Homework answers / question archive / Consider Achebe's thoughts on "the language question" below THEN ANSWER THE 4 QUESTIONS: In his 1965 article "English and the African Writer, "1 Achebe breaks down his understanding of the great debate around African literature and authorial language selection: The real question is not whether Africans could write in English, but whether they ought to

Consider Achebe's thoughts on "the language question" below THEN ANSWER THE 4 QUESTIONS: In his 1965 article "English and the African Writer, "1 Achebe breaks down his understanding of the great debate around African literature and authorial language selection: The real question is not whether Africans could write in English, but whether they ought to

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Consider Achebe's thoughts on "the language question" below THEN ANSWER THE 4 QUESTIONS:

In his 1965 article "English and the African Writer, "1 Achebe breaks down his understanding of the great debate around African literature and authorial language selection:

The real question is not whether Africans could write in English, but whether they ought to. Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for someone else's? It looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling.

But for me, there is no other choice. I have been given this language and I intend to use it. I hope, though, that
there always will be men, like the late Chief Fagunwa, who will choose to write in their native tongue and ensure that our ethnic literature will flourish side by side with the national ones. For those of us who opt for English, there is much work ahead and much excitement. (348)

On the appropriateness of English as a carrier of Igbo culture, Achebe further explains, "I feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience. But it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit its new African surroundings" (349).

Questions:

Instructions: Answer the questions below in well-developed, thoughtful responses as a reply to this topic.

1. What is the source of Achebe's "guilty feeling" when writing in English? Is this feeling a further indignity of the colonial experience? Explain.
2. What do you make of Achebe's assertion that English is better suited to the novel, as a form, than Igbo? Can you think of some concrete feature or quality of English that supports Achebe's position? Explain.
3. In Decolonising the Mind, Ngugi references Achebe's aforementioned feeling of guilt, seemingly citing Achebe's feelings as proof that the African mind has been colonized (Ngugi 7). Is Ngugi unfairly characterizing Achebe's statement by decontextualizing Achebe's words? Explain.
4. In Ngugi's "A Statement," he declares that he's given up English as a vehicle for all of this writing. Years later, he admitted that academic (nonliterary) writing in Gikuyu and Kiswahili wasn't feasible for him, so he returned to using English for his scholarly writing. How does this decision impact your understanding of Ngugi's text? How do you feel about Ngugi's change of heart? Explain