Passing of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

It is with the deepest sadness that I write to inform you of the passing of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and the director of the International Center for Writing and Translation. A giant among writers and a longtime frontrunner for the Nobel Prize in literature, he was 87 years old.

His extensive collection of work includes the critically acclaimed Weep Not, Child; Petals of Blood; Devil on the Cross; Dreams in a Time of War; and In the House of the Interpreter. 

Weep Not, Child was the first novel written in English by an East African, one of a long line of novels, plays, essays, short stories, and memoirs that illumine the human condition, focusing on Africa and Africans. Anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist, anti-authoritarian, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was both fearless and tireless in his efforts to give a voice to hundreds of millions of people who did not have one before him. 

Ngũgĩ, as he was known to all, paid a heavy price. He spent more than a year in a maximum-security prison in Kenya, without being charged, without being tried, during which time he was named an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. Undaunted, he wrote a novel on scraps of toilet paper and smuggled it out of prison. He was subsequently exiled from his native land for more than two decades. 

Ngũgĩ taught at Northwestern and Yale universities before coming to UC Irvine in 2002. During his time at UC Irvine, Ngũgĩ produced some of his finest work. Wizard of the Crow won a 2006 California Book Awards gold medal for fiction, and In the House of the Interpreter was shortlisted for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award. He inspired several generations of students with his powerful and moving writing, in addition to his own inspirational story. In recognition of his contributions to this university, he was awarded the UCI Medal, the highest honor we confer, in 2013.

We send our deepest condolences to Ngũgĩ’s family. A celebration of his extraordinary life and magnificent work will be held on campus later this year.

Chancellor Howard Gillman