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The Language Debate in African Literature

Most societies in pre-colonial Africa were traditionally oral and day-to-day communication was done through the spoken word. With colonization came the development of indigenous languages into written text however these were suppressed as the languages of power (be it English or French) were encouraged. Language as a carrier of culture was one of the tools used by the colonial forces to enforce cultural domination to control the colonized. Local languages and cultures were suppressed and devalued as part of the process of control of what Ngugi calls the "mental universe" of the colonized5 and colonial culture and languages were elevated and aided by the educational structures put in place.
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             The African writer, a product colonial conditioning now sits with the problem of being removed from herself as the written language they use was in fact used to distance the African. Having been conditioned to view their language and by extension themselves as inferior most write in European languages. Obi Wali's challenge was thus met with a series of reactions with respondents greatly divided between two schools of thought. One group was for rejection of European languages and culture, what Ashcroft terms abrogation and others were for appropriation - a process by which language is made to bear the burden of one's own cultural experience"6. The argument for appropriation was that the imposed language (e.g. English) was perceived as a practical alternative to enhance inter-nation communication (an example would people living in Nigeria though it is a multilingual society can all speak to one another in English) A second line of reasoning was that the imposed language can be used to counter a colonial past through de-forming a "standard" European tongue and re-forming it into new literary forms. This has led to the development of what Ashcroft calls different kinds of english7.
            


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