“Less than one percent or the Nigerian people had access to, or the ability to understand Wole Soyinka’s Dance of the Forest. Yet, this was the play staged to celebrate their national independence, tagged on to the idiom and traditions of a foreign culture”3.

Wali’s challenge was met with varying and heated responses in particular with regard to the language is

9.Gikandi, Simon.1991. Reading Chinua Achebe. pg25.

According to Ashcroft this chorus is ‘dense with cultural signifiers’8. Ashcroft goes further to explain the ethnographical relevance to the national discourse of Kenya. Ngugi’s refusal to translate serves to demonstrate that although the writer and the reader share the same site, i.e. the text in English, the cultural signifiers make the distinction between the cultural experience of Gikuyu and other readers of his text, in other words displaces the non-Gikuyu reader. Thus the message to the reader is that the culture that informs the narrative is different or Other although the language may be the same. Through this device Ngugi then takes ownership of the language of power to depict his own cultural experience.

‘the African writer should use English in a way that bring out his message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as medium of international exchange will be lost.’ 10

Some topics in this essay:
Obi Wali’s, Fall Apart, Dance Forest, Afa Oracle, English French, Africa Aidoo, Forgetfulness Invention, , Wole Soyinka, Kenya Ngugi’s, african literature, language african, african writer, empire writes, imposed language, african experience, mumbi gikuyu na, language power, mumbi gikuyu, gikuyu na, true representation, 1989 empire writes, gikuyu na mumbi, language power text, 1986 decolonising mind,