A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OThe Bible has affected their lives, but in translation, since they do not read the Bible in the original Greek or Hebrew.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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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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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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Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices
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I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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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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People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday.
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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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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 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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In terms of language, English is very dominant vis-Ã-vis African language. That in itself is a power relationship – between languages and communities – because the English language is a determinant of the ladder to achievement.
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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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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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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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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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