In the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, the fate of which has been somewhat burdened by colonial transformations imposed upon it as well as certain post-colonial vestiges too difficult to eradicate as of yet, any attempt to look at language as an entirely ahistorical or apolitical tool undoubtedly poses a challenge. In faith, it was under its aegis that the reconstruction of educational, administrative and religious systems was carried out, while – in the process – African societies have been hierarchized on the basis of the degree to which their members have decided to adopt metropolitan cultural patterns – necessary in the course of ascending the totem pole of economic and social privilege, even decades after the dawn of the first decolonization processes (Jilani 2018).
The issue of language is inextricably linked to the discourse of literary studies, in which notions such as „African literature” do not constitute loose typological categories, but rather points of contention, causing a philosophical divide between writers who have been facing the task of unraveling the postcolonial identity tangle. A Conference of African Writers of English Expression, organized in 1962 under the auspices of the University of Makerere (Uganda), is considered by many to be, at least symbolically, the initiation of the discussion on the place and role of the colonial language in African literature. It was attended by a number of important literary voices, i.a. Wole Soyinka, Grace Ogot, Christopher Okigbo or Chinua Achebe, Kofi Awoonor or Lewis Nkosi (Jilani 2018, Gasser 2021). Paradoxically, as Achebe admits in his essay „English and the African Writer” (1962: 27) or Wali in „The Dead End of African Literature” (1963: 13), the participants of the conference did not succeed in the first place in the challenge to define „African literature” per se. Achebe1 reflects:
Was it literature produced in Africa or about Africa? Could African literature be on any subject, or must it have an African theme? Should it embrace the whole continent or south of the Sahara, or just black Africa? And then the question of language. Should it be in indigenous African languages or should it include Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans, and so on?
The following text aims to deal with, despite some supposed simplifications involved in the outline proposed hereafter, the confrontation of outlook regarding the place and role of European languages (English, specifically) in African literary works. For this very purpose, two „schools of thought” have been differentiated, i.e. the relativistic approach (represented by the aforementioned Chinua Achebe), to a large extent approving the colonial language, and the stance or attitude completely opposing its use (supported, among others, by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who, at some point during his literary career, abandons English as his literary medium of choice over Gikuyu, his native tongue). The following text aims to briefly delineate these two completely different modes of perception.
In „An African Condition in a European Tradition: Chinua Achebe and the English Language of Native Narratives”, Baazizi (2015: 198) poses the following question: „Can an African culture, articulated in a European language and using European forms, really remain African?”. As Bamiro (1996: 15,20) and Kachru (1990: 28) aptly note, in the African socio-cultural environment, the colonial language, regardless of the region studied, undergoes numerous changes as a means of artistic expression, as any author more or less consciously adapts its lexical and semantic layer in order to implement the assumptions he has established as to the expression of the broadly understood „Africanness” of his or her work.
This view is supported by Chinua Achebe, who not only likes to believe in the importance of this kind of hybridization of the colonial language as being able to „carry the weight of his African experience”, but also seems to place this Afro-European construct as superior – in a purely pragmatic sense – to local or native tongues. The author of „Things Fall Apart”, whose attitude towards Britain is completely different from the one of many Nigerians2 (Jilani 2018), tries to emphasize the positive value of the English language in the context of the African continent (even taking into account the circumstances in which it appeared there), seeing great unifying potential in the fight against colonialism in it.
Achebe’s attitude is therefore a „pragmatic assessment of the status quo” (Gasser 2021). As the world’s leading lingua franca, English is a language that functions beyond ethnic and national barriers, at the same time easing tribal sentiments and tensions, and building a significant sense of pan-African solidarity. In his essay (1962: 28), Achebe mentions a meeting with the Kenyan English-language poet Joseph Kariuki, with whom – as he admits – he felt a bond incomparably stronger than the one shared with Shabaan Robert, an artist from the Swahili-language literary circle, precisely because of the sense of common Afro-Anglophone identity.
Hence, in his opinion, writers thinking alike, i.a. Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka, Guy Bukler, Buchi Emecheta or Moradewun Adejunmobi (Ukam 2018: 51), are not devoid of patriotic feelings – as African societies were irrevocably transformed in the colonial era, they merely try to take advantage of the linguistic situation in which they found themselves. Their language, however, is different: it is „a new English”, „African English” – still related to its roots, but adapted to the African environment. These writers try to find a space where the colonial stigma and the cosmopolitan nature of the colonial language can be reconciled; they move between what is ancient and inherited, and what is alien but inalienable (Agatucci 1998). This Achebe-esque transformation of the metropolitan language, as Baazizi (2015: 203) writes, is the search for African rhythm and syntax, the use of proverbs and words that are completely foreign, non-Anglo-Saxon, the untranslatability of which emphasizes the distinctness of the African cultural experience.
