Poet and playwright Sitawa Namwalie reflects on the deep impact of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s work on her life and art. She speaks about growing up in post-colonial Kenya, the violence of language erasure in schools and how Ngugi’s Decolonising the Mind reshaped her understanding of theatre, resistance and identity.

Her performance of Names of the Dead in English, Kiswahili and Sheng shows the power of language in reclaiming African voices and telling stories that heal and transform.