Ngg was born in Kamiriithu, near Limuru in Kiambu district, Kenya, of Kky descent, and baptised James Ngugi.

His family was caught up in the Mau Mau rebellion; he lost his stepbrother, and his mother was tortured[citation needed]. He received a B.A. in English from Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda, in 1963; during his education, a play of his, The Black Hermit, was produced in Kampala in 1962. He published his first novel, Weep Not, Child, in 1964, which he wrote while attending the University of Leeds in England. It was the first novel in English to be published by an East African. His second novel, The River Between (1965), has as its background the Mau Mau rebellion, and described an unhappy romance between Christians and non-Christians. The River Between is currently on Kenya's national secondary school syllabus.[6][7] His novel A Grain of Wheat (1967) marked his embrace of Fanonist Marxism. He subsequently renounced English, Christianity, and the name James Ngugi as colonialist; he changed his name back to Ngg wa Thiong'o, and began to write in his native Gky and Swahili. The uncensored political message of his 1977 play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) provoked then Vice President Daniel arap Moi to order his arrest. While detained in the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, he wrote the first modern novel in Gky, Caitaani mtharaba-In (Devil on the Cross), on prison-issued toilet paper. After his release, he was not reinstated to his job as professor at Nairobi University, and his family was harassed. Due to his writing about the injustices of the dictatorship government on Kenya at the time, Ngugi was forced to live in exile in order to avoid his death and risk the his family's safety if he was to return to Kenya. He would have to stay in exile until the dictator Arap Moi was voted out of office and after 22 years it was safe for him to return under the new government. His later works include Detained, his prison diary (1981), Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986), an essay arguing for African writers' expression in their native languages, rather than European languages, in order to renounce lingering colonial ties and to build an authentic African literature, and Matigari (1987), one of his most famous works, a satire based on a Gky folktale. In 1992 he became a professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University, where he held the Erich Maria Remarque Chair. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature as well as the Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine. On August 8, 2004, Ngg ended his exile to return to Kenya as part of a month-long tour of East Africa. On August 11, robbers broke into his apartment: they assaulted both the Professor and his wife, and stole money and a computer.*8+ Since then, Ngg has returned to America, and in the summer 2006 the American publishing firm Random House published his first new novel in nearly two decades, Wizard of the Crow, translated to English from Gky by the author. On November 10, 2006, while in San Francisco at Hotel Vitale at the Embarcadero, Prof. Ngg was harassed and ordered to leave the hotel by an employee. The event led to a public outcry and angered the Kenyans, and the Kenyan community in the San Francisco Bay area [9], and prompted an apology by the hotel.[10]

Ngugi lahir di Kamiriithu, dekat Limuru di Kabupaten Kiambu, Kenya, keturunan Kikuyu, dan dibaptis James Ngugi. Keluarganya terjebak dalam pemberontakan Mau Mau; ia kehilangan saudara tirinya, dan ibunya diseksa [rujukan?]. Dia menerima sebuah B.A. dalam Bahasa Inggeris dari Makerere University College di Kampala, Uganda, pada tahun 1963, selama pendidikan, sebuah permainan, The Hermit Hitam, dihasilkan di Kampala pada tahun 1962. Ia menerbitkan novel pertamanya, Menangislah Tidak, Anak, pada tahun 1964, yang ia tulis saat menghadiri University of Leeds di United Kingdom. Ini adalah novel pertama dalam bahasa Inggeris yang akan diterbitkan oleh Afrika Timur. novel kedua-Nya, Sungai Antara (1965), telah sebagai latar belakang pemberontakan Mau Mau, dan menggambarkan sebuah roman bahagia antara Kristian dan non-Kristian. Sungai Antara saat ini dalam sukatan kebangsaan Kenya sekolah menengah. [6] [7] Novelnya Sebuah Butir Tanaman (1967) ditandai pelukannya Marxsisme Fanonist. Beliau kemudian meninggalkan Inggeris, Kristian, dan nama James Ngugi sebagai kolonialis, ia mengubah namanya kembali ke Ngugi wa Thiong'o, dan mula menulis dalam bukunya Gky asli dan Swahili. Mesej politik uncensored tahun 1977 bermain Ngaahika nya Ndeenda (I Will Marry Ketika saya Ingin) terprovokasi kemudian Naib Presiden Daniel Arap Moi untuk memerintahkan penangkapannya. Sementara ditahan di Penjara Keselamatan Kamiti Maksimum, ia menulis novel moden pertama di Gky, Caitaani mtharaba-Ini (Devil di kayu Salib), di atas kertas toilet penjara-diterbitkan. Setelah dibebaskan, ia tidak dikembalikan kepada pekerjaannya sebagai profesor di Universiti Nairobi, dan keluarganya dilecehkan. Kerana menulis tentang ketidakadilan kerajaan kediktatoran di Kenya pada waktu itu, Ngugi terpaksa hidup di pengasingan untuk mengelakkan kematian dan risiko keselamatan keluarganya jika ia kembali ke Kenya. Ia harus tinggal di pengasingan sampai diktator Arap Moi terpilih keluar dari pejabat dan selepas 22 tahun itu dalam baginya untuk kembali di bawah kerajaan baru. karya berikutnya termasuk Ditahan, buku harian penjara (1981), Decolonising Mind: Politik Bahasa di Afrika Sastera (1986), sebuah esei berdebat untuk ekspresi penulis Afrika 'dalam bahasa ibu mereka, bukan bahasa Eropah, untuk meninggalkan hubungan kolonial berlama-lama dan untuk membina sebuah literatur Afrika otentik, dan Matigari (1987), salah satu karyanya yang paling terkenal, sebuah satir berdasarkan cerita rakyat Gky. Pada tahun 1992, beliau menjadi profesor Perbandingan Prestasi Sastera dan Pengajian di New York University, di mana beliau memegang Erich Maria remarqu Kursi. Saat ini menjabat sebagai Profesor Distinguished Bahasa Inggeris dan Perbandingan Sastera serta Pengarah Pusat Antarabangsa untuk Menulis dan Penjabaran di University of California, Irvine. Pada tarikh 8 Ogos 2004, Ngugi berakhir pengasingan untuk kembali ke Kenya sebagai sebahagian dari tur panjang bulan Afrika Timur. Pada tarikh 11 Ogos, perompak masuk ke apartmennya: mereka menyerang kedua-dua Profesor dan isterinya, dan mencuri wang dan komputer [8] Sejak itu, Ngugi telah kembali ke Amerika, dan pada musim panas 2006 syarikat Amerika penerbitan Random House yang diterbitkan. novelnya baru pertama dalam hampir dua dekad, Wizard dari Crow, diterjemahkan ke bahasa Inggeris dari Gky oleh penulis. Pada tarikh 10 November, 2006, sementara di San Francisco di Hotel Vitale di Embarcadero, Prof Ngugi dilecehkan dan memerintahkan untuk meninggalkan hotel oleh pekerja. Acara ini menyebabkan kemarahan awam dan membuat marah Kenya,

dan masyarakat Kenya di San Francisco Bay area [9], dan menggalakkan permintaan maaf oleh hotel. [10]