Last week, the literary world lost Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the great Kenyan writer who gave Africa a powerful, unapologetic voice. He died aged 87. A towering figure, his novels, essays, and plays challenged colonialism, celebrated African languages, and inspired generations – especially of the radical persuasion.
But, before the international acclaim and years in exile, Ngugi was simply James Ngugi, a student at Makerere University in Kampala. Between 1959 and 1963, Makerere helped turn a bright young man into a continental storyteller. When I studied literature there years later, the names of Ngugi and others loomed large. They felt like family.
