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'OThe 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.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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Christianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!
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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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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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I’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
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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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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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What is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
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It was a revelation for me, in a practical sense, that you could write in an African language and still reach an audience beyond that language through the art of translation.
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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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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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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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Then they begin to see through their language that the problems described there are the same as the problems they are having. They can identify with characters from another language group.
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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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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'O