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 --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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