Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Kenyan novelist whose Weep Not, Child (1964) Britannica calls the first major novel in English by an East African, followed by A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood and, in 2004, Wizard of the Crow.

In Decolonising the Mind (1986) he argued for African-language literature and then wrote in Gikuyu, including Devil on the Cross and Matigari, a position debated against Chinua Achebe's pragmatic defence of English.

His output spans eight novels, five plays, five memoirs and eleven non-fiction books, and he later held a distinguished professorship of English and comparative writing at the University of California, Irvine.

In his third novel, A Grain of Wheat, he replaced a linear plot with multiple narrative lines and viewpoints unfolding at different times and places, a shift the Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Foundation describes as a turning point in his formal direction.

This is consistent with a writer who reworked his narrative form rather than repeating earlier success. Creative Originality

Leeds records that he co-created a Gikuyu-language play with the Kamiriithu community in 1976, and Britannica lists plays co-written with Micere Githae Mugo and Ngugi wa Mirii.

This is consistent with a writer who made theatre together with other authors and a local community. Collaboration

From Devil on the Cross (1980) he wrote his fiction first in Gikuyu rather than English, arguing in Decolonising the Mind that African literature should be written in African languages.

This is consistent with a writer willing to give up a large English-language readership to act on his own conviction. Independent Thinking