of the coloniser. The domination of a language by the languages of the people’s colonising nations was crucial to the domination of the mental universe of the colonised. (16) For then, true colonial conquest was achieved not only through political, economic, and Ngũgĩ, military usurpation, but through altering indigenous peoples’ their attitudes toward themselves, cultures, and their relations to Western cultures. This mental manipulation operated via language control, as explains how one of language as culture is as an image-forming agent Ngũgĩ “aspect in the mind. . . . Our whole conception of ourselves as a people, individually and collectively, is based on those pictures and images which may or may not correctly correspond to the actual reality . . 15). In other words, because language—both in written and spoken .” (Decolonising forms—informs our understanding of our surroundings and therefore shapes our interpretation of these surroundings, it is heavily involved in cultural production. Thus, devaluing a people’s language corresponds to devaluing their culture, making it easier for a colonizing body to claim cultural superiority over the colonized. Though colonial regimes met their demise across the African continent, for the most part, during the latter half of the twentieth century, Western imperialistic pursuits continue to exert a relentless force. As a result, scholars such as call for the renewed use of African Ngũgĩ languages and for the deconstruction of what they discourses (Decolonising term “neo-colonial” 3). While many scholars refer to the contemporary moment as “post-colonial” (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin 4), the acknowledges the supremacist stance that term “neo-colonial” Western nations continue to assume in relation to African nations, with rhetoric and backed images playing a central role. This stance is exemplified in several ways. The United States and Europe scavenge for access to resources extracted by African labor, declaring their
of the coloniser. The domination of a people’s language by the languages of the colonising nations was crucial to the domination of the mental universe of the colonised. (16) For Ngũgĩ, then, true colonial conquest was achieved not only through political, economic, and military usurpation, but through altering indigenous peoples’ attitudes toward themselves, their cultures, and their relations to Western cultures. This mental manipulation operated via language control, as Ngũgĩ explains how one “aspect of language as culture is as an image-forming agent in the mind. . . . Our whole conception of ourselves as a people, individually and collectively, is based on those pictures and images which may or may not correctly correspond to the actual reality . . .” (Decolonising 15). In other words, because language—both in written and spoken forms—informs our understanding of our surroundings and therefore shapes our interpretation of these surroundings, it is heavily involved in cultural production. Thus, devaluing a people’s language corresponds to devaluing their culture, making it easier for a colonizing body to claim cultural superiority over the colonized. Though colonial regimes met their demise across the African continent, for the most part, during the latter half of the twentieth century, Western imperialistic pursuits continue to exert a relentless force. As a result, scholars such as Ngũgĩ call for the renewed use of African languages and for the deconstruction of what they term “neo-colonial” discourses (Decolonising 3). While many scholars refer to the contemporary moment as “post-colonial” (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin 4), the term “neo-colonial” acknowledges the supremacist stance that Western nations continue to assume in relation to African nations, with rhetoric and images playing a central role. This stance is exemplified in several ways. The United States and Europe scavenge for access to resources extracted by African