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Man & Woman: Running Parallel to Each Other

by Yemi 1 Comment
Man & Woman: Running Parallel to Each Other
Language of African Theatre Rewrite - Oluwayemisi Olorunwunmi

 

Ngugi’s Decolonizing the Mind — The Language of African Theatre

“Drama is closer to the dialectics of life than poetry and the fiction. Life is movement arising from the inherent contradiction and unity of opposites. Man and woman meet in a united dance of opposites out of which comes a human life separate from the two that gave it birth but incorporating features of both in such a way that it is recognizable at a glance that so and so is really product of so and so. The growth of that life depends on some cells dying and others being born (54).”

 

 Rewrite of Quote:

drama is clo/ser to the dialectics

of life than poetry/nd/ d fiction/

life is movement risin from d inherent contradiction nd unity of opposites/

man and woman

meet in a united dance of opposites/ out of which comes

 

a human life separate/

from d two that gave it birth/ but incorporating features of both/

in such a way that it is/ recognizable/

at a glance/

 

that so and so is really product of so and so

d growth of that life depends on som cells dying/ nd others being born

 

 

Rewriting the excerpt for Ngugi’s The Language in African Theatre was liberating. Breaking away from the structure of prose into a text that is more fluid deepened my understanding of the text. I created spaces of silence, so that as I read the text I could reflect on the words for a longer period of time. Using paragraph breaks at “/out of which comes” into “a human life” emphasized the literal meaning of the text. I could show how life would emerge on paper and through this the natural emergence of humans. Using slashes broke apart ideas that would normally be hard to digest. They also gave additionally pauses.

A change that I appreciate most is the shortening or contracting of words. I change the to “d.” I changed and to “nd” while also cutting off some letters to sharpen the intake and pronunciation of the words to give the reading beats that are easy to land on. It feels pleasant to drop those letters. It’s like getting rid of dead weight, like jumping into freedom and an alternative way of being. I also changed the visually display of the words to a form that could help me see how the author’s ideas spilled into and out of each other.

Moreover, Ngugi’s “The Language of African Theatre,” echoes many of Fanon’s gender sentiments in the chapter “Algeria Unveiled” of his A Dying Colonialism. Fanon says “This is why we must watch the parallel progress of this man and this woman, of this couple that brings death to the enemy, life to the revolution (57).”

His words provide a distinct way of organizing the ideas in the Ngugi quote . Man and woman running parallel to each other is similar to the way their dance is a dance of opposites. And the theme of life that emerges from two opposite individuals is consistent. Fanon highlights the differences between man and woman by touching on their societal roles, but the movement between the two – the curving, diving, shifting, spinning – shows the dynamic conversation that happens between to humans before birth.

Language ought to be nourishing

by Danielle 1 Comment

we    therefore     learnt to value words
for their meaning/nuances
“language” waz not a mere string of words/it haz a suggestive power
well beyond the immediate n lexical meaning
our appreciation of the suggestive/magical power of language waz reinforced
by the games we played w words
through riddles/proverbs/transpositions of syllables
or through (nonsensical but) musically arranged
words
So we learnt the music of our language on top of
the “content” (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 11)

Language ought to be nourishing. The shadows of its content feed the memories of a people’s history; its rhythm underscores the music behind morals and symbols. When I think of Shange’s writing, I imagine language that is nourishing through its movement and musicality. In this quote from Ngugi’s Decolonizing the Mind, he writes of the necessity of music/the magic of nuance. Without either, language sits undercooked and static. I felt inspired to re-arrange this passage in the style of Shange because I think the subject resonates with the heart of her writing—language that is good for the mouth, the body and the soul.
I wrote out my interpretation while listening to Charles Mingus’s “Mode D—Trio and Group Dancers”. The rhythm of the piece changes gradually, but sometimes swiftly. Its company helped me imagine when Shange might leave space for a gesture at the end of a phrase. I wanted “words” to be the only word to have its own line. Rhythmically, it felt like a place for a gesture/to exhale. What are “words” (nourishing words) but gestures that symbolize what we value/where we come from/how we want to be remembered?
The original quote reads, “Language was not…It had…” I left the “was” (implicitly) past tense, but changed the “had” to reflect the present. I’d imagine that language was never just “content” for Shange; but language is alive, and has/has always had the “suggestive power” that nourishes a particular experience of culture and history in its vital rejection of colonialist language/narrative.
Later in the chapter “The Language of African Literature”, Ngugi writes, “Learning, for a colonial child, became a cerebral activity and not an emotionally felt experience” (17). This brings to mind a quote from If I can Cook: “Speaking American ain’t necessarily nourishing.” Shange makes her words dance in the spirit of protest. Like Ngugi describes, Shange plays games with the structure and rhythm of language—leaving the audience with food for thought. What is good for the body/what heals the body is a language that rejects colonialist English, and relies on intuition/the sensical nonsensical/the music “on top of the content”. This is a language that nourishes history and culture.

Philosophical Underpinnings

by Kim Hall 0 Comments

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