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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OSo what I thought was just an African problem or issue is actually a global phenomenon about relationships of power between languages and cultures.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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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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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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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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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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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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Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
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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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Christianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!
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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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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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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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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'O