Wangui wa Goro is a translator, writer, poet, scholar and cultural curator whose work spans African literature, translation studies, education and international development. A Professor of Practice at SOAS University of London, she has spent more than four decades working as a public intellectual and advocate for linguistic, cultural, social and political freedom. Her career brings together academic research, literary practice, publishing, mentorship and Pan-African cultural exchange.
Wa Goro is widely recognised as both a translation practitioner and a leading theorist and promoter of African translation. She has translated across French, Italian, Kiswahili and Gikuyu, and is especially known for her translations of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Véronique Tadjo, including Tadjo’s As the Crow Flies. Her work helps African texts, languages and literary traditions travel across linguistic boundaries while retaining their political, cultural and aesthetic distinctiveness.
Her approach treats translation as a form of creative, intellectual and political practice. Through initiatives including Africa in Translation and her work with international literary and scholarly organisations, she has championed collaboration between translators, writers, publishers and readers. Her practice is shaped by feminist, Pan-African and intersectional commitments, and by a sustained belief that translation can expand literary worlds, challenge unequal systems of cultural circulation and create deeper dialogue across communities.
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