Author Ngugi wa Thiong'o (pictured) is alive and well, his son has said.
Mukoma wa Thiong'o took to Twitter to clarify the claims after fake news went around that the author, aged 83, was dead.
"Just got off the phone with pops, and he is doing well," he said.
Mukoma added that he and Ngugi shared a good laugh about his supposed demise.
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"But good to see so many people caring," he added.
Nobel Literature Prize
The 2021 Nobel Literature Prize was awarded to Tanzania-born Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah. The novelist grew up in Zanzibar and later moved to England as a refugee in 1968, where he began to ply his writing trade at 21 years old.
Gurnah became the second black African writer to win the Nobel Literature Prize.
Other African writers who have been awarded the prize include Wole Soyinka in 1986, Naguib Mahfouz in 1988, Nadine Gordimer in 1991, and J.M. Coetzee in 2003.
But this much-coveted honour has attracted the attention of many African literature scholars, while at the same time setting off a furious debate on the criteria for awarding the prize.
The Swedish Academy, which is responsible for choosing Nobel Laureates in Literature, seems to shun a certain ilk of writers (who appear critical of Western imperialism and undue white dominance).
That’s why some other great African writers like our very own Ngugi, and the late Chinua Achebe, despite being gifted and widely read, never won the award.
Gradually, it seems to have dawned on Africans that this may, after all, never happen. But why?
Ngugi, for instance, seeks to question the hegemonies of power.
His literary works criticise Eurocentrism and the effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, exploring the destruction and diminishing of African cultures - their arts, religion, values and history.
His works point out that political, economic and cultural dominance cannot be exercised without the manipulation of minds.
All winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature have either been apologists of white imperialism, or just played safe regarding the matter.
With a well-thought-out approach, Africa can fashion her own premium literature prize and render the Nobel Prize for literature inconsequential to the continent.
