Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

writers. Ngugi wa Thiong'o and others such as David Diop and Obi Wall have
insis ted that in an effort to decolonize the mind and break: free from dependence on
the co lonial masters, previously colonized writers should not write in their adopted.
Europeanlanguages. Writing in the language of the colonizers is seen as a subtle form
of colonization. The debate on what constitutes African literature has been focused on
the languag e by those who i.n.sist that the authentic African literature must be written
in an indigenous African language. In an interview with Phanuel Egejuru in B/Qc/c
wruers: White Audience. Chinua Achebe asserts :
[1'5 not j ust the language that determines what the literature is; it's
importan t, but it's not the main issue. Ifyou have a pI.acecalled Nigeria
in whi ch education is in Englis.h. then there is a certain way in which
English becomes pan of that reality . Literature is j ust one way in which
this reality demonstrates itself (102).
Pan of that reality is also the fact that in Nigeria alone . there are seven main tribal
languages and over three-hundred ethnic dialects ; one languag e could be like a forei gn
language to someone who does not speakthe same languag e. If you multiply that with
an equal number of diverse languages spoken in the other forty or so African
coun tries. what are the chances that an authentic African wri ter could co mmunicate
with the rest of Africa? At the 19n Second World and African Festival of Arts and
Culture (FESTAC) and: at a UNESCO conference in Tanzania. Wole Soyinka
proposed that Swahili or Kiswahili become the official language of Africa. 24 Since
no tribe in Nigeria speaks the East African language . it would have been a level
playing field. whereas the acq uisition of English had formed a social hierarchy that
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