Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes

Kenya, Writer
January 5, 1938

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Gikuyu pronunciation: [ᵑɡoɣe wá ðiɔŋɔ]; originally James Thiong'o Ngugi,[clarification needed]) is an award-winning, world-renowned Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri.

Also known as Academic

A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Language
- Possible
- Access
I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Power
- Language
- Prison

Our lives are a battlefield on which is fought a continuous war between the forces that are pledged to confirm our humanity and those determined to dismantle it; those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mould it and those committed to breaking it up; those who aim to open our eyes, to make us see the light and look to tomorrow [...] and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Lives
- Forces
- Battlefield
There is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Unity
- Nation
- Survive
If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can't buy it.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Poverty
- Buy
- Sold
We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Power
- Politics
- End
I'm more trying to connect; I'm more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- People
- Listening
- Connect
What's good about writing is that when you write novels or fiction, people can see that the problems in one region are similar to problems in another region.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Writing
- Problems
- Region

Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Life
- Beautiful
- Pain
We can appreciate each other's languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o