<\/p>\n
but African languages refused\/<\/p>\n
to die<\/p>\n
dey wud not simply go\/<\/p>\n
the way of Latin\/<\/p>\n
to become the fossils for linguistic archeology\/<\/p>\n
to dig up\/ classify\/ and argue<\/p>\n
about the international conferences<\/p>\n
\u201cDecolonizing the Mind,\u201d N\u2019gugi wa Thiongo (p. 23).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Throughout the text Thiong\u2019o reflects on how language can define an individual and their culture. He outlines how writers have grappled with the question of which language they should use and what that choice says about them. It is important that Thiong\u2019o makes it clear that African languages are still thriving and how speaking in one\u2019s native tongue does not prevent one from \u201cbelonging to a larger national or continental geography,\u201d (23). Speaking in one\u2019s native tongue is also an act of defiance against imperialism. He continues to say that even when the peasantry and working class were forced to speak imperialist languages they creolized them to fit their own needs. African languages, despite being made second to imperialist languages, have managed to survive and continue to play a role in maintaining African cultures.<\/p>\n
I found it difficult to break up the prose in a way that added to the meaning of the text instead of merely fragmenting the lines. I attempted to highlight the determination of African cultures to resist colonialist culture through language. The exercise made me think about what the pauses and breaths in poetry actually do to the consumption of the text. I also found that transforming some of the words into black vernacular did not skew the meaning or the integrity of the text as I thought it might. Using \u201cwud\u201d instead of \u201cwould\u201d did not make the text seems any less intelligent or poignant. Overall I found that the task of transforming the prose into Shange style poetry made the text almost easier to digest. Without periods or commas the words all seem to flow together without hesitation or clear stops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
but African languages refused\/ to die dey wud not simply go\/ the way of Latin\/ to become the fossils for linguistic archeology\/ to dig up\/ classify\/ and argue about the international conferences \u201cDecolonizing the Mind,\u201d N\u2019gugi wa Thiongo (p. 23). Throughout the text Thiong\u2019o reflects on how language can define an individual and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,57],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogposts","category-student-blogpost","tag-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}