Speaking in Tongues: Ngŭgĩ 's gift to Workers and Peasants through Mŭrogi wa Kagogo

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorKuria, Mike
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-18T10:07:47Z
dc.date.available2024-11-18T10:07:47Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.descriptionJournal Article
dc.description.abstractSummary In his article “On Writing in Gĩkŭyŭ”, Ngŭgĩ says that “[a]n African writer should write in a language that will allow him to communicate effectively with peasants and workers in Africa – in other words, he should write in an African language” (1985: 151; my italics). This article is a deconstructive reading and assessment of Ngŭgĩ's performance in his latest and largest novel Mŭrogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow) which is in three volumes in its Kikuyu version. The reading is premised on the Derridian idea that texts and their discourse propositions contain within themselves seeds of their own deconstruction or undoing. I argue that Mŭrogi wa Kagogo contains within it seeds of destruction of the very ideological values that Ngŭgĩ seeks to validate. In a newspaper article, Kamoche (2005) raised a fundamental question regarding this novel: “[C]an Ngŭgĩ ape and hope to promote the vernacular?” His conclusion was that Ngŭgĩ “inadvertently ends up perpetuating a hybrid language that is only part Gĩkŭyŭ”. “He is preaching Gĩkŭyŭ while practicing Pidgin English”, he “sneaks in a disproportionate volume of ‘Englisms’ through the backdoor”. Kamoche's newspaper article, which was limited to the novel's preface, dedication, acknowledgements and the synopsis, did not touch on Ngŭgĩ's stated objective: to communicate with peasants and workers. This article seeks to answer the question how far Ngŭgĩ manages to reach his targeted audience of workers and peasants in his novel Mŭrogi wa Kagogo (2004, 2006a).
dc.identifier.citationKuria, M. (2011). Speaking in tongues: Ngŭgĩ 's gift to workers and peasants throughmŭrogi wa kagogo. Unisa Press
dc.identifier.issn17535387
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.daystar.ac.ke/handle/123456789/5648
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUnisa Press
dc.relation.ispartofseries(27)3
dc.subjectOn Writing in Gĩkŭyŭ
dc.subjectcommunicate effectively
dc.subjectpeasants and workers
dc.titleSpeaking in Tongues: Ngŭgĩ 's gift to Workers and Peasants through Mŭrogi wa Kagogo
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Speaking in tongues Ngugis gift to workers and peasants through murogi wa kagogo.pdf
Size:
258.61 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Journal Articles