Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Many thanks to The New Press and NetGalley for providing me with
an advanced copy of Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s last book before he passed. Although I
was saddened to learn about the passing of Kenya’s most prominent thinkers,
writers, and advocates, I was excited to find this collection of writings and
essays available for review. I greatly appreciate The New Press allowing me to
review the book in exchange for my honest opinion. I first encountered Ngũgĩ wa
Thiong'o’s work in my undergraduate studies, reading A Grain of Wheat in
an amazing World Literature course. A Grain of Wheat stood out as one of
the most powerful and transformative books that I read. At the time, I hadn’t
been completely familiar with Kenya’s fight for independence, but Ngũgĩ’s
characters brought this struggle and its challenges to light in a meaningful
and poetic way. Furthermore, my professor, Dr. Awuyah, made the readings so
compelling and engaging, and A Grain of Wheat remains one of the most
memorable from that course even years later.
I was also attracted to the title of this book as it focused
on decolonization and language, two ideas that are incredibly appealing and
interesting to me. The first part of the book, Decolonizing Language, focuses
on that subject, providing examples and ideas of the power of the language and
how colonization, and in particular language rules and imperialism seek to
eradicate culture, beliefs and indigenous knowledge. Ngũgĩ provides examples throughout
history of how countries sought to dominate and control through imposing a
dominant language while limiting indigenous languages. It’s an important idea
that is often neglected or forgotten, especially as more and more languages die
every year. I was both surprised and excited to find that he used the example
of Ireland as one of the first colonial linguistic experiments in Europe, and
yet, he acknowledged that great Irish writers like Yeats and Joyce are often
included in English literature Canons despite the attempted eradication of
Gaelic, their native language. The idea of language and power is also
represented in both writers’ work, as it is in other Irish authors like Brian
Friel, whose play Translations, dealt with the kinds of issues Ngũgĩ wa
Thiong'o brings up about language, memory, culture, and the power of naming. While
there are many important ideas and themes that emerged from Ngũgĩ’s essays, I
found two to be highly important. First, “Language conquest, unlike the
military form, wherein the victor must subdue the whole population directly, is
cheaper and more effective: the conqueror only has to invest in capturing the
minds of the elite, who will then spread submission to the rest of the
population.” While Ngũgĩ is referring to nation and culture, I think this idea
is relevant and applicable to our current situation in the US, and in many ways
further represents the kind of cultural and generational shifts that are occurring
through different means of communication as we shift into accessing more
information through social media and other digital formats. In many ways, it
feels like there is a kind of linguistic battle occurring where forces are
arguing about the nature of facts, representation, accessibility, and
knowledge. I appreciated Ngũgĩ’s call to continually keep language and culture
alive through reading, writing, and orality. The other idea that seemed highly
important was pulled form historical examples in British colonies, especially in
India, where English became “the language of education in order to form a class
of ‘interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons
Indian in blood and color, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and
intellect.’” While Ngũgĩ’s examples represent the colonial use of education to
create an educated class that still remained separate from the ruling class,
with some privileges, yet never completely integrated, it’s also reminiscent of
much of the ideological battles that are occurring now in education, and how
the dominant culture currently in power is seeking to reshape American’s access
to education with spurious claims of ideological capture and indoctrination. It
almost seems like there is an invention of pseudoscientific terms to create
fearmongering in order to shift ideologies. We see how language and education
are used in these kinds of ways to dominate and eliminate ideas that are deemed
threatening or counter the ruling class. Nevertheless, Ngũgĩ notes that “The
colony of the mind prevents meaningful, nationally empowering innovations in
education,” which seems to be the goal. Rather than innovate and encourage free
and critical thinking, we are moving more towards this kind of colonial
mentality where recitation and memorization are more important than independent
thought and ideas. Actually, Ngũgĩ differentiates between education, which he notes
as more like conditioning and knowledge, which he defines as an addictive element
to an individual.
Another great essay in the book focused on the role of the
University in a Global Community, and again, I felt like there was so much to
take away and apply from this essay. It’s also interesting to see the
university from Ngũgĩ’s perspective, as someone who helped shape disciplinary
studies in African and American universities, calling for the shift away from “English”
departments to “Literature” departments that sought to be more inclusive and
diverse. As he notes “the university has a great role to play. Just as the
university hosts different disciplines, which, while pursuing their
particularity, should be in dialogue with one another, the university should be
the modern patron of an intellectual discourse among languages and cultures. No
university should be proud of monoculturalism or monolingualism. Building bridges
between even apparently irreconcilable viewpoints is an important function of
the university.” I loved this quote and this entire essay that focuses on the
ways in which universities provided additive knowledge to students in order to further
enhance their perspectives and viewpoints. Although Ngũgĩ’s experience,
fighting for the inclusion of African, Asian, and other writers not often
represented in the canon, is different, his words are a reminder of how
powerful the role of the university remains in American life, and the ways that
current policies are intending to shift towards this kind of monoculturalism
and, as Chimanda Ngozi Adichie warns, the dangers of a single story. If
anything, Ngũgĩ’s words and essay are an important reminder of how powerful and
transformative the university can be both on an individual and a societal
level.
The second half of the book, from chapters 7 through 20,
focus on “Voices of Prophecy,” and discuss many of Ngũgĩ’s contemporaries and
colleagues. I’m not sure whether the chapter on Achebe was meant to be funny,
but Ngũgĩ discusses how after Things Fall Apart, every African writer
became Achebe, where even he and his son were both mistaken for Achebe. It’s a
funny story, but also somewhat troubling in that a scholar of African
literature didn’t even know what Achebe’s age or appearance were like. Other
essays detail his relationship to other well-known African writers, and their struggles
writing in English or switching to their native languages. Ngũgĩ’s experiences
as a political prisoner in Kenya are also a reminder of how powerful and
subversive literature can be, and how the artist can also be a source of
resistance and rebellion against politically powerful individuals. There is a
lot to consider in these chapters as well, and I enjoyed learning more about Ngũgĩ
wa Thiong'o’s career and collaborations with other writers, especially as he
sought to diversify Literary studies and make them more inclusive.
This was an excellent collection, one that I will revisit
and would consider using for the classroom. There are many great essays in here,
and I as someone who studied African literature in college, I found these texts
particularly relevant and meaningful. Furthermore, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s
experience challenging the colonial mindset—seeking to decolonize not just
nations, but also mentalities, is an important reminder about the role of language
and knowledge in this kind of colonizer mindset. I was surprised and excited at
how relevant and powerful these essays are in the current landscape. Highly
recommended!
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