Ngugi Wa Thiong'o (Google)
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ( Bing )
There are several stages in the evolution of Wa Thiong'o. I hung out with him briefly, in the early months of 1970, at the University of Ghana, where he was writer in residence on the strength of his "Weep Not, Child", " The River Between" and "A Grain of Wheat" - during which time he wore short trousers, let his hair grow wild (about his hair -a later Adichie preoccupation in Americanah, an English-speaking Nigerian or Oyibo would have used the word " unkept") he drank a lot of Star Beer, and I called him "James" because in those days he was " James Ngugi" -just as Malcolm X was once "Malcolm Little" before he saw the light and changed the diminutive "Little" to an effulgent X and for more formal dignity took on the title "El Hajj" after making the pilgrimage to Mecca, and thus became El Hajj Malik el Shabazz.
Shakespeare's Juliet asks," What's in a name?" Trust a radical African American to adopt such a funky sounding Muslim name.
This year's Hajj has just started,
I'm sure we're all looking forward to the expected illuminations from the star-studded panel on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o: Life and Literature, so far comprising Ojogbon Toyin Falola himself, Professor Ato Quayson, Professor Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare, Professor Abiodun Salawu, Professor James Ogude, Professor Okey Ndibe…six professors
The registration form for the event wants to know if you have any questions for the panel. Personally, I don't. I suppose that if he was still alive, V.S. Naipaul the man that this series loves to hate, would have had a question or two or held his peace, shrugged his shoulders with abject disdain and walked away. I trust that in their allotted three hours the panel will cover most of what would normally be covered, I could have had a question arising out of George Orwell's Politics and the English Language wondering if at this very moment Wa Thiongo's main discourses that have been written in English have been made accessible in his native tongue Gikiyu - and vice versa if his Gikuyu outpourings have been translated into other mother tongues. (I'm thinking what a loss if I couldn't have accessed Mo Yan via English translations and when is Mo Yan going to be translated into Yoruba?
N.B: George Orwell didn't bag the Nobel Prize either. Such is life. Some do and some don't
Some try ,others don't even bother .Some have premature ejaculations along with premature illusions of greatness
There's this touching tale by Bernard Malamud : Idiots First
This Sun-day's discussion and literary post-mortem on Wa Thiong'o promises to be interesting in as a far as there will be some of the anticipated hagiography and certainly none of " the evil that men do lives after them - the good is oft interred with their bones " because
(a) in his case, there is hardly any evil that he committed (on the contrary evil was committed on him and his) - and at no time did Brother Ngugi the literary Mau Mau warrior mince his words when opposing the various grades of tyranny that exist; he was not one of those who " see no evil and hear no evil" when confronting the oppressor - although when it came to the thorny question about the use, misuse or abuse of language, he was very much a refined gentleman, nuanced - perhaps not as forthright and headlong confrontational as firebrand Julius Malema who we all agree would have been an utter disaster as Trump's guest at the Office, before and especially after Trump his host would have showed his little movie accusing Malema of inciting violence and some alleged "White Genocide" at which point Malema would have made him/ Trump) have it, thereby causing a permanent rift between MAGA and Post-Apartheid South Africa….
In Ramaphosa's shoes in the Oval Office how would Wa Thiong'o have reacted to Trump?
"He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day" - and so Wa Thiong'o stayed where he was - out of his country when he received reliable intelligence that some elements either in the Government or not in the government of Arap Moi were planning to do him grievous bodily harm, even cut short his dear life.
And (b) although I said " post mortem" the fact is that Wa Thiongo's literary remains are very much alive, and his spirit lives on both through the printed and spoken word his cinematography and other audio-visual creations
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