By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 17 June 2019)
Coming home
to Kenya with two objectives in mind, Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o fulfilled
them both on Thursday afternoon at the United States International University.
USIU is
where the award-winning poet, playwright, novelist and social critic belatedly celebrated
his 80th birthday. But equally important was his attending the launch
of Ngugi: Reflections on his Life of Writing’, the brand-new anthology,
compiled and edited by Professor Simon Gikandi of Princeton University in the
US and Dr. Ndirangu Wachanga, a visiting lecturer at USIU.
Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Prof.
Gikandi, who had been Ngugi’s student in the 1970s at University of Nairobi and
published a definitive work on Ngugi in 2000, explained the initial concept of
the anthology was to commemorate and celebrate his former professor’s becoming
an octogenarian. But then he and Wachanga realized they had opened up an
opportunity for a multitude of friends, former colleagues and students of Ngugi
to write about the impact he had made on their lives.
The stories,
essays and poetry of more than 30 writers, critics, publishers and activists included
in their book present a multifaceted picture of East Africa’s most acclaimed
writer and the man described as “one of the world’s greatest writers” by USIU’s
Vice Chancellor, Professor Paul Zeleza.
Several of
those contributors attended the book launch and took part in a panel where they
each described various ways in which Ngugi had influenced their lives. Among
those on the panel were the former Chief Justice, Dr. Willie Mutungu, former
chairman of East African Education Publishers, Dr Henry Chakava, CEO of Twaweza
Communications, Dr. Kimani Njogu, literary scholar Dr Garnette Oluoch-Olunya,
and the anthology’s editors, Prof Gikandi, the Robert Schirmer Professor of
English at Princeton and archivist, journalist and lecturer at University of
Wisconsin, Dr. Wachanga.
Ngugi with his publisher, Dr Henry Chakava
Among the
most moving panelists was Dr. Chakava who recalled the way Ngugi, once released
from detention in the late 1970s had been refused re-employment at University
of Nairobi.
“I gave him
a desk at our [EAEP] offices, and it was there that Ngugi swore he would never
write another novel in English, which he hasn’t,” Chakava said.
But
following the panel, it was Ngugi who described how his publisher had risked
his life when he agreed to publish ‘Devil on the Cross’ in Kikuyu. Chakava
was nearly kidnapped and received numerous death threats. Nonetheless, he went
on to publish several other of Ngugi’s novels, including Matagari (which
the Kenya Government under President Moi banned) and Murogi wa Kagogo or
Wizard of the Crow.
It was Dr
Gikandi however who inumbrated several more spheres in which Ngugi had made an
impact. While he and Dr Wachanga were compiling the book, he said they found
Ngugi’s influence everywhere from literary culture, specifically post-colonial
criticism to Kenya’s curriculum, publishing, diplomatic relations, politics and
even Kenyan law.
USIU students reciting Ngugi's poem 'Riddle of Love' in four languages
Ngugi’s
influence on the role of language and its relationship to literature and
culture was introduced early in the afternoon when several USIU students
recited Ngugi’s poem ‘The Riddle of Love’ in Kikuyu, Amharic, Chinese
and English.
When Ngugi
lastly spoke, he underscored the point that “languages are like musical
instruments. No instrument is ‘better’ than the other. Each has its own
musicality. In the same way, no language is better than the other.”
He further
noted that there’s nothing wrong with learning countless foreign languages, but
if one isn’t conversant in their mother tongue, they are essentially cut off
from their history, identity and culture.
Ngugi
announced he is in the process of registering a foundation which will aim at
promoting the writing in African languages.
He was
accompanied by his wife Njeeri who like Ngugi, is on the faculty of University
of California, Irvine.
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