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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OThen 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.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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What is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
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Why did Africa let Europe cart away millions of Africa’s souls from the continent to the four corners of the wind?
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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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How did we arrive at this, that the best leader is the one that knows how to beg for a share of what he has already given away at the price of a broken tool? Where is the future of Africa?
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How could Europe lord it over a continent ten times its size? Why does needy Africa continue to let its wealth meet the needs of those outside its borders and then follow behind with hands outstretched for a loan of the very wealth it let go?
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I think a repressive regime always fears people who are awakened – particularly ordinary people. If they are awakened, I think governments all over the world feel uncomfortable about that; they want to be in control.
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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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Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.
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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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People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday.
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In terms of language, English is very dominant vis-Ã-vis African language. That in itself is a power relationship – between languages and communities – because the English language is a determinant of the ladder to achievement.
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A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.
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Any writer likes to be near the area which is the location of his work.
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We can appreciate each other’s languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.
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The same questions are there in Native American languages, they’re there in native Canadian languages, they’re there is some marginalized European languages, like say, Irish.
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