So what I thought was just an African problem or issue is actually a global phenomenon about relationships of power between languages and cultures.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O
NGUGI WA THIONG'O
Ngugi wa Thiong'o on culture
Ngugi wa Thiong'o41 quotes“So what I thought was just an African problem or issue is actually a global phenomenon about relationships of power between languages and cultures.”
More from Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Christianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o I’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o We can appreciate each other’s languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o Why did Africa let Europe cart away millions of Africa’s souls from the continent to the four corners of the wind?
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o 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.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o 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'oNgugi wa Thiong'o 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'oNgugi wa Thiong'o What is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o 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?
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o The Bible affects everybody’s life who is a Christian, from the middle class in Europe to the peasant in Africa and Asia.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o 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.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o The Bible has affected their lives, but in translation, since they do not read the Bible in the original Greek or Hebrew.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o 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.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o 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.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o Many people do not know that Jesus did not speak Latin or English or Hebrew; he spoke Aramaic. But nobody knows that language.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o
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