A Novel Written on Toilet Paper

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

In late 1977, the Kenyan government detained Ngugi wa Thiong'o without trial for about a year, after he co-wrote a Gikuyu language play, Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), that was seen as a direct critique of the ruling party and postcolonial inequality. In detention at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, denied writing paper, Ngugi wrote his novel Devil on the Cross on sheets of prison issued toilet paper, composing it in Gikuyu, the language he had committed to writing in going forward. The novel was published after his release and is often cited as the clearest example of his conviction that language choice was itself an act of resistance.