Ngugi wa Thiong'o

[Jeanne Hromnik]

Ngugi wa Thiog'o will be coming to Cape Town in March. I thought GBC-ers would be interested in this mini-biography published by the Institute for Creative Arts, which is hosting a lecture by him.

You will already know him if only through Peter.

(I'm attaching a rather nice photo of him.)

The Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) is honoured to launch its annual Great Texts/Big Questions lecture series with a lecture by the internationally renowned writer and postcolonial theorist Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o on Friday 3 March at 6pm. The lecture, presented in association with the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), will take place at the Baxter Concert Hall and will be moderated by Professor Xolela Mangcu. Ngugi wa Thiong'o is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, and one of the most significant, prolific and influential thinkers of our time. He burst onto the literary scene with the performance of his first major play, The Black Hermit, at the National Theatre in Kampala in 1962. In a highly productive literary period, Ngugi wrote additionally eight short stories, two one act plays, two novels, and a regular column for the Sunday Nation under the title, “As I See It”. The novel Weep Not Child was published to critical acclaim in 1964 followed by a second novel, The River Between (1965). His third, A Grain of Wheat (1967), was a turning point in the formal and ideological direction of his works. During his tenure at the University of Nairobi, beginning in 1967, Ngugi was at the centre of the politics of English departments in Africa, championing the change of name from English to Literature to reflect world literature with African and third world literatures at the centre. He co-authored the polemical declaration, “On the Abolition of the English Department”, setting in motion a continental and global debate, and practices that later became the heart of postcolonial theories. His first volume of literary essays, Homecoming, appeared in print in 1969. These were to be followed, in later years, by other volumes including Writers in Politics (1981 and 1997); Decolonising the Mind (1986); Moving the Center (1994); and Penpoints Gunpoints and Dreams (1998). Sharply critical of the inequalities and injustices of Kenyan society, Ngugi was arrested and imprisoned without charge at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison at the end of 1977. His memoir, Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary (1982), is an account of those experiences. After Amnesty International named Ngugi a Prisoner of Conscience, an international campaign secured his release in December 1978. However, the Moi Dictatorship barred him from jobs at colleges and universities in Kenya. In exile, Ngugi worked with the London based Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya (1982-1998). In 1992 he became Professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University, and from there moved to his present position at the University of California. Ngugi has continued to write prolifically. He is the recipient of numerous honours, including the 2001 Nonino International Prize for Literature, as well as ten Honorary Doctorates.

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 24 February 2017 at 19:26, Jeanne Hromnik <jeanne...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ngugi wa Thiog'o will be coming to Cape Town in March. I thought GBC-ers would be interested in this mini-biography published by the Institute for Creative Arts, which is hosting a lecture by him.

You will already know him if only through Peter.

(I'm attaching a rather nice photo of him.)

Wow! 

As I said before, he (with Achebe, Ken Saro-Wiva, Wole Soinyka and Okri were the names we grew up with in the 1980s, admiring them because they were (mostly) using English in a post-colonial (or even anti-colonial) context, at a time when it was embarrassing to be seen as an "Indo-Anglian writer" in India.

Like me, I guess others too mostly wondered what they were writing about, since the texts (and books in general) were not easy to come by here.... FN
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[Augusto Pinto]

Sent from my iPhone

On 24-Feb-2017, at 8:26 PM, Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 24 February 2017 at 19:26, Jeanne Hromnik <jeanne...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ngugi wa Thiog'o will be coming to Cape Town in March. I thought GBC-ers would be interested in this mini-biography published by the Institute for Creative Arts, which is hosting a lecture by him.

You will already know him if only through Peter.

(I'm attaching a rather nice photo of him.)

Wow! 

As I said before, he (with Achebe, Ken Saro-Wiva, Wole Soinyka and Okri were the names we grew up with in the 1980s, admiring them because they were (mostly) using English in a post-colonial (or even anti-colonial) context, at a time when it was embarrassing to be seen as an "Indo-Anglian writer" in India.

Wow! Do you seriously mean to say that during the '80s Achebe, Ken, Wole and Okri were available in the Goa University library? 

And assuming they were, did you actually have the time to read their novels.

I know I didn't so I wonder who it is the "we" you refer to.

I wonder. Vhoi Saiba - I wonder.

