Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Misses Kenya But Can’t Come Back

Kenyan author and literary icon Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o says he misses his homeland deeply after spending decades in exile.

In a recent interview with Associated Press (AP), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o expressed his love for his country, saying that he owes all his work to Kenya.

Now 87 Years old and battling kidney problems, Ngũgĩ said that he hopes to write one last book, titled “Normalized Abnormality,  that will focus on how the impact of colonialism has been accepted as normal in many parts of the world, including Africa, Europe, and North America.

“I miss Kenya, because they gave me everything. All of my writings are based in Kenya. I owe my writing to Kenya. It’s very hard for me not to be able to return to my homeland, 

“I will write it if I have the energy,” he said.

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Why Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Cannot Come Back to Kenya

The author and lecturer has lived abroad since the 1970s after being imprisoned and exiled for criticizing the Kenyan government.

Since then, he has mostly lived abroad, emigrating to England and eventually settling in California, where he is a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

Although he is celebrated internationally and tipped for the Nobel Prize year after year, Kenya has never formally invited him back or issued an official apology or reconciliation.

However, he still writes about Kenya and speaks Kikũyũ.

“I am grateful to be here and to have a job at a California university, as a distinguished professor. I appreciate that. But I was coming from a country which was a white seller colony, and I can’t forget that when I’m here,” Thiong’o said. 

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His View on Mother Tongue in Kenya 

The celebrated author is disappointed that today in Kenya, parents choose not to teach their children their mother tongue, even though they know it. 

According to Thiong’o, that is a sign of mental colonization. 

“In Kenya, even today, we have children and their parents who cannot speak their mother tongues, or the parents know their mother tongues and don’t want their children to know their mother tongue.

“They are very happy when they speak English and even happier when their children don’t know their mother tongue. That’s why I call it mental colonization,” he explained. 

Ngugi said that he is okay with individuals speaking English but advised against taking it as the primary language.

“I am a distinguished professor of English and comparative literature at the University of California, in Irvine. So, it’s not that I mind English, but I don’t want it to be my primary language, OK?

“This is how I put it: For me, and for everybody, if you know all the languages of the world, and you don’t know your mother tongue, that’s enslavement, mental enslavement. But if you know your mother tongue, and add other languages, that is empowerment,” said Thiong’o.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s publisher, The New Press, has just released “Decolonizing Language,” which he has described as a “beautiful” title.

The book includes essays and poems written between 2000 and 2019, with subjects ranging from language and education to such friends and heroes as Nelson Mandela, Nadine Gordimer and Chinua Achebe. 

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