Professor Ngugi WA THIONG’O
ngugi@uci.edu
Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature
University of California, Irvine, USA

Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o, currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine, was born in Kenya, in 1938. He is one of Africa's greatest living novelists, playwrights, cultural and literary theoreticians and intellectuals.

Ngugi burst onto the literary scene in East Africa with the performance of his first major play, The Black Hermit in 1962 as part of the celebration of Uganda’s Independence. In 1967, Ngugi became lecturer in English Literature at the University of Nairobi. He taught there until 1977. His first novel in ten years - Petals of Blood, depicted a harsh and unsparing picture of life in neo-colonial Kenya, was published in the same year. His works were politically controversial. He was arrested and imprisoned without charge and was released with the help of International Amnesty in 1978.

Ngugi went into self-imposed exile after he had learnt that the Moi regime’s plot to eliminate him. He was first in Britain (1982 –1989), and then the U.S. after (1989-2002), during this period, he was Visiting Professor in various universities in Europe and US (including Yale). He then became Professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University (1992 –2002).

Ngugi has continued to write prolifically, publishing, in 2006, what some have described as his crowning achievement, Wizard of the Crow, an English translation of the Gikuyu language novel, Murogi wa Kagogo. On August 8, 2004, Ngugi ended his exile by visiting Kenya as part of a month-long tour of East Africa.

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o教授
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o教授在加州大學爾灣分校教授比較文學及表演研究，貴為特聘教授。他出生於肯亞，是非洲知名小說劇作家及知識份子。他曾在肯亞首都內羅畢大學任教英國文學。他的著作豐富，包括血的花瓣及烏鴉精靈，充滿政治色彩。1976年他未經審訊被收監。1978年出獄後自我放逐流亡海外。