Pagine1938–2025 · Limuru, Kenya · also known as Ngugi wa Thiongo, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, James Ngugi
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was East Africa’s greatest novelist. Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first major English-language novel by an East African; A Grain of Wheat (1967) explores betrayal and heroism in a Kenyan village on the eve of independence. Jailed without trial in 1977, he wrote Devil on the Cross on prison toilet paper — in Gĩkũyũ — and afterwards chose to write in his mother tongue, arguing for it in Decolonising the Mind (1986). He lived much of his life in exile and was long tipped for the Nobel Prize.
Begin with Weep Not, Child.
Part of our African Literature reading list — print it, email it to yourself or share it.
Olaudah Equiano · Sol Plaatje · Chinua Achebe · Wole Soyinka · Naguib Mahfouz · Mariama Bâ · Nadine Gordimer · J. M. Coetzee · Bessie Head · Tsitsi Dangarembga · Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was East Africa’s greatest novelist. Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first major English-language novel by an East African; A Grain of Wheat (1967) explores betrayal and heroism in a Kenyan village on the eve of independence.
A Grain of Wheat is usually considered Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s best-known work, followed by Weep Not, Child, The River Between, Petals of Blood.
Most readers start with Weep Not, Child.
Both refer to the same writer. Other spellings and names include Ngugi wa Thiongo, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, James Ngugi.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s books are still under copyright, so they are not free to download, but many can be borrowed free from your public library or Open Library — we link to them below.