The Language question: Ngugi wa Thiong’o, ‘The Language of African Literature’, in Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Decolorising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (London: James Currey, 1981), pp. 4–9.

2017 ◽  
pp. 281-286 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
African Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Politics Of Language ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Language Question

scholarly journals Decolonizing Siberian Minds

Sibirica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. v-vi
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Romaniello
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Politics Of Language ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Language And Education ◽  
The Mind

Russian imperialism continues to leave a strong imprint on indigenous cultures across Siberia, and throughout the Russian Federation and the post-Soviet republics. Imperialism is invasive and persistent, and it might be impossible to escape its consequences. In 1986, African novelist and postcolonial theorist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o published his influential essay collection, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. One of his arguments is that no postcolonial subject could be free from the constraints of imperialism until she or he succeeded in freeing the mind from the trap of an imposed (and foreign) language. Ngũgĩ’s experience was based on his own life growing up in Kenya, but his lesson is as applicable to Siberia as it is for East Africa. For indigenous Siberians, language and education are at the forefront of the ongoing postcolonial struggle to maintain their cultural identities in modern Russia.

Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature

1987 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
H. S. Bhola ◽  
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Keyword(s):  
African Literature ◽  
Politics Of Language ◽  
The Mind

Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature

1987 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Jidlaph G. Kamoche ◽  
Ngũugĩ wa Thiong'o
Keyword(s):  
African Literature ◽  
Politics Of Language ◽  
The Mind

Liberate our Library: doing decolonisation work at Goldsmiths Library

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 148-154
Author(s):  
Marilyn Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
The Self ◽  
Hierarchical Systems ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
The Mind

Library work now has a role to play when it comes to decolonisation. This article outlines what Goldsmiths Library, University of London is doing, through the Liberate our Library initiative, to diversify and decolonise its collections and practices against the backdrop of worldwide movements for education and social justice led by both students and academics to challenge the dominance of the ‘Westernised university’.2Examples of how we are doing this work are explained using critical librarianship as our guide, whilst recognising that we are still developing expertise in this evolving field of practice. This decolonisation work also uses critical race theory (CRT) as a means to dismantle racial inequality and its impact on higher education.Here, I would like to acknowledge the excellent and inspirational content of ALJ, Critical Librarianship: Special Issue (v.44, no.2) and I see this article as an ongoing companion piece.Goldsmiths Library's liberation work endeavours to empower its users with critical thinking and study skills whilst conducting their research using hierarchical systems and resources which in themselves are in the process of being decolonised.Decolonising a library collection and a profession must of course always begin or at least happen in tandem with the self, through a process that Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o describes as ‘decolonising the mind.’3

Reading Ngũgĩ Reading Conrad

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-80
Author(s):  
Mark Wollaeger
Keyword(s):  
Joseph Conrad ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Postcolonial Criticism ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Center Periphery

This chapter considers points of intersection between Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Joseph Conrad. By Ngũgĩ’s own account, his rewriting of Conrad’s Under Western Eyes (1911) as A Grain of Wheat (1967) triggered a crisis of audience that ultimately led him to abandon English for his native Gikuyu. To further complicate the question of influence, Wollaeger also examines the relationship between two works of nonfiction: Conrad’s A Personal Record (1912) and Ngũgĩ’s Decolonizing the Mind (1986). At the heart of Ngũgĩ’s attempt to fashion premodern tribalism into a utopian space are two problems that still animate critical discussion. What is the status of the local and the indigenous? Does attention to influence reinstate a center-periphery model in postcolonial criticism? This chapter shows the extent to which Conrad and Ngũgĩ both anticipate and generate theoretical models later used to articulate modernism and postcolonialism as fields of inquiry.

scholarly journals Bury my bones but keep my words: The interface between oral tradition and contemporary African writing

Literator ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-44
Author(s):  
M.J. Cloete
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Oral Literature ◽  
Bessie Head ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
School Curricula

The contention in this article is that African oral tradition should be reexamined in view of its perceived new importance in the work of African novelists. This article investigates the nature and definition of oral tradition, as well as the use of oral tradition as a cultural tool. The increasing inclusion of oral literature as part of the African literature component within university and school curricula is discussed. Finally, the pronounced role of oral tradition in fiction is examined, using as exemplars some seminal works of Bessie Head (1978, 1990 and 1995 ) and Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1965, 1977, 1981, and 1982).

Acquiring and Studying African Literature

PMLA ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 117 (5) ◽  
pp. 1225-1227
Author(s):  
Mette Shayne
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Third World ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
African Writers ◽  
National Languages ◽  
Buying In

martin cohen's “developments in foreign approval buying,” in the march 2001 issue of pmla, lists some of “the foreign language bibliographer's […] tricks” (393) for stocking collections. Acquiring African literature, however, is largely a different matter. The approval plans Cohen mentions, whereby “the vendor allows you to see the book [or a description of it] before you decide whether or not to add it to the collection,” would be applicable to the presses in England and France specializing in Third World literature (e.g., Heinemann in England, L'Harmattan in France), which publish primarily the most established African writers (see Maja-Pearce; Ruppert). But when it comes to publishing on the continent of Africa, even books by well-known writers (like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o), when written in the national languages, can only be obtained locally. And certainly all other literature has to be bought in the country of origin.

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