{"product_id":"decolonizing-language-and-other-revolutionary-ideas","title":"DECOLONIZING LANGUAGE, and other revolutionary ideas","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e214pp., hardback, d.w.\u003c\/em\u003e, Allen Lane, London, 2025\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN: 9780241780978\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this collection of accessible and highly relevant essays, published posthumously, \u003cspan\u003eNgũgĩ\u003c\/span\u003e wa Thiong’o builds on his vast body of work on language and its formative role in shaping national culture, history, and identity, reaffirming the revolutionary power of African languages to fight back against the psychic and material impacts of colonialism.\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"The 20 essays collected in the book rehearse positions first articulated in his earlier collections, \u003cem\u003eWriters in Politics \u003c\/em\u003eand\u003cem\u003e Decolonizing the Mind\u003c\/em\u003e; but the new book is notable for Ngũgĩ’s attention to the dangers that mother tongues face across the world, from colonial Ireland to Sami Norway, New Zealand and beyond. Read together, the essays resonate as a manifesto for the mother tongue both as 'the very heart of our being and existence' and the ultimate firewall against 'spiritual domination'. The mission of \u003cem\u003eDecolonizing Language\u003c\/em\u003e, the 'revolutionary idea' encapsulated in the book’s subtitle, is an incisive rejection of the notion that European 'languages are inherently global and best able to carry intelligence and universality' or that they function as the languages 'of power and normality'. On a more personal level, the book is Ngũgĩ’s last account of his displacement from his own native ground, an acknowledgement of the heavy burden that those who write and speak the language of the other have to carry. The arguments made in the book are exhilarating; reading them in the author’s absence is undeniably poignant.\" Simon Gikandi, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKenyan writer and academic \u003cstrong\u003eNgũgĩ’wa Thiong’o\u003c\/strong\u003e (1938-2025) was Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. His \u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003ework includes the novels \u003cem\u003eA Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood,\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eWizard of the Crow\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Perfect Nine: the epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi; \u003c\/i\u003ethe plays \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/clarkesbooks.co.za\/products\/the-black-hermit-1?_pos=2\u0026amp;_sid=79602dada\u0026amp;_ss=r\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Black Hermit\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/a\u003eand \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/clarkesbooks.co.za\/products\/the-trial-of-dedan-kimathi-1?_pos=4\u0026amp;_sid=79602dada\u0026amp;_ss=r\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe trial of Dedan Kimathi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e(with Micere Githae Mugo); \u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/clarkesbooks.co.za\/products\/in-the-house-of-the-interpreter-a-memoir?_pos=9\u0026amp;_sid=79602dada\u0026amp;_ss=r\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eIn the House of the Interpreter, a memoir;\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eand the non-fiction works\u003cem\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/clarkesbooks.co.za\/products\/decolonising-the-mind-the-politics-of-language-in-african-literature?_pos=2\u0026amp;_sid=92ecdd16d\u0026amp;_ss=r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003eDecolonising the Mind: the politics of language in African literature;\u003c\/a\u003e Secure the Base: Making Africa visible in the globe \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/clarkesbooks.co.za\/products\/homecoming?_pos=10\u0026amp;_sid=79602dada\u0026amp;_ss=r\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eHomecoming, essays on African and Caribbean literature, culture and politics\u003c\/a\u003e. \u003c\/em\u003eIn 2001, he received the prestigious Nonino International Prize for Literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"wa Thiong'o (N.)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42330583236654,"sku":null,"price":535.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0265\/3182\/3662\/files\/DecolonizingLanguage.jpg?v=1778151577","url":"https:\/\/clarkesbooks.co.za\/products\/decolonizing-language-and-other-revolutionary-ideas","provider":"Clarke's Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}