Philosophical Underpinnings
i can’t count the number of times i have viscerally wanted to attack deform n maim the language that i waz taught to hate myself in/ the language that perpetuates the notions that cause pain to every black child as he/she learns to speak of the world & the “self” (LLS 19).
in everything I have ever written & everything I hope to write/ i have made use of what Frantz Fanon called “combat breath” (LLS 19).
Ladies, we have a blog!!!!! If you have problems publishing your post, you can submit it as a document in this Dropbox folder.
I wanted to tell you a bit about why we are reading Ngugi and Fanon today. As you can tell from “my pen is a machete,” Shange’s use of the term “combat breath,” very explicitly refers to the appendix of the chapter “Algeria Unveiled” in Frantz Fanon’s A Dying Colonialism,* which has become central –and hotly–debated in discussions of colonial rule, traditionalism in colonized societies and the role of women in revolution. Obviously I’d like us to spend some time specifically talking about that concept, but also to talk about the essay as a whole.
Shange told me that reading Ngugi wa Thiong’o was very important to understanding her work. Although personally I am more familiar with The Barrel of a Pen (1967) [which perhaps Shange flags in her title, “my pen is a machete”?] and A Grain of Wheat (1983), I chose Decolonising the Mind because it’s the culmination of Ngugi’s thinking on imperialism, language, anti-colonial struggle, the role of art and culture in political struggle as well as on the future of Africa. Ngugi himself says, “This book, Decolonising the Mind is my farewell to English as a vehicle for any of my writings. From now on it is Gikuyu and Kiswahili all the way” (xiv). At the end of his introduction and throughout the book, Ngugi references Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, particularly the chapter “On National Culture,” thus, I included the latter so that you could have some sense of a Pan-African conversation about Negritude and-imperialism.
“Over the years I have come to realise more and more that work, any work, even literary creative work, is not the result of any individual genius, but the result of a collective effort.” (Decolonising x)
“This book is part of a continuing debate all over the continent about the destiny of Africa” (Decolonising 1)
But the biggest weapon wielded and actually daily unleashed by imperialism against the collective defiance is the cultural bomb. The effect of the cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves.” (Decolonizing 3)
Plan for class:
- Announcements (5 mins)
- Discussion of blog/twitter 10 minutes)
- Nadia Presentation & discussion
- Break
- Sophia Presentation