The Making of a Rebel

Abstract

The internationally-known Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o was detained without trial for a year in 1977–8, after he wrote for his local community centre a Gikuyu-language play which, like his much acclaimed English-language novels, was critical of Kenyan politics and society ( see Index on Censorship 3/1978, pp. 7–10). The writer, who at the time of his arrest was chairman of the Literature Department at the University of Nairobi, has still not been reinstated in his teaching post. This account of Ngugi's education and the development of his ideas on literature was extracted from an interview with him made shortly after his release. The interviewer was Amooti wa Irumba.