Internationally acclaimed Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has been awarded the 2019 Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize, worth €25 000.
He received the prize for his the collection of essays decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, first published in 1986 by Heinemann Educational in Nairobi, Zimbabwe Publishing House in Harare and James Currey in London.
The collection is described by online literary magazine Brittle Paper as “one of the most studied, storied and cited books in African literature and postcolonial studies, and the foremost globally arguing for linguistic decolonisation.”
In a press release the jury collectively said that “With Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o we are honouring a writer who is concerned with the self-determination of African cultures and with a dissociation from colonial constraints. His attempt to create a dialogue through literature in spite of or indeed because of the different languages evokes understanding for this continent and can thus contribute towards peace.”
In addition to being an author, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has taught comparative literature and English at Yale University, New York University and the University of California, Irvine, where he is currently based.
This is the 15th time the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize has been awarded since it was created in 1991. It “is awarded, following the ideas of its namesake, for fictional, journalistic or scientific works which set out to engage with inner and outer peace as well as for demonstrating an exemplary commitment to peace, humanity and freedom.
