Release Ngugi

To the Editors:

We are profoundly disturbed to learn from your issue of May 4 that the distinguished author and academic, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, has been detained in Kenya under the Public Security Act following the publication of his novel, Petals of Blood. We find it difficult to believe that Professor Ngugi, whose works are read and admired internationally, constitutes a threat to Kenya’s security. We urge the Kenyan government to release him as soon as possible.

James Baldwin, Claire Bloom, Basil Davidson, Margaret Drabble, J.G. Farrell, Ruth First, Antonia Fraser, Alex LaGuma, Diane Johnson, Alison Lurie, Diana Melly, George Melly, Jonathan Miller, Rachel Miller, Lewis Nkosi, Edna O’Brien, Harold Pinter, Philip Roth, C.P. Snow

(The Ngugi Defence Committee, 28/29 Southampton Street, London WC2, continues to seek signatures to the above petition and support for the jailed Kenyan writer and his family.)