Kenyan literary giant Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has died at the age of 87, leaving behind a monumental legacy as one of Africa’s most influential authors and cultural critics.
His death was confirmed on May 28, 2025, by his daughter, Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ, in Buford, Georgia, USA, where he spent his final years.
Born in 1938 in Kamiriithu, near Limuru, Kenya, Ngũgĩ rose to international prominence in the 1960s with his novels Weep Not, Child (1964), The River Between (1965), and A Grain of Wheat (1967), which vividly explored the tensions and struggles of life under British colonial rule.
Ngũgĩ was not just a novelist; he was a fierce political voice. His 1977 play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), co-written with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii, challenged corruption and inequality in post-independence Kenya, leading to his arrest and year-long imprisonment without trial. Remarkably, he wrote his next novel, Devil on the Cross (1980), on prison-issued toilet paper and in his native Gikuyu language.
Kenyan President William Ruto paid tribute, calling Ngũgĩ a “towering giant of Kenyan letters.” Opposition leader Raila Odinga described him as a “fallen African giant whose ideas will live on.”