Augusto 

Like me, I guess others too mostly wondered what they were writing about, since the texts (and books in general) were not easy to come by here.... FN
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_/
_/  Frederick Noronha http://about.me/noronhafrederick http://goa1556.in
_/  P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twtr @fn Fbk: fredericknoronha
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_/
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[Selma Cardoso]

This is just a suggestion but maybe Augusto and Frederick should lock themselves up in a cheap hotel room drinking copious amounts of alcohol and tea and then proceed to bash each other up. Maybe then Augusto will stop having his Quixotic and chaotic urge to challenge Frederick at every instance and Frederick will realise he is the unfeeling and uncaring windmill (unlikely) and the rest of us can breathe easy.

Incidentally Frederick is trying to impress us with his anti-colonial Che Guevara party carrying card. As if growing up in the seventies and eighties which Frederick, Augusto and I all did, when TV itself was limited and internet was yet to make its debut, any of us had heard of African writers let alone been remotely interested in them.

In the 1990s, I bought Okri but only to impress a love-interest at the time with the opening paragraph of 'Songs of Enchantment' which I thought magical.

Best,

selma 

---

From: Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com>
To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, 24 February 2017, 16:27
Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Ngugi wa Thiong'o

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[Eugene Correia]

I also heard of these African writers when coming to Canada, and I read some of them. I remember Peter suggesting me to read Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada, and I went and got the book. 

Both Fred and Augusto make CBC interesting... hahah

Eugene

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[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

Without getting caught up in the uninformed and personalised debate, let me say that it was this itself which egged me on to undertake further searches, aka Googleism.

Check the 2015-16 syllabus of the Centre for Comparative Literature, School of Languages, Literature and Culture, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda. Sounds very interesting, as does the name of the department -- Comparative Literature (rather than English alone):

CPL.608: African Literature. Credits: 4.

Course Objectives

 To introduce the students to African literature

 To provide a brief history of African literature

 To analyze select texts for giving a sample of African literature

Unit - 1

P'Bitek, Okot: 'My Husband’s Tongue is Bitter' (selections from Song of Lawino)

Unit - 2

Soyinka, Wole: A Dance of the Forests

Unit - 3

Thiango, NGugi Wa: Devil on the Cross

Unit - 4

Achebe, Chinua: Things fall Apart

Suggested Readings:

Emmanuel, Obiechina. Culture, Tradition, and Society in the West African Novel (CPU, 1975)

Moore, Gerald. Twelve African Writers. (London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd. 1980.

Dathrone, O.R. African literature in the Twentieth Century. London: Heinemann, 1979.

Izevbaye, Dan. Chinweizu et al Toward the Decolonization of African Literature. Enugu Fourth Dimension

Publishers, 1980.

Benham, Martin. African Theatre Today. London: Pitman Publishing, 1976.

Larson, Charles. The Emergence of African Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1971

Regards, FN

On 24 February 2017 at 23:52, Eugene Correia <eugene....@gmail.com> wrote:

I also heard of these African writers when coming to Canada, and I read some of them. I remember Peter suggesting me to read Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada, and I went and got the book. 

Both Fred and Augusto make CBC interesting... hahah

Eugene

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/CAJhbo_57%3DZ3hGOC7jQK7uktV%2BaBkdtps133u9r3UTCHcPoF-hQ%40mail.gmail.com.

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[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

Wonder if our other classmates (Ricardo, Alice, Rafael, Lucy, Carlos, Cidalia, Ranee ...) remember all the Nigerian students we had at the GU in the mid-1980s.

Though I can't recall their names, as an avid reader of the Third World Guide (promoted by the then new and Claude/Norma Alvares-promoted Other India Bookstore, a precursor by quite some distance to both Flipkart and Amazon) and such initiatives, I remember being rather curious about their reality. While issues like Biafra were half a generation away from us, the newspapers of those times still featured other former colonial countries then without entirely depending on Western media gate-keeping.

I recall the saddened faces of these young men (they were probably elder to us), each time news came up about a coup in their country. And it was not infrequent in those times. FN

[Selma Cardoso]

My sincere apologies to Frederick who along with his classmates was widely informed and profoundly concerned about the state of the world in his teens. I had other things on my mind like how I could get my hands on Harold Robbins and Jackie Collins and oh yeah the one miserable copy of Jilly Cooper which all of us had borrowed and thumbed through relentlessly. There was also Mario Puzo's Godfather which was standard reading, and you weren't anybody if you hadn't read the entire publications of Sidney Sheldon. Other challenges included reading the manual on how to ride a bike with gears and how to survive apply make-up. Yes, I was vacuous and loving it!!

Best,

selma

---

From: Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا <frederic...@gmail.com>
To: The Third Thursday Goa Book Club <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, 24 February 2017, 18:45

Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Wonder if our other classmates (Ricardo, Alice, Rafael, Lucy, Carlos, Cidalia, Ranee ...) remember all the Nigerian students we had at the GU in the mid-1980s.

