Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms (Studies in African Literature)

194 Pages·2008·0.85 MB·English

by  Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

MOVING THE CENTRE
The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms
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Studies in
African Literature
NEW SERIES
NGUGI WA THINOG’O
Decolonising the Mind
Moving the Centre
ELDRED DUROSIMI JONES
The Writings of Wole Soyinka
SIMON GIKANDI
Reading the African Novel
Reading Chinua Achebe
EMMANUEL NGARA
Ideology & Form in African Poetry
ADEOLA JAMES (Editor)
In Their Own Voices
African women writers talk
JANE WILKINSON (Editor)
Talking with African Writers
Interviews with African poets, playwrights & novelists
MILDRED MORTIMER
Journeys through the French African Novel
KENNETH HARROW (Editor)
Faces of Islam in African Literature
EAEP Nairobi
HEINEMANN Portsmouth (N.H.)
James Currey London
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MOVING THE CENTRE
The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms
NGUGI WA THIONG’O
EAEP
NAIROBI
James Currey
London
3
East African Educational Publishers Ltd.
Mpaka Road/Woodvale Grove
Westlands
P.O. Box 45315, Nairobi
James Currey Ltd.
54b Thornhill Square, Islington
London N1 1BE
© Ngugi wa Thinog’o 1993
First published 1993
1 2 3 4 5 97 96 95 94 93
British Library Calaloguing in Publication Data
Ngugi, wa Thiong’o
Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms
ISBN 9966-46-785-8 (EAEP)
ISBN 0-85255-530-X (James Currey Paper)
ISBN 0-85255-531-8 (James Currey Cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, 1938-
Moving the centre: the struggle for cultural freedoms / Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
p. cm.- (Studies in African literature. New series)
A collection of talks and essays, created between 1985 and 1990, and
translated from Kikuyu by the author.
1. African Literature-20th century-History and criticism.
2. African literature – European influences. I. Title. II. Series.
PL8010.N485 1993
809’ .8896-dc20 92-30303
CIP
Printed by:
English Press Ltd.,
P.O. Box 30127,
Enterprise Road,
Nairobi, Kenya.
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Dedication
To my wife
Njeeri
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xiii
I Freeing Culture from Euro centrism 1
1. Moving the Centre: Towards a Pluralism of Cultures 2
2. Creating Space for a Hundred Flowers to Bloom:
The Wealth of a Common Global Culture 12
3. The Universality of Local Knowledge 25
4. Imperialism of Language: English, a Language for the World? 30
6. Cultural Dialogue for a New World 42
7. The Cultural Factor in the New-colonial Era 47
II Freeing Culture from Colonial Legacies 59
7. The Writer in a Neo-colonial State 60
8. Resistance to Damnation: The Role of Intellectual Workers 76
9. The Role of the Scholar in the Development of African Literatures 82
10. Post-colonial Politics and Culture 88
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11. In Moi’s Kenya, History is Subversive` 96
12. From the Corridors of Silence: The Exile Writes Back 102
13. Imperialism and Revolution: Movements for Social Change 109
III Freeing Culture from Racism 115
14. The Ideology of Racism: War on Peace Within
and Among Nations 116
15. Racism in Literature 126
16. Her Cook, her Dog: Karen Blixen’s Africa 132
17. Biggles, Mau Mau and I 136
18. Black Power in Britain 142
19. Many Years Walk to Freedom: Welcome Home Mandela 146
IV Matigari, Dreams and Nightmares 153
20. Life, Literaure and a Longing for Home 154
21. Matigari , and the Dreams of One East Africa 159
Index 179
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Acknowledgements
The original versions have been edited for this collection; occasionally they
have been rewritten or enlarged. The author and the publisher wish to thank
the following for premission to use the original material:
Moving the Centre: Towards a Pluralism of Cultures
The University of Leeds. Originally given as The Arthur Ravenscroft
Commonwealth Literature, Lecture, 4 December 1990. Also published in the
Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Vol. 26, No. 1, 1991.
Creating Space for a Hundred Flowers to Bloom: The Wealth of a Common
Culture
The University of Yale. Address, originally enticed in’ The Wealth of a
Common Culture’ given at the conference on ‘Tradition and Transition in
African Letters’, 19-22 April 1990. The section dealing with African Literature
was first published in The Times Literary, Supplement, December 1990.
The Universality of Local Knowledge
The Whitney Humanities Centre, Yale and the Yale Journal of Criticism.
(Originally published as a response to the main presentations by Professor
Geertz and Professor Goody, Spring 1992.
Imperialism of Language: English a Language for the World ?
BBC World Service and the Yale Journal of Criticism. This chapter was
originally given as a talk with the title ‘The Imperialism of
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Language’ in a BBC seminar on the theme ‘English a Language for the World’
that took place on 27 October 1988. Also published in Yale Journal of
Criticism, Fall 1990.
The Cultural Factor in the Neo-colonial Era
Originally the keynote address at a conference on ‘US Imperialism in the
1990s’ held at Sheffield University in April 1988; paper given under the title
‘Fighting Neo-colonialism’.
The Writer in a Neo-colonial State
Vita Books and Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research.
Originally an address at the African Literature Association. Northwestern
University, USA, 1985; published by Vita Books, June 1986, under the title
‘Writing Against Neo-colonialism’ and subsequently published in Black
Scholar under the president title.
Resistance to Damnation: The Role of Intellectual Workers
UNICEF. An address to the conference, held in Harare, 1-5 March 1988, of
artists, writers, musicians and intellectual workers, on the situation of children
in Southern Africa, particularly in Mozambique and Angola.
The Role of the Scholar in the Development of African Literatures
Hans Zell Publishers. First published in Research Priorities in African
Literatures, edited by Bernth Lindfors, 1984.
Post-colonial Politics and Culture
The University of Adelaide. First published in Southern Review, Vol. 24, No.
I, March 1991.
In Moi’s Kenya, History is Subversive
Zed Books. First published as the Foreword to Kenya’s Freedom Struggle,
edited by Maina wa Kinyatti, 1987.
From the Corridors of Silence: The Exile Writes Back
The Guardian (London). Published in Weekend Guardian, 21-22 October
1989, under the title ‘From the Corridors of Silence’.
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