On May 4th 2017, writer and novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o will hold a public reading at the Vienna University Library
Context
„I entered Makerere University College in July 1959, subject of
a British Crown Colony, and left in March 1964, citizen of an independent African state. Between subject and citizen, a writer
was born. This is the story of how the herdsboy, child labourer,
and high school dreamer in Dreams in a Time of War and In the
House of the Interpreter became a weaver of dreams.“
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o in: Birth of a Dream Weaver,
Harvill Secker, London 2016
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
is a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. He is one of Africa’s most important writers and intellectuals and one of the frequent favourites for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in Kenya in 1938 into
a large peasant family, attended university in Uganda and in England and started his career as a novelist in the 1960s. His novels include Weep Not Child (1964), Matigari (1986) and Murogi wa Kagogo (transl. Wizard of the Crow 2006). He is author of the essay collections Decolonising the Mind (1986) and Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance (2009). Since the 1970s, he has been a powerful voice in struggles for cultural decolonisation and in the promotion of African languages.
Program
May 4th 2017
Large Reading Room (Großer Lesesaal)
Hauptbibliothek, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien
7 pm
Welcome
Maria Seissl
(Head Librarian, Vienna University Library)
Michael A. O. Oyugi
(Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya)
Adams Bodomo
(Head of the Department of African Studies and Head of the Global African Diaspora Studies Research Platform (GADS))
Franz Schmidjell, Irene Hochauer Kpoda
(VIDC)
Introduction
Martina Kopf
(Senior Lecturer at the Department of African Studies,
University of Vienna)
Reading
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Discussion
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Martina Kopf
There will be a small reception after the discussion.
Please register at events.ub@univie.ac.at
