Wa Thiong’o, born in Kenya, came of age in a post-colonial country, was taught to speak English as his first language, and educated in English. He asks the question: Is there any European country, France, Italy, England, where the natives, respectively, do not speak French, Italian, and English and study literature that is not written in their native tongue? His theme, which runs through his essays and speeches collected here, of the colonization of language and the work of reclaiming language, begins with a European parallel. Having Attended a conference, celebrating an organization dedicated to the revival of Gaelic in Ireland, he sketches the history of how the English, beginning in 1366, criminalized the Irish language in their goal to suppress the language, also similar to a long linguistic campaign undertaken in Norway to suppress the language of the Sami people.

Complicating his quest to see literature written in African languages in post-colonial countries, is the resistance by those in power to change from colonial to indigenous languages or even to include regional languages in African universities. The work of language activism by Wa Thiong’o is met with imprisonment and exile. He is not alone in his work. He shares testimonies of other African editors, translators, and writers fighting for African literatures, written in African languages.

Thank you to the publisher, The New Press, and NetGalley for an advanced review copy.

I really enjoyed reading this book! Especially the first part, which I found really engaging. In the later parts of this book, the author really expanded upon the "other revolutionary ideas" portion of this book, but it ultimately started to feel a bit repetitive after a while with some of the same concepts presented in similar ways. This book is an incredibly valuable to read and I got a lot out of it, but I think it might be better to read slowly over time in order to really digest and not feel the repetitiveness of the concepts sometimes. 4.25/5

Thank you for gifting me an early copy of this book!

I thoroughly enjoyed the first part as it dealt with the topics that I expected in the way I expected. I was surprised by the second part, which was more drawn from personal experiences than plain theory and thoughts on Decolonising language.

I would rate it a 3 stars as it didn’t deal with what I expected.
It was still a great read as it really makes you think about how language was made and used to colonise.

The book had a strong start yet a few essays in it felt like the idea of "Decolonizing Language" was more the after thought with its revolutionary ideas. While they were still interesting at moments, it became repetitive. I did my best to push through the essays because I wanted to learn more, but while it felt repetitive, each essay felt like it needed more depth to it and would benefit of being longer or a different focus.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I’m not sure there’s anything I can say in this review that would be more poignant or more important than what the book already says.

This is a valuable teaching resource, but also, a crucial read. The hierarchy of language created by colonization needs to be dismantled and this book offers both a historical lens to the creation of this hierarchy, and ways to bring it to an end.

While this is largely focused on the relation of English colonization within Africa, I also believe it’s principles can be applied more broadly within American Englishes (white standard’s subjugation of AAVE or Black English) and on a broader international scale.

I thought the section of tributes/essays on important African scholars was also very lovely and a crucial spotlight on scholars outside the white English canon. Each essay highlighted the roles these educators have played in the linguistic political landscape and lessons we can learn on how the act of decolonization can actually function.