Though I can't recall their names, as an avid reader of the Third World Guide (promoted by the then new and Claude/Norma Alvares-promoted Other India Bookstore, a precursor by quite some distance to both Flipkart and Amazon) and such initiatives, I remember being rather curious about their reality. While issues like Biafra were half a generation away from us, the newspapers of those times still featured other former colonial countries then without entirely depending on Western media gate-keeping.

I recall the saddened faces of these young men (they were probably elder to us), each time news came up about a coup in their country. And it was not infrequent in those times. FN

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[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

This article, though not very fresh, makes an important point about the teaching of literature. SInce I would not be able to make the point in such an articulate manner, am merely copying-and-pasting below:

Posted at: Dec 24, 2014, 1:30 AM; last updated: Dec 24, 2014, 1:30 AM (IST)

Teaching Shakespeare in the tropics

The imperialism of English language overweighs the teaching of literature in the English departments of Indian universities and colleges. Even though thousands of Ph D-armed English teachers are produced, few voices are recognised in the wider cultural world

The babel

Even though English, as a language, was taught by our colonisers for over a century, teaching of English literature in our universities suffers from poor understanding of the history and culture of Europe.
By the early 1980s, Indian universities experimented with teaching English literature produced by Indian writers, it was called Indo-Anglian literature.
Then, teaching of Commonwealth literature came in vogue and a few universities taught literature written in English from Africa, Australia and Canada.
The rich pool of Indian literature produced in its native languages called bhasha sahitya, translated into English, was also introduced in the English literature courses, to bridge the cultural lag.

The written word: Reading involves understanding the said of the unsaid and unsaid of the said. Picture only for illustration purpose.

Vandana Shukla

The pursuit of English literature, like many other subjects taught in our university system, is fraught with cultural complexities. This leads to the failure of grasping the fundamentals of appreciating literature. Ask teachers who have spent their life-time doing this impossible job — of sensitising students from diverse cultural backgrounds about the finesse of the glorified literature produced by our colonisers; they find aspirations at odds with the reality. Most universities provide degrees in English Literature, few teach literature, and even fewer inspire students to the understanding of metaphoric discourse, awareness of multiple responses to complex situations, of the complexities of moral thought, and the relative nature of all languages. Reading literature is akin to listening to music or seeing a work of art, it is also a subversive act. Literature of an alien culture makes it even more challenging.   
The biggest challenge teachers of English literature have to face in India is — dealing with its colonial past. The attitude of cultural superiority the English language carries is demolished everyday in a classroom situation by the reality wherein most students have not read literature even in their native languages, while they aspire to get a degree in literature in English. To top it, they are introduced to difficult texts, often in archaic English, which were written for a different time and space, and are not easy to understand even for the native speakers of English. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, poet, anthologist, literary critic and translator  who taught English literature in Allahabad University for 30 years, says, “There is no connection between what I taught and what I wrote, which is not the case in other parts of the world, where your teaching and writing, at least academic writing, are closely linked.” 
Calling Allahabad a “cow belt”, he elaborates upon his difficulty. “You walk two miles in any direction and you hit a village. Most of my students come from these adjoining areas and many are the first generation in their families to learn English. It is difficult to teach them Shakespeare or Shelley when they are barely familiar with the alphabet. Basically, they bring a textbook to class and you tell them a few things in Hindi.” The case is not different where professors have to use Punjabi, Tamil or Gujarati to convey the English text.

Cultural ventriloquism

Universities teach unprepared students superficial facts “about” Shakespeare or Plato or modern American literature. How can literature be taught without first developing a sense of philosophy and history of a particular culture? Even in the land of  the   English, students are introduced with easier, illustrated texts, for example, of Charles and Mary Lambs’ Tales from Shakespeare, at school level, before they graduate to the complexity of the original text. 
In the absence of any background of literature and the overpowering cultural force of the English language, even at the master’s level, all the teaching, directly or indirectly, thus becomes a form of advanced language-teaching. If universities are better placed, in colleges it gets limited to only a translation activity. A professor of English Literature from JNU, says, “Even at specialised level, in MA, despite being literature, it is continually confused with the teaching/learning of English at the practical/communicative level, for business or social use.” 
Yet, the scorn with which the more onerous tasks of teaching composition, functional English, report-writing etc., are viewed by most university professors is shocking; in almost all universities such courses are regularly given to part-time lecturers or junior faculty. India has had a glorious tradition of teaching English grammar and syntax, especially in the convents, which is now being diluted. Also, with objective- type format of examination system, even in the language courses, the ability to write good English compositions is reduced among students at the school level. “If schools don’t do their job of preparing students in the basics of English grammar, how can the faculty at university level be blamed for getting down to teaching language in the name of literature?” asks Jasbir Jain, former Professor of English Literature,  University of Rajasthan.

