Secure the Base
Making Africa Visible in the Globe
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
5 x 8.5 inches, 152pp. January 2016
ISBN : 9780857423139
Rs 495.00 (HB)
$25.00 (HB)
£17.50 (HB)
Buy (HB) For more than sixty years, Ngugi wa Thiong’o has been writing fearlessly the questions, challenges, histories, and futures of Africans, particularly those of his homeland, Kenya. In his work, which has included plays, novels, and essays, Ngugi narrates the injustice of colonial violence and the dictatorial betrayal of decolonization, the fight for freedom and subsequent incarceration and the aspiration toward economic equality in the face of gross inequality. With both hope and disappointment, he questions the role of language in both the organization of power structures and the pursuit of autonomy and self-expression.
Ngugi’s fiction has reached wide acclaim, but his nonfictional work, while equally brilliant, is difficult to find. Secure the Base changes this by bringing together for the first time essays spanning nearly three decades. Originating as disparate lectures and texts, this complete volume will remind readers anew of Ngugi’s power and importance. Written in a personal and accessible style, the book covers a range of issues, including the role of the intellectual, the place of Asia in Africa, labor and political struggles in an era of rampant capitalism, and the legacies of slavery and prospects for peace. At a time when Africa looms large in our discussions of globalization, Secure the Base is mandatory reading.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was born in Limuru, Kenya, in 1938. One of the leading African writers and scholars at work today, he is the author of many novels, short stories, essays, a memoir, and several plays. His novels include The River Between (1965) and Petals of Blood (1977). He received the prestigious Nonino International Prize for Literature in 2001. Currently he is distinguished professor in the School of Humanities and director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine.
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