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.”
NGUGI WA THIONG'OAny writer likes to be near the area which is the location of his work.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power.
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I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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They want to be the ones telling people: “This is what we have done in history” but when people begin to say, “No this is what we have done in history” it’s a different thing.
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There is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.
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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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A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.
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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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Then they begin to see through their language that the problems described there are the same as the problems they are having. They can identify with characters from another language group.
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So we’re talking about the Bible itself being a translation of a translation of a translation. And, in reality, it has affected people’s lives in history.
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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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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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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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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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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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Christianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!
NGUGI WA THIONG'O