"Despite decades of exile, I still feel the pull of my homeland" - Ngugi wa Thiong'o

I never chose exile; it was forced on me. In 1982 I had packed my suitcase to return home from a London book launch when I learnt that the then Moi dictatorship in Kenya planned to eliminate me, euphemistically described as giving me a red-carpet welcome at the airport. At first I would only use the word shipwrecked, not exile, to refer to my situation; shipwrecks end with rescue, right? I did not unpack the suitcase. Seven years later the suitcase was still packed.