Download NGUGI WA THIONG`O`S DECOLONISING THE MIND: AN

VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
NGUGI WA THIONG’O’S DECOLONISING THE MIND: AN OVERVIEW
Dr. Ashok Hulibandi
Associate Professor, Dept. of English
Karnatak University,
Dharwad-580003
Abstract:
Decolonising the Mind is a collection of four essays by a famous African writer, poet and critic Ngugi Wa
Thiong’o. It is a summary of the issues in which he has been passionately involved for the last twenty years of
his practice in fiction, theatre, criticism and in teaching literature. This book is farewell to English as vehicle
for his writing; he has started writing in Gikuyu and Kiswahili language. The language is very important Ngugi
says, “The choice of language and the use to which language is put is central to a people’s definition of
themselves in relation to their natural and social environment indeed in relation to the entire universe” (Ngugi
4). Every language has a dual character; it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture. But in
British, Sweden and Denmark, English was a spoken language but it never carries their culture. He summing
up his essay that the polities of language in African literature has been about national democratic and human
liberation. The call for the rediscovery and the resumption of our language is a call for a regenerative
reconnection with the millions of revolutionary tongues in African and the world over demanding liberation.
Key Words: Language, Africa, Gikuyu, Literature, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Decolonising the Mind is a collection of
started writing in Gikuyu and Kiswahili
four essays by a famous African writer,
language.
poet and critic Ngugi wa Thiong’o. This
Kenya national and official language, the
book is a summary of the issues in which
other nationality languages would have
he has been passionately involved for the
their rightful places in the schools and
last twenty years of his practice in fiction,
English would remain Kenya people’s first
theatre, criticism and in teaching literature.
language of international communications.
He dedicated this book to African writers
Ngugi discusses four important issues in
and also those who have been maintained
this
the dignity of the literature, culture,
Literature,
philosophy and other treasure carried by
Theatre, The Language of African Fiction
African languages.
Ngugi was the most
and
book;
the
Kiswahili would be the all
the
the
Quest
language
of
African
Language
of
African
for
Relevance.
The
important contemporary writer from the
Imperialism
African continent. This book is farewell to
economic, politics and culture of African.
continuously
controls
the
English as vehicle for his writing; he has
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
Page 1
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
The language is very important Ngugi says,
full communion with its ancestral home but
“The choice of language and the use to
altered to suit new African surroundings”
which language is put is central to people’s
(Ngugi 8). Ngugi’s view is that language is
definition of themselves in relation to their
the most important vehicle, through which
natural and social environment indeed in
that power fascinated and held the soul
relation to the entire universe” (Ngugi 4).
prisoner. The bullet was the means of the
Ngugi painfully speaks that African fate
physical subjugation and language was the
was decided in the Western country.
means of the spiritual subjugation.
In
1962 Conference of African Writers of
Language is very important; his parents
English Expression was held at Makerere,
were telling many stories. They learnt to
he had a chance to meet Chinua Achebe,
value of words for their meaning and
during that time his first novel The River
nuances, “Language was not a mere string
Between was completed, Weep Not, Child
of words; it had a suggestive power well
was in progress.
beyond
There was a big
the
immediate
and
lexical
discussion on short story, poetry and drama
meaning” (Ngugi.11). Ngugi thinks that
but excluded the main body of works in
English language has destroyed harmony,
Swahili, Zulu, Yoruba Arabic, Amharie and
the colonial schools destroyed African
other African language. General opinion is
values and culture. There was a great
that African writers are enriching a foreign
humiliating experiences was to be taught
language, Gabriel Okara’s views “I am of
speaking Gikuyu in the vicinity of the
the opinion that the only way to use them
school. There was a great punishment one
effectively is to translate them almost
who speaks in Gikuyu in school premises
literally from the African language native
and student would fail in English. African
to the writer into whatever European
people could not get good jobs in colonial
language he is using as medium of
rule because they could not pass secondary
expression” (Ngugi 8).
in English.
The same ideas
also expressed by Chinua Achebe, he
would not agree that English language will
carry African expressions; he wrote: “I feel
that the English language will be able to
carry the weight of my African expression.
