Distinguished Kenyan novelist, poet and academic who championed writing in African languages rather than in English Ngugi wa Thiongo, who has died aged 87, was long regarded as east Africas most eminent writer and, along with and Wole Soyinka, a founding father of African literature in English. Like Achebe, his novels showed the social, psychological and economic impact of the colonial encounter in Africa, as well as the disillusion that followed independence. In later years Ngugi championed writing in African languages and published fiction, drama and poetry in Gikuyu, his mother tongue.
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