You 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'OAnd 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.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O -
What is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
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In terms of language, English is very dominant vis-Ã-vis African language. That in itself is a power relationship – between languages and communities – because the English language is a determinant of the ladder to achievement.
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Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices
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Christianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!
NGUGI WA THIONG'O -
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 -
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?
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A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.
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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 -
Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
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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 -
I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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There is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.
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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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O