Ngugi, Raila in push for vernacular
Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o shows a copy of a story book written in vernacular to members of the public and student who attended his public lecture at Kisii university on 31/08/2015. PHOTO| BENSON MOMANYI
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“Now we have a breed of highly educated individuals with skills they cannot impart to the rest of the population because they cannot find a mode of communication; there is no connection,” said Prof Wa Thiong’o.
The literary giant told how Kisii freedom fighter Otenyo Nyamaterere was killed by colonial settler North Cott who chopped off his head and shipped it to England but buried the body in Kenya.
Renowned author Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Cord leader Raila Odinga are advocating the use of vernacular as official languages in the counties.
Speaking at Kisii University on Monday where Prof wa Thiong’o gave a public lecture on Language and Devolution, Mr Odinga said there was nothing wrong with using vernacular in local parliaments and gave an example of South Africa, which has adopted this.
Prof wa Thiong’o said middle class Africans were shunning local languages. “They behave as if America or Britain is better.
It is a colonial frame of mind,” said the author of famous books such as The River Between, A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood, among others.
“Now we have a breed of highly educated individuals with skills they cannot impart to the rest of the population because they cannot find a mode of communication; there is no connection,” said Prof Wa Thiong’o.
The literary giant told how Kisii freedom fighter Otenyo Nyamaterere was killed by colonial settler North Cott who chopped off his head and shipped it to England but buried the body in Kenya.
“If we are to take devolution seriously, we must connect with the people through language,” he said.
“If you know all languages in the world but you don’t know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, then that’s colonisation, but if you add all the languages of the world to your mother tongue, that’s empowerment,” added Prof wa Thiong’o.
Mr Odinga said use of foreign languages while discriminating against vernacular in official communication was a frame of mind inherited from colonial masters.
“Since independence, there have been forces fighting in two directions — those for the retention of the status quo and the other for development,” he said.
“Those who inherited colonial government structures used them to lord it over our people, dividing them along colonial lines,” he said.
Mr Odinga also joined calls for the return of Nyamaterere’s skull.
He said the freedom fighter played a major role in ensuring that land belonging to the Abagusii people was not grabbed by the colonists.
“He suffered the same fate as Koitalel arap Samoei of the Nandi, who also led resistance against British colonial rule,” said Mr Odinga.sct/dw
