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The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
Decolonizing Language by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o review – final words of literary giant
On 17 July 1979, the great Kenyan novelist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o gave a speech in Nairobi in which he questioned the logic of an African literature in European languages. He had recently been released from prison, where he had been held after his critiques of corruption and inequality had touched a nerve among leaders of the recently independent nation. But his address provoked strong reactions for another reason: up until that moment, Ngũgĩ had been closely associated with the emergence of an African tradition of writing in English and acknowledged as a key figure in the rise of the novel as a major genre on the continent; his fictional work was often cited as an example of how English was being remade in formerly colonised societies. His early novels, from 1964's Weep Not, Child onward, struck a chord with a global Anglophone audience partly because they echoed the English novelists he had read as a student at Makerere University College, the Ugandan branch of the University of London, and Leeds University, the seat of 'Commonwealth' literary studies in the 1960s. By the time of his speech, Ngũgĩ was a member of the literary establishment in Africa, a leading figure in world literature, and a leader in postcolonial thought. And while it is true that he had challenged what he saw as the hegemony of English in a 1968 manifesto, On the Abolition of the English Department, co-written with two of his colleagues at the University of Nairobi, Ngũgĩ assumed that the abolition of English did not mean dispensing with the colonial language. In fact, for most of the 1960s and 1970s he shared a belief, common among the postcolonial elite, that a literature in the ex-coloniser's language could indeed be revolutionary. But now the novelist had decided to break away from English, to depart, as he put it, 'from Anglo-Saxon literature in order to reconnect to the patriotic traditions of a national and culture literature rooted among the people'. He would henceforth write in his mother tongue, Gĩkũyũ (known to Swahili and English-speakers as Kikuyu). It is therefore fitting that, in Decolonizing Language, Ngũgĩ, who died earlier this year aged 87, should return to the question of language as effectively his final statement. The 20 essays collected in the book rehearse positions first articulated in his earlier collections, Writers in Politics and Decolonizing the Mind; but the new book is notable for Ngũgĩ's attention to the dangers that mother tongues face across the world, from colonial Ireland to Sami Norway, New Zealand and beyond. Read together, the essays resonate as a manifesto for the mother tongue both as 'the very heart of our being and existence' and the ultimate firewall against 'spiritual domination'. The mission of Decolonizing Language, the 'revolutionary idea' encapsulated in the book's subtitle, is an incisive rejection of the notion that European 'languages are inherently global and best able to carry intelligence and universality' or that they function as the languages 'of power and normality'. Reading the book and reflecting on the many conversations I had with Ngũgĩ as he tried to come to terms with his exile after learning of threats against his life in 1982, I was reminded of how different the situation was in 1979, when the author made his 'epistemological break' with English. I had graduated from the University of Nairobi a few months before, and had taken up a job as a trainee editor in the local office of Heinemann Educational Books, which was at the time a major publisher of African literature. My first task at Heinemann was to edit Devil on the Cross, Ngũgĩ's first novel in Gĩkũyũ. The famous author had two demands of his young editor: he insisted that his novel be edited to the same standards as the works I was editing in English and that it be directed at common readers, not elites. I went to work on the manuscript, which he had written in prison; when it was all done, and as I sat back and watched the big smile of satisfaction on his face, it dawned on me that for Ngũgĩ writing a novel in Gĩkũyũ had been a kind of homecoming. The book's initial reception stayed with him for many years: 'It was read in groups at homes and factory grounds, on public transportation even, the literate becoming the 'present' author of the story,' he noted in 2010. Ngũgĩ's decision to break with English provoked strong reactions: it was hailed by writers and cultural activists working in African languages who had felt left out in postcolonial debates that privileged English; it was criticised by prominent African writers, including Chinua Achebe, the 'founding father' of African literature, who insisted that English was a necessary linguistic tool in holding together multiethnic nations. Ngũgĩ refused to concede; instead he embarked on a global crusade defending mother tongues as indispensable tools in the decolonization of the mind. In this context, Decolonizing Language can be read as the author's final take on the overriding theme of this critical project, a clear diagnosis of the challenges mother tongues face in a world defined by linguistic hierarchies. On a more personal level, the book is Ngũgĩ's last account of his displacement from his own native ground, an acknowledgement of the heavy burden that those who write and speak the language of the other have to carry. The arguments made in the book are exhilarating; reading them in the author's absence is undeniably poignant. Simon Gikandi is University Professor of English at Princeton. Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is published by Allen Lane (£20). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Winnipeg Free Press