Colouring daffodils red

Faced with the cultural challenges of teaching English Literature courses, around the early 1980s when interdisciplinary expansion of literature into cultural studies was beginning to take shape in some American and British Universities, a few academics in India saw a possibility of bringing to English Literature the interrogative and transforming discourse of colonialism. Late Prof Meenakshi Mukherjee, a pioneer in the field, introduced, for the first time, Indian language novels in English translation when she had the opportunity to set syllabus for a new university, University of Hyderabad, as a solution to bridge the cultural alienation of the texts. The opposition to the idea of using “translated (Indian) texts in an English MA programme” she had already encountered at traditional universities where the objection never seemed to have been applied to English translations of Homer, Sophocles and Brecht. As a student, she had herself read a few English novels in Bangla translation and knew the relevance of the comfort level of reading literature in native languages. 
Teaching Indian texts in translation in the English class, Mukherjee and the supporters of this approach found that student responses to such texts were more confident. She critiqued the way English literature was being traditionally taught in India—totally ignoring the context in which the text had been created and canonised, and the context in which it was being received. The situation was akin to Michelle Cliff's novel, Abeng, set in post-colonial Jamaica where Kitty, the protagonist’s mother recalls that the only thing she learnt at school was “a silly poem 'Daffodils,” which one of the children had coloured a deep red, like a hibiscus. This “daffodils-in-the-tropics” syndrome still colours many students' readings on English literature.

A text is a text is a text 

Even though some Indian universities adopted a liberal approach by incorporating Indian writings in English, which are closer to the cultural reality of Indian students, most universities stuck to the old sacred text. The heads of the department of English Literature, in universities, are at liberty to change the syllabus, only a few do so, for fear of attracting disapproval. As such, it is only in the long term that the advantage/disadvantage of changing the text comes to the fore. And, as they say, the wheels of academic bureaucracy turn exceedingly slow in our country. 
In universities where Indian writings in English were introduced liberally, the accusation of Indianisation of the text worked as a dampener. It was believed that only the “elite” universities could get away with it, the mofussil had to stick to the old English texts to prove their Englishness. In isolated pockets though, academics are working to change the syllabi and the approaches used, alerting students to the politics of their own post-colonial relationship to the not-so-sacred texts. Manju Jaidka, former Professor of English, Panjab University says, English Literature has made room for other literatures, it began with the inclusion of American Literature in the curriculum, and then Canadian, African, Australian, and finally Indian literature was  accommodated.

Coining the political word

Then, there were the political considerations that limited the rightful placing of Indian writing in English. For example, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s children which appropriated a powerful new discourse on cross-cultures should have been placed in the unique line of Indian writings in English. The way he “wrote back” to our colonial masters in a chutnified English, creating “an indigenous tradition of Indian English,” did not happen due to political compulsions. Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey was withdrawn by the Vice-Chancellor from B.A II syllabus of the Mumbai University, under political pressure. 
 In most universities thus, the text is not experimented with, it is safe to teach what has been taught for decades. When they do, just one optional paper on Indian writing in English is added, while seven papers stick to  imparting eternal and universal moral values penned by the masters of English literature. There is the fear of unsettling the sacred in English, so, the status quo continues. 
Prof Jasbir Jain, who now heads Institute for Research in Interdisciplinary Studies, Jaipur, says, what is needed is a judicious mix of both. If the content of English Literature course is reduced to only Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao, the student will have no understanding of the history, philosophy and psychological texture associated with a particular culture and period of the British history. At the same time, she asserts, the text cannot be confined to 1920-40, it should have temporality, continuity and a sense of inheritance which demands that the contemporary works are incorporated. In this context, bilingualism helps. Students, who understand literary practice of their own language, are able to relate to literature of other languages too.

Passive students

Perhaps, universities should stop taking students who have no background of studying literature, for advanced courses in English Literature. In the changing context when technology can provide rich visual content, and reading habits, as we had known, are changing, the way literature is taught; a teacher translating old texts before passive students, would not work. Perhaps, courses slightly less “academic” than at present, and more participatory even at the level of content selection can produce scholars who read literature intelligently and with pleasure.
Unfortunately, despite much experimentation carried out with the content the way English literature is taught — for possessing a degree —neither equips a  student for the subversive act of questioning the norm, nor does it instill love for the written word. Jaidka, who taught English literature all her life and now heads the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, says, “The Sahitya Akademi experience  taught me that there is a world of difference between classroom teaching and the actual experience of literature – writing it, sharing it, living it. In the face of creativity, dry academics come a poor second. Theory seems so futile and parasitic!”

