Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

One of Africa’s best known writers, translated into more than thirty languages, and permanently mooted as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he first became known as a writer with his Weep Not, Child (Macmillan, 2005). This debut work was followed by a large number of novels, plays, and short stories, written in English and describing Kenya’s political, cultural, and social problems. As a result of his criticism of both British imperialism and the country’s post-independence governments he was forced to go into exile from 1982 until 2002. Since then, he has continued his academic career in several universities of the United States, where he has reflected on African cultures and literatures. After 1981, he gave priority to writing in his mother tongue Kikuyu, an exceptional gesture in the domain of African literature. He has published more than thirty books, including fiction and essays. Notable among them are Decolonising the Mind (in Catalan, Descolonitzar la ment, Raig Verd, 2017), Moving the Centre (in Catalan, Desplaçar el centre, Raig Verd, 2017), In the House of the Interpreter (in Catalan, A casa de l’intèrpret, Raig Verd, 2017), and the recently published story The Upright Revolution (in Catalan, La revolució vertical, Raig Verd, 2019, and also published in Spanish). Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o presently combines his work as a teacher at the University of California, Irvine, with his role as an activist and lecturer in defence of minority languages and human rights.