Wronged Kenyan writer ends exile – no grudge

NAIROBI – Celebrated Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o ended 22 years of exile on Saturday, saying he bore no grudge against the administration of former president Daniel arap Moi which jailed him for a year without charge.

As an adolescent Ngugi witnessed the Mau Mau struggle for independence from British colonial rule, which later became a major theme in his writing. He was arrested in December 1977 and detained without charge in a maximum security jail after peasants and workers performed his play “Ngaahika Ndeenda” (I Will Marry When I Want).Angered by the play’s criticism of the inequalities in Kenyan society, the authorities sent three truckloads of police to raze the theatre, Ngugi said.”I harbour no bitterness or any desire for vengeance,” the writer told a news conference at the beginning of a month-long visit to the east African country.Ngugi went into exile in 1982, when while living in Britain he learnt of plans to arrest and even kill him.Now in his 60s, Ngugi was welcomed at the airport by ministers in President Mwai Kibaki’s government, which ended Moi’s 24-year rule in 2002 landslide elections.”We must never forget the history of struggle by those before us, the struggle against colonialism.We must build on that legacy,” he said.Ngugi’s most famous works include “Weep Not Child”, “A Grain of Wheat” and “Devil on the Cross”, which was written on scraps of toilet paper in jail.In the 1980s he relinquished English, the language of former colonial master Britain, and has since launched a debate about colonialism by writing in his mother tongue Gikuyu.- Nampa-ReutersHe was arrested in December 1977 and detained without charge in a maximum security jail after peasants and workers performed his play “Ngaahika Ndeenda” (I Will Marry When I Want).Angered by the play’s criticism of the inequalities in Kenyan society, the authorities sent three truckloads of police to raze the theatre, Ngugi said.”I harbour no bitterness or any desire for vengeance,” the writer told a news conference at the beginning of a month-long visit to the east African country.Ngugi went into exile in 1982, when while living in Britain he learnt of plans to arrest and even kill him.Now in his 60s, Ngugi was welcomed at the airport by ministers in President Mwai Kibaki’s government, which ended Moi’s 24-year rule in 2002 landslide elections.”We must never forget the history of struggle by those before us, the struggle against colonialism.We must build on that legacy,” he said.Ngugi’s most famous works include “Weep Not Child”, “A Grain of Wheat” and “Devil on the Cross”, which was written on scraps of toilet paper in jail.In the 1980s he relinquished English, the language of former colonial master Britain, and has since launched a debate about colonialism by writing in his mother tongue Gikuyu.- Nampa-Reuters