Ngungi wa Thiongo.
East Africa's Leading Novelist
Ngugi's Timeline
- Early Years & Education
He was born on January 5th1938 near Limuru town. His family was caught up in the Mau Mau uprising.He attended Alliance High School and later Makerere University where he premiered his play The Black Hermit during the African Writers Conference that was held there. After reading Ngungi's The River Between and Weep Not Child, Chinua Achebe made sure they got published in Heinamanns Africa Writer Series which was launched the very same year and Chinua got to be the first advisory editor.Ngungi recived his BA in english form Makerere Univeristy in 1963.
- His works
Weep Not Child was publied in 1964 and was the first novel to be published by a writer from the East Africa region. He won a scholarship to study his masters in England where his second novel, The River Between, came out in 1965. In 1967 he revoked Christianity, his baptisimal name, James, and writing in the English language and and went back to writing in his native language , Gikuyu. He also taught at the University of Nairobi and the Northwestern University and remained a writing fellow at Mekerere University. He has won several awards that were in honor of his tremendous works.
- His Awards
- 1973:Lotus Prize for Literature
- 2001:Nonino International Prize for Literature
- 2009:Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize
- 2012:National Book Critics Circle Award
- Remi Internacional de Catalunya Award for his Courageous work and Advocacy for African languages
His achievements go far and beyond to tell this prolific man's great work in writing.