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'OI’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
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If a novel is written in a certain language with certain characters from a particular community and the story is very good or illuminating, then that work is translated into the language of another community.
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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
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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.
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Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.
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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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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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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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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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I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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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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Many people do not know that Jesus did not speak Latin or English or Hebrew; he spoke Aramaic. But nobody knows that language.
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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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People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday.
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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O