We can appreciate each other’s languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OSeen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices
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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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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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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Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices
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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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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.
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Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
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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.
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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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Any writer likes to be near the area which is the location of his work.
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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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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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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 think a repressive regime always fears people who are awakened – particularly ordinary people. If they are awakened, I think governments all over the world feel uncomfortable about that; they want to be in control.
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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.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O