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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'o

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

Country Culture Global Language Power Problem
Any writer likes to be near the area which is the location of his work.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Area Like Location Work Writer
Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Continue Cultural Economic Member Political Practice Psychological Seen
Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Act Break Community Confinement Linguistic Many Other Out Raech Translate
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'O

Birder Continent Country Hand Need Outside Outstretched Over Size Time Wealth
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'O

Jesus Know Language Many People Speak
Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Amidst Beautiful Blood Life Pain Poverty Struggle
We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

End Politic Power Put Term Think
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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Country English Language Periostin Power Serious Wonder Work
We can appreciate each other’s languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Appreciate Being Language Other Question Uncomfortable Way
What is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

English Into Power Quantity Question Translate
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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Begin Different Done History One People Say Tell Thing
I’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Connect Listen Meaningful More People Try
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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O

Art Audience Beyond Could Country Language Practical Reach Revelation Sense Still Write
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

Come Country Course Feel From Image Important
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'O

Bible Country Effect Original Raed Translation

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.

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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.

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Popular Authors

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