What is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OWriting 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.
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.
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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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I’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
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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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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?
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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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I’m writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.
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We can appreciate each other’s languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.
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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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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.
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The Bible affects everybody’s life who is a Christian, from the middle class in Europe to the peasant in Africa and Asia.
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The Bible in translation is being read to thousands and thousands in Africa. It is an integral part of their functioning and the way they look at the world.
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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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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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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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