And 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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OI 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.
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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People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday.
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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’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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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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The Bible has affected their lives, but in translation, since they do not read the Bible in the original Greek or Hebrew.
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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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I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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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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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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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 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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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.
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Of course it’s very, very important for me to feel Kenya, to feel, every day, this is where images come from. So to be taken away from that by political pressure or other means – one is taken away from the area, which is the basis of inspiration – is difficult.
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A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O