Ngugi Makes a Compelling Point

The irony was not lost on me as I listened to the Zambian National Anthem sung in an American accent. Ironic in that it was sang to open an event where renowned and distinguished author Ngugi Wa Thiongo was going to be speaking about the need to give our local languages prominence. It was clear the young lady singing our country's song was making a serious effort to make sure none of the "ers" escaped to the point of even adding one at the end of the name "Zambia".

"Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?" I kept asking myself.

The truth is much as I hate fake accents, I was not going to miss Ngugi's talk for the world. Granted my seat was not front row, and my partner was Munalula well lets just say, as far from a gorgeous intelligent partner as you can possibly think. He is intelligent quite alright, but lets end there.

I ignored the poor light as I tried to read the fliers provided by the organizers, Policy Monitoring and Research Centre (PMRC), till I was convinced that I was going to lose my sight. It turns out I was not the only one complaining about the light. PMRC explained that the lighting had been decided upon to pattern the organisation’s colours. At length and following some vociferous complaints, it was changed.

All of that however paled into insignificance once the programme started, with the aforementioned singing of the national anthem having been expended with, Ms Margaret Mwanakatwe, said a few words about Ngugi, although to be honest she sounded like someone reading off Wikipedia.

Next was the minister of Justice, Honourable Wynter Kabimba to say a few words. And I must say, but for the awkward looking bodyguard (no doubt looking out for PF cadres who had earlier marched to State House agitation for his Wynter’s resignation), he made a number of compelling points. The body guard just stood there. Perhaps that is what bodyguards are supposed to do, but this one looked like a huge bearded log, placed vertically. 

The evening however belonged to Professor Ngugi Wa Thiongo. From the time I read The River Between, I was converted into a Ngugi devotee. I have since read Petals of Blood, A Grain of Wheat, Devil on the Cross and I Will Marry When I Want. I swear, I would have added to my Ngugi collection that night, had it not been for my being low on cash. You had to be there, and you had to regard Ngugi in a certain light for you to really appreciate this event.

Ngugi is a short man, and his dressing on this occasion showed a man who cared little for fashion. Let that not fool you about the man’s intellect however. In that one hour lecture he convincingly and succinctly laid out the case for our local languages. It is not that I had never frowningly disapproved of teachers who punish kids for speaking vernacular, or parents who only speak to their kids in English, hearing Ngugi lay out the case for local languages in the manner he did was both emotively compelling and intellectually stimulating.

He spoke at length, tracing our enslavement to European languages through colonial times in India, Ireland and finally Africa. The deprecating effect language has on the ruled when used as a tool of perpetuating the rulers’ hegemony. 

In that lecture we laughed at our vanity, we saw how we have at times even paid in order for our culture to be adulterated. How our society has now even been structured to reward those that it deems better users of the English language, or other European languages at that. While Africa is swarming with European names, one has a higher chance of finding the Dodo bird than a White European with a Tonga name. In Ngugi’s words “if you know your native language and all the other languages of the world, that is called “empowerment”, knowing all the other languages of the world without knowing your local language on the other hand is “enslavement”. Sadly, many of us are willingly and at great financial cost marching towards enslavement.

                                     Ngugi in Zambia

Let however this not be misconstrued to mean Ngugi hates English. All he is saying is “use English and don't let English use you”.

You could call this a perfect evening and a K150 well spent and you wouldn't be wrong... well had it not been for the question and answer session. Firstly despite our hands shooting up like hungry eaglets the moment the Q&A session was declared open, the moderator Franklin Tembo Jr contrived to ignore us and instead give Mumba Kapumba and Chibamba Kanyama the opportunity to ask Ngugi some questions. Instead of asking questions, they went on lengthy eulogies of Ngugi for his work using tired old clichés so much that all the question time was consumed. Had we been given the opportunity, we would have wanted to find out from him whether it riled him that he kept being referred to as “Distinguished Professor of English Literature”,  or whether he thought the Tanzanian experiment with Swahili had failed.

Oh well, there may never be a better opportunity to ask Ngugi a question. The only consolation is that when Ngugi came to Zambia, I was there, in the same room with him. How many can say that with me?