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Al Jazeera
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Ngugi wa Thiong'o was not just a writer, he was a militant
Ngugi wa Thiong'o loved to dance. He loved it more than anything else – even more than writing. Well into his 80s, his body slowed by increasingly disabling kidney failure, Ngugi would get up and start dancing merely at the thought of music, never mind the sound of it. Rhythm flowed through his feet the way words flowed through his hands and onto the page. It is how I will always remember Ngugi – dancing. He passed away on May 28 at the age of 87, leaving behind not only a Nobel-worthy literary legacy but a combination of deeply innovative craft and piercingly original criticism that joyfully calls on all of us to do better and push harder – as writers, activists, teachers and people – against the colonial foundations that sustain all our societies. As for me, he pushed me to go far deeper up river to Kakuma refugee camp, where the free association of so many vernacular tongues and cultures made possible the freedom to think and speak 'from the heart' – something he would always describe as writing's greatest gift. Ngugi had long been a charter member of the African literary canon and a perennial Nobel favourite by the time I first met him in 2005. Getting to know him, it quickly became clear to me that his writing was inseparable from his teaching, which in turn was umbilically tied to his political commitments and long service as one of Africa's most formidable public intellectuals. Ngugi's cheerfulness and indefatigable smile and laugh hid a deep-seated anger, reflecting the scars of violence on his body and soul as a child, young man and adult victimised by successive and deeply intertwined systems of criminalised rule. The murder of his deaf brother, killed by the British because he did not hear and obey soldiers' orders to stop at a checkpoint, and the Mau Mau revolt that divided his other brothers on opposite sides of the colonial order during the final decade of British rule, imbued in him the foundational reality of violence and divisiveness as the twin engines of permanent coloniality even after independence formally severed the connection to the metropole. More than half a century after these events, nothing would arouse Ngugi's animated ire more than bringing up in a discussion the transitional moment from British to Kenyan rule, and the fact that colonialism didn't leave with the British, but rather dug in and reenforced itself with Kenya's new, Kenyan rulers. As he became a writer and playwright, Ngugi also became a militant, one devoted to using language to reconnect the complex African identities – local, tribal, national and cosmopolitan – that the 'cultural bomb' of British rule had 'annihilated' over the previous seven decades. After his first play, The Black Hermit, premiered in Kampala in 1962, he was quickly declared a voice who 'speaks for the Continent'. Two years later, Weep Not Child, his first novel and the first English-language novel by an East African writer, came out. As he rose to prominence, Ngugi decided to renounce the English language and start writing in his native Gikuyu. The (re)turn to his native tongue radically altered the trajectory not just of his career, but of his life, as the ability of his clear-eyed critique of postcolonial rule to reach his compatriots in their own language (rather than English or the national language of Swahili) was too much for Kenya's new rulers to tolerate, and so he was imprisoned for a year without trial in 1977. What Ngugi had realised when he began writing in Gikuyu, and even more so in prison, was the reality of neocolonialism as the primary mechanism of postcolonial rule. This wasn't the standard 'neocolonialism' that anti- and post-colonial activists used to describe the ongoing power of former colonial rulers by other means after formal independence, but rather the willing adoption of colonial technologies and discourses of rule by newly independent leaders, many of whom – like Jomo Kenyatta, Ngugi liked to point out – themselves suffered imprisonment and torture under the British rule. Thus, true decolonisation could only occur when people's minds were freed from foreign control, which required first and perhaps foremost the freedom to write in one's native language. Although rarely acknowledged, Ngugi's concept of neocolonialism, which owed much, he'd regularly explain, to the writings of Kwame Nkrumah and other African anti-colonial intellectuals-turned-political leaders, anticipated the rise of the now ubiquitous 'decolonial' and 'Indigenous' turns in the academy and progressive cultural production by almost a generation. Indeed, Ngugi has long been placed together with Edward Said, Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak as the founding generation of postcolonial thought and criticism. But he and Said, whom he'd frequently discuss as a brother-in-arms and fellow admirer of Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad, shared a similar all-encompassing focus on language, even as Said wrote his prose mostly in English rather than Arabic. For Said and Ngugi, colonialism had not yet passed, but was very much still an ongoing, viscerally and violently lived reality – for the former through the ever more violent and ultimately annihilatory settler colonialism, for the latter through the violence of successive governments. Ngugi saw his link with Said in their common experience growing up under British rule. As he explained in his afterword to a recently published anthology of Egyptian prison writings since 2011, 'The performance of