The following is mainly based on the first chapter of Ngugi’s “Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature” (1986):
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan writer, says that African writers should write in their mother tongues, not in the old colonial languages of English, French and Portuguese. He used to write in English, but now he mostly writes in Gikuyu.
In most of the world writers write in their mother tongue. That this point is even debated in Africa shows just how screwed up Africa has become by Europe and America.
The two main uses of language:
- Language as communication: This is the “pass the salt” level of language. Language used to work together and get things done.
- Language as culture: Language expresses and carries the culture of a people. It becomes the storehouse of its images, ideas, wisdom, experience and history. It ties you to your people, it becomes part of who you are. It shapes how you look at the world and yourself.
The trouble is, many Africans grew up as children in their mother tongue but received their higher education in a colonial language. Higher education is not just science and mathematics but also literature and philosophy and art – and therefore a certain way of looking at the world. In this case a Western, Eurocentric one.
This leads to colonial alienation:
- You become “torn between two worlds”. You see yourself through the eyes of others. Your mother tongue, your people, their culture, all become a point of shame for you.
- You are cut off from your people, which means you cannot help them break their chains, overthrow the neocolonial order and free everyone.
- Your people are cut off from you, robbed of your work and talent as you become part of a neocolonial culture. You wind up either serving a foreign culture and its interests or, at best, sinking into bitterness and despair.
It is a cage that helps no one but Europeans and Americans.
Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian writer of English expression, disagrees:
- Colonial language as lingua franca: It is often the only language that can reach the whole country, like English in Nigeria or Portuguese in Angola.
- Africanization: European languages can be Africanized to serve African ideas and interests – something that Achebe himself does with English.
Achebe also keeps his English in a form that Europeans can easily understand. Why? Nigeria already has a thoroughly Africanized form of English which is widely known by the masses – Pidgin. Why not write in that?
Europeans understood that it was not enough to take over Africa with guns alone. They also needed to take over the minds of its people. They did that through English and French and Portuguese and the fine educations offered in those languages. Africa’s current condition shows that they have succeeded.
– Abagond, 2011.
See also:
- Chinua Achebe: The Politics and Politicians of Language in African Literature – Achebe’s answer to Ngugi
- Senghor – like Achebe but worse: “French words send out a thousand rays like diamonds”
- Scramble for Africa
- Toni Morrison on the white gaze – Achebe’s writing taught her how to write as a Black American
“Europeans understood that it was not enough to take over Africa with guns alone. They also needed to take over the minds of its people. They did that through English and French and Portuguese and the fine educations offered in those languages. Africa’s current condition shows that they have succeeded.”
As a daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, I find this to be an interesting point. My parents communicate in their “tribal” (hate that word) languages, but sometimes they will switch briefly to English and then go back. I feel that it’s not necessarily the language that leads to subjugation but rather who controls it. Since in this case language is controlled by elites, their values are reflected in the language. However, even if writers were to avoid using European languages, what difference does it make if the masses do not control the means of production? I think that contributes more to the problems in Africa than whether two writers write in an European language or an African language.
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Ngugi is a Kikuyu by tribe but a Kenyan by nationality. The National Language of Kenya is Kiswahili ( also widely spoken or understood across East and Central Africa ). Hopefully in the interest of greater unity between the various tribes of Kenya he will not forsake Kiswahili altogether. Taking this further; it the interest of his international readership, he will also continue to pen in English!!!!
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This article is very interesting, Abagond. Though, the point on which language to choose has been settled by the African Union: Swahili.
It’s interesting that Joe points out how Ngugi bypasses this language.
Then again, it’s a matter of audience. For instance, if I wanted to write something to you, writing it in Swahili would do me no good.
Maybe Ngugi wants to write to the people of his town. That’s noble. For my part, I want to write to the whole of Africa and her descendants. I think that Swahili would be the best language for that: after we learn it.
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I totally agree. Africans in America are psychologically wounded. They will not tell you anything about Africa. Yet will do everything to live the White Western so-called successful path. I have noticed that this causes them serious friction. They Want so bad to be Americanized, yet they are so pained by Home. The judgements that come from them is amazing.
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Writing in pigin won’t work. It’s not a language, and many Nigerians also don’t understand pigin at an advanced level. English has indeed become the lingua franca and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. I don’t think speaking or writing english in any way oppresses my culture. What would be oppressive is if I was forbidden to speak or write in my language. But no one’s stopping me.
There has to be a common language, and it just so happens that in our parts, and most of the world, english is it. Same way it’s Arabic in some areas, an Asian language. No one’s currently stopping anyone from using their language. If some people think so, then they should push a bit harder for Esperanto.
