Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o stands as one of the most formidable literary and intellectual voices of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Novelist, playwright, theorist, memoirist, and advocate of linguistic decolonisation, Ngũgĩ’s work continues to shape debates on coloniality, nationalism, language politics, global capitalism, and epistemic justice.

From Weep Not, Child and Petals of Blood to Wizard of the Crow, and from Decolonising the Mind to Globalectics, Ngũgĩ’s oeuvre constitutes a sustained interrogation of imperial power and cultural domination. His decision to abandon English in favor of Gikuyu reoriented global conversations on language, authorship, and audience. At a historical moment marked by digital capitalism, algorithmic linguistic hierarchies, climate crisis, and renewed struggles for indigenous sovereignty, Ngũgĩ’s work demands renewed critical engagement.

This edited volume seeks original, theoretically rigorous essays that reassess Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s contributions within contemporary literary, cultural, and political contexts. We particularly welcome essays that move beyond celebratory readings and offer critical, comparative, interdisciplinary, or theoretically innovative approaches.

The present volume promises to incorporate chapters on the following topics-

1. Language, Translation, and Epistemic Decolonisation

• Re-reading Decolonising the Mind in the age of digital English
• Language politics and algorithmic colonialism
• Translation as resistance
• Gikuyu aesthetics and oral narrative traditions
• Multilingualism and world literature

2. Fiction, Form, and Political Aesthetics

• Narrative experimentation in Petals of Blood
• Allegory and satire in Wizard of the Crow
• Marxism, realism, and revolutionary form
• Myth, folklore, and historiography
• The aesthetics of resistance

3. Theatre, Community, and Carceral Writing

• Community theatre as political pedagogy
• I Will Marry When I Want and collective authorship
• Prison writing as decolonial praxis
• Performance, participation, and peasant consciousness

4. Ngũgĩ and Globalectics

• Ngũgĩ in the context of world literature debates
• Circulation, reception, and translation politics
• Comparative readings (Achebe, Soyinka, Fanon, Césaire, Bhabha, Mignolo, etc.)
• South–South literary dialogues

5. Contemporary Relevance

• Ngũgĩ and environmental justice
• Digital colonialism and cultural sovereignty
• Curriculum reform and decolonising education
• Nation, cosmopolitanism, and decolonial futures

Submission Guidelines

• Abstracts of 300–400 words
• A brief bio-note (100–150 words)
• 5–6 keywords
• Please indicate institutional affiliation (if applicable)

Selected contributors will be invited to submit full-length chapters of 6,000–8,000 words, formatted according to MLA 9th edition guidelines. 

Timeline

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 27/06/2026
  
• Notification of Acceptance: 09/07/2026
• Full Chapter Submission: 25/12/2027

Book Editors-

Dr. Sourav Kumar Nag 

Assistant Professor, 

Onda Thana Mahavidyalaya 

Bankura University

Priyanka De

Ad-hoc Faculty,

Onda Thana Mahavidyalaya 

Bankura University