Language as a Liberation Aesthetic: Ngũgĩ’s Use of Gĩkũyũ in Mũrogi wa Kagogo [Wizard of the Crow] and Other Works
Language as a Liberation Aesthetic: Ngũgĩ’s Use of Gĩkũyũ in Mũrogi wa Kagogo [Wizard of the Crow] and Other Works

Summary/Abstract: This paper examined the aesthetics and politics of writing African literature in local vernaculars as opposed to writing in what proponents of this discourse have termed ascolonial languages, like English and French, amongst others. The focus of this article is on thewritings of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the most vocal critic of ‘imperial languages’, and also an ardentadvocate for African languages as well as a ractitioner of his vernacular language, where mostof his published fictional works are in his native Gĩkũyũ language of Kenya. This paper thencritically examines Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s application of the Gĩkũyũ language in his novel Mũrogiwa Kagogo (2006), translated as Wizard of the Crow, and his other works in the language.This paper inevitably engages with the writer’s stance on the use of vernaculars in increasingly globalizing cultures.

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