In defence of Ngugi's use of Gikuyu in Catalonia

I read with interest the assertion by Enock Matundura in his hard-hitting article ‘Ngugi should have spoken in Kiswahili when taking prize’—published in the Daily Nation on Saturday, September 19, 2020—that Ngugi wa Thiong'o erred in addressing an international forum in Catalonia in the Gikuyu tongue. The gist of Matundura's argument is that Ngugi is desperate to sustain his warped ideology of decolonising his mind by speaking in his native tongue. Nothing could be further from the truth. Matundura portrays Ngugi as a linguistic desperado who can go to any length to justify what he (Matundura) believes is a desperate ideology. Matundura is quick to offer quick-fix solutions: Ngugi should speak in Kiswahili whenever the ghosts of native tongue haunt him. If this fails, he suggests that Ngugi should use Chinua Achebe's brand of English which can "capture the Igbo thought".

What is interesting is that Matundura is alive to the fact that so much can be lost if one uses a foreign tongue to interpret his or her thoughts and feelings. Ngugi is not a native speaker of Kiswahili.

What Matundura brings to fore is the ancient struggle between African languages perceived as inferior and those of occupier forces who sought to subjugate us completely by colonising not only our bodies but also our spirits and thoughts. Ngugi seeks to redeem us by pleading with us not to abandon our tongues in blind deference to the languages of our colonisers. In so doing, Ngugi does not in any way demean the languages of our colonial masters; he understands that they, too, have something to lose if they choose to communicate in Kiswahili, Kimaragoli or Gikuyu for that matter. He is conscious of this challenge, thus his inherent determination to liberate his mind by speaking in his native Gikuyu language. The Catalonia setting was ideal for Ngugi as it provided him with the opportunity to assert his belief that no language is superior to the other. As a revolutionary, Ngugi is equally alive to the struggles of the people of Catalonia to free themselves and liberate their thoughts.

“What Matundura brings to fore is the ancient struggle between African languages perceived as inferior and those of occupier forces who sought to subjugate us completely by colonising not only our bodies but also our spirits and thoughts.”

It is this faithfulness to the African tongue that sets Ngugi apart from his bourgeois peers like Wole Soyinka who have deliberately and consistently chosen to sell the wisdom they imbibed from mother Africa in an alien tongue.

Henry Indangasi's assertion, which appears in the same paper, that the people of Catalonia were "using our famous writer to advance their narrow, separatist agenda" equally reeks as it fails to recognise the right of Catalonians to self-determination.

One would equally be tempted to think that the people of Catalonia, like all of us, are alive to the grim possibility of the extinction of their language and identity if they do not preserve what was handed to them by their forefathers. In recognising Ngugi, they are reminding all of us of our inherent duty to preserve our identities. In choosing his native Gikuyu tongue, Ngugi is determined not to lose his thoughts and feelings in the minefield of translating ideas from one's native language to foreign languages acquired with ten pence in our ramshackle institutions of learning.

Ngugi will not win this fight alone; he needs the support of all African parents who must begin to teach our children in their first African languages in order to give them meaningful socialisation.

Africa's future is bright as we retrace our roots through our God-given variety of tongues.