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
At age 87, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o remains impassioned about the power of language
NEW YORK (AP) — At age 87, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o hopes he can summon the strength for at least one more book. He would call it 'Normalized Abnormality,' about the lasting scars of colonialism, whether in Africa, Europe or North America, that are widely accepted today. 'I will write it if I have the energy,' Ngũgĩ, who has struggled with kidney problems in recent years, said during a telephone interview. This cover image released by The New Press shows 'Decolonizing Language: And Other Revolutionary Ideas by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. (The New Press via AP) One of the world's most revered writers and a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize, Ngũgĩ remains an energetic speaker with opinions no less forceful than they have been for the past 60 years. Since emerging as a leading voice of post-colonial Africa, he has been calling for Africans to reclaim their language and culture and denouncing the tyranny of Kenya's leaders. His best known books include the nonfiction 'Decolonizing the Mind' and the novel 'Devil on the Cross,' one of many books that he wrote in his native Gikũyũ. Ngũgĩ has been praised by critics and writers worldwide, and imprisoned, beaten, banned and otherwise threatened in his native country. Since the 1970s, he has mostly lived overseas, emigrating to England and eventually settling in California, where he is a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. 'I miss Kenya, because they gave me everything,' he says. 'All of my writings are based in Kenya. … I owe my writing to Kenya. It's very hard for me not to be able to return to my homeland.' Ngũgĩ has published a handful of books over the past decade, including the novel 'The Perfect Nine' and the prison memoir 'Wrestling with the Devil,' and was otherwise in the news in 2022 when his son, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, alleged that he had physically abused his first wife, Nyambura, who died in 1996 ('I can say categorically it's not true,' Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o responds). His U.S. publisher, The New Press, has just released 'Decolonizing Language,' which the author praises as a 'beautiful' title. 'Decolonizing Language' includes essays and poems written between 2000 and 2019, with subjects ranging from language and education to such friends and heroes as Nelson Mandela, Nadine Gordimer and Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author whose 1958 novel, 'Things Fall Apart,' is considered by many the starting point for modern African literature. Achebe also helped launch Ngũgĩ's career by showing a manuscript of an early novel, 'Weep Not, Child,' to publisher William Heinemann, who featured it in the landmark African Writers series. In one essay from 'Decolonizing Language,' Ngũgĩ declares that writers must 'be the voice of the voiceless. They have to give voice to silence, especially the silence imposed on a people by an oppressive state.' During his AP interview, Ngũgĩ discussed his concerns about Kenya, the 'empowerment' of knowing your native language, his literary influences and his mixed feelings about the United States. Ngũgĩ's comments on subjects have been condensed for clarity and brevity. On language in Kenya 'In Kenya, even today, we have children and their parents who cannot speak their mother tongues, or the parents know their mother tongues and don't want their children to know their mother tongue. They are very happy when they speak English and even happier when their children don't know their mother tongue. That's why I call it mental colonization.' On speaking English Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Sign up for The Warm-Up 'I am fine (with speaking English). After all, I am a distinguished professor of English and comparative literature at the University of California, in Irvine. So it's not that I mind English, but I don't want it to be my primary language, OK? This is how I put it: For me, and for everybody, if you know all the languages of the world, and you don't know your mother tongue, that's enslavement, mental enslavement. But if you know your mother tongue, and add other languages, that is empowerment.' His personal favorites 'I very much like the African American writers. I discovered them at Makerere University (in Uganda), and Caribbean writers like George Lamming were very important to me. The writers of the Harlem Renaissance fired my imagination and made me feel I could be a writer, too. … At the Makerere conference (the African Writers Conference, in 1962), I met with Langston Hughes, and oh my God it was so great!. Langston Hughes of the Harlem Renaissance! To shake hands with a world famous writer was very very important to me.' Mixed feelings about the United States 'On the one hand, I am grateful to be here and to have a job at a California university, as a distinguished professor. I appreciate that. But I was coming from a country which was a white seller colony, and I can't forget that when I'm here. People don't even talk about it here. They talk about it as if it were normal. So we talk about the American Revolution. But is it not Native Americans who were colonized? So I am very fascinated by this normalized abnormality.'
