The colonizers played the game of “power politics” by altering the memories of the natives and planting new ones – those of the colonizer: “You are literally erasing the memory of who they are. » As an example, places have been renamed based on the invasive presence, for example New York and New England.
“Everyone’s language is the guardian of their memory.” Wa Thiong'o argues that language means empowerment, which is further emphasized by the fact that one of the first things the colonizers did was cut the linguistic connection between African slaves and Africa. The tradition of Africans writing in their own language has always been present, and he finds it absurd that, even today, many indigenous Africans think that African literature is literature written in English or French. According to him, the movement of original African languages to the periphery is the result of a “globalization of power inequalities between languages”. This gap in power relations is constant, but there is a tendency not to want to recognize it. However, to move forward, it is essential to remember and embrace reality: “Words – no matter what they mean – can never erase actual material reality. »
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (born 1938) is a Kenyan writer. He grew up during the colonial period in Kenya and his dream of a free Africa shaped his work, written in English and Kikuyu. In 1977, he launched a new form of theater "Ngaahika Ndeenda", which sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he saw as "the general bourgeois education system". Despite his success, the Kenyan authoritarian regime shut him down and he was subsequently imprisoned for over a year. Adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, he was however released and left for the United States, where he still resides. His works, which include novels, plays, short stories and essays, include “Don't Cry, Child” (1964), “Petals of Blood” (1977), “The Magician of the Raven” (2006) , “Dreams in the Age of War” (2010) and “In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir” (2015). Wa Thiong'o also taught at Yale University, New York University, and the University of California, Irvine. Additionally, he is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Kikuyu language journal Mũtĩiri.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was interviewed by Kim Skotte as part of the Louisiana Literature Festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, in August 2015.
Camera: Klaus Elmer
Edited by: Klaus Elmer
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2015
Supported by Nordea-fonden
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