Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
From decolonizing the mind
From the language of African
literature
IV
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LANGUAGE
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Speech
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Written
signs
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Language of
real life
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REAL
LIFE (communication in
production)
Human
community starts by division of labor for example roles of man and women in a
household.
There
is Co-operation between hunters, sole gatherers of fruits and sole workers in
metals. Language was developed to carry out certain processes and relation.
Three types of labor process is
1- Household
2- Hunters,
Gatherers
3- Factories. All
these process lead to means of production, production is co-operation,
language, communication and expression of relation between humans.
SPEECH
It
imitates language of real life; it helps in communication between human being
in the production of their means of life. language as a signal of verbal signposts.
WRITTEN SIGNS
It
imitates the spoken language. It’s a much later historical development, it’s a
representation of sound and symbols. Mostly written and spoken are same , the
interaction with other being is done either in speech or in words, it is
representation of sound with visual symbol.
· Communication
between human beings is also the basis and process of evolving culture. When we
do a certain kind of thing repeatedly and repeat certain action they form like
moves, rhythm, habit, experience and knowledge become the base for next
generation and their actions, value gets accumulated to these and they become
self-evident truths governing their conception of morality, ugly and beautiful,
generous and mean in internal and external relation. (in the house and outside
in society). This becomes a way of life giving rise to culture and history. Culture embodies their moral, ethical
and aesthetic views through which they see the world and their place in it. Value gives people identity and their
place in human race and all this culture, value and history; everything happens
because of language.
Language as culture
· Culture is a product of history and culture
represents history,
it represents history by presenting images of nature and nurture.
· Image forming agent in mind of child. Forming
conception of ourselves, society and learning to react to the struggles with
nature. Nature which produce them.
· Language as culture mediates between i) me and my own self
ii) My own self and other self
Iii) Me and nature
Culture transmits or imparts those images
which are specific to a language. Language represents the struggle against
nature and between human beings.
· Languages as
communication and as culture are products of each other. Communication creates
culture which is a means of communication. Language carries culture and culture
carries values by which we identify ourselves. Language forms our relations to
nature and other beings, it joins us to communities and forms a specific
relationship to the world.
V
· Colonialism
controlled people’s wealth through military conquest and political
dictatorship. More than wealth colonizers targeted the mental universe, they
took control through culture and how people perceive themselves and their
relationship to the world. Economic and political control can only be done by
mental control.
· Mental control :
i) Destruction or devaluing people’s
culture, art, dance, literature and education
ii) Elevation of the colonizers’
language and dominating the language of the colonized.
If we take language as
communication, the African child is taught everything in a foreign language;
this foreign language can never imitate
or reflect the real life. The language appears external; the African child can’t relate to it,
learning has become a cerebral activity and not an emotional experience. The
native language would help the child apprehend things differently.
The
native language prevailed in spoken form but the written area and spoken area
at school were taken up by the foreign language. There was little or no
connection between his school and his immediate
environment at home. This result in colonial alienation – the child is
disassociated with the sensibility of natural and child is disassociated with
the sensibility of natural and social environment (family and home). The child
was exposed to a culture external to his own, and he was made to look at
himself through an outer glass. In “Catching them young “by Bob Dixen, it’s
written that the aim of colonizers was to colonize
young minds.
· The colonizers
made the child look at the culture and language in certain way and find his
certain position in it. They gave him images of world so he could see his
position and because these images come from the world of literature of
colonizers. What was worse was the child got to know how his native language
and culture represented by colonizers as low, corporal punishment, stupidity,
and barbarianism. He saw this in
works of western intellectual such as Hume and Jefferson
· The
representation of Africa in literature gave origins to misconception and fear of Africa. Negative image were internalized
which affected their cultural and political choices. No Malawian was to teach
in schools of Malawi as they were not good enough to teach English and will
lower the standards. Achebe’s gratitude to English in 1964- he thanks ancestors
for learning this language as it now helps boost their creative imagination.
VI
· After
the Makerere conference, the African
wrote many texts in European languages. This literature was by the petty
bourgeoisie born out of colonial school and university. They also got a rise in
politics and economic dominance.
· There
were people who were trying to explain Africa to the world. Africa had a past,
a culture of dignity and human complexity. Literature gave the petty
bourgeoisie a cohesive tradition and references. Literature gave them
confidence and they now had a past with which they confronted the Europe and
gave sharp critique of European
bourgeoisie civilization. They wrote that Africa had something new to give
to the world.
THE NEW LITERATURE
· It was inspired
by political awakening; its base was
peasantry, their proverb, fables, stories, wise saying, riddle etc. it was very
optimistic. But as imperialism grew and economic links got strengthened, this
literature grew critical, bitter, cynical and disillusioned. This literature
was detailed and had a vision; it talked of how post-independence there was no hope.
· Who was the
audience? Bourgeoisie or petty bourgeoisie in power? Was it the military?
· The audience was the peasantry or the working
class, who was the most affected by twist and turns of politics. The
literature was a little changed to suit the audience. The literature was a
little changed to suit the audience. The form was simpler, tone was direct and
the call was for direct action.
· Instead of
seeing Africa as one undifferentiated mass of historically wronged blackness,
the literature focused on class analysis and neo-colonial societies. But the search could be conducted in the
language of colonizers and this was their weakness. Petty bourgeoisie does not
have a determined economic position
and so it takes the part of the main class and so it gets sympathy and so it
takes the part of the main class and so it gets sympathy and is swept in revolutionary movements. This class is
also silenced and ordered on by those in power. This class is in between imperialist bourgeoisie, the neo-colonial
society and the working class.
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Petty bourgeoisie
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Peasantry
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Imperialist bourgeoisie
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This lack of identity was reflected in
the kind of literature this class produced
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· In politics and
literature it spoke of its identity crisis and defined its identity as that of
a whole society. Their literature was called ‘African literature’; like Africa didn’t have a literature before
this. It pretended to be at the throne of African literature. The Africans used
English in an African way but they could identify it as English still.
· In process of
literature there was created an English
speaking peasantry. The real history was negated; the English speaking
working class existed in novels and fiction. The real working class was torn
between worlds of petty bourgeoisie. Because of the peasantry the African
language still exists otherwise if it was left to petty bourgeoisie African language would have stopped existing.
Deepali Yadav
Student at Kamala Nehru
College (DU)
Contact me @ deepaliyadav2896@gmail.com
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