Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Hardback)

Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas is a collection of essays by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, the Kenyan novelist and critic behind Weep Not, Child, A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood. It builds on his lifelong work on language and its place in national culture, history and identity.

• Argues that African languages can push back against both the psychological and the material effects of colonialism
• Treats colonialism as a force still shaping the present, not only the past
• Draws together themes that run through decades of Ngugi's fiction and criticism
• A clear way into his thinking for students of literature and postcolonial studies as well as general readers

Ngugi stopped writing his novels in English in the late 1970s and turned to Gikuyu, his first language, a choice that gives his arguments here real weight.

Details

• Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
• Publisher: Penguin
• Published: August 2025
• Format: Hardback, 224 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780241780978