But it will have to be a new English still in
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
Every language has a dual character; it is
both a means of communication and a
carrier of culture. But in British, Sweden
and Denmark, English was a spoken
language but it never carries their culture.
Page 2
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
However in parts of Kenya, Tanzania and
bourgeois civilization and its implication.
Zanzibar Swahili is inseparably both a
It was inspired by the general political
means of communication and carrier of the
awakening, it drew its stamina and even
culture of those people to whom it is a
from the peasantry; their proverbs, fables,
mother tongue. Every language has three
stories and wise sayings. This kind of
elements, he said, “Language as culture is
writing creates two types of class in Africa,
thus mediating between me and my own
the bourgeoisies and the peasantry class.
self; between my own self and other selves;
The literature is produced in European
between me and nature” (Ngugi 15).
literature was given the identity of African
Language carries a culture that carries
literature as if there had never been
entire community. The aim of colonialism
literature in African continent. Ngugi says,
is to control the people’s wealth and their
“In the process this literate created, falsely
product. It imposed its control of the social
and even absurdly an English speaking (or
production of wealth through military
French, or Portuguese) African peasantry
conquest
political
and working class, a clear negation or
dictatorship. A foreign language always
falsification of the historical process and
suppressed a native language.
Catching
reality. The European language speaking
Them Young is a book on racism, class, sex
peasantry and working class, existing only
and politics in children’s literature by Bob
in novels and dramas, was at times invested
Dixon, it reflected in the cultural of the
with the vacillating mentally the evasive
language of imposition.
self-contemplation,
and
subsequent
Afro-European language brings out to the
world a unique literary form like novels,
short stories, poems and plays. These works
written by pretty bourgeoisie, they are born
of the colonial schools and universities.
the
existential
anguished human condition, or the man –
torn-between-two-words – facedness of the
pretty-bourgeoisie”
(Ngugi
22).
But
African language refuses to die; they would
not simply go to the way of Latin.
Ngugi was in dilemma to call them as
African peasantry had no contradiction
nationalistic
and
between speaking their mother tongue and
internationally the literature helped this
belonging to larger national or continental
class, which in politics, business and
geography. They speak many languages,
culture. This writing manifested the tone of
during the anti-colonial struggle they
writing, its sharp critique of European
showed an unlimited capacity to unite
or
patriotic
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
writers
Page 3
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
around whatever leader or party the best
made to believe that it needs Europe to
and most consistently articulated an anti-
rescue it from poverty. Africa’s natural and
imperialist position. African language will
human resources continue to develop
be helpful to develop a true African
Europe and America; but Africa is made to
sensibility.
feel grateful for aid from the same quarters
African writers have always
complained
about
neo-colonial
that still sit on the back of the continent.
economic and political relationship to
Africa even produces intellectuals who now
Euro-America.
Afro-European literature
rationalize this upside down way of looking
has produced many writers and works of
at Africa” (Ngugi 28). He concluded his
genies
Wole
views with improving African language
Armah,
like British writers, Spencer, Millton and
SembeneOusmane, Sedar Senghor and
Shakespeare and Russian writers Tolstoy
many others.
and Pushkin.
Ngugi has started writing in Gikuyu
Ngugi speaks the language of African
language in 1977, after seventeen years of
Theatre. It is very interesting stories about
involvement in Afro-European literature;
the origin of the drama in Kenya.
He has published many works in his old
drama has origins in human struggle with
name Ngugi Wa Mirii, wherever he has
nation and with others. Whenever enemies
gone, particularly in Europe, he has been
come to take away their community’s
confronted with the question; why are now
wealth goats and cattle, there was a battle
writing in Gikuyu? Why do you now write
between them.
in African language?
He replied very
returned to ritual and ceremony, “In song
politely, “Gikuyu is my mother tongue!
and dance they acted out the battle scenes
The very fact that what common sense
for those who were not there and for the
dictates in literary practice of other culture
warriors to relive the glory, drinking in the
is being questioned in an African writer is a
communal
measure of how for imperialism has
gratitude”(Ngugi 36). There was another
disordered the view of African realities. It
interesting story about the origin of the
has turned reality upside down.
