Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas
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- €11.99
Publisher Description
A new collection of literary criticism and brilliant insights from one of the giants of contemporary thinking
Who owns language? In Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas, Ngugi wa Thiong’o presents a series of essays that build on his vast wealth of work on language and its constructive role in national culture, history, and identity. Intricate, nuanced and accessible, it reaffirms the revolutionary power of African languages to fight back against both the psychic and material impacts of colonialism, past and present.
With immense relevance to our present moment, Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas is a brilliant distillation of the enduring themes of Ngugi’s work and a vital addition to the library of one of the world’s greatest and most provocative writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
These erudite essays from Kenyan novelist Thiong'o (The Perfect Nine) meditate on colonialism, literature, and politics. "Decolonizing Education" defends the preservation of native languages as a vital expression of culture, criticizing how the English attempted to suppress Gaelic in Ireland and Sanskrit in India as a means of subduing colonial populations. In "Between Enslavement and Empowerment," Thiong'o laments how the middle class in many African countries reinforce the preference for European languages even after independence, noting that most contemporary African academics don't write in African languages and that the Kenyan parliament voted to ban African languages on official premises. Several pieces pay tribute to Thiongo's literary contemporaries, as when he lauds novelist Chinua Achebe for raising the international profile of African writers as adviser to the Heinemann African Writers Series and praises playwright Mĩcere Mũgo for critiquing Kenyan dictator Daniel arap Moi in her work even as doing so forced her into exile. Elsewhere, Thiong'o exhorts Kenyan leaders to address acute poverty in the country and calls on universities to encourage discourse across cultures and languages. Thiong'o's incisive analysis unearths the hidden connections between language and power, doling out insights into the fault lines of postcolonial African politics along the way. This will leave readers with much to ponder.
