*Unfortunately it was not possible to
include the 1st part of the introductory chapter.
*ppl=people, lang=language, commu=community
Part 2
1962– a conference of African writers of
English expressions
(What is African literature was the theme)
Thiango-the dominance of European language
over African, he criticized Achebe.
How far the borrowed tongue can carry
African expressions? Asks Thiong'o
1884 African conference affected Africa
with swords and bullets.
Violence in the class room in the form of
western education.
Bullet-physical subjugation
Education-spiritual subjugation.
Part 3
First Part
Ngũgĩ wa
Thiong'o-How native language plays the role of a
cultural transmitter?
The same African language is used in different
contexts.
The evenings of storytelling by elders to
the children.
Language has a magical power-how
Part Two
How English destroyed their culture.
“The language of my education is not the
language of my culture.”
Children used their native words were punished.
He explains how English became a superior
lang.
Part 4
He speaks about 3 aspects of lang.
1.
Any lang has dual
characteristics-a medium of commu, a carrier of culture
(In Brit, Ame, Sweden English
is not the carrier of culture but commu alone. However this is not the case in
Africa)
Lang as Commu has 3 aspects
1.
Lang of real life-Origin of
language and the development.
(Marx’s notion, (the
language of real life-cooperation and production cause lang production.
2.
Speech-Lang as a system of
verbal signs (a spoken word is important just as a hand is )
3.
The written signs.
Lang as culture.
Communication among humans is the process
of evolving culture.
3 aspects of language as culture
1.
Culture as a product of history
(1. A product as well as a reflection of humans)
2.
Culture as an image forming.
(How child picks up lang)
3.
Culture transmits these images
of the world and reality of spoken ‘n written words.
Lang has culture and it is passed.
Lang forms character, history and specific
relationship with the world.
Part 5
How
the imposition of foreign lang affected African children
The mental establishment of lang over a
people has some implications.
Native lang is diminished. Lang which
reflected the life of pple is now reflecting elsewhere. (Thiongo)
Here the 3 commu aspects of lang is broken
coz of this.
A child begins to learn a lang. which is
totally alien as a result the learning
becomes a cerebral activity.
The written aspect concerns a child more
and his native lang is gone and he is alienated.
Learning Daffodils poem by an African
child.
The child now neither belongs to the native
or to the foreign. He is caught in b/w.
He is unable understand both cultures.
It is reinforced by learning art, culture
and all foreign imports.
Part 6
The
emergence of the new genre of literature
Macrum? Conference brought a new genre: The
literature is written in European lang by African writers.
They were the products of second class
bourgeois who were educated in western universities.
He
(Thiongo) termed them ‘comprador bourgeois’ or the nationalist bourgeois.
It helped Africa in the global scenario.
The drawback of this is the language of
medium of these writings; English, French, Portuguese.
It was part of a nationalistic movement.
(It was a need of voice; to express people’s miseries; but problem is they used
European langs)
During the first part it was optimistic but
later cynical.
He termed this lit. The post independent betrayal.
The chameleon literature.
It oscillated b/w 2 worlds.
It is written in European lang but is
termed as African lit-Thiongo sees it as a paradox.
The lit was wearing a false identity.
He quotes Janes Janon?-
The final result of the evolution of this
lite is that the ppl are caught in an identity crisis of not belonging to
neither category; the foreign or the African.
Part 7
3 stages
1.
The introduction of european
langs
2.
The dissent in africans
3.
Assimilation of European langs.
Creole, Pidgin langs were formed from the
contact b/w Africans and Americans.
New writers wrote in their own langs as a
way of anti-colonial movement. Some of them were arrested.
There are ppl like Achebe used European
lang. A weapon of others against them.
Writer Obi-the uncritical acceptance of
European langs will not help the African lit for its development. They should
use African lang as medium, then only will it help.
Part 8
A politician who supports imperialism and
an African writer who writes in European langs are the same. Both are slaves.
Thiongo says African lit can only be
written in African langs.
Afri langs provide direct access to African
ppl.
The lit should be called Afro European not
African Lit coz of the use of European langs.
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