The
drama. Ituika was a community ceremony,
abnormal is viewed as normal. African
it held once in every twenty five years or so
actually enriches Europe; but Africa is
that marked the handing over the power
talent;
Soyinka,
the
Chinua
Ayi
Achebe,
Kwei
The
The victorious warriors
administration
and
from the generation to another. It was
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
Page 4
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
celebrated by feasting, dancing and singing
acclaim by thousands. The very important
over a six-month period; it was a real origin
development in Kenya is the Kenyan
of the drama form in Kenya. But during
theatre in the early seventies was trying to
the colonial period, they destroyed that
break away from the imperialist colonial
tradition.
government
tradition, whose were symbols of the
officially banned African’s folk, dance and
European dominated, Kenyan National
songs due to a fear of mobilized and revolt
Theatre and the Donwan Maule Theatre in
against their power. The school and church
Nairobi and other similar centers in the
halls were produced only few themes and
major towns. The real language of African
permitted to perform Shakespeare and G.P.
theatre could only be found among the
Shaw’s few plays. There were two theaters
people – the peasantry in particular in their
‘the Donwan Maule Theatre’ in Nairobi
life, history and straggle.
and ‘Kenya National Theatre’ was not
Ngugi’s contribution to African literature
encouraged African’s folk, song and dance.
was a lot; Kamiriithu was an open place of
Kenya got freedom in 1963 but there was
community of cultural and education. It
no change, they maintained the status quo.
was people’s substance of the theatre, there
During the sixties and the early seventies
was no separate building. In 1999 the
had a mere nationalistic flavor, Kenyan
peasants and workers from the village, who
play wrights began to write plays and
built a stage, it was an open air theatre.
Kenyan directors emerged with a growing
Several plays were performed in the stage;
circle of actors around voice of Kenya
three plays The Black Hermit, This Time
radio and TV. There was a biggest revolt
Tomorrow and The Trial of Dedan Kimathi
against the British dominated Kenyan
were performed. When he was writing a
Theatre. The University theatre encouraged
play English disturbed him a lot, they
plays, graduates from the University of
selected the language of audience.
Nairobi had joined and the staff of the
Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I
various schools brought a new attitude to
Want) was a fine play; it drew as the
drama.
There was a sudden change in
history of the struggle for land and
Kenya.
The University of Nairobi,
The
colonial
freedom.
The play showed how that
Literature Department started its own free
independence and the death of Kenyans.
travelling theatre, students toured to urban
Kamiriithu was a product of the history of
and rural community centers and schools to
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
Page 5
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
heroic struggle against colonialism and of
Ndeenda was becoming part of the people’s
the subsequent monumental betrayal into
daily vocabulary and frame of reference. It
ne-colonialism. People were gathered at
was performed on 2nd October 1977, it was
Kamirritha to struggle for the land and
very popular play and characters were very
freedom, there were two wings the Passive
familiar, on 16th November 1977, Kenya
wing and the Active guerrilla. The play
government had banned it.
Ngaahika Ndeenda drew very heavily on
arrested on 31st December 1977 and kept
the history of the struggle for land and
him in a jail for two years.
freedom; particularly the year 1952. The
attempting to stop the emergence of an
song and dance was basic elements of the
authentic language of Kenyan theatre.
play, it reveals past and present. The mime
In November 1981, they represented for
and language are very important parts of a
another effort on November 1981, they had
drama; the drama was very close to the
a plan to perform Mother Sing for Me
dialectics of life than poetry and the fiction.
(Maitu Njugira). It depicted the heroic
The general subject of the play was
struggle of Kenya workers against the early
suffering and capitalist domination, “The
details of the struggle between capital and
labour which are described in a long
dramatic monologue by one of the worker
Ngugi was
They were
phase of imperialist capitalist, ‘primith’
accumulation with confiscation of land,
forced labour on the same stolen land and
heavy taxation to finance its development
characters, Gicaamba, were worked out in
into settler plantations was its theme. The
discussions.
Giccamba’s
dance, song and mime were dominant
monologue explaining to Kiguunda that
elements in the play. On 11th March 1982,
workers are not necessarily better off than
the Kenya government has banned all the
the peasants, that the workers and the
theatrical activities.
peasant both suffer from the same system
1982 three trucks of armed policemen were
Central
to
of imperialist capitalism, now the question
assumed by the struggle between capital
and labour in the twentieth century” (Ngugi
55-56). Ngugi’s views on the colonial
education: it makes people very weak and
makes them feel that they cannot do
anything.
