Ngugi wa Thiong'oEvery podcast appearance

On the latest UCI Podcast, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o – Distinguished Professor of comparative literature and English at UCI – shares the amazing story of his captivity, which led to the writing of his influential novel Devil on the Cross. In 1977, armed police pulled the Kenyan writer from his home and jailed him in one of Africa’s largest maximum-security prisons. His crime? He had written a play about class struggle, poverty and the legacy of colonialism that offended the brutal Kenyan regime. Ngugi was held in a block with 18 other political prisoners and quarantined from the general prison population. To fight back against the humiliation and the intended degradation of the spirit, he chose to write a novel on the only material to which he had access: toilet paper. Ngugi left that prison on Dec. 12, 1978, with streams of paper on which was written one of his most memorable books. Today, Ngugi is considered one of the world’s greatest living writers, and he’s been at UCI since 2002. He has published more than two dozen novels, stories, essays and memoirs, and he remains a strong voice of freedom around the world.

Avui descobrim quina és "La revolució vertical" (Raig Verd) en companyia del seu autor, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, de l'il·lustrador Agustín Comotto, i de l'editora Laura Huerga. I amb Maria Bohigas i Jordi Puntí analitzem la relació entre literatura, oralitat i llengües. I el Joan-Lluís Lluís ens porta la història d'"El llibreter assassí de Barcelona", de Ramon Miquel i Planas.

This month a special edition of BBC World Book Club coming from Nairobi in Kenya. Lawrence Pollard talks to celebrated Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o in the company of an enthusiastic audience of readers and students who have gathered in the bustling bookshop of Nairobi University where Ngugi was once a director. We’re discussing Ngũgĩ's landmark novel A Grain of Wheat, set in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya’s independence from Britain. In it the tangled narratives of a group of Kenyan villagers interweave to tell an epic story of love tested, friendships betrayed and myths forged, confirming Ngũgĩ's status as a giant of African writing.

Taken prisoner by the Kenyan government in 1977 because of artistic defiance of the regime, this Nobel Prize short-listed writer will recount this experience, its effect on his art and the freedom to write. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Arts + Design.

Renowned author and theorist on decolonisation, Professor Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, says African universities must invest seriously in the introduction and promotion of indigenous languages. The Kenyan writer is in South Africa to contribute to debates regarding the challenges at institutions of higher learning. This follows recent protests by student demanding free, decolonised education. Delivering his lecture at Wits University in Braamfontein in Johannesburg last night , Professor Ngugi emphasized the importance of Africans taking their languages seriously. Wisani Makhubele has more....