Name: M rogi wa Kagogo (in Kikuyu)
SKU: 54673651
Price: 190.12 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
ISBN: 9789966254429

Type

Physical Book

Author

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Publisher

East African Educational Publishers

Language

Kikuyu

Pages

908

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x5.1 cm

Weight

1.31 kg.

ISBN13

9789966254429

Synopsis "M rogi wa Kagogo (in Kikuyu)"

This is the original Gĩkũyũ version of Ngugi wa Thiong'o's satirical novel Mũrogi wa Kagogo, published in English as Wizard of the Crow . The novel gives a surgical examination of the cult of dictatorship in Africa. The story is set in the imaginary Free Republic of Aburĩria, and weaved around the Ruler and his coterie of court-poets, all of them the epitome of the dictum that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Then there is Kamĩtĩ, the mystical figure who is the subject of conjecture, and Nyawĩra, the underground revolutionary in the vanguard of agitating for change in Aburiria. In the end, Ngũgĩ manages to vibrate with the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez; the brutal frankness of Dostoyevsky; and the lyrical beauty of African folklore. Yet, the most intriguing question as you read the novel is: Who is the Wizard of the Crow?

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

(Author)

View Author's Page

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1938–2025) was a Kenyan writer, academic, and cultural activist, whose work marked a before and after in postcolonial literature. His essay Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986) remains a fundamental text in postcolonial studies, and his later novels and plays, written in Kikuyu, solidified his advocacy for African languages as a tool for cultural liberation.

Ngũgĩ died on May 28, 2025, in Buford (Georgia, USA), at the age of 87. Although he never won a literary award like the Nobel, he was a recurring candidate and received significant recognitions such as the PEN/Nabokov Award (2022) and the Premi Internacional Catalunya (2019). His passing stirred emotions worldwide: Kenyan President William Ruto described him as an “emblematic figure of African letters”.

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