Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan author and academic, who has been described as "East Africa's leading novelist". He began writing in English, switching to write primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright has been translated into 100 languages.
Ngũgĩ wa Mirii was a Kenyan-Zimbabwean playwright, social worker and teacher, most known for his play Ngaahika Ndeenda, which he co-authored with fellow Gikuyu writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The play depicts the injustices and excesses of post-colonial Kenya, and was staged by non-intellectuals in an open-air theatre at the Kamirithu Educational and Cultural Center in Limuru.
Limuru is a town in central Kenya. It is also the name of a parliamentary constituency and an administrative division. The population of the town, as of 2004, was about 4,800. In a census taken in 2019 the population had increased to 159,314.
Kijabe is a town in Kenya.
Koigi wa Wamwere is a Kenyan politician, human rights activist, journalist and writer. Koigi became famous for opposing both the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi regimes, both of whom sent him to detention.
Kenya National Theatre is part of the Kenya Cultural Centre, a Semi Autonomous Government Agency under the Ministry of State for National Heritage and Culture in Kenya. It is mandated to offer space for the rehearsal and staging of productions to both local and international repertoire. It is based in Nairobi along Harry Thuku Road and borders the University of Nairobi (UON), The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) and The Fairmont Norfolk Hotel.
Kiambu County is a county in the former Central Province of Kenya. Its capital is Kiambu and its largest town is Thika town. Kiambu County is the second most populous county in Kenya after Nairobi County. Kiambu County borders Nairobi and Kajiado Counties to the South, Machakos to the East, Murang'a to the North and North East, Nyandarua to the North West, and Nakuru to the West. It has a population of 2,417,735.
Gatundu is a small town in Kiambu County of Kenya. It is known for the first Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta who lived about three kilometres away from the town, as well as his son, Uhuru Kenyatta, now the 4th President of Kenya and former Member of Parliament representing Gatundu South Constituency. The town is located on a hill surrounded by many farms and residences.
Kamiti Maximum Security Prison is a prison in Nairobi, Kenya. The prison is within Kasarani District, bordering Kiambu County. Originally named "Kamiti Downs", it sits in the middle of its own 490-hectare (1,200-acre) estates which lie fallow and untended.
Kenyan literature describes literature which comes from Kenya. Kenya has a long literary tradition, both oral and written; primarily in English and Swahili, the two official languages of the country.
Weep Not, Child is a 1964 novel by Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. It was his first novel, published in 1964 under the name James Ngugi. It was among the African Writers Series. It was the first English novel to be published by an East African. Thiong'o's works deal with the relationship between Africans and white settlers in colonial Kenya, and are heavily critical of colonial rule. Specifically, Weep Not, Child deals with the Mau Mau Uprising, and "the bewildering dispossession of an entire people from their ancestral land." Ngũgĩ wrote the novel while he was a student at Makerere University.
Simon E. Gikandi is a Kenyan Literature Professor and Postcolonial scholar. He is the Class of 1943 University Professor of English at Princeton University. He is perhaps best known for his co-editorship of The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature. He has also done important work on the modern African novel, and two distinguished African novelists: Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. In 2019 he became the president of the Modern Language Association.
Petals of Blood is a novel written by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and first published in 1977. Set in Kenya just after independence, the story follows four characters – Munira, Abdulla, Wanja, and Karega – whose lives are intertwined due to the Mau Mau rebellion. In order to escape city life, each retreats to the small, pastoral village of Ilmorog. As the novel progresses, the characters deal with the repercussions of the Mau Mau rebellion as well as with a new, rapidly westernizing Kenya.
Lari Constituency is an electoral constituency in Kenya, located forty kilometers from Nairobi along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. Lari is located in the Western part of Kiambu County. The constituency was established in 1966. Lari borders Kinangop to the North, Limuru to the South, Githunguri and Gatundu North constituencies to the east and Naivasha Constituency to the west. Lari is one of the 12 sub-counties in Kiambu County, and is further divided to five wards each electing a representative to the Kiambu County Assembly.
Ngaahika Ndeenda is a controversial play that covers post-colonial themes of class struggle, poverty, gender, culture, religion, modernity vs. tradition, and marriage and family.
Peter Mbiyu Koinange was a politician from Kenya. He served in the government and cabinet of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, for 16 years. During this time, he held the post of member of parliament for the Kiambaa constituency and the portfolios of Minister of State for Education, External Affairs, Pan-African Affairs, as well as Minister of State in the Office of the President.
Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature, by the Kenyan novelist and post-colonial theorist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, is a collection of essays about language and its constructive role in national culture, history, and identity. The book, which advocates linguistic decolonization, is one of Ngũgĩ's best-known and most-cited non-fiction publications, helping to cement him as a preeminent voice theorizing the "language debate" in post-colonial studies.
Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir is a 2018 memoir by Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The book was published by the New York City-based publisher The New Press. It is an edited version of Thiongo'o's 1981 memoir, Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary, which was never published in the United States.
