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Language

in African

Literature

An Aside

toNgiigi

Joseph Mbek

X h e subject of languag e is now c en tra l in discussions of African litera-

ture. M any issues have been raised. Is language th e determ ining feature of Afri-

can literature? Is it acc epta ble for the A frican writer to write in non -African

languages? In the process of asking such ques tions , N gug l wa T hi on g'o has

emerged as a key advocate of writing in African languages, and it has becom e

almost unfashionable to challenge h is views on th e subject, but 1 believe it is

necessary to exam ine w hat N gugl has been saying and to consider th e possibility

of looking at th e language question in new

ways.

Developments in literary the-

ory enable us to pose new questions abou t the nature of language and th e ways

in which language mediates writing, a uthorial in tentio ns, th e reading process,

and literary meaning. Such questions invite broader considerations of a politi-

cal na tu re , involving the re lation ship am ong the social classes and th e respec-

tive dem ands of nationalism and internationalism .

Ngugi has expressed his views rather

forcefiiUy;

An African writer should

write in a language that will allow him to comm unicate effectively with

peasants and workers in Africa; in other words, he should write in an Afri-

can language Literature published in African languages will have to be

meaningful to the

masses

and therefore

much closer to the realities

of their

situation. ("On Writing" 151)

This sta tem en t is significant b oth for w hat it reveals and for wha t it con-



146 I

Research in African Uteratures

If the m ea nir ^s of words are so indeterm inate, th e use of language

poses

seri

problems for writers as well as readers. For writers, the essential problem

w heth er they c an say, throu gh language, wh at they desire to say. N o m atter h

optim ist ic we m ight he about th e power of language, we must concede t

there are m om ents, as Heidegger expla ins, "wh en we can not find the right w

for som eth ing th at con cern s us, carries us away, oppresses or encourag es

T he n we leave unspoken what we have in m in d .. ." (59 ). Lewis Nk osi has s

gested tha t, wh atever language writers

use,

they cann ot escape this problem

In a

way,

any writer always falls short of his true ideal: his struggle with his

materials, the attem pt to wrestle from language the true meaning of the

world he seeks to depict, is always endless and incomplete, incom plete,

because in describing the true lineaments of what the writer sees with his

inner

eye language

can

only

approximate

the shapes

and

figures

of

his

imag-

ination. In this respect, therefore, the situation of the African writer is not

unique. It is the same struggle with language. (6)

T he o the r problem conce rns the reader. Like writing, reading is an a c

process. It is a dialog ue, a struggle w ith langu age, and its ou tco m e is far fr

ce rtain. Even assuming th at w riters could say exactly what they intende d to

it is never certain that readers will receive the intended message. In procla

ing th e need to "com m unica te effectively with peasants and workers in Afric

NgugT fails o recognize that the reading process is problematical. In discuss

his experience in writing

Ngaatuka

N deenda with the villagers, he clearly st

his op inio n about th e transparency of language:

And because there was no language barrier, the villagers could also com-

ment on the content of

the

play. There

was

no mystification of

the

play's

message They could now participate in correcting the con tent of the

script. ("On W riting" 152-53)

But the rece ption of language is nev er so unp rob lem atic t ha t everyone agr

about its me aning.

Ng ugl himself rem ains con te nt to no te the popu lari ty of his Giku

language works am ong th e GtkQyii masses w itho ut asking himself w ha t m e

ing they atta ch to these works. C onc ernin g th e reception o(Cmtaani Muth

ba-iru, or

example, he observes:

The novel had an interesting kind of reception. At

first

t was read in fami-

lies.

When

families

gathered together in the evening,' they would get one



josephMbek I 147

C onc erne d ab out conveying w hat he regards

as

a revolutionary m essage, Ngug l

assumes th at th e Gikuy u masses enjoy h is works because they un derstand the

message he intend ed to com m unica te. But if we can never be sure what readers

see in a text, his assum ption becom es even more dubious when we consider th e

probab le responses of readers and aud iences w ho are drinking beer.

Jon atha n C uller has remarked that:

None would deny tha t literary works, like most other objects of human

at tent ion, can be enjoyed for reasons tha t have little to do with under-

standing and mastery—the texts can be quite blatantly misunderstood and

still be appreciated

for

a variety of personal reasons. (120)

Cu ller's po int can be corrobo rated in the African co ntex t, w here epics, folk-

tales, and oth er oral genres often co nta in segments tha t ne ithe r performers n or

audiences und erstand; nev ertheless, th is lack of und erstand ing does no t ham -

per their enjoyment of the performances. Th us , many ofth eS w ah ili w ho listen

to the pop ular epic Rosi 'LGhuii enjoy it w itho ut un de rstan din g w ha t it is all

about (Ridhiwani 1).

U nde r such circum stances, N gugi 's insis tence tha t the African writer

should w rite for pea sants and w orkers is no t as un pro blem atic as he assumes.

