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'OMany people do not know that Jesus did not speak Latin or English or Hebrew; he spoke Aramaic. But nobody knows that language.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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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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I’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
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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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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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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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Writing in African languages became a topic of discussion in conferences, in schools, in classrooms; the issue is always being raised – so it’s no longer “in the closet,” as it were. It’s part of the discussion going on about the future of African literature.
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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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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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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.
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Another phenomenon developing in Kenya is ethnic cleansing – and that’s the thing that has made me very sad. Because some people will use the cover of the problems of rigged elections to do things that are unacceptable like ethnic cleansing and displacement of people. It’s completely unacceptable.
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Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
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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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Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices
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Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.
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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O