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{
"id": 1623644,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623644/?format=api",
"text_counter": 138,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The struggle and his experiences formed the backdrop to the novel that made his name, Weep Not, Child, which was published in 1964, just a year after Kenya gained its Independence. Many of us will remember studying literature and talking and reading about this Weep Not, Child and Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o when we were younger. Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o grew up in the shadow of the violent war for independence in Kenya. He went to university in Uganda at a time of political and literary ferment across Africa. He came of age first in Uganda and then in Kenya after it gained its independence. Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was thrown into jail by the Kenya Government. After his release, he continued his writing and political activism, first in Kenya, then he went to exile in London and, finally, in the U.S., where he was a professor of Literature for over 30 years. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, alongside writers such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, he was part of a literary scene that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s during the last years of colonialism in the Continent of Africa. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, unlike maybe the literary geniuses of that time like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, he was a militant because he wrote with a feeling. His books were cutting. It was like a panga against colonial and post-independence dictatorship and against the ruling elite at that time. We celebrate his works and continue to read them to date. His first book of essays, Homecoming is at once engaging very polemic. I have mentioned his early novels like Weep Not, Child and A Grain of Wheat, which had huge impact against the colonial government. He wrote a series of novels, short stories and plays as he became a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Nairobi. He argued that the department of English should be renamed and its focus should shift to literature around the world. He also asked why African literature cannot be at the centre, so that we can have a comparison between the cultures, the African culture, the English culture and the relationship between the two. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in 1977, he published his fourth novel, Petals of Blood, then the play, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, which dealt with the troubled legacy of the Mau Mau uprising. It was his co-authoring of a play written in Gikuyu which led to his arrest and imprisonment in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. He was jailed not for thundering political context, but for the play in Kikuyu called Ngaahika Ndeenda, which means, “I will marry when I want.” Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o even in prison continued to write. He wrote his memoir on toilet paper in prison. When he was released in 1978, he was exiled in 1982, when he learned of a plot to kill him upon his return from a trip from Britain to promote his novel, Caitani Mutharaba-ini, translated to mean, “The Devil on the Cross.” He later on moved to the UK and to the US, where he worked as a professor of English and comparative literature in the University of California. We are looking at a giant who never stopped thinking and who did a lot of political thinking and continued to dream, even in his old age. He wanted us to use more The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}