From the Garden of Languages, the Nectar of Art: An Interview with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Abstract

Conducted on March 20, 2005, "Ngugi wa Thiong'o: An Interview" engages one of the 20th century's most prolific writers in a wide-ranging discussion of a variety of issues. Among these issues are the value of literary studies in cosmopolitan urban centers, the literary renaissance in Africa and the African Diaspora, the significance of Frantz Fanon for Ngugi's literary ideology, literature and globalization, literature and exile, and literary language and translation (part of his project at the University of California, Irvine, where he is the Director for the Center for Writing and Translation). On these and other issues, Ngugi offers extensive responses, sometimes correcting misconceptions of his prior statements, sometimes explaining and elaborating on them, and sometimes offering fresh insights born of reflections on experience and hindsight as well as his readings in contemporary literary theory.