The article titled “The Decolonial Mind of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o,” authored by our Sociology PhD candidate Abdirashid Diriye Kalmoy, is published in the November/December 2025 issue of Current Affairs, a magazine with a prominent international readership.
In this article, Kalmoy offers a critical analysis of the intellectual legacy of Kenyan writer and thinker Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938–2025), a leading figure in decolonial thought. The piece traces Ngũgĩ’s intellectual trajectory from his early English-language novels critiquing colonialism and neocolonial betrayal (Weep Not, Child, A Grain of Wheat) to his decisive turn toward writing exclusively in his native Gikuyu, grounded in his conviction that colonial languages perpetuate mental and cultural subjugation.
The article also examines Ngũgĩ’s community-based theater work, which led to his imprisonment by Kenya’s authoritarian government in 1977–1978, highlighting how cultural decolonization poses a profound challenge to neocolonial power structures. During his years in exile, Ngũgĩ developed the concept of “globalectics,” advocating horizontal cultural exchange and intellectual solidarity in opposition to Eurocentric universalism.
Kalmoy emphasizes Ngũgĩ’s enduring argument that language carries culture and that reclaiming indigenous languages is essential to mental liberation. The article underscores the continued relevance of Ngũgĩ’s ideas in the context of ongoing neocolonialism, linguistic imperialism, and Western cultural hegemony, presenting his legacy as both a critical framework and a source of revolutionary hope for oppressed peoples worldwide.
Read the full article here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-decolonial-mind-of-ng%C5%A9g%C4%A9-wa-thiongo