On the 12th March
sent to Kamiriithu Community Education
and Cultured Centre. The real language of
African theatre is to be used in the struggle
of the oppressed, for it is out of that
struggle that a new African is being born.
Gradually
Kammiriitha
became
a
The language of Ngaahika
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
Page 6
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
revolutionary place but the government did
not necessarily a determinant of the use to
not allow becoming a revolutionary shrine.
which it can be put by its inheritors.
The third essay entitled ‘The Language of
African Fiction. In this essay he discussed
and demonstrated the wider issues and
problems of the existence, the origins, the
growth and the development of the African
novel. He was a chairman of Language and
Literature at the University of Nairobi. He
was arrested and kept in cell-16 at Kamiti
Maximum Security prison as a political
detainee.
The novel was reached only
History is replete with examples of the
opposite. The gunpowder was invented in
China but European bourgeoisies used
effectively.
Mathematical science was
invented by the Arabs but it has been
effectively used all the nations of the earth.
African music and art for instance have
been appropriated by the Europe and
American of the 20th century.
The music,
dance and literature have been borrowed
African bourgeois, due to industrialization
from the peasantry; even the football and
and the development of technology; novel
athletics have come from ordinary people.
was very important form of human
He speaks reality of the African language,
expresses. During the 19th century fiction
“It is the peasantry and the working class
was very important and very popular form.
who are changing language all the time in
The social struggles were reflected in
pronunciations, in forming new dialects,
another type of literates, that of epic poetic
new
words,
new
phrases
and
new
narratives celebrating the heroic deeds of
expressions. In the hands of the peasantry
kings and exceptional men who had served
and
the community in times of war or disaster.
changing all the time; it is never at a
The Imperialism introduced mass poverty
standstill” (Ngugi 68). African extended a
and cross regional under development. The
narrative in written form had antecedents in
capitalism introduced a
new medical
African oral literature; the story is very
science to conquer diseases. African people
important elements. Ngugi speaks reality
could not read and write even after
of Africa’s situation that the printing press,
independence.
The
Imperialist
introduced a
printing
nation
the
working
class,
language
is
publisher and educational context are birth
the
of novel but it was a fate of Africans those
possibilities of publishing for a wider
were controlled by the Missionaries and
press and
audience. Ngugi speaks of the most
important discoveries or any inventions are
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
Colonial
administration.
During
the
colonial time, African novels were reveals,
Page 7
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
“Stories characters, which move from the
The development of the African novel was
darkness of the pre-colonial past to the light
finding the appropriate, “fiction language”
of the Christian present” (Ngugi 70). He
(Ngugi 75), the form of language which
was part and parcel of the process, his first
was effectively communicates the targeted
short story published in English. He has
an audience.
published his four novels in English;
gradually he explained and grew up
speaking Gikuyu.
He read books of
Gakaara we Wanjau, who had even
established his own Gakaara Book Service
for publishing and book distribution. He
was very much impressed on Ngugi,
unfortunately all his books were banned
and arrested him and detained for ten years
from 1952 to 1962. Ngugi was in dilemma
and questioning himself about his writing?
He underwent a crisis.
In his book
Homecoming he clearly speaks about the
importance
of
language.
He
says,
“Increased study of African languages will
inevitably make more Africans want to
write in the mother tongue and then open
new avenues for our creative imagination”
(Ngugi HC 17). The development of the
African novel was in crucial position. The
big problem was paper and pen, when he
was in prison cell No.16, he restored and he
used toilet paper to write a novel in Gikuyu
language. There was no mystery in writing
on toilet paper; toilet paper at Kamiti was
meant to punish prisoners. The problem of
using vowel sounds in Gikuyu language.
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
The British novel form was well
developed from Defoe to the Modern
novelists. He appreciates Joseph Conrad
and his narrative techniques, “the shifting
points of view in time and space; the
multiplicity
of
narrative
voices;
the
narrative within a narrative; the delayed
information that helps the revision of
previous judgment so that only at the end
with the full assemblage of evidence,
information and points of view, can the
reader
make
full
judgment
–these
techniques had impressed me” (Ngugi 76).
