The Martyr | Nagugi wa Thiong'o and the Politics of Language
In the following essay on Ngugi wa Thiong 'o, Theodore Pelton discusses the Kenyan author's controversial use of his regional language, Gikuyu, as part of his active resistance against Western imperialism (an action which lead to his imprisonment in 1978). Pelton cautions that in order to properly approach Thiong'o's written work, the reader must also approach not only the man as activist and anti-imperialist, but also the mythic presence Thiong 'o 's actions have created.
I am concerned with moving the centre . . . from its assumed location in the West to a multi-plicity of spheres in an the cultures of the world. [This] will contribute to the freeing of world cultures from the restrictive ways of nationalism, class, race, and gender.
In this sense I am an unrepentant universalist. For I believe that whlee retaining its roots in regional and national individuality, true humanism with its universal reaching out, can flower among the peoples of the earth. . . . - Ngugi wa Thiong 'o, Moving the Centre: the Struggle for Cultural...
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