The Politics of Language in African Literature

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THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN AFRICAN LITERATURE & WORLDVIEW "Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for someone else's? It looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling. But for me there is no other choice. I have been given the language and I intend to use it." -Chinua Achebe, Author of Things Fall Apart. By Mading de Ngor Akec de Kuai* 1. ABSTRACT Ngugi wa Thiong'O is probably the most important and interesting writer to have emerge out of Africa in this 21st century. In his book, Decolonizing the Mind, Ngugi challenges the African writers to abandon writing in colonial languages as he calls literature written in these languages 'Afro-European Literature' and instead opt for their native languages to give African literature its own genealogy and grammar: the preaching that he himself put to practice as Decolonizing the Mind was his last book in English. In this article I examine why literacy through indigenous languages is crucial and necessary for the people of New Sudan who are literally beginning from scratch given the current primary phase of development in our country after years of turmoil. Like Ngugi, I argue that until indigenous languages are empowered and fully developed as our main mediums of expression, we are 'merely pursing a dead end.' In 1986 a meeting titled, 'A Conference of African Writers of English Expression' was held in Kampala, Uganda. It was a rather momentous and comprehensive meeting ever convened by the continent's writers on the politics of the language of the African literature. Topping the agenda was this question: 'What is African Literature?' The debate that ensued was lively: 'Was it literature about Africa or about the African experience? Was it literature written by Africans? What about a non-African who wrote about Africa: did his work qualify as African literature? What if

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