Decolonising the Mind

The Politics of Language in African Literature

Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o Series: Studies in African Literature

A collection of essays about language and its constructive role in national culture, history, and identity, that advocates for linguistic decolonization.

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PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

A collection of essays about language and its constructive role in national culture, history, and identity, that advocates for linguistic decolonization.

Description

Ngugi describes this book as 'a summary of some of the issues in which I have been passionately involved for the last twenty years of my practice in fiction, theatre, criticism and in teaching of literature.'

East Africa [Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda]: EAEP

Critic Reviews

“Ngugi's is a many splendored book. It is the personal testimony of an author who has fought a long battle of his own to undo the colonization of his mind. At the same time the book presents a historical analysis of subversion of personal identities and cultures of the colonized peoples in the process of colonization. It is also a book on the historical development of orature and literature in Africa. Finally, it is an essay in literary theory and criticism on the role of the artist in society. Ngugi writes about Africa, his analysis applies to all of the Third World.”

... many of the ideas are familiar from Ngugi's earlier critical books, and earlier lectures, elsewhere. But the material here has a new context and the ideas a new focus. This leading African writer presents the arguments for using African language andforms after successfully using an African language himself.' - Anne Walmsley in 'The Guardian' -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'... after 25 years of independence, there is beginning to emerge a generation of writers for whom colonialism is a matter of history and not of direct personal experience. In retrospect that literature characterised by Ngugi as Afro-European - the literature written by Africans in European languages - will come to be seen as part and parcel of the uneasy period between colonialism and full independence, a period equally reflected in the continent's political instability as it attempts to find its feet. Ngugi's importance - and that of this book - lies in the courage with which he has confronted this most urgent of issues.' - Adewale Maja-Pearce in 'The New Statesman'--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Author

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o is a mjor Kenyan writer now living in the United States. He has taught at Yale and New York University. He is a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature as well as the Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine.