Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

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Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (2012)

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (pronunciation in Kikuyu : ᵑɡoɣe wá ðiɔŋɔ , born January 5, 1938 in Kamiriithu, Limuru , Kenya ) is a Kenyan writer and cultural scientist. He is considered one of the most important writers in East Africa. Ngũgĩ has taught comparative literature at Yale University , New York University and the University of California, Irvine, among others .

life and work

Youth and Studies

Ngũgĩ's family was arrested because of the Mau Mau riot , his stepbrother died, and his mother was tortured. When he attended the English language mission school Alliance High School in Kikuyu , he became a devout Christian. He then studied at Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Leeds in Great Britain. There he published his first novel Weep Not, Child , in 1964 , which is about a boy against the backdrop of the Mau Mau uprising.

Teaching activities

Ngũgĩ has taught English at the University of Nairobi , Yale University, Amherst University, New York University and is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

To pursue the writer

The author sees himself as an anti-colonial writer. Against this background, he has been publishing in his mother tongue, Kikuyu (also known as Gikuyu ), since 1978 . All works have been translated into English and numerous other languages. Not only did Enlightenment topics make him popular, but also his resistance to British colonial policy and the later post-colonial rule of the government of Daniel arap Moi, as well as his reference to traditional African theater and storytelling.

The play I will marry you whenever I want ( Ngaahika Ndeenda ) prompted the regime under President Jomo Kenyatta to torture him in 1977 and imprison him without trial in the Kamithi maximum security prison in Nairobi . His books and plays have been banned by the Moi government. He found political asylum in England with difficulty in the early 1980s. In 2004, after the change of government to the “Rainbow Coalition” under President Mwai Kibaki , he visited Kenya again for the first time, but traveled back to the USA after a mysterious attack in his apartment on himself and his wife, who was raped.

Culture-critical essays

In his anthologies of essays Decolonising the Mind and Moving the Center, there is a selection of lectures and articles that fundamentally illustrate his post-colonial criticism and his cultural studies theses.

Novels

His novel Weep Not, Child was published in 1964 and made him known worldwide.

It was followed by The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967) and Petals of Blood (1977). Devil on the Cross (1980) he wrote on toilet paper while in captivity. It became his first novel on Kikuyu . The following two novels, Matigari (1986) and Wizard of the Crow (2006), were also first written in Kikuyu.

Works

  • Weep Not, Child , (novel) 1964.
    • Translation: Farewell to the night. Translated from the English by Klaus Schultz. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1969.
  • The River Between , (novel) 1965.
    • Translation: The river in between. Translated from the English by Karl Heinrich. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1970.
    • Translation: The river in between. Translated from the English by Anita Jörges. Weismann Verlag, Munich 1984.
  • A Grain of Wheat , (novel) 1967
    • Translation: Price of Truth. Novel. Translated from the English by Klaus Schultz. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1971.
    • Translation: Freedom with your head bowed. Novel. Translated from the English by Klaus Schultz. Walter Verlag, Olten, Freiburg im Breisgau 1979.
  • Secret Lives, and Other Stories , 1975.
    • Translation: Hidden Fates. Short stories. Translated from the English by Ruth Krenn. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1977.
    • Translation: Hidden Fates. Stories. Translated from the English by Dagmar Heusler and Ruth Krenn. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982.
  • Petals of blood , (novel) 1977.
    • Translation: Land of Flaming Blossoms. Novel. Translated from the English by Josef Zimmering . Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1980.
    • Translation: Burnt flowers. Novel. Translated from the English by Susanne Koehler. Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1982.
    • New edition: burnt flowers. Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 2011, ISBN 978-3-7795-0349-1 .
  • Devil on the cross , (novel) 1980.
    • Translation: The crucified devil. Novel. Translated from the English by Susanne Koehler. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988.
  • Detained. A Writer's Prison Diary , 1981.
    • Translation: Put aside. Prison diary. Translated from the English by Susanne Koehler. Trickster Verlag, Munich 1991.
  • Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature , 1986.
    • Translation: Decolonization of Thought - Essays on African Languages ​​in Literature. Translated from the English by Thomas Brückner. Unrast Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-89771-235-5 .
  • Matigari , (novel) 1989.
    • Translation: Matigari. Novel. Translated from the English by Susanne Koehler. Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1991.
  • Moving the Center: The Struggle for Cultural Freedom , 1993.
    • Translation: Moving the center: essays on the liberation of African cultures. Translated from the English by Jörg Rademacher. Unrast Verlag, Münster 1995.
  • Wizard of the Crow , (novel) 2006.
    • Translation: Lord of the Crows. Novel. Translated from the English by Thomas Brückner. A1 Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-940666-17-8 .
  • Dreams in a Time of War. A Childhood Memoir , 2010.
    • Translation: Dreams in Times of War. A childhood. Translated from the English by Thomas Brückner. A1 Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-940666-15-4 .
  • In the House of the Interpreter. A Memoir , 2012.
    • Translation: In the Keeper's House. Adolescent years. Translated from the English by Thomas Brückner. A1 Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-940666-35-2 .
  • Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Memoir of a Writer's Awakening . New Press, 2016, ISBN 978-1-62097-240-3

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Review by Birgit Koß in Deutschlandradio Kultur from March 1, 2012: Inviolable belief in the power of people
  2. ↑ Honorary Members: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 26, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Honorary doctorate from the University of Bayreuth for Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o . Press release from April 23, 2014 at the Science Information Service (idw-online.de)
  4. ^ Yale awards honorary degrees to eight individuals for their achievements. May 2017, accessed May 2017 on 22 .
  5. ↑ City of Osnabrück Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize News from May 22, 2019: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o receives the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize 2019 , accessed on May 22, 2019
  6. ↑ Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o receives the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize 2019 - The award takes place despite the absence of the sick writer. Accessed December 4, 2019 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Thiong'o, Ngũgĩ wa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kenyan writer and cultural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Kamiriithu , Limuru , Kenya