Following Ngũgĩ’s death at 87 in Bedford, Georgia, Kenyans remember when his writing criticized an autocratic administration, which led to his arrest and imprisonment in the 1970s.

The Kenyan man of letters wrote dozens of fiction and nonfiction books that traced his country's history from British imperialism to home-ruled tyranny and challenged not only the stories told but the language used to tell them.

NAIROBI (Reuters) -Celebrated Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o, whose sharp criticisms of post-independence elites led to his jailing and two decade in exile, has died at the age of 87,