English, 
French, Bilingual,
Doris May Lessing was born of British parents in Persia (now Iran), in 1919 and moved with her family to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when she was five. She grew up in Africa and travelled to England for the first time in 1949, carrying with her the manuscript of her first novel, The Grass is Singing, which was published a year later (Michael Joseph, 1950). In her work In Pursuit of Englishness, (1960) Lessing went on to put down her experiences as a new migrant in London of the Fifties, especially the duality of a colonial subject brought face to face with the reality of life at the centre of the Empire. A tireless campaigner against all forms of colonialism and oppression in general, Lessing became for a time a member of the British Communist Party. She was banned from returning to Rhodesia by Ian Simth's regime and came to be known as one of the White voices from Africa who most compassionately identified with the Black majority. She has written novels, essays and reviews, and her science-fiction has long become the focus of a cult following. In recent years Doris Lessing's relationship with the new Zimbabwe has remained somewhat troubled, with works such as her accounts of her travels in Africa reflecting a sense of disillusionment with the way the new post-colonial nation has turned out. Her work has been translated into a number of languages and is regularly re-issued or re-printed. Among her major works are:
Sources: Michael Chapman, Tony Simoes da Silva.
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Ngugi wa Thiong'o is world-famous for his novels from Weep Not, Child
to Matigari and for the political impact of his plays, which led to his
detention in Kenya. He is presently Professor of Comparative Literature
and Performance Studies at New York University. A moral fable, the novel centres on the character of Matigari,
a freedom fighter, who emerges from the forest in the political dawn of
post-independence Kenya. Searching for his family and a new future, he
finds little has changed in the country: his house is not his house; his
land is still being worked by peasants for other masters. His search for
his wife and children becomes a quest for Truth and Justice. In this highly
charged historical, political allegory, Ngugi has written a novel which
makes compelling reading. Mugo is asked to deliver the speech at the Uhuru celebrations. What
people do not know is that during Mau Mau he was a traitor. The most ambitious
and densely worked of Ngugi's novels. This is now the best established novel from East Africa. It is set before
and during the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya. Njoroge finds himself relentlessly
drawn into the tragedy. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us! The international outcry over the detention of Ngugi without a trial
by the Kenyan authorities even reached him in the prison. With great accomplishment
he describes the purposeful degradation and humiliation. He builds up vivid
portraits of his fellow political prisoners. An artfully integrated series
of reflections enable him to reflect on his writing, the nature of imprisonment,
and the way forward for the people of Kenya. There are moments of tension
and drama, as when a warden discovers the almost completed manuscript of
his new novel. "The opening night of The Trial could well be described as a gala
occasion with the house packed and a degree of audience participation and
appreciation which one seldom sees in Nairobi ...culminating in many of
the audience joining in the final triumphant dance down the central aisle
and spilling out into the street." Ngugi and Micere Mugo have built a powerful and challenging play out
of the circumstances surrounding the trial of one of the celebrated leaders
of the Mau Mau revolution. Top of Form | African Literature
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This page has had,
Whats New? Doris May, LESSING
NGUGI WA THIONG'O Matigari
Translated from Kikuyu by Wangui wa Goro
A
Grain of Wheat Weep Not, Child
Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary
NGUGI WA THIONG'O and Micere MUGO The Trial of Dedan Kimathi
--The Sunday Nation, Nairobi
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