Furtherm ore, African society is also comprised of oth er social groups, including

intellectuals. M ao Tse Tung, o ne of the most influential cham pions of the peas-

an ts an d workers , had a more real ist ic perspective on this que st ion. W hile

stressing that literature an d art should be for the masses, he also pointed out that

they are;

.. . needed by the cadres. T he cadres are the advanced elements of the

masses and generally have received more education; literature and art of a

higher level are entirely necessary

for

hem. To ignore this would be a

mis-

take. (83)

In oth er wo rds, Mao recognized th e im po rtance of a l i terature tha t mig ht be

inaccessible to pea san ts and workers on a cc ou nt of its com plexity or its exis-

ten ce in a foreign langu age . N o t on ly Ng ugi but also scholars such as A biola

Irele an d Emm anuel N gara, wh o rail against w ha t they call elitist literature, are

vulnerable to criticism o n these grounds (Irele 55-56 and Ngugl 39-48 ).

M ao was also ahe ad of NgCigr in ano the r way. A ltho ug h he recognized

tha t the c ultural level of the peasants and workers was low, he advo cated th at it



8 I Research in A /ncan

literatures

repeat the saying; "A

foreign

anguage is a weapon in the struggle of life."

(439)

It would be ne ith er accurate no r fair to charge Ngugi w ith having ignored inte

nationalism- A ltho ug h he cham pions w riting in African languages and no

writes only in Gtk uyu, he has considered the question of how to rea ch reade

outs ide . His answer has a lways been tha t they wi l l be reached throug

translations:

Writing in Gikuyu does no t cut me off from other language comm unities

because there are always opportunities for ranslation. My Gikuyu novel,

for example, has been translated not only into English and Kiswahili but

also directly from Gtkuyu into

Swedish.

A German edition is planned, and

a translation directly from Gtkuyu into Japanese may appear later. In other

words, there is already a dialogue emerging with the rest of the world due to

the translation of a piece of Gikuyu literature into

foreign

anguages. This

kind of dialogue has also occurred within East Africa with the publication

of a translation into K iswahili. Hopefully a situation will arise where this

novel is translated directly into other African languages within and outside

Kenya, so tha t once again there will be direct communication between two

African language communities rather than indirect communication

through an intermediary language such as English or French. ("On Writ-

ing"155)

But som ething is always cha nge d, adde d, or lost in tran slation . For this reaso

the re really can be no tru e tran sla tion ; in fact, a translatio n is actually a ne

work of

art.

Ideally, works should he read in the original languages, and if w

mu st have translation s, we should acknowlege the m as a necessary evil.

Since NgugT appears to believe tha t th e work rem ains the same in transl

tio n, why is it essential for him to w rite in GTkuyu

first?

If tran slat ion ofifers suc

an efficient bridge be tw een langu ages , he could just as easily w rite in Englis

and the n have his work translated into GTkuyu. Irele is undoubtedly right wh

he a i ^ e s tha t "the literary artist will produce his best work in the m edium th

he m ost confidently con trols" (5 9) . In light of this fact it is quite possible th

NgCigT is ca pa ble of pro du cin g be tte r work in English t h a n in Gi ku yu . By h

own adm ission, h e lacks the m astery of GTkuyu tha t would ena ble him to w ri

his best work in it:

And when we scripted th e play in Gikuyu called Ngaahika Ndeenda (or I



]osephMbele I 149

In criticizing w ha t he calls "petty-bourgeois African writers" who, while

writing in foreign languages, misrepresent the African peasants, Ngugl actually

underm ines his own views on translation:

Often the African peasant characters were made to appear naive and sim-

ple minded because of the kind of simplistic, distorted foreign languages

through which they

were

made to articulate their feelings and world out-

look. More ofren the peasant/worker characters were given the vacillating

mentality and pessimistic world outlook of the petty bourgeois. But the

final indignity was that even where the peasant/worker characters were

given their due in terms of dignity and world outlook, they were made to

express

these awkwardly

in

foreign languages. Thus the

tongues

of millions

of peasants were mutilated in ' he works of African writers, and in the ir

stead the peasants were given plastic surgery in the literary laboratories of

Africa and emerged with English, French and Portuguese tongues. (Writ-

en 58)

How ever, h e fails to cite a single work of African fiction in w hich p easants are

portrayed in this way. Fu rtherm ore , o ne is tem pted to ask wh at hap pen s to

Ngugfs ow n novels wh en they are translated into European languages. D o his

Gtkuyu peasants and w orkers escape the simple-mindedness an d awkwardness

th at em erge wh en they are made to speak in an alien tongue? To save his peas-

an ts and w orkers from such ind ign ities, NgugT should pe rhap s refuse to allow

any of his Gtku yu works to be translated into foreign languages.

Ng ugi's decision to ab an do n E nglish as a m edium for expression for his

crea tive work and to use only Gtkuyu is intriguing because it seems to be based

on a non -dia lectica l view of English and, for tha t m atter, of other European lan-

guages as well. For him , these languages are simply the languages of the former

colon ial masters. A ny African writer wh o uses them today thus becomes a vic-

tim of neo-colonialism. Ngugt himself explains:

There are o ther contradictions of a writer in a neocolonia

state.

For whom

does he write? For the people? But then what language does he use? It is a

fact tha t the African writers who emerged after the Second World War

opted for European languages. All the major African writers wrote in

English, French, and Portuguese. But

by

and large, all the peasants and a

majority of the workers—the masses—have their own languages.

