People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OOf 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.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.
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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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We can appreciate each other’s languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.
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I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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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.
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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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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 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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