Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Kenyan novelist, playwright, essayist, and social activist Ngugi wa Thiong’o will deliver a lecture on “Decolonizing the Mind—Language a Way of Understanding Ourselves” on Tuesday, October 2, 2007, at 5:00 p.m. in Adelphi’s Ruth S. Harley University Center Ballroom, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY. The event, co-sponsored by Adelphi’s Ruth S. Ammon School of Education and the Center for African American and Ethnic Studies, is free and open to the public.

Ngugi is one of the most widely read African writers of our time. He is among a few authors who have written successfully in more than one language. He began his career writing in English, but eventually turned to writing in his native language, Gikuyu. During the lecture, Ngugi will discuss his book, "Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature," in which he explores language as a critical form of self-identity and how language colonization impacts society.

Ngugi burst onto the literary scene in 1962 in East Africa with the performance of his first major play, “The Black Hermit,” at the National Theatre in Kampala, Uganda. A prolific writer, he has published numerous books, short stories, essays, a memoir, and several plays. His novel, Weep Not, Child, about the effects of the Mau Mau War on individuals and families in Kenya has received critical acclaim. His book, Petals of Blood, for which he was imprisoned by the Kenyan government in 1977, describes the inequality in post-independence Kenya, and capitalism’s negative effects on traditional Kenyan society. His 2006 masterpiece and what some have described as his crowning achievement, Wizard of the Crow, deals with the forces affecting our lives today through an analysis of dictatorships as the extreme of authoritarianism. Ngugi’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages and continue to be the subject of critical books, monographs, and dissertations.

Ngugi is currently a distinguished professor of English and comparative literature and director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California at Irvine. Ngugi was born in 1938 in Limuru in the Gikuyu Highlands of Kenya. Like many of the dispossessed peasants in Petals of Blood, his father worked as a laborer on the estate of an African landowner. Ngugi's mother was one of his father's four wives, and Ngugi was one of about 28 children in the family. He studied at Makerere University College (then a campus of London University), Kampala, Uganda and the University of Leeds, Britain. He is a recipient of seven honorary doctorate degrees and an honorary member of the American Academy of Letters.

For more information about this and other events on campus, please visit www.adelphi.edu, or call the Cultural Events Hotline at 516.877.4555.

About Adelphi University: Adelphi University, chartered in 1896, was the first institution of higher education for the liberal arts and sciences on Long Island. Through its schools and programs—The College of Arts and Sciences, the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, the Honors College, the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, University College, and the Schools of Business, Nursing, and Social Work—the co-educational university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional and educational programs for adults. Adelphi University currently enrolls more than 8,300 students from 40 states and 50 foreign countries. With its main campus in Garden City and centers in Manhattan, Hauppauge, and Poughkeepsie, the University maintains a commitment to liberal studies in tandem with rigorous professional preparation and active citizenship.


Media Contact
For additional information, please contact:

Kali Chan Media Relations Director p - 516.877.4040 f - 516.877.3266 e - chan@adelphi.edu

Back to Top of Page