File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1996/96-02-20.131, message 249


Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 07:39:39 -0500 (EST)
From: Albertha Nurse <myrna-AT-UDel.Edu>
Subject: Re: testing water



Francis,

I guess my post did imply something about literacy/illiteracy.  However, 
my emphasis was on Ngugi's lastest political move, which goes beyond what 
landed him in prison to begin with.  He could have continued to write in 
English and he chooses not to.  He also recognizes that Kiswahili has a 
lot more currency than Gikuyu and states (I think in his prison letters) 
that Kiswahili is the African language of the future.  But his point is 
that the west is still not ready to engage in "indigenous" African 
languages on an intellectual basis, like it is Japanese, for example.

As for the missionaries translating the bible into every African 
language, that move in itself contained some curious colonizing 
gestures.  How come they didn't take the time to translate some notable 
Kiswahilian texts into English and make such accessible to the west?  If 
Ngugi's move will now compel us to do this, I say it's high time.

Myrna Nurse
Temple U


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