authority was central to the colonial culture of silence and fear,' and disrupting that authority and ending the silence could only come first through language. For Said, the swirl of Arabic and English in his mind since childhood created what he called a 'primal instability', one that could be calmed fully when he was in Palestine, which he returned to multiple times in the last decade of his life. For Ngugi, even as Gikuyu enabled him to 'imagine another world, a flight to freedom, like a bird you see from the [prison] window,' he could not make a final return home in his last years. Still, from his home in Orange County, California in the United States, he would never tire of urging students and younger colleagues to 'write dangerously', to use language to resist whatever oppressive order in which they found themselves. The bird would always take flight, he would say, if you could write without fear. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Zawya
27-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Tapping into Africa's refugees: Economic opportunity hiding In plain sight
I recently visited Kakuma, one of Kenya's largest refugee settlements in preparation for the Africa Forum on Displacement conference. It was a welcome return. The first time I went there, I visited a bustling wholesale store. I can still see the owner, Mesfin Getahun, moving confidently among towering stacks of bulk goods, directing his staff of over 40 people, both refugees and Kenyans. Twenty-four years ago, Mesfin arrived in Kakuma as a refugee with nothing. He worked tirelessly and saved every shilling, started a bakery and eventually opened a small shop. Today, his wholesale business supports dozens of refugee-run enterprises throughout the settlement, and his philanthropy supports churches, mosques, orphans' education, and hospital bills for those in need. Across Africa, through our work, I've witnessed many examples of success stories like Mesfin's that ripple through both refugee and host communities, creating opportunity where many see only crisis. At Okapi Green Ltd in Kakuma, young refugees train in solar system installation, powering the camp while building marketable skills. In Rwanda's Mahama camp, refugee-led cooperatives supply vegetables to markets throughout the eastern province. These dynamic individuals, who have been displaced, have refused to be defined by their displacement. They have demonstrated remarkable resilience, tenacity to rebuild their lives, and contribute to their communities. Today, Africa hosts 45 million forcibly displaced people—over a third of the global total. They represent Africa's unrealized economic opportunity. That's why the Mastercard Foundation is committing $300 million to expand a partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Over five years, this initiative will enable over half a million refugees and displaced youth across Africa to complete their education and support 200,000 young people—70% of them women—to transition into dignified work. Through our Young Africa Works strategy—which aims to get 30 million young Africans in dignified and fulfilling work by 2030– we are scaling high-impact partnerships that enable young people to access the necessary education and skills needed to get a job or build their own businesses. This new commitment to UNHCR is a continuation of that approach. Central to this shift is the recognition that those most affected – refugees and displaced people — must lead the solutions. That's why we are strengthening 100 local and refugee-led organizations to co-implement programs and influence policy, ensuring interventions are grounded in their lived experience. At a time when global humanitarian and development aid are under immense pressure, we must reimagine fresh approaches, which build long-term education and economic pathways that benefit everyone. For host governments managing complex refugee situations, this approach transforms settlements from isolated 'waiting rooms' into dynamic economic centers where refugees contribute as consumers, entrepreneurs, and job creators. For local economies, it means expanded markets and productive workforces. The progress we seek requires an 'all in' approach. Host governments must create enabling policy environments recognizing refugees' right to work, movement, and credential validation. Development funders should pivot toward long-term investments in education and economic inclusion that deliver higher returns and sustainable outcomes. The private sector has the most transformative role—not through charity but through meaningful economic inclusion. When businesses integrate refugees into workforces and supply chains, they access untapped markets and talent pools. For philanthropists, the opportunity is to co-invest in scaling proven approaches. Our commitment will go further when others join us. What's at stake isn't just refugee wellbeing—it's Africa's economic future. Refugees like Mesfin are already demonstrating what's possible, strengthening communities, economies, and the continent itself. When we invest in their future, everyone benefits. About our Partnership with UNHCR We at Mastercard Foundation are redoubling our investment in what works. Since 2019, our partnership with UNHCR has demonstrated remarkable results. A recent investment in Sudan helped 30,000 young people return to secondary education and enabled 68,000 youth—62% women—to access work opportunities in just six months. UNHCR's unique position—with operations across the continent and decades of expertise—allows us to scale these proven approaches beyond individual countries to address displacement's cross-border nature.
