There is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OThere is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OLife, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OOf 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'OThrough the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OThe 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'OWe can appreciate each other’s languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OSo 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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OI’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OThey 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'OWe 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'OA person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OI’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OIt 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'OYou get another person who operates only in an African language and there are many persons who operate only in African languages; he or she is excluded from all the goodies that come with English.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OHow 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