Read by Benjamin A. Onyango

Ngg wa Thiong'o is a towering figure in African literature, and his novels A Grain of Wheat; Weep Not, Child; and Petals of Blood are modern classics. Emerging from a literary scene that flourished in the 1950s and '60s during the last years of colonialism in Africa, he is now known not just as a novelist-one who, in the late '70s, famously stopped writing novels in English and turned to the language he grew up speaking, Gky-but as a major postcolonial theorist. In Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas, Ngg gives us a series of essays that build on the revolutionary ideas about language and its constructive role in national culture, history, and identity that he set out in his earlier work. Intricate and deeply nuanced, this collection examines the enduring power of African languages in resisting both the psychic and material impacts of colonialism, past and present. A brave call for discourse and immensely relevant to our present moment, Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas works both as a wonderful introduction to the enduring themes of Ngg's work as well as a vital addition to the library of the world's greatest and most provocative living writers

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