[Eugene Correia]

Yeah, literature and films come under political pressure. Such a Long Journey

provided a view of Raj Thackeray that the Shiv Sena found unpleasant. As for Midnight's Children it was found to hurt the Muslim community. Even the late Kushwant Singh had warned 

Penguin, on whose advisory board he sat, that publishing the book in

in India could raise problems. 

Just saw how s women-oriented movie, Lipstick under my Burkina, has been denied 

Certifications by the. Censor Board. One knows about "moral policing" in India.

Eugene

Sent from my iPad

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[Jose Colaco]

On 24 February 2017 at 12:15, 'Selma Cardoso' via The Goa Book Club <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

This is just a suggestion but maybe Augusto and Frederick should lock themselves up in a cheap hotel room drinking copious amounts of alcohol and tea and then proceed to .........

Comment: With infinite Regret (or not), I advise AGAINST the above recommendation.

jc 

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 24 February 2017 at 21:57, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wow! Do you seriously mean to say that during the '80s Achebe, Ken, Wole and Okri were available in the Goa University library? 

No many, but there definitely were copies available.

 

If you checked with http://library.unigoa.ac.in while seated in your chair itself you can confirm the presence of

Achebe s World : The Historical and Cultural Context of the Novels of Chinua Achebe by Wren, Robert

Publication: Essex Longman Group Limited 1981Date: 1981

Things Fall Apart by Achebe, ChinuaPublication: Ahmedabad Allied Publishers Limited 1990

Date: 1990 

Things Fall Apart by Achebe, ChinuaPublication: New Delhi Arnold - Heinemann 1987Date: 1987
Anthills of the Savannah by Achebe, ChinuaPublication: London Heinemann 1987 . 233p 21cmDate: 1987
For some reason, I vaguely recollect Heinemann (who were the publishers of Achebe, who surprisingly, specially for that time, seem to have had their operations working out of New Delhi too).

Wole Soyinka's Collected Plays 2 are showing up in an 1986 OUP edition, while The Interpreters has an even earlier 1972 London Fontana Paperbacks edition.

And assuming they were, did you actually have the time to read their novels.

Are you reading what I wrote?

QUOTE

Like me, I guess others too mostly wondered what they were writing about, since the texts (and books in general) were not easy to come by here.... FN

ENDQUOTE

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[augusto pinto]

Wow!

So the Owner of Goa1556 not only had the time to write for the Herald or Deccan Herald or whatever and not only attended ALL the lectures but also read Achebe, Ken Saro-Wiva, Wole Soinyka and Okri - only Achebe of which is and was available in the Goa University library.

Wow!

Augusto

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[antonio CABA]

I remember that tall guy. He was from Ethiopia. He was quite a polished guy. And he was fair. We normally used to end up sitting at the same table in the library. He had come on a Government scholarship. In fact he gave me a job offer in his country.

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[Jose Colaco]

On 25 February 2017 at 04:08, augusto pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

"Wow! 

So the Owner of Goa1556 not only had the time to write for the Herald or Deccan Herald or whatever and not only attended ALL the lectures but also read Achebe, Ken Saro-Wiva, Wole Soinyka and Okri - only Achebe of which is and was available in the Goa University library.

Wow!"

PERSONAL COMMENT:

During my PG studies, I (and my colleagues) were expected to write voluminous, referenced scripts at the conclusion of the degree programs. It did mean Reading quite widely. The Medical literature wasn't always available in the digital format. More recently, the Legal literature has been available on (say) Lexus Nexus.....and (for me, at least), easier to read and incorporate into the script of the thesis. All this, while being expected to continue with one's clinical work, continue teaching and churn out papers on a regular basis.

 So, I am not surprised that FN was able to read widely et al. I have NO "Wow!" for him in that regard. It is something one is expected to do, if one wishes to complete the program in time and Be Done With It. 

One luxury I did not have was the free availability of expendable funds which a number of my colleagues (in Ireland) had. And that, turned out to be a Blessing. My colleagues, invariably, spent their evenings in the Irish Pubs. Needless to say....They completed the program a few years after us who were occasional Social Imbibers but otherwise, regular Teetotalers like FN.

jc