Meja Mwangi

Meja Mwangi (born December 1948, Nyeri, Kenya) is an African novelist who wrote prolifically on the social conditions and history of Kenya.

Mwangi was stimulated to try his hand at writing after reading Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kenya’s first novelist. Like his mentor, Mwangi concentrated initially on the Mau Mau rebellion, telling stories of forest guerrillas who struggled, often unsuccessfully, against formidable adversaries. Both Taste of Death (his earliest narrative, not published until 1975) and Carcase for Hounds (1974) capture the spirit of the resistance movement in the Kikuyu highlands of colonial Kenya. Mwangi’s aim was to preserve a record of the recent past in these quasi-historical novels.

Mwangi also manifested a lively interest in Kenya’s contemporary social problems. In Kill Me Quick (1973) he focuses on the plight of young men who, though educated, are unable to find honest employment. In Going down River Road (1976) he deals with the rough-and-tumble life of construction workers in Nairobi, and in The Cockroach Dance (1979) he recounts the picaresque adventures of a meter reader coping with life in the squalor and violence of a slum. Among Mwangi’s later works are the thriller Bread of Sorrow (1987), Weapon of Hunger (1989), The Return of Shaka (1989), Striving for the Wind (1990), The Last Plague (2000), and The Big Chiefs (2008). In these vivid naturalistic narratives Mwangi never loses his sense of humour; he offers the reader a mixture of protest and hilarity.

Mwangi also wrote stories for children, including The Hunter’s Dream (1993), The Mzunga Boy (2005), and The Boy Gift (2006). In addition, he was involved with filmmaking in the 1980s. Mwangi wrote the screenplay for Cry Freedom (1981) and later served as an assistant director on Out of Africa (1985) and White Mischief (1987).