Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, original name James Thiong’o Ngugi, is a Kenyan writer who was considered East Africa’s leading novelist. His popular Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first major novel in English by an East African. As he became sensitized to the effects of colonialism in Africa, Ngugi adopted his traditional name and wrote in the Bantu language of Kenya’s Kikuyu people.