Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: The Old Lion is Gone, But The Roar Remains

TRIBUTE | BY CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO | Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (January 1938 – 28 May 2025) was one of Africa’s most celebrated literary figures. He never just wrote books. He staged revolts, each title a well-aimed Molotov hurled at the colonial cannon, the neocolonial bureaucrat, and the post-independence sell-out.

His books often explore themes of colonialism, post-independence struggles, and the importance of African languages in literature. Over a career spanning six decades, Ngũgĩ went from the polite English-speaking literary salons of the 1960s to the defiant, Gikuyu-voiced resistance trenches of African letters, shaping African literature and post-colonial thought worldwide.

He authored more than 30 works—novels, plays, memoirs, and essays. Here is a distilled list of Ngũgĩ’s major works in English, written or translated by him:

1. Weep Not, Child (1964)
His debut novel, and the first in English by an East African. A poignant tale of young Njoroge whose dreams crumble amid the flames of the Mau Mau Uprising.

2. The River Between (1965)
A lyrical examination of cultural fracture. Missionary Christianity battles traditional Gikuyu beliefs as two villages stand divided by both a literal and metaphorical valley.

3. A Grain of Wheat (1967)
Ngũgĩ’s first masterpiece. A morally tangled story of betrayal and sacrifice on the eve of Kenyan independence, told through multiple voices.

4. This Time Tomorrow (1970)
A play originally written while Ngũgĩ was at Makerere. It explores generational tensions and the conflicting aspirations of postcolonial youth.

5. The Black Hermit (1963)
Ngũgĩ’s first play, performed in 1962 during Kenya’s independence celebrations. A young man returns home to find tradition and modernity in open war.

6. Petals of Blood (1977)
A furious indictment of betrayal by the post-independence elite. Four villagers find themselves entangled in a murder mystery that exposes capitalist greed and broken promises.

7. Devil on the Cross (1980)
Written on prison toilet paper in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. A satire of neocolonial exploitation told through a woman’s surreal journey to a “Devil’s Feast.”

8. Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary (1981)
The harrowing memoir of his 1977 detention without trial. A personal and political record of a regime’s paranoia.

9. Barrel of a Pen (1983)
A collection of essays laying out his belief in the revolutionary potential of literature—and why language choice is a political act.

10. I Will Marry When I Want (1982, co-authored with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii)
A Gikuyu play banned by the Moi regime. Its staging led directly to Ngũgĩ’s arrest. A searing critique of land grabbing, capitalism, and hypocritical religiosity.

11. Matigari (1986)
A Gikuyu fable turned political nightmare. A freedom fighter returns to a corrupt, capitalist Kenya and finds the struggle has only changed clothes.

12. Decolonising the Mind (1986)
Possibly his most influential non-fiction work. A series of essays that explain his radical shift to African languages—and why writers must reclaim linguistic sovereignty.

13. Moving the Centre (1993)
Essays advocating the broadening of spaces for marginalised voices—geographically, culturally, and linguistically.

14. Penpoints, Gunpoints and Dreams (1998)
A collection of lectures analysing the intersection of culture, politics, and resistance in African societies.

15. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Speaks (2006)
Interviews that chart his intellectual evolution and his reflections on the function of the writer in society.

16. Wizard of the Crow (2006)
A 768-page epic written in Gikuyu and translated by the author. A magical-realist tour de force lampooning dictatorship, greed, and the grotesqueries of global aid.

17. Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance (2009)
Non-fiction essays examining the future of African culture in a globalised, often unthinking world.

18. Dreams in a Time of War (2010)
Memoir of his boyhood under colonial rule—a story of survival, hope, and the roots of his ideological awakening.

19. In the House of the Interpreter (2012)
Covers his time at Alliance High School, where the colonial contradictions sharpened, and his political consciousness deepened.

20. Birth of a Dream Weaver (2016)
Chronicles his university years at Makerere, where he metamorphosed from student to writer—and discovered his continent’s wounded soul.

21. Wrestling with the Devil (2018)
A hybrid memoir tracing his prison ordeal, the power of storytelling, and the rise of authoritarian rule in independent Africa.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: The Old Lion is Gone, But The Roar Remains
Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (January 1938 – 28 May 2025) was one of Africa’s most celebrated literary figures. He never just wrote books. He staged revolts, each title a well-aimed molotov hurled at the… pic.twitter.com/RTNTaicwV0

— Charles Onyango-Obbo (@cobbo3) May 29, 2025

22. The Perfect Nine (2020)
A verse novel retelling the Gikuyu creation myth with a feminist twist. A rare fusion of oral storytelling, poetry, and African myth.

23. Minutes of Glory and Other Stories (2019)
A collection of short stories written over five decades. The everyday and the extraordinary clash and dance in postcolonial Kenya.

24. Secret Lives and Other Stories (1975)
Early fiction that showcases Ngũgĩ’s developing voice—personal stories with deep political undercurrents.

Ngũgĩ’s literary rebellion was never just about fiction. It was about freeing the tongue. While many African intellectuals juggled identity with discomfort, Ngũgĩ dropped the colonial mask and picked up the ancestral drum. His life’s work was not simply to write, but to re-write—the rules, the stories, the language, and the imagination of Africa.

The old lion is gone. But the roar echoes.

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SOURCE: Adapted from X via @cobbo3