Simon Gikandi
James Ogude
Ndirangu Wachanga
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ
Mumbi wa Ngũgĩ
Ndũcũ wa Ngũgĩ
Nyambura Sallinen
Wangũi wa Goro
Karen Lawrence
Colette LaBouff
Angela Davis
Adriana Johnson
Mukul Kumar
Carla Wilson
Paa Kwesi-Heto
Akosua Adomako Ampofo
Chimee Adịọha
Baba Badji
Jaye Austin Williams
Cilas Kemedjio
Anindo Marshall
Kwame Rĩgĩĩ
Nii Armah Sowah
Sela Adjei
Victor Nani Agbeli
Mumbi Ngũgĩ
Fred Moten
Jimmy Centeno
Idza Luhumyo
Bwesigye Bwa-Mwesigire
Rah Hite
Tyrus Miller
Jane O. Newman
Jerry Lee
Ketu Katrak
Gabriele Schwab
David Theo Goldberg
Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan
Cecelia Lynch
S. Ama Wray
Munyao Kilolo
Glaydah Namukasa
Joel Veenstra










Akosua Adomako Ampofo 







Akosua Adomako Ampofo is Professor of African and Gender Studies, and a former Director of the Institute of African Studies and the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Ghana. A feminist, activist scholar, her work on African Knowledges, Gender and Masculinities, and Popular Culture is informed by a commitment to social justice.  In 2022 she co-produced the award-winning documentary on women’s activism in Ghana, When Women Speak, with Kate Skinner and directed by Aseye Tamakloe.  Adomako Ampofo is the founding vice-president and immediate past President of the African Studies Association of Africa, and a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2023-2024 she was the Wangari Maathai Visiting Professor at the University of Kassel. She is the 2025 Claude Ake Chair at the Nordic Africa Institute and the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. In 2024 she established 715House Productions, a creative media company, with her daughter, Akosua-Asamoabea Ampofo, dedicated to reshaping narratives about (global) Africa. A lifelong learner, Akosua is pursuing an NYU in Business of Entertainment certificate with the Tisch Shool of the Arts.





The Celebration of the Life and Work of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is made possible through the support of the:

UCI Office of the Chancellor
Dean of the School of the Arts
Dean of the School of Humanities
Dean of the School of Social Sciences
Humanities Center
International Center for Writing and Translation
UCI Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality
Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies
Office of Inclusive Excellence
UCI Illuminations: The Chancellor's Arts & Culture Initiative
Alex Glasser The Center for the Power of Music and Social Change
Department of Anthropology
Department of Comparative Literature
Department of Drama
Department of English
Department of Dance

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Organized by:

Adriana Johnson
Jane O. Newman
Gabriele Schwab
Ketu Katrak
Jerry Lee
Cecelia Lynch
S. Ama Wray