NGŨGĨ WA THIONG’O DISCUSSES HIS NEW MEMOIR BIRTH OF A DREAM WEAVER

Birth of a Dream Weaver (New Press)

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s powerful new memoir, Birth of a Dream Weaver, chronicles the period in early 1960s East Africa when he found his voice as a writer and an activist.  Against the vivid backdrop of late-colonial Africa, Ngũgĩ details—with an immediacy both shocking and beautiful—the experience of coming of age in a homeland wounded by white settlerdom. 

A herdsboy and a child laborer, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s spent his childhood in Kenya until the end of high school. Then, encouraged by his mother, he traveled to Uganda for university. Crossing into Uganda by train, Ngũgĩ is struck by the difference between British-dominated Kenya and the relative independence of Uganda, brought home with him the “incredible sight of black people who did not walk as if they were strangers in their city.” At the Universtiy of Makerere, Ngũgĩ comes to political consciousness as colonial Kenya crumbles and the aftermath of the Mau Mau rebellion, one of the most violent episodes in global history, is felt. 

The perfect entry-point for anyone new to Ngũgĩ’s work, Birth of a Dream Weaver is a rare glimpse into the seminal years of one of the world’s great writers.

Praise for Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s work:

"In his crowded career and his eventful life, Ngũgĩ has enacted, for all to see, the paradigmatic trials and quandaries of a contemporary African writer, caught in sometimes implacable political, social, racial, and linguistic currents."--John Updike, "The New Yorker" 

"Ngũgĩ has dedicated his life to describing, satirising and destabilising the corridors of power. Still living in exile and writing primarily in Gikuyu, Ngũgĩ continues to spin captivating tales."--The Guardian 

"Ngũgĩ has flown over the entire African continent and sniffed out all of the foul stenches rising high into the air: complacency toward despotism, repression of women and ethnic minorities, widespread corruption andundergirding all of thesea neocolonial system in which today's lending banks and multinationals have supplanted yesterday's European overlords."--The New York Times Book Review

One of the leading African writers and scholars at work today, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was born in Limuru, Kenya, in 1938. He is the author of A Grain of Wheat; Weep Not, Child; Petals of Blood; and Birth of a Dream Weaver (The New Press). He is currently distinguished professor in the School of Humanities and the director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine. He has been nominated for the Man Booker International Prize.