<b>Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s politics of language: commitment and complicity</b> - doi: 10.4025/actascilangcult.v33i1.6348

Abstract

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s politics of language has been controversially received by his critics, who tend to either overemphasize his revolutionary trajectory as an African writer or devalue his efforts to produce an African language-based literature. Through a historical and cultural analysis, the present work offers an alternative view of Ngũgĩ’s treatment of the language question as a problematic, yet necessary, attempt to interrogate and alter his cultural alignments with European colonialism.

Keywords

• African languages
• European languages
• colonialism
• exile
• politics of language