Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Interview: Memories of Who We Are
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ส.ค. 2024
- “Memory is what makes us who we are,” says Kenyan Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o - a frequent contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature - in this video about how colonizers sought to erase the memories of the natives by severing their linguistic connections.
The colonizers played the game of “power-politics” by tampering with the memories of the natives and instead planting new ones - those of the colonizer: “You literally erase the memory of who they are.” As an example of this, places were renamed in terms of the invasive presence, e.g. New York and New England.
“Everybody’s language is the keeper of their memory.” Wa Thiong’o argues that language is empowerment, which is furthermore emphasised by the fact that one of the first things that the colonizers did was to cut off the African slaves’ linguistic connection to Africa. The tradition of African people writing in their own language has always been present, and he finds it absurd that even today many native Africans think that African literature is literature written in English or French. Moving the original African languages to the periphery, he finds, is a result of “a globalization of inequality of power between languages.” This discrepancy of power-relationships is constant, but there is a tendency to not wanting to acknowledge this. To move on, however, it is essential to remember and own up to reality: “Words - no matter what they mean - can never erase the actual material reality.”
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (b. 1938) is a Kenyan writer. He grew up during the colonial period in Kenya, and his dream of a free Africa has shaped his oeuvre, which is written both in English and in Kikuyu. In 1977 he began a new form of theatre ‘Ngaahika Ndeenda’, which sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he considered “the general bourgeois education system.” Despite its success, the authoritarian Kenyan regime shut it down and he was subsequently imprisoned for more than a year. Adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, however, he was released and left for the U.S., where he still resides. Among his work, which includes novels, plays short stories and essays, are ‘Weep Not, Child’ (1964), ‘Petals of Blood’ (1977), ‘Wizard of the Crow’ (2006), ‘Dreams in a Time of War’ (2010) and ‘In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir’ (2015). Wa Thiong’o has also taught at Yale University, New York University and the University of California, Irvine. Moreover, he is the founder and editor of the Kikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was interviewed by Kim Skotte in connection to the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in August 2015.
Camera: Klaus Elmer
Edited by: Klaus Elmer
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2015
Supported by Nordea-fonden - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
Ngugi and all his works have inspired me! No matter what, I'm going to learn Gikuyu and teach my children in the future. It really pains me that I don't know my mother tongue.
😮do you live in Nairobi?
He has legacy on this planet earth. His work in literature has touched many people positively and optimistic in life.
Ngugi's work is a must read for all African students.
All African people.
@@akwaabab8504 All people.
It should be, even in other countries where is not spoken englesh.
Been meaning to for years now!
Memories implant through imposing ones language on people, land, places and daily activities.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o's work really simplifies the issue of why African literature is rarely seen in African languages.
I love this writer so much. He says things as they are from his experience. I find him so inspiring, it's breathtaking.
Thank you mwarimu nîko hingura meshiria makwa
I ever wondered why in an "african" school , in africa , for 12 years , my lessons of mathematics , sciences , geography were in an European language . Why I didn't be taught that 2+3=5 in my language (language of my culture , my people) , why I didn't be taught the parts of human body in my language and why didn't be taught the literature of my people in my language , why I was punished if I use my language and why it's devaluate . But With help of Ngugi , I know why , the (actual colonial)"school" nowadays is juste a system created for 130 years by colonizer (and maintain by neocolonial leaders who were formed in those schools) in order to control minds of colonized and prevent him to separate from the colonizer , to prevent him to be free . It's a place which trained me to hate my people , to fight against him , to devaluate , destroy what from him , his language , culture ,songs , dance , his history , what from me , what own me and considerate it as my enemy and to excessively love european (colonizer , dominator) , what from European , his language , his culture , songs , history and his point of view on my history (100% of books of "african history" is just the product of European studies on africa's history , European point of view and it's what that taught in schools and universities )
All my life people told me that (colonial) school is important and it's will help me to construct my future and my country , it's a lie . It's just a cultural bomb which subordinate me , my mind and culture , to colonilism and imperialism . It deforms reality and makes seems abnormal normal and vice versa and eases the theft of our commodities . Create a non colonial school (by the people himself and no5 by any neocolonial government) will be one of the greatest step to freedom of our peoples (like for n'ko script schools which are created by west Africa people and not any government and teach kids in their mother tongue and teach European languages as foreign languages and not language education) .
but still we have to comply in order to survive..
No.
This is a complete lie , to say that my mathematics and science lessons can't be in my mother tongue , can't be translated to my mother and that it's impossible is a big lie .
Because missionaries actually translated the bible in a lot of language , in my mother. Sure , missionaries we're not saints , had a lot of flawss , didn't do good things in a lot of points ; but there's one thing they were good at , and it's the translation .
They put a lot of effort to understand the languages they founded , they out a lit of effort to understand the words of tge people they founded and speak to them in those words. They spent a lot of time for to translate a document to any language ; they made more effort to understand the peoples than any government since 60s .
The translation is possible , the fact that the people use his language to the education and official matters is possible , it's just the government and official institutions which are lazy and hate those peoples , their languages , look down on them , make fum of them ; they don't act like what they should do at all ; japanese education and administration use japanese languages and respect it , same for S korea and Vietnam.
True visionary.
Tragically amusing to be watching Ngugi wa Thiongo videos on TH-cam to research for my masters thesis about Danish- Greenlandic relations and discovering that this video takes place in Denmark. The interviewer showing no signs of having a language for Denmarks own colonial relations or how the danish language holds power over Greenlanders/Inuit.
Hero
Does thought get distorted if you don't use your mother tongue?
Certainly. One conceptualizes the world from the perspective of the language one speaks. Language is not neutral. It is implanted with a world view. European language have European values and world view at their centre. They prioritize Europe. This is why it is so important for us to prioritize our languages in the education system and reject European place and personal names.
The foundation of ethnic nationalism is the use of mother tongue as language of literature, science, art, government, law, constitution and all other things.
Mkoloni alituweza.
Kabisa. Na inauma
Shetani in human form
EVERYBODY speaks english if they want to get published? colonizer!