Goodbye Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o

By Capt Ibrahim Mbiu Bendera

Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com

A eulogy poem

Goodbye to a prominent English Lecturer,

A linguist and a critical thinker,

You are one of East Africa’s best authors,

Promoting languages with no borders.

You lectured English in classrooms,

Your books becoming the ideal brooms,

Helping us to remove the colonial thinking,

Using “Globalectics” as the politics of knowing.

On 5th January, 1938 your earthly life began,

To your family it was happiness, praises and fun, 

Ululations in Thiong’o wa Nducu’s home,

The second child on earth had come.

You were the second out of 28 children,

From Wanjiku your mother, you were born,

She was one of the four wives in your home,

Praise goes to her for what you became.

At Kamiriithu, near Limuru you were born,

In Kiambu district, Kenya Colony as it was known,

At the time of your birth,

The British were causing horrendous wrath.

The British colonized your land,

Taking it from Gikuyu with no waving hand,

Brutally chasing them into the wilderness,

Turning Gikuyu to be poor and homeless.

Coming from a large family in the peasants pool,

Attended Kamandura, Manguu and Kinyogori primary schools, 

Then Alliance High School to Makerere University College, 

Completing your Masters at Leeds University College.

You became a Distinguished Professor, 

Of English language and Comparative Literature,

Writing as you continued learning,

You wrote as you were working.

You have been a novelist, essayist and playwright, 

Also a journalist, editor and social activist,

You came from Thiong’o wa Nducu your father, 

Who was only a peasant farmer. 

Your father’s land was dispossessed by the British settler,

The Imperial Land Act of 1915 made your father a squatter,

Raising you through the ashes,

Giving you the best educational torches.

The torches from your father you used them efficiently,

In 1962 The Black Hermit, spoke eloquently, 

At Kampala National Theatre before a large audience,

As part of the celebration of Uganda’s Independence. 

“Ngugi Speaks for the Continent,” the headline was there,

Shinning headline in the Makerere Student’s newspaper, 

Your highly productive literary period came on your way, 

Followed by several short stories and many plays, 

You wrote under the title As I See It  in the Sunday Nation,

And through your books you passed on education, 

Many of your books got critical acclaim,

And was soon followed when other novels came.

Then Ngugi’s first novel came out,

Weep Not Child explored the Mau Mau impact,

Showing themes of colonialism and resistance,

Showing student Njoroge’s turmoils in fighting for independence.

The River Between showed us the colonial harm,

That the Gikuyu tradition had resisted to conform,

With traditions and religion of the colonialist,

Making Waiyuki to become the protagonist

In 1952 you reached the age of fourteen,

The Mau Mau freedom fighters had begun,

Fighting back for your land and freedom,

Chasing the British from your farms.

The book The Trials of Dedan Kimathi is here,

With Micere Mugo you told us what was there,

It shows us who the Mau Mau generals were,

And also the actions of the colonial collaborators.

The British were tearing Africa apart with excavators,

Digging land for minerals, the exploiters,

Taking land from African owners,

British settlers became the winners.

A Grain of Wheat was your next novel,

Where your ideological direction became formal,

With multi-narrative lines and multi-viewpoints unfolding,

In which different times and spaces were replacing. 

Your literature skills moved on,

From the single viewpoint position,

Collective replaced and took the center of history,

As we see it in the Petals of Blood story.

You addressed the betrayal of human rights ideals,

Corruption and inequality became the societal vile,

Putting Kenya in a socio-political decay,

Fighting for African languages and cultures all the way.

You denounced “English” in the name of the Department,

You wanted Literature to be the replacement,

Putting third world languages at the center,

Fighting for African culture and literature.

Together with other academicians you fought,

With Taban Lo Liyong and Awuor Anyumba in the front, 

You authored the polemical declaration, 

The Abolition of the English Department was set in motion. 

African literature was the theme,

A continental and global debate it became,

It was the heart of postcolonial theories,

African literature to remove our worries.

In 1977 the Gikuyu I Will Marry When I Want, was played,

Denouncing themes that Kenya government wanted,

The hypocrisy and corruption of religion and capitalism,

Mirii and Thiong’o were detained for political whim.

While in detention you used the toilet paper,

To write Devil on the Cross which was published later,

It satirized the greed and moral decay of Kenya’s elite,

The character Wariinga having the self realization quest.

Then Daniel Toroitich arap Moi took Kenyan presidency,

Not following the tyrannical President Kenyatta’s policy, 

He released the writers in nineteen seventy eight, 

A period when freedom started to show the light.

Several other Ngugi’s stories came along,

Matigari and De-colonising the Mind are very strong,

Wizard of the Crow and Wrestling the Devil are all there,

While The Perfect Nine blended myth, feminism and adventure.

Mitigari book was banned to the Kenyan public,

Outside her borders we read Ngugi’s rhetorics,

A tale of a returning freedom fighter to his home,

Fighting for justice giving him the fame.

We know that although you had illness,

You were also busy writing what you profess,

“Normalized Abnormality” is said to be in line,

Impact of global colonialism it outlines,

From Pan-Africanist lecturer to a “Globalectical” theorist,

Showing the  inter-connectedness of the global activists, 

How various global systems interact in their own languages, 

Where the world recognizes the influence of other cultures.

You showed us the important connection,

That Literature is not only for education,

Under Globalectical it is also a philosophy,

Writing on precepts, plots and history,

Through lectures and books you made us learn,

Teaching us that writing is a skill of fun,

Combining things that you have seen,

Using language in a manner well-done.

Farewell Ngugi wa Thiong’o, farewell to our lecturer,

You left us with the best literature,

We pray to the Almighty to rest your soul in Eternal peace,

And your family to embrace our Lord’s Grace.