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This was absolutely true. It remains true: Languages colonize.
But something else has happened. As a result of this process, English has morphed into the lingua franca of the modern world. Actually, I love the use of that term: Lingua francas often don’t stay that way.
In some places, English is a language of liberation; in South Africa, it was its opposition to Afrkiaans that made it a unifying langauge for black South Africa. it also linked it to the rest of the world.
I’ve traveled in Africa, and all over Asia, and one thing bothers me: I want to go to a country and see different people, cultures and societies. The Airportloungization of the world is endlessly depressing.
As hard as Sudan was to see, it was one thing: Different.
But English and universalism is as prominent in a place like Korea, too. English is the defacto language of high status and ambition in Korea, even if you never deal with English people. It’s weird – but the enthusiasm with which it’s embraced has nothing to do with its colonial status. It’s deeply personal.
I feel this issue personally. I studied Gaelic as a child; the English were savagely colonial with the Celts of the British Isles. In a very real sense, I feel stripped of a cultural legacy, too, though perhaps less immediately.
That said – my uncles still spoke Gaelic and identified as Irish and Scottish exclusively, even as Americans. They had words for the English.
There’s no easy answer for it. Some say the language of communication is unimportant, but I disagree. It’s key to identity and part and parcel of the constructed social relations we have.
I think black America would be better off if it had some connection to root languages, but the problem is – there’s no way to even start with that.
Notes:
I’ve noticed that many children of Celtic background do better in school when they study Gaelic, Welsh or learn about Celtic things; this I noticed in England. And that’s stretching it a bit.
It has to be true for black Americans, with race playing such a big role, too. If it can affect Welsh kids in the countryside or Irish kids in Boston, it must have a profound effect on black kids in Manhattan.
“Black English” gives something to this, but again: This is a variety of the Master’s langauge, and not a high-status one, either.
I was considering all of this after long beer-driven talks with some Scottish expatriates. The brouhaha concerning independence over there is stirring up some solidly recognizable emotions.
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[…] courtesy Abagond Cats: Africa, Biography, Kenya, News Tags: A Grain of Wheat, Africa, Africa Book Club, African […]
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As we fight for the recognition and preservation of our culture through restoring the African languages the white man devices other means to subjugate Africans. As a visionary the African writer has shown us the ills of our oppressors and how opportunistic they are to Africans ( exploiting our good nature of accommodating the whites) therefore we should not entertain the in our lands. Wipe them out!!!join in the cause!!!!!
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[…] Check out this blog post from Abagond for a review and comparison to other African, de-colonial […]
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Amos Tutuola’s famous novel is written in that sort of pidgin style. Very confusing read, and full of numerous grammatical errors that I assume are intentional. I don’t necessarily think one should assume people who speak in the ‘pidgin’ would be readers in that language though…we need more data to make generalizations like that
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off course the other weapon used by the colonisers was language the question remains would africans over come linguicism and in what way
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Well fine then, we’ll keep English for ourselves.
The language will probably be better for this.
No more “yo n*ggaz, WHATTUP? Ya’ll motherf*ckers all tripping on this dank-*ss SHEEYIT!”
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“Well fine then, we’ll keep English for ourselves.”
A little too late now, don’t you think? If only you had kept to yourselves then. If only, if only.
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Ngugi wa Thiongo has the right intention but he forgets that tribal languages, especially for younger Africans are dialects that are being forgotten. Sheng (a mix of Swahili and English) is what most people in Kenya (especially Nairobi speak).
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i am more convinced that portry is the universal possesion of mankind if it is so then portry is without nationality, would it be wonderful if we classified literature not by country but by content.
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I think it’s so difficult to adopt some language in African literature for we understand that Africa is full of more than fifteen hundreds of languages (language diversity ), and those languages are not recognised by others even in one societyin Africa itself .In addition, the languages that educated people have gained their education are colonial languages the reason that made the writers to select such languages as languages of expression .
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I think it would be quite difficult to come to an agreement on the language of expression for African literature. This is due to the problem of diversity in languages and communication. Probably, we often get to forget that though this is a very vital issue to discus, it is also trivial as the only language we all can understand, especially as it relates to our national and collective struggle for self-regulation as Africans is the language of the colonial master. Though this language cannot carry the weight of our African experience, culture and tradition, it is the only language that unites the whole of Africa (the people therein). I, as a Nigerian cannot speak Swahili, or other Eastern or Southern indigenous languages, but I can speak the English, Igbo, Hausa, and a little of Yoruba languages.
My assertion; lets not brutalize the English language. Though its the language of our colonial masters, that language brought us ALL together as Africans in the struggle!!
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