Ngugi wa Thiong’o: A mighty Iroko of African writing joins his ancestors
By Ogaga Ifowodo
NGUGI wa Thiong’o, a mighty Iroko of African writing, symbol of resistance to African leaders’ servility, kleptocracy and autocratic rule, has joined the ancestors. There will be a 7-day revelry in ancestordom to welcome him. Here on earth, we will mourn briefly then sing and dance in celebration of his astounding — revolutionary — impact on African literature, both in English and in indigenous languages.
His pithy dictum, “Resistance is the best way of keeping alive,” reminds me of that by the now-only-living-Iroko of African literature and cultural resistance, Wole Soyinka, to wit, “Justice is the first condition of humanity.’ Resistance, wa Thiong’o markedly pointed out, “can take even the smallest form of saying no to injustice. If you really think you’re right, you stick to your beliefs, and they help you to survive.”
I had the great honour and privilege of being within touching distance of the sleeve of his shirt twice, the first time at a 50th anniversary celebration of Achebe’s seminal novel, Things Fall Apart, in New York; the last time being at the 2016 Ake International Book Festival in Abeokuta.
As a highlight of the Abeokuta book fair, he was interviewed by the writer Okey Ndibe. His face always radiant with a smile borne of the sheer joy of being a true African writer, he answered with humour every question, even when reflecting on his persecution by the Kenyan government of Daniel arap Moi, down to the rape of his wife and his beating when he returned from exile. I have to thank Lola Shoneyin-Soyinka, the moving spirit of AIBF, for bringing wa Thiong’o to Nigeria in his twilight years.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s place in the pantheon of African, nay, world literature, is indelibly assured. Not only were his books Weep Not Child, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, Barrel of a Pen, Decolonising the Mind early companions of my budding consciousness as a law student with half his head in writing and literature, they also occupied, incidentally, a similarly venerated place for my fellow radical student activists alongside the works of Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Amilcar Cabral, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin.
Adieu WARRIOR! May your likes visit us more often!
* Dr. Ifowodo is a lawyer and poet
