World-renowned Kenyan scholar Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o has suggested the colonial name of the city of East London be changed to that of late African scholar SEK Mqhayi “or any other name that fits”.
The multi-award winning author, a distinguished professor at the University of California in Irvine, also suggested the city’s colonial street names, most of which are the same as street names in London, are also changed to reflect African origin or those of late African intellectuals.
A Pan Africanist of note, Wa Thiong’o is revered worldwide for his advocacy of the development of African languages, and is an author of many books.
His recent work, The Upright Revolution, has been translated into more than 60 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.
Wa Thiong’o said he was shocked when he touched base in the city this weekend and was met by street names such as Fleet, Oxford, Gately and Cambridge streets.
Speaking at a packed University of Fort Hare’s ABC Hall at the East London campus during Dispatch Dialogues on Saturday, Wa Thiong’o said something needed to be done urgently to change colonial street names so they could reflect on the identity of the majority of the inhabitants.
Wa Thiong’o has been in the country since last week delivering talks in Johannesburg and Cape Town at the invitation of University of Cape Town (UCT) Professor Xolela Mangcu, and the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences. He was in East London to address the Dispatch Dialogues on the decolonisation of universities and their curricula.
He told the captivated crowd of more than 1000 people that mostly consisted of academics, students, business people, and politicians such as Finance Deputy Minister Mcebisi Jonas, that SEK Mqhayi City would be an ideal name for East London, “or else rename it after anyone who is relevant to Africa”.
SABC3’s Isidingo star Jet Novuka was among those who attended.
“You need to do something about the name of this city and its streets. You need to take all those names, put them in an envelop and write, return to sender,” he said to loud cheers.
The so-called father of decolonisation spoke about the importance of prioritising indigenous languages in education to improve the continent’s development.
“If you know all the languages of the world and you don’t know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, that is enslavement.
“But if you know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, and add all the other languages of the world to it, that is empowerment,” Wa Thiong’o said.
This was his second visit to the country. In 2003, he delivered the Steve Biko memorial lecture at UCT. He spoke about the decolonisation of universities and curricula at Wits and UCT last week.
At the Saturday gathering, the Kenyan writer said it was wrong “to pamper European languages, while pauperising African languages”.
“Of course there is nothing wrong in wanting to take English or any other language as one’s own. I have always argued that each language, big or small, has its unique musicality. There is no language of which the musicality and cognitive potential is inherently better than another.
“It’s not right to embrace European languages, spoken and used by only 10% of the population, as the language of power, commerce, education, of law and justice.
“The fact is that in any independent African nation today, the majority are rendered linguistically deaf and mute by government policies that have set European languages as the normative measure of worth in every aspect of national life,” he said.
Wa Thiong’o added: “This situation is not the consequence of an accident of history, but the fulfilment of a conscious imperial design in a long history of conquest.”
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFRg5o7aUBkThe scholar accused Europe of wrongly benefiting in the continent’s natural resources.
“We are told that we get aid from Europe. It’s a lie. It’s Africa that has been the perpetual donor to the West.
“Europe gave Africa the resources of their accent, while Africa gave Europe access to the resources of the continent.
“So when African intellectuals and leaders were busy perfecting their borrowed accents, Europe and the West were busy sharpening their instruments for access to the resources of the continent.
“It was accents for access. That, unfortunately, is the story of post-colonial Africa,” he said.
He added that the need, therefore, was to intensify resistance to the metaphysical empire of language, literature, and scholarship and make African languages more visible.
He said every African university should become an advocate of African languages.
“We need to press governments to change their anti-Africa, slavish, suicidal linguistic policies.
“We should be making resolution after resolution calling upon each and every country to set up a well-funded and resourced national bureau of African languages in their own territories,” he said.
Mangcu echoed such statements, saying he himself had been advocating for the use of African languages at UCT’s sociology department where he lectures.