On the other side of the debate, in glaring contrast, one finds Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o who, similarly to, ad exemplum, Obiajunwa Wali or Abiola Irele, perceives the use of a colonial language for literary purposes not only as maintaining the colonial metastructure that influences harmful linguistic hierarchization (Gasser 2021), but also – on a much deeper level – a form of „spiritual subjugation” (wa Thiong’o 1992: 9). In „Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature” (1992: 9) he illustrates: „The night of the sword and the bullet was followed by the morning of the chalk and the blackboard”. Additionally, Singh (2008: 18) maintains that: „To continue to speak and write in the colonizer’s language indicates that the postcolonial people are not yet liberated and continue to identify with the West’s universalism leading to neocolonialism”.
As his words are paraphrased by Ukam (2018: 49), indigenous languages should be the only appropriate means of expression in African literature, as they – unlike English, French or Portuguese – follow the lifestyle and rich local tradition; moreover, according to Wali (Irele 2000: 7), somewhat attempting to resolve the University of Makerere dispute, they (i.e. indigenous languages) are the very element indicating whether a given story belongs to the collection of African literature. Thus, according to wa Thiong’o’s philosophy, an African aspiring to write in a colonial language only adds to the repository of Afro-European – or, in the words of Bodomo (2016: 262), Europhone African works.
For Thiong’o, an author choosing to express him- or herself in his first language (L1) is not only reclaiming a stigmatized identity, but also signalizing their struggle against the traces of imperialism, through which, as he writes, „English becomes the language of glory, African languages become the languages of gory” (Paulson 2019) and „With English, went pride; with African languages, shame” (wa Thiong’o 2012: 12). In his view, language is a „war zone” (Paulson 2019), and proper reflection upon it is a way towards the „decolonization of the mind”.
Incidentally, for certain, there have been writers, such as Atukwe Okei from Ghana, more than willing to merge the two conflicting worlds of tongues inherited and tongues imposed in order to reach both the native population and the elite (Ukam 2018: 52) – to little avail, supposedly, or to little response, popularity-wise. In conclusion (however inconclusive, ironically), it seems that the debate on the topic evoked in this text shall not find resolution in the foreseeable future, as thinkers struggle to reach consensus on the essence of what is and what is to be considered African literature in the era of polyphonous postcolonial identity. ▇ Emilian Mucha
References:
Achebe, C. 1962. „English and the African Writer”. Transition 18, pp.27-30. Indiana University Press.
Agatucci, C. 1998. „African Authors: Chinua Achebe in His Own Words”: http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe2.htm [Accessed: 01/02/23].
Baazizi, N. 2015. „An African Condition in a European Tradition: Chinua Achebe and the English Language of Native Narratives”. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on Literature 3, pp.197-210. University of Paris 3, Sorbonne Nouvelle.
Bamiro, E. O. 1996. „The Pragmatics of English in African Literature”. Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos 3, pp.14-37. Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Bodomo, A. 2016. Afriphone Literature as a Prototypical form of African Literature: Insights from Prototype Theory. Advances in Language and Literary Studies 7(5), pp.262-267. Australian International Academic Centre.
Gasser, L. 2021. „Post/colonial English: The language of African literature?” Poco.lit: https://pocolit.com/en/2021/02/19/post-colonial-english-the-language-of-african-literature/ [Accessed: 01/02/23].
Irele, A. 2000. „Second language literature: An African perspective”. [in:] F. Christiane (ed.). Anglophonia: French Journal of English Studies, pp. 7-22. Presses Universitaires du Midi.
Jilani, S. 2018. „Things Fall Apart: Chinua Achebe and the languages of African literature”. The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/things-fall-apart-chinua-achebe-and-the-languages-of-african-literature-106006 [Accessed: 01/02/23].
Kachru, Braj B. 1990. The Alchemy of English: The Spread, Functions and Models of Non-Native Englishes. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Paulson, S. 2019. „Never Write In The Language of the Colonizer”. To the Best of Our Knowledge: https://www.ttbook.org/interview/never-write-language-colonizer [Accessed: 01/02/2023].
Singh, J.K. 2008. Representation and Resistance: South Asian and African Women’s Texts at Home and in the Diaspora. Canada: University of Calgary Press.
Ukam, E. I. 2018. „The Choice of Language for African Creative Writers”. English Linguistics Research 7(2). Sciedu Press.
wa Thiong’o, N. 1986. Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature. James Currey.
wa Thiong’o, N. 2012. „The Challenge – Ndaraca ya Thiomi: Languages as Bridges”. [in:] V. Rapatahana, P. Bunce (eds.). English Language as Hydra: Its Impacts on Non-English Language Cultures, pp.11-17. Bristol – Buffalo – Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
Wali, O. 1963. „The Dead End of African Literature”. Transition 10, pp.13-16. Indiana University Press.
1Ibid.
2 Born in a family of Christian converts and educated in Anglican schools as well as the University of Ibadan (Jilani 2018).
Header image: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o photographed at a book presentation at Howard University in Washington DC. (14th September 2006) (photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post, via Getty Images).
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