Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Two literary scholars discuss Shakespeare’s influence on the politics, history, and literary culture of East Africa. Edward Wilson-Lee, the son of white wildlife conservationists, spent his childhood in Kenya and now teaches Shakespeare at the University of Cambridge in England. Over the past few years he has spent extended periods back in Kenya, as well as in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, researching his book, Shakespeare in Swahililand. Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o, the renowned Kenyan playwright, novelist, dissident, and social activist, grew up in Kenya when it was still a British colony and is now a Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. His most recent work is the memoir Birth of a Dream Weaver. Ngũgĩ and Edward were interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published October 3, 2017. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode, “The Language That I Have Lived In,” was produced by Richard Paul