CELEBRATING A KENYAN HERO

Today with Professor Ngugi Wa Thiongo at the Shield of Faith where the Kenyan community gathered to celebrate Mashujaa (Heroes) Day. The lady seated in front of me couldn't capture the occasion more eloquently (despite the obvious linguistic assault her scarlet T-SHIRT  deals on the word "mashujaa"). Professor wa Thiongo gave an harrowing account of a colonial era in which he was raised with the promise of freedom and the disillusionment of the subsequent regimes that were keen on muzzling political dissidents. His writings, some of which he paid for dearly by imprisonment without trial include The River Between, Weep Not Child, Petals of Blood, A Grain of Wheat, Devil on the Cross, Wizard of the Crow and his new memoir Dreams in a Time of War.  Earlier this year, speculations were rife that Ngugi would be the 2010 Literature Nobel laureate but contrary to  expectations someone else was named. (although hundreds of journalists had camped outside his gates on the chilly night before the disappointing announcement was made.) But Nobel prize or not, you have to admit that the professor deserves even a higher honour of being regarded a "shujaa." The Professor is currently a distinguished professor of Comparative Literature and English at University of California at Irvine.