Thursday, April 2, the College of William and Mary’s Department of Africana Studies held a tribute reading of Kenyan author and academic Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s works in the wake of his recent passing in May 2025. The event sought to honor his memory by inviting faculty and students to read or listen to short excerpts of his work.
Thiong’o was most well-known for his novels and contributions to modern African literature. From advocating for literature written in Indigenous African languages to creating new forms of theater, Thiong’o challenged the prevalence of European and colonial literary tradition in Kenya.
Thiong’o’s works, which often criticized government corruption and encouraged performance in Indigenous languages, faced government backlash and led to his subsequent imprisonment. Despite this, Thiong’o’s works succeeded in spreading his political ideas and protesting against inequality.
The event began with opening remarks by Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Suzanne Raitt, who introduced the organizers, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Culture and Faculty Development Wanjiru Mbure and assistant professor of English and Africana studies Chima Osakwe.
The remarks detailed the reasons for holding the event, both in terms of Thiong’o’s life and his literary legacy.
“His family invited us to celebrate his spirit, his legacy,” Mbure said.
Osakwe echoed this sentiment.
“His thoughts represent the most effective link between African thought and the postcolonial theory,” Osakwe said. “So we are here today to celebrate him, to honor him, because he made important contributions to African literature.”
Before the readings began, Mbure taught the audience how to greet people in Gikuyu, a language native to Kenya. Thiong’o’s work was considered revolutionary, in both the literary and political sense, partly because he primarily wrote his works in Gikuyu. This reflected his efforts to combat linguistic feudalism and the marginalization of native African languages.
Dativa Eyembe ’26 read some of Thiong’o’s poetry at the event. As a Swahili speaker, she felt a connection to Thiong’o’s insistence on keeping language alive in the face of resistance.
“This is the language I speak, and I want to speak it whenever I can, even if someone else doesn’t understand it,” Eyembe said. “It’s not always about really what I’m saying but feeling what I was saying.”
The speakers also highlighted themes of inequality and the fight for justice in Thiong’o’s works.
“One thing I very much like about him, and which I know many people also like about his work, is his passionate commitment to social justice,” Osakwe said. “For him, it’s not just about art for art’s sake.”
Osakwe hopes that the audience left with a desire to further explore Thiong’o’s works and messages.
“Read his works, get a sense of what he’s talking about, because he is the kind of writer that wants to make the world a better place,” Osakwe said. “He is deeply opposed to injustice.”
Rin Braxton ’26, a volunteer reader at the event, mentioned recent controversies regarding Thiong’o.
“His son Mukoma wa Ngugi came out [and] said that his father was supposedly abusing his first wife, who died in 1995,” Braxton said,
To address this, Braxton read Thiong’o’s short story, “The Black Bird,” which tackles themes of opposing violence.
“I just thought it was odd that he wrote such an amazing story about isolation, but also his wife had to go through that, at least allegedly,” Braxton said.
Braxton argued that the works of influential figures — like Thiong’o — should be interpreted critically.
“You can still honor people’s legacy, but also criticize them,” Braxton said.
Eyembe said that Thiong’o’s ideas, which were considered controversial and groundbreaking at the time, should continue to be understood and preserved.
“When you have to fight for something like that, you should probably look at what people are saying and why they’re fighting for something,” Eyembe said. “There’s probably a reason.”
