You might say Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s essay “The Quest for Relevance” concerns colonization. More specifically, you could make an argument that Thiong’o tries to show the way in which curriculums and education can be employed to further the aims of an imperialist empire.

Thiong’o seems to make the connection between the dominance of Western literature in Kenya and across Africa and the dominance of the West in general in Kenya and across Africa. Thiong’o talks about students studying William Shakespeare and Jane Austen as if each of these authors represented “one more English gift to the world.” Again, the prominence of Western literature reinforces the supposedly superior position of the West itself. It teaches students to discard their own culture in favor of the colonizing culture.

Of course, Thiong’o acknowledges that some of the books taught are centered on Africa. Yet for Thiong’o, these books aren’t about Africa as much as about how Europeans want to see Africa. Whether it’s Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country or Isak Dinesen’s Out Of Africa, the books about Africa tend to portray Africans not as they are but as stereotypes. They are often reductive and/or fetishistic.

As the essay unfolds, it shifts from being about the ways in which literature reflects colonization to the ways in which Thiong’o and teachers can remake the curriculum in order to counter colonization. Instead of a curriculum centered on the West, Thiong’o and his colleagues propose a curriculum based on the specific cultures, languages, and literature present throughout Africa.

The work "The Quest for Relevance" is a unique one, and it is explicitly stated in that title. Thiong'o wished to bring relevance back to African language and culture—pulling the focus off of the whitewashing that is common in media and literature today.

Instead, Thiong'o wrote an entire play in the original Kenyan language of Gikuyu, hoping to bring awareness and relevance to the language and the people it represents. He believed that by using the language of Kenya and by creating an engaging story about the culture of Kenya, he could assert its relevance in art. Additionally, he hoped it would reconnect Africans with their cultural roots.

To achieve this, he cast all the parts to African actors and had them speak in original Gikuyu dialect. This is very uncommon for modern media, but he wished to make a point that media was still just as valid if presented in this format and language. By doing so, he did effectively pronounce the relevance of Kenyan culture in art.

Presumably, the attempt was also successful to reconnect people with their native culture—which is a difficult task when the perceived centrality of Western ideology and culture has become ingrained. Thus, Thiong'o's "The Quest for Relevance" calls into question this idea (i.e., "decolonizing the mind") by centering Kenyan ideologies and cultures instead.

In “The Quest for Relevance,” Ngugi wa Thiong'o hopes to reconnect African people to their culture. Thiong'o regards the use of native African language in literary works as an important element to preserving the collective ideas of his people. One of the themes in Decolonising the Mind (1986) is the importance for African writers to first compose literature in their native tongue.

Critics have accused Thiong'o of abandoning major African causes by writing in his own language. Thiong'o explains that Europeans would never be berated for composing historical or fictional accounts in their native languages. As a result, he questions the political agenda that encourages both adults and children to use English, saying that this socially punishes and isolates them for composing literary works in their own tongue.

He encourages Africans to take responsibility for preserving the history of Africa through their viewpoints by using African native languages. Thiong'o further explains that he does not hold the view that English, Portuguese, or French should never be used to explain political or cultural views of Africa. He simply encourages African writers to make translations of their work a secondary effort, as is the custom of other countries around the world.