adminLovemore Ranga Mataire The Reader
The debate over the language of African literature has continued to generate significant interest ever since the emergence of African literary writing in the European languages.
When African writers and critics gathered at Makerere University in Uganda in June 1962 at “A Conference of African Writers of English Expression”, they grappled with the fundamental question of determining who qualified as an African writer and what constituted African writing.
Was African literature, literature produced in Africa or about Africa? Is about the subject dealt with by a particular book or it must have an African theme? Should it embrace the whole continent or south of the Sahara, or just black Africa? What about language? Should it be in indigenous African languages or it includes Arabic, English, Portuguese, or Africans?
The conference failed to come up with any authentic identifiable definition and a year later, a Nigerian critic, Obi Wali, writing in his famous essay “The Dead End of African Literature” Transition 10 said: “Perhaps the most important achievement of the conference . . . is that African literature as now defined and understood leads nowhere?” Wali ended his essay by declaring that literature written in European languages did not qualify as African literature. He further buttressed his view by saying that until African writers accept the fact that any true African literature must be written in African languages, they would be merely pursuing a dead end.
Two camps have since emerged since the Makerere conference. One led by the late Nigerian giant Chinua Achebe and Kenyan’s literary guru Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Achebe vociferously countered Wali’s argument while Ngugi wa Thiong’o embraced it thereby transforming the call for a return to African languages into a critical crusade that has since lasted for more than four decades.
Achebe’s argument is that those who have inherited the English language may not be in a position to appreciate the value of inheritance. “We may go on resenting it because it came as part of a package deal which included many other items of doubtful value and the positive atrocity of racial arrogance and prejudice, which may yet set the world on fire. But let us not in rejecting the evil throw out the good with it.”
In his group Achebe is supported by Wole Soyinka, the Noble Laureate who has penned several plays including “The Lion and Jewel”.
Ngugi is in Obi Wali’s group. Ngugi is one of the most influential writers in post-colonial Africa who has played an important role in the continuation of anti-imperialist literature. He has written several award-winning books which include “Weep Not, Child” (1964), “A Grain of Wheat” (1967), “Petals of Blood” (1977) and the “Devil on the Cross” (1980).
In “Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature” (1994), Ngugi articulates the damaging effects of colonialism on African literature, education and culture. He describes the conflict between the economic and cultural independence of African people. Ngugi views language and literature as playing a central role in this struggle. He asserts that language is essential to people’s self-perception and to their view of the universe.
In evaluating the two contending views, a reader can conclude that Achebe’s claims that he has inherited English and that he will make it carry his Ibo experience seem very practical as demonstrated by his “Things Fall Apart”. However, one realises that in the same novel, Achebe is writing back, meaning that he is expressing and explaining African pride in English with Ibo expressions, proverbs and thought. His audience is apparently white. He is thus feeding and expanding English with Ibo and not retuning anything to Ibo. Logically, that does not seem fair.
On the other hand, while Ngugi’s arguments are patriotic to Africa, they run into practical problems. Ngugi himself became well known through writing and publishing in English. It sounds unfair for him to ask others to stop doing what brought fame to him. It is interesting to note that since the declaration that he would only write in Gikuyu, Ngugi translates to English whatever he writes in Gikuyu and immediately having wider audiences.
Online Reporter