The Pan-Africanism that envisaged the ideal of wholeness was gradually cut down to the size of a continent, then a nation, a region, an ethnos, a clan, and even a village in some instances But Pan-Africanism has not outlived its mission.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OAnd even in terms of justice, law codes, the legal system. A person who does not know English in Africa is excluded from that system because he can only operate through acts of translation.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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For me, being in prison writing in an African language was a way of saying: “Even if you put me in prison, I will keep on writing in the language which made you put me in prison.”
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Those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mould it and those committed to breaking it up; those who aim to open our eyes, to make us see the light and look to tomorrow […] and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes
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A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.
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The Bible in translation is being read to thousands and thousands in Africa. It is an integral part of their functioning and the way they look at the world.
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So what I thought was just an African problem or issue is actually a global phenomenon about relationships of power between languages and cultures.
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Our lives are a battlefield on which is fought a continuous war between the forces that are pledged to confirm our humanity and those determined to dismantle it.
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I’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
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We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.
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Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices
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People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday.
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It was a revelation for me, in a practical sense, that you could write in an African language and still reach an audience beyond that language through the art of translation.
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If a novel is written in a certain language with certain characters from a particular community and the story is very good or illuminating, then that work is translated into the language of another community.
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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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What’s good about writing is that when you write novels or fiction, people can see that the problems in one region are similar to problems in another region.
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Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O