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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OWhat is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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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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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’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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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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Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.
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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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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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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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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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A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.
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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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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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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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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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