Isn't the writer perpetuating, a t the level of cultural practice, the

very rieo-colonialism he is condemning at the level of economic and politi-

cal practice? For whom a writer

writes

is a question which has not been sat-



150 I

Research in African

titeratures

language of Gikuy u peasants and workers, it

is

atso the language of Glkuyii land

lords

and capitalists. If these capitalists and landlords had the power, they coul

easily use Gtkuyu to dom inate people of oth er language groups.

NgugT has consistently argued th at the colonialists downgraded Africa

languages and prom oted Eu ropean languages; howevet, his views on th is subje

are rather simp listic. T h e co lonialists' policies on African languages were no

uniform throughout the co ntine nt, n or were they entirely nega tive. In fact, th

colonialists and missionaries whom N gugi castigates were instrum ental in pro

m oting m any African languages. Even in Kenya, Ngugi 's own country, the

produced the orthograp hies, d ictionaries, grammars, and readers tha t enable

large num bers of Africans to becom e literate in these languages. In many p lace

in Africa, colo nial ists and missionaries star ted new spapers and p ublishin

enterprises tha t enab led indigenous writers such as Tho m as M ofolo of Lesoth

and Sha aban Ro bert from Tanganyika to make nam es for them selves. T ha

Ng ugi can now w ri te in G iku yu and t ha t he ca n be read by an appreciat iv

Gikuy u a udience result largely from the good work done by the colonialists an

the missionaries.

In many ways, Ngijgrs struggle against English appears to

be

fueled

by

ps

cholog ical conflicts, a nxieties , and guilt feelings. His situation is a variation o

th e Oedip al the m e of the father-son conflict, for he is bent o n killing the fathe

th e former colon ial master, w ho , th rou gh a process of disp lacem ent, is repre

sente d by the colonizer's language. But this language begot Ngu gi as a write

His struggle is all th e mo re inte ns e because the father is perc eive d as bein

int en t upo n ema sculating and obliterating th e son, by subjecting him to cu

tural institutions such as the language and the school. In this respect, Ngug

resem bles all of us w ho w ere formerly colon ized, O ko t p'Bitek's Lawino h a

characterized our pred icam ent quite well, embod ying i t in the m etap ho r o

castration:

Bile bums my inside

I feel like vomiting

For all

our

young men

Were

finished

n the forest,

Their manhood was finished

In the classrooms,

Their testicles were smashed

With large

books

(17)



]osephMbek I 151

How did

we

arrive at this acceptance of the

fatalistic

ogic of the unassail-

able position of English

in

our

literature; [a phrase Achebe

had

used]

in our

culture and in our politics?... How did we, as African writers, come to be

so

feeble towards the claims of our languages on

us

and

so

aggressive in our

claims on other languages, particularly the languages of out colonization?

(Decolonising

9)

References to aggressiveness and feebleness provide further ptoof, from a psy-

choanalytical perspective, that NgugT is subject to a deep-seated anxiety. Fee-

bleness is

j

ust another term for the condition that Lawino names, without

mincing

words,

in the quotation cited above.

Ngiigi's pronouncements about the use of languages in African literature

are not completely unacceptable. Much of what he says is valid, but the subject

is

a complex one, and there are no easy solutions to the theoretical and practical

problems that it implies. By pointing out the gaps and weak links in Ngugi's

arguments, I hope to stimulate a rethinking of the crucial issues to which Ngugl

has drawn our attention.

WORKS CITED

Achebe , Chinua . Morning Yet

on

Creation Day. G ard en C ity, NY; An chor, 1976.

Cul le r , Jona than . Structuralist

Poetics:

Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Litera-

ture. I tha ca, NY: Co rnel l UP, 1978 .

Heidegger , Mar t in .

On

the

W ay

to

Language.

Trans . Peter D. Her tz . San Francisco:

Harper, 1982.

I re le , Abiola . The African Experience in Literature and Ideology. L o n d o n : H e i n e m a n n

1981.

Lafargue, Paul. "From Reminiscences

of

M a r x . " O n

Literature and Art.

Karl Marx and

Friedrich Engels. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1984.

M ao Tse Tung. "Talks at th e Yenan Forum on Literature and A rt ." Selected Works

of Mao

Tse Tung. Vo l. 111. Beijing: Foreign Lan guag es P, 1967.

Ngara , Emmanuel . Art

and

Ideology

in

the

African

l>]ovel A

Study of

the

Influence of Marx

ism on African W riting.

London: Heinemann, 1985 .

Ngiigt wa Th io ng 'o . Decoionising the M ind: The Politics of Language in African Uterature.

Lon don : James Currey Ltd. , 1986.

" O n W rit in g in G iku yu ." Research in A/rican Literatures 16 .2( 19 85 ): 151-56.

Venters in Politics. London: Heinemann, 1981.

Writing Against NeocohniaUsm. W embley (M iddlesex) , England: Vi ta Books,

1986.

Nkosi , Lewis.

T asks and Masks: Them es a nd Styles of African

Literature. H ar bw (Essex),

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