You get another person who operates only in an African language and there are many persons who operate only in African languages; he or she is excluded from all the goodies that come with English.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OThose 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
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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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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Many people do not know that Jesus did not speak Latin or English or Hebrew; he spoke Aramaic. But nobody knows that language.
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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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The Bible affects everybody’s life who is a Christian, from the middle class in Europe to the peasant in Africa and Asia.
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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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We can appreciate each other’s languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.
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Any writer likes to be near the area which is the location of his work.
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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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What is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
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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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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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Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.
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Christianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!
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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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