Ngugi wa Thiongo (1938-) was born in Kenya. He achieved greatness during and after his detention by the Kenyan government in 1977-8. He started writing his novel in Gikuyu after his detention. His writing has focused on the issues of culture and language. His novel mainly deal with colonial and post colonial issues. He portrays Kenyan reality as it is. Hs novels are : weep not, child (1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on The Cross (1982), Matigari (1939). Ngugi in his work, ‘. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of language in African Literature, London: Heinemann, talked about colonial impact,” colonialism imposed its control of the social production of the wealth through military conquest and subsequent political dictatorship. But its most important area of domination was the mental universe of the colonized the control through culture, of how people perceived them selves and their relation to the world.” To break free from this control, Ngugoi set an example by first writing in his own language, Gikuyu, and then translating them into English. His novels present pictures of Kenya from the 1930s to the contemporary days, the struggle against western domination, and the Mau Mau rebellion.

One of the issues Ngugi discussed in his novels is struggle for land. In his first novel, Weep Not, Child, Ngugi describes a Kikuku family and this family has been drawn to the Mau Mau