The Postcolonial Expression Of The African Language By Ngugi

Ngugi’s insistence on using his mother tongue as the principal um of his writing is not simply a reaction against Anglicisation; it is more about resurrecting the African soul from centuries of slavery and colonialism that left it spiritually empty, economically disenfranchised and politically marginalised. Ngugi believes that when you erase a people’s language, you erase their memory. And people without memories are rudderless, unconnected to their own histories and culture, mimics who have placed their memories in a “psychic tomb” in the mistaken belief that if they master their coloniser’s language, they will own it. Ngugi is convinced that by adopting foreign languages lock, stock and barrel, Africans are committing a “linguicide”, which,

This stands good for Ngugi who seems to believe in the saying that pen is mightier than the sword in the neo-colonial setup. To give expression to colonized experience, postcolonial writers sought to undercut thematically and formally the discourses which supported the myths of power, the race classifications, and the imagery of subordination in the era of colonization. Ngugi takes great pain in showing how ordinary people, particularly in Kenya, are trapped in their own complex motives and values, which pushes them to sudden acts of cowardice or courage. Ngugi’s work remains a quest for identity, emphasizing the fact that decolonization is a psychological process, advocating freedom rather than the geographical freedom. .Through, “Decolonising the mind” Ngugi argues that when African writers produce texts in English, French, German, Portuguese, or any other European language, they are writing in the languages of their oppressors. He feels that they are giving up their cultural independence and abandoning the languages used by the people of their nations. He wants these languages preserved to pass down to new generations the traditions and customs of their cultures. Ngugi is an opponent of the current global spread of English and argues that this language is a form of linguistic imperialism. He is of the view that this language expansion should be halted, especially in postcolonial countries where English was previously language of oppression. Ngugi’s basic premise is that colonialism persists today, less visibly though insidiously, as a form of cultural and linguistic invasion. He states that hegemony is achieved through education, schools, church and political system Ngugi’s exhortation on using native languages as the indispensable medium of his writings is more about resurrecting the African soul from slavery, denigration and imperialism. Ngugi argues that writing in native