The Nation spoke with the Kenyan novelist, essayist, and playwright—before his death—about his most recent essay collection Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, who has died aged 87, was a titan of modern African literature - a storyteller who refused to be bound by jail, exile and illness. His work spanned roughly six decades, primarily documenting the transformation of his country - Kenya - from a colonial subject to a democracy.