Ngugi Wa Thiongo
A GATHERING – for Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
We’re honoured to broadcast a two-part memorial reading (Monday 30 June & Wednesday 2 July from 6pm) for the writer, educator and revolutionary Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938-2025) – organised by our longtime comrades Serubiri Moses and Bwesigye Bwa-Mwesigire and structured around the chronology of Ngũgĩ ‘s publications.
A major thread concerns the arrival of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o as a rebel theorist following his detainment, as well as his long preoccupation with the legacy of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, as well as the author’s major criticism of Kenya’s former presidents Moi and Kenyatta. His engagement with languages was lifelong. Yet his work on translation and oral tradition intensified in his later years combined with his interests in memoir.
This is a celebration of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s life with readings of his words in theory, drama, fiction, nonfiction, and personal reflections to the work. Sound design by Joseph Mutono.
Monday 30 June – The Novelist & Playwright
Sitawa Namwalie, Glaydah Namukasa, Achiro Patricia Olwoch, Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, Serubiri Moses, Margaret Nagawa, Ladan Osman, Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed, Sreddy Yen, Akpa Arinzechukwu, Omar Berrada, Jonathan Kubakundimana, Kyomuhendo A. Ateenyi, Bamba Ndiaye
Wednesday 2 July – Autobiography & Oral Tradition
Frances Ogamba, Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, Richard Oduor, Helen Mugambi, Vukoni Lupa Lusaga, Delight Ejiaka
Category: News, Pass Blog
Tags: Bwesigye Bwa-Mwesigire, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Serubiri Moses
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NGUGI WA THIONG’O – THE WRITER IN POST-COLONIAL AFRICA with an introduction by Ari Sitas
Following the popular success of “Matigari ma Njiruungi” the Kikuyu version of Ngugi wa Thiongo’s 6th novel in 1986, word got to then-President Daniel Arap Moi that a revolutionary called Matigari was going around the country asking awkward questions about truth and justice in postcolonial Kenya. Moi promptly demanded this person be arrested. After the infamous Security Branch reported that Matigari was a character in a novel, Moi demanded they arrest the book! At the time Ngugi was in exile …
LIBERATION RADIO: DAR ES SALAAM – 10th-14th August 2022
From 10 – 14 August 2022, we presented another edition of “Liberation Radio”, an ongoing research conducted primarily through broadcasting practice, on cultural initiatives by and through liberation movements operating in the city-studios of Cairo, Accra, Conakry, Algiers, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka and more. After Cairo and Harare, we landed the Pan African Space Station (PASS) in Dar es Salaam to listen on themes such as the radical history of the University of Dar es Salaam – including Rodney-mentored study …
Category: Liberation Radio, News, Pass Blog, Pass Pop-up, Pass Radio
Tags: 6th PAC, Accra, Afro 70, Algiers, Andrea Thal, Ayi Kwei Armah, Cairo, Conakry, Contemporary Image Collective, Dar es Salaam, James Brennan, John Kitime, Lusaka, Maria Shaba, Marjorie Mbilinyi, Memory Biwa, Mkuki na Nyota, Moses März, Ng’wanza Kamata, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Nombuso Mathibela, Parselelo Kantai, Pungwe, Pungwe Listening, Rob Machiri, Ruth Nyambura, Saida Yahya-Othman, Samah Gafar, Tanzania Publishing House, Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation, TPH Bookshop, Union of African Writers, University of Dar es Salaam, USARF, Walter Bgoya, Walter Rodney, Wole Soyinka, Yasmina Reggad
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