood’ (1977), ‘Wizard of the Crow’ (2006), ‘Dreams in a Time of War’ (2010) and ‘In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir’ (2015). Currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has also taught at Yale University, and New York University. He is recipient of 10 honorary doctoral degrees and is the founder and editor of the Kikuyu-language journal. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a frequent Nobel nominee... Before we delve into a deep exploration of Ngũgĩ work with Dr. Josh Myers, Assistant Professor in the Department of Afro American Studies at Howard University, we will first listen to Ngũgĩ himself…in a talk titled: Re-Membering Africa: Retrieval and Exchange of African Memory Enjoy!!!......