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'OChristianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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Christianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!
NGUGI WA THIONG'O -
How did we arrive at this, that the best leader is the one that knows how to beg for a share of what he has already given away at the price of a broken tool? Where is the future of Africa?
NGUGI WA THIONG'O -
Another phenomenon developing in Kenya is ethnic cleansing – and that’s the thing that has made me very sad. Because some people will use the cover of the problems of rigged elections to do things that are unacceptable like ethnic cleansing and displacement of people. It’s completely unacceptable.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O -
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 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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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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O -
Those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mould it and those committed to breaking it up; those who aim to open our eyes, to make us see the light and look to tomorrow […] and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes
NGUGI WA THIONG'O -
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 -
I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O -
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.
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.
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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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People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday.
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Any writer likes to be near the area which is the location of his work.
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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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O