1

Running head: DECOLONIZATION OF THE MIND

Decolonization of the Mind

Student Name

Department

Professor Name

Date
 2
DECOLONISATION OF THE MIND
Ngugi wa Thiongo Biography

Born on 5th Jan 1938, James Ngugi is an academic Kenyan writer featuring his works

majorly written primarily in the Gikuyu language. Born in Limuru, Kenya, and subjected initially

to the missionary education system during the colonial period but later enrolled at a Gikuyu

independent school during the Mau Mau rebellion back in his native country Kenya. Within the

period 1955-1959, he attended the Alliance High School after which he Joined the Makerere

University College in Kampala, Uganda. Before leaving for Leeds in England to continue with

his studies in literature, Ngugi worked for half a year as a journalist for the Nairobi`s Daily

Nation. Sequel to his return back to Kenya in 1967, he tutored at the Nairobi University College

before his resignation move following the then students` strike. Within the years 1970-1971,

Ngugi lectured at the Northwestern University back in Illinois before resuming his teaching back

at the University of Nairobi which would see him get appointed as acting head of the English

department upon his return.

His involvement in adult literacy focusing on politically sharpening the minds of the poor

peasants and workers back in his hometown; Limuru, earned him a year of detainment by the

then government. During this period during no formal charges were filed against his arrest too.

Upon his release, he fled his native country for England in 1982 upon the invitation of his

publisher after he could not regain the prominent position he had held at the University.

Teaching at Yale University and Amherst College in the United States, he became among the

best-known professors of performance studies and comparative literature at the University of

New York. His works majorly encompasses the past and present political, cultural, and social

hurdles in Kenya. Ngugi has received numerous awards owing to the finesse in his works of

writing including the Fonlon-Nichols prize (1996), distinguished Africanist award (1996), the
 3
DECOLONISATION OF THE MIND
lotus prize for Afro-Asian literature (1973), UNESCO first prize (1963), and the East African

novel prize (1962), etc. Diverse acts of injustice and oppression in Kenya are primarily addressed

in all his writings making him the most prolific and politically engaged author in East Africa of

all time.

Decolonizing the Mind

In his works, Ngugi seeks to implicitly address the importance of language and its

constructive role in the history of a nation, its culture, and identity at large. Ngugi overtly

addresses how the European languages have become the primary vehicles for the vast African

literature. For Ngugi, sneaking his sight and resolve back at the exclusionary nature of the 1962

conference, he could not help but notice the preposterous anomalies that came married with the

event. First, the greatest living East African poet in Kiswahili; Shaban Robert, did not qualify for

the conference and neither did the then great writer with several published titles in Yoruba-Chief

Fagunwa. On the other hand, Ngugi wa Thiongo, a student on the virtue of only two published

short stories had qualified for the conference (Wa Thiong'o, 1992). With this regard, therefore,

the conference held in 1962 embodied a major refutation at its course rendering the term

"African literature" to be just another version of African literature in Portuguese, French, or

English.

By tying culture and language to the material work of both decolonization and

colonization, Ngugi strongly argues that language plays a pivotal role in the spiritual conquest.

For Ngugi, through orature and literature, both language and culture carry with it the entire body

of values by which we perceive ourselves and our place in the world at large. Written during the

Moi dictatorship tenure at the height of the cold war in the 1980s, the book by Ngugi wa

Thiongo captures the existing contradictions of neo-colonialism throughout the African continent
 4
DECOLONISATION OF THE MIND
and the globe. The book demonstrates the role of western linguistic and cultural superiority in the

debasing of African languages and cultures. These inherited colonial inequalities became more

entrenched with the African economies being pried open by Western nations, leaving the African

natives in a state of sheer wretchedness. As a conceptual tool, decolonizing the mind became an

imperative path by which to understand the various ways in which power imbalances were

accustomed as culturally encoded automated reflexes (Wa Thiong'o, 1992). The process is

regarded to be a continuous one as to decolonize one’s mind is a life-long adventure. This is

because subordination and systems of domination are less easily identifiable especially when

situated within unofficial cultures.

As much as the actual physique acts of colonialism tread within the books of history

alongside the counterpart theories of liberation, Ngugi shines his resolve in the unfortunate event

where devoid of native languages, we remain entrapped within the English metaphysical empire

for generations a state of “arrested decolonization”. Upon the comparison of his father’s colonial

education against his neocolonial education, Ngugi outlines that in their community, his father

spoke fluently in the Gikuyu language while working out in the fields before the observed

harmony of language, education, and culture was interfered with by the colonial education and

regime. In retrospect, Ngugi argues that his generation could make not the same claims as most

urban-born and raised children can hardly fathom their motherly languages.

This is so because, most parents; who grew under the colonial tenure, found less value in

speaking the ancestral language because English affected one's social class, job, and romantic

life too. The language was considered superior and the mother tongue was always frowned upon.

Despite his efforts in supporting an embrace of his Gikuyu dialect, Ngugi acknowledges the
 5
DECOLONISATION OF THE MIND
importance of English as a language spoken by a better quota of the world in communication at

large.

In Ngugi`s support, what was intended to be an enlightened form of communication for

both the earlier and the current generations only turned out to tighten the bond to the English

metaphysical empire. Liberating the Africans out of neocolonialism and the English

metaphysical empire, therefore, has to be done in the African language as revolutionary

literature. Pro-people would barely contribute to decolonization if the projected changes are to be

written in a formal colonial language the people barely understand. The English metaphysical

empire stemming from the colonial regime came with numerous negative effects on the culture

of diverse African natives, some of which are now on the verge of extinction (Wa Thiong'o,

1992). How well one conversed in English came to be not only the standard marker of

intelligence but also, a symbol of class and thus forming the basis for debasing the African

language and culture over time. In schools under colonial education, ancestral languages were

termed “vernacular” and were widely prohibited an approach systemic to the colonial regime.

Proposals for Language Policy Reform in South African Education

The empowerment of aboriginal dialects serves to strengthen the culture and the social

standing of its speakers under question. Although the country’s multilingual policy includes

education for eleven languages, there always exists a definite difference between actuality and

stipulated laws. Since education in multilingual versions is provided for the learners, a good

number choose not the language which they speak but venture into other languages. The effect

is, the paradigm of learning is constantly shifting. Learners, therefore, spend a substantial

amount of allotted time in learning and getting comfortable with a new language at the expense
 6
DECOLONISATION OF THE MIND
of synthesizing the target information at hand. African languages, therefore, end up being taught

as subjects and rarely are used as a medium of instruction and or communication.

Learning and understanding a new dialect concurrently hardly promotes synchronicity

and therefore, learning gets impaired. The situation in the South African education system and

the language policy in effect may not work towards a unanimous gain by all the native speakers

of its multiple languages. On the contrary, substantial hurdles to learning are further added by the

enacted policy in place. However, an implementation of a mandatory unanimous language for

learning in Afrikaan and English based schools would suffice in dealing with the post-apartheid

regime effects currently at hand. This would help make learning and the after-learning

experience to materialize well in real-life application scenarios.

Also, although not so unique to South Africa as a country, teachers should embrace more

the trans-language process and code-switching in classes to incorporate and accommodate the

ethnically diverse learners in understanding the concepts. Furthermore, it would also help in

terminally addressing the academic multilingual dilemma in the nation's education sector in a

few generations' time.

 7
DECOLONISATION OF THE MIND
References

Wa Thiong'o, N. (1992). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature.

East African Publishers.