CONTRADICTION: Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s cremation goes against his own anti-colonialism teachings, argues the writer
By Tahir Mamdani
Kenyan radical author and activist, Prof Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Image: Observer Witness)
The death of Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o marked the end of a towering literary and intellectual presence who, for decades, inspired Africa and the diaspora to confront the lingering legacies of colonialism. He was the moral and philosophical compass of postcolonial Africa. a man who rejected the English language as a medium of African expression, embraced Gikuyu as a political act, and called on Africans to decolonise not only institutions but the mind itself.
In his celebrated book Decolonising the Mind, Ngũgĩ fiercely defended African languages and traditions as essential vehicles of memory, dignity, and cultural sovereignty. He saw African burial rituals not merely ...