Mukoma Wa Ngugi, associate professor of English at Cornell University and visiting fellow in the Institute for Ethnic Studies at Nebraska, will present a talk titled “Blackness, Africans, and African Americans: Complex Solidarities and Beauty” Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. in the Nebraska Union Auditorium.

A book signing will follow with several of his works available for purchase. This event is free and open to the public.

Ngugi will explore how historical forces including slavery, colonialism, pan-Africanism and globalization have colored the way Africans and African Americans see each other politically and culturally. As the Visiting Distinguished Fellow, Ngugi is also teaching a weeklong seminar about the global south and will touch on this lecture topic in his class.

Ngugi is the author of “The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity and Ownership,” as well as the novels “Mrs. Shaw,” “Black Star Nairobi” and “Nairobi Heat,” and two books of poetry. A new novel, “We Sing the Tizita to Unbury Our Dead,” is forthcoming. Some of his works have been translated into German, Turkish and French. He is the co-founder of the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature and co-director of the Global South Project at Cornell.

For more information, please contact James Garza at jgarza2@unl.edu.