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'OIn 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.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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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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People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday.
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And 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.
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What’s good about writing is that when you write novels or fiction, people can see that the problems in one region are similar to problems in another region.
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I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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I’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
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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.
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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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There is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.
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Writing in African languages became a topic of discussion in conferences, in schools, in classrooms; the issue is always being raised – so it’s no longer “in the closet,” as it were. It’s part of the discussion going on about the future of African literature.
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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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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.
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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.
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Any writer likes to be near the area which is the location of his work.
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