Mangcu, who described the Kenyan scholar as “titanic” and a “lion” of African literature, said it was not that difficult to decolonise the curriculum at SA universities, and that “we owe it to ourselves to do that”. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
Call for East London name change
The multi-award winning author, a distinguished professor at the University of California in Irvine, also suggested the city’s colonial street names, most of which are the same as street names in London, are also changed to reflect African origin or those of late African intellectuals.
A Pan Africanist of note, Wa Thiong’o is revered worldwide for his advocacy of the development of African languages, and is an author of many books.
His recent work, The Upright Revolution, has been translated into more than 60 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.
Wa Thiong’o said he was shocked when he touched base in the city this weekend and was met by street names such as Fleet, Oxford, Gately and Cambridge streets.
Speaking at a packed University of Fort Hare’s ABC Hall at the East London campus during Dispatch Dialogues on Saturday, Wa Thiong’o said something needed to be done urgently to change colonial street names so they could reflect on the identity of the majority of the inhabitants.
Wa Thiong’o has been in the country since last week delivering talks in Johannesburg and Cape Town at the invitation of University of Cape Town (UCT) Professor Xolela Mangcu, and the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences. He was in East London to address the Dispatch Dialogues on the decolonisation of universities and their curricula.
He told the captivated crowd of more than 1000 people that mostly consisted of academics, students, business people, and politicians such as Finance Deputy Minister Mcebisi Jonas, that SEK Mqhayi City would be an ideal name for East London, “or else rename it after anyone who is relevant to Africa”.
SABC3’s Isidingo star Jet Novuka was among those who attended.
“You need to do something about the name of this city and its streets. You need to take all those names, put them in an envelop and write, return to sender,” he said to loud cheers.
The so-called father of decolonisation spoke about the importance of prioritising indigenous languages in education to improve the continent’s development.
“If you know all the languages of the world and you don’t know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, that is enslavement.
“But if you know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, and add all the other languages of the world to it, that is empowerment,” Wa Thiong’o said.
This was his second visit to the country. In 2003, he delivered the Steve Biko memorial lecture at UCT. He spoke about the decolonisation of universities and curricula at Wits and UCT last week.
At the Saturday gathering, the Kenyan writer said it was wrong “to pamper European languages, while pauperising African languages”.
“Of course there is nothing wrong in wanting to take English or any other language as one’s own. I have always argued that each language, big or small, has its unique musicality. There is no language of which the musicality and cognitive potential is inherently better than another.
“It’s not right to embrace European languages, spoken and used by only 10% of the population, as the language of power, commerce, education, of law and justice.
“The fact is that in any independent African nation today, the majority are rendered linguistically deaf and mute by government policies that have set European languages as the normative measure of worth in every aspect of national life,” he said.
Wa Thiong’o added: “This situation is not the consequence of an accident of history, but the fulfilment of a conscious imperial design in a long history of conquest.”
The scholar accused Europe of wrongly benefiting in the continent’s natural resources.
“We are told that we get aid from Europe. It’s a lie. It’s Africa that has been the perpetual donor to the West.
“Europe gave Africa the resources of their accent, while Africa gave Europe access to the resources of the continent.
“So when African intellectuals and leaders were busy perfecting their borrowed accents, Europe and the West were busy sharpening their instruments for access to the resources of the continent.
“It was accents for access. That, unfortunately, is the story of post-colonial Africa,” he said.
He added that the need, therefore, was to intensify resistance to the metaphysical empire of language, literature, and scholarship and make African languages more visible.
He said every African university should become an advocate of African languages.
“We need to press governments to change their anti-Africa, slavish, suicidal linguistic policies.
“We should be making resolution after resolution calling upon each and every country to set up a well-funded and resourced national bureau of African languages in their own territories,” he said.
Mangcu echoed such statements, saying he himself had been advocating for the use of African languages at UCT’s sociology department where he lectures.
Mangcu, who described the Kenyan scholar as “titanic” and a “lion” of African literature, said it was not that difficult to decolonise the curriculum at SA universities, and that “we owe it to ourselves to do that”. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
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