He was acquainted with Gogol, Tolstoy,
Gorky, Sholokhov, Faulkner, Dostoevsky
and
George
developed
Laming.
writing
style
Gradually
in
he
African
language, plot, social realism and physical
detail; features of oral narratives are
important elements of fiction. Ngugi’s
novel Devil on the Cross was received into
the age old tradition of storytelling. There
would be a real dialogue between the
literate language and cultures of the
different nationalities within any one
country, which forms the foundations of a
Page 8
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
truly national literature and culture, a truly
subjection of his own people and country,
national sensibility.
such
African as a whole
a
character portrayed
as good
there would be the foundation of a truly
intelligent and beauty. One who offered
African sensibility in the written arts. The
resistance to the foreigner conquest and
future of the African novel is depending
occupation of his country, such a character
upon a willing writer and willing of
was portrayed as being ugly, weaken
translator. He hopes that the African writer
cowardly and scheming. The main aim of
will naturally turn to African language for
the writer is the reader’s sympathies are
their creative imagination.
guided in such a way as to make him
The last essay titled “The Quest for
Relevance” he talked of the language of
poetry. The language of poetry has its own
structures of beats, meters, rhymes, halfrhymes, internal rhymes, lines and images.
After the Second World War, English was
systematically introduced in major cities of
identity with African collaborating with
colonialism and to make him distance
himself from these offering political and
military resistances to colonialism. EuroAmerican imperializing are portrayed as
being
pragmatic,
realistic
stable
and
democratic
Africa. The syllabus of English was
A conference was on ‘The Teaching of
Shakespeare, Milton, J.S. Eliot and William
African Literate in Kenyan Schools’ was
Wordsworth etc some English teacher
held at Nairobi on September 1974, it was
speaks, “William Shakespeare and Jesus
jointly organized by the Department of
Christ had brought light to the darkest
Literatures, University of Nairobi and an
Africa” (Ngugi 91).There was a teacher in
Inspector
our
Education.
school
who
used
to
say
that
of
English,
The
Ministry
committee
of
has
Shakespeare and Jesus used very simple
recommended, “The present language and
English, until someone pointed out that
literature syllabuses are inadequate and
Jesus
colonial
irrelevant to the needs of the country”
government prescribes racist writers like
(Ngugi 97). Ngugi painfully speaks that
Rider Haggard, Elspeth, Huxley, Robert
African culture was rich it has its heritage
Ruark and Nicholas Monsarrat. In such a
but it has degraded and her people labeled
literature they depicted two types of
as primitive and savage in European
African, good and bad African. One who
literature. The desolate on relevance of
spoke
Hebrew.
The
helps to the colonizer in the occupation and
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
Page 9
Email: [email protected]
VOLUME-II, ISSUE-II
ISSN (Online): 2350-0476
ISSN (Print): 2394-207X
IMPACT FACTOR: 4.205
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIFACETED AND MULTILINGUAL STUDIES
literature, the relevance of art, the relevance
humanity not on the buried humanly of
of culture will continue Ngugi says, “The
others” (Ngugi 106). He summing up his
search for new directions in language,
essay that the polities of language in
literature, theatre, poetry, fiction and
African literature has really been about
scholarly studies in Africa is part and
national democratic and human liberation.
parcel of the overall struggle of African
The call for the rediscovery and the
people against imperialism in its re-colonial
resumption of our language is a call for a
stage. It is part of that struggle for what
regenerative reconnection with the millions
world in which my health is not dependent
of revolutionary tongues in African and the
on another’s leprosy; my cleanliness not on
world
over
demanding
liberation.
another’s maggot-ridden body; and my
Works Cited
1. Ngugi, wa Thiong’o. Decolonising the Mind. Nirobi: East African Educational Publisher,
1986. Print.
2. Ngugi, wa Thiong’o. Homecoming. London: Heinemann Educational Book Limited,
1972. Print
1st Novembar, 2015
Website: www.ijmms.in
Page 10
Email: [email protected]