Hindustan Times
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
At age 87, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o remains impassioned about the power of language
NEW YORK — At age 87, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o hopes he can summon the strength for at least one more book. At age 87, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o remains impassioned about the power of language He would call it 'Normalized Abnormality,' about the lasting scars of colonialism, whether in Africa, Europe or North America, that are widely accepted today. 'I will write it if I have the energy,' Ngũgĩ, who has struggled with kidney problems in recent years, said during a telephone interview. One of the world's most revered writers and a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize, Ngũgĩ remains an energetic speaker with opinions no less forceful than they have been for the past 60 years. Since emerging as a leading voice of post-colonial Africa, he has been calling for Africans to reclaim their language and culture and denouncing the tyranny of Kenya's leaders. His best known books include the nonfiction 'Decolonizing the Mind' and the novel 'Devil on the Cross,' one of many books that he wrote in his native Gikũyũ. Ngũgĩ has been praised by critics and writers worldwide, and imprisoned, beaten, banned and otherwise threatened in his native country. Since the 1970s, he has mostly lived overseas, emigrating to England and eventually settling in California, where he is a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. 'I miss Kenya, because they gave me everything,' he says. 'All of my writings are based in Kenya. ... I owe my writing to Kenya. It's very hard for me not to be able to return to my homeland.' Ngũgĩ has published a handful of books over the past decade, including the novel 'The Perfect Nine' and the prison memoir 'Wrestling with the Devil,' and was otherwise in the news in 2022 when his son, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, alleged that he had physically abused his first wife, Nyambura, who died in 1996 . His U.S. publisher, The New Press, has just released 'Decolonizing Language,' which the author praises as a 'beautiful' title. 'Decolonizing Language' includes essays and poems written between 2000 and 2019, with subjects ranging from language and education to such friends and heroes as Nelson Mandela, Nadine Gordimer and Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author whose 1958 novel, 'Things Fall Apart,' is considered by many the starting point for modern African literature. Achebe also helped launch Ngũgĩ's career by showing a manuscript of an early novel, 'Weep Not, Child,' to publisher William Heinemann, who featured it in the landmark African Writers series. In one essay from 'Decolonizing Language,' Ngũgĩ declares that writers must 'be the voice of the voiceless. They have to give voice to silence, especially the silence imposed on a people by an oppressive state.' During his interview, Ngũgĩ discussed his concerns about Kenya, the 'empowerment' of knowing your native language, his literary influences and his mixed feelings about the United States. Ngũgĩ's comments on subjects have been condensed for clarity and brevity. 'In Kenya, even today, we have children and their parents who cannot speak their mother tongues, or the parents know their mother tongues and don't want their children to know their mother tongue. They are very happy when they speak English and even happier when their children don't know their mother tongue. That's why I call it mental colonization.' 'I am fine . After all, I am a distinguished professor of English and comparative literature at the University of California, in Irvine. So it's not that I mind English, but I don't want it to be my primary language, OK? This is how I put it: For me, and for everybody, if you know all the languages of the world, and you don't know your mother tongue, that's enslavement, mental enslavement. But if you know your mother tongue, and add other languages, that is empowerment.' 'I very much like the African American writers. I discovered them at Makerere University , and Caribbean writers like George Lamming were very important to me. The writers of the Harlem Renaissance fired my imagination and made me feel I could be a writer, too. ... At the Makerere conference , I met with Langston Hughes, and oh my God it was so great!. Langston Hughes of the Harlem Renaissance! To shake hands with a world famous writer was very very important to me.' 'On the one hand, I am grateful to be here and to have a job at a California university, as a distinguished professor. I appreciate that. But I was coming from a country which was a white seller colony, and I can't forget that when I'm here. People don't even talk about it here. They talk about it as if it were normal. So we talk about the American Revolution. But is it not Native Americans who were colonized? So I am very fascinated by this normalized abnormality.' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
