Role Of Language In Ngugi

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imperialism, decolonization and self-determination. Ngugi puts language at the centre of this controversial collision: “The choice of language and the use to which language is put is central to a people’s definition of themselves in relation to the natural and social environment, indeed in relation to the entire universe…writers who should have been mapping paths out of that linguistic encirclement [by colonialism] of their continent also came to be defined and to define themselves in terms of the language of imperialist imposition. Even at their most radical and pro-African position in their sentiments and articulation of problems they still took it as axiomatic that the renaissance of African cultures lay in the languages of Europe”.

II: …show more content…

He contrasts his village lessons via stories in his native tongue, Gikuyu, wherein language was magical and powerful and musical. Then he speaks of school, wherein he was forced to learn English and witness as English was used to sort students into a pyramid hierarchy. Even if he the students score high marks in other subjects, if they fail to get marks in English they were not given promotion to higher classes.in addition to this, students were punished for speaking in their local languages and those students who spoke in their local language were humiliated severely. The language of his education was no longer the language of his culture. Through his experience Ngugi showcases how English became the official vehicle and the magic formula to colonial elitedom. English was given a coveted place.

IV: This is Ngugi’s theoretical section on the “relationship of language to human experience, human culture, and the human perception of reality”. He first divides language into a “dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture” (13). As communication, he divides it into 3 aspects:
1. “language of real life”, Ngugi establishes the relation between language and culture by approaching the“aspects oflanguage” from a Marxist perspective. Through this he denotes the basic relationships of labour and cooperation that form a community
2. Speech – “imitates the language of real life…as a system of verbal signposts” …speech is to humans nature in the language of real life
3. Writing – “Imitates the spoken…representation of sounds with visual

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