milayetu

For the first time in a very long time the renowned writer Prof. Ngugi wa Thiongo delivered a three day lecture at the University of Nairobi at his home country Kenya. His lecture focused on mainly three issues;
Dis-membering Africa, which occurred during the days of colonization.
Re-membering Africa, which occurred during the struggle for freedom from colonization. Remembering Africa, which is and on going process and is also the area he emphasized most.

Africa has forgotten who it was before colonization. It seems Ngugi shares the same sentiments with me regarding the language used in Africa (see my previous post a letter to all Africans). He criticized the aspect that Africans, shy away from their indigenous languages viewing them as being backward. Indigenous languages are associated with the poor.
As I reflected on his speech I realized African countries need to take some of his ideas seriously. Take for example the issue of illiteracy in most third world countries. If books were written in their indigenous languages we can be able to eliminate illiteracy and ignorance especially in the rural areas, or more specifically among the elderly. Why is it that everything in Kenya for example has to be taught or written in English? There are very few mathematics books written in Swahili, or any other language, in fact I am yet to see one.
His opinion is that English should be used as a link between the past and the present, the old and the new. The old should not be forgotten. If we forget our old we will be a nation without identity. If we fail to remember the past there will be no healing, no wholeness. The question then arises, Kenya is a country with many indigenous languages, have we healed to the point that we are ready to express ourselves in these languages without causing conflict, like in the case of Rwanda?
He continues to explain that African renaissance (re birth of Africa) is evolving through the struggle against European modernity to give birth to African modernity. He stressed that African languages are important for the decolonization of the African mind. (More of this is expressed in his book; decolonizing the mind). He agreed that translation is a way of joining African language. It is hard to directly translate one African language directly to another, without using a third language. He agreed to this, and further emphasized that “European language should be used to enable without disabling.” Finally he finished by saying that Africa can only fly if it remembers it wings. For a bird can not be given new wings, he/she has to use the ones he/she has been given, he/she has to remember that it was created with it owns wings, it cannot borrow new ones.
All in all Ngugi wa Thiongo is a good speaker compared to Wole Soyinka whose speech I had to struggle to concentrate.