The Postcolonial Intellectual: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o in Context

Oliver Lovesey examines the conundrum of the postcolonial intellectual, a central yet critically overlooked figure in the postcolonial project. He focuses on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o within his cultural, historical, and intellectual contexts, primarily with respect to his non-fictional prose writings, including his neglected early journalism and his most recent autobiographical and theoretical work. Lovesey argues for Ngũgĩ’s position as a major postcolonial theorist who helped establish postcolonial studies.