Decolonising the Mind : The Politics of Language in African Literature

Ngugi wrote his first novels and plays in English but was determined, even before his detention without trial in 1978, to move to writing in Gikuyu.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 Ngugi wa Thiong'o famously began his writing career writing in English (publishing under the name "James Ngugi"). He had considerable success, but eventually turned to writing in his mother tongue, Gikuyu (though he did translate and publish these later works in English too). Ngugi is among a handful of authors who have written successfully in more than one language -- Samuel Beckett and Vladimir Nabokov are among the few others -- but his reasons for doing so differ somewhat from those of other bilingual authors. Decolonising the Mind is both an explanation of how he came to write in Gikuyu, as well as an exhortation for African writers to embrace their native tongues in their art. The foreign languages most African authors write in are the languages of the imperialists -- English, French, and Portuguese -- that were relatively recently imposed on them. (Ngugi doesn't consider Arabic in the same light, nor Swahili.) Ngugi makes a good case for the obvious point: that the relation of Africans to those imposed languages is a very different one from that which the same Africans have to the native languages they speak at home. Speaking and writing in the language of the colonisers will naturally be different than in the language one speaks while at play or with one's family. In addition, the language of the coloniser is often a truly foreign one: segments of society understand it badly, if at all, and so certain audiences can not be reached by works in these imposed languages. (The validity of some of these points has, however, diminished over the past decades, as literacy has spread and French, Portuguese, and especially English have established themselves as linguae francae across much of the continent.) -- Review from http://www.complete-review.com (Oct. 7, 2011) 'afro-european' - The Literature Written By Africans In European Languages - May 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. This Book Presents The Arguments For Using African Language And Forms. Towards The Universal Language Of Struggle -- The Language Of African Literature -- The Language Of African Theatre -- The Language Of African Fiction -- The Quest For Relevance. Ngũgĩ Wa Thiongʾo. Includes Bibliographies And Index. >Descolonizar la mente es una referencia ineludible en el debate lingüístico que tiene lugar en el marco de los estudios poscoloniales. Reúne cuatro conferencias que el autor realizó entre 1981 y 1985, cuyo hilo conductor no es solo una reflexión sobre el papel de la lengua en la construcción de la identidad nacional, cultural, social e histórica, y su función en la descolonización, sino también sobre los acontecimientos vitales que han contribuido a elaborar el pensamiento del autor. - [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/8490626537) Front cover Contents Acknowledgements Preface A Statement Introduction 1. The Language of African Literature 2. The Language of African Theatre 3. The Language of African Fiction 4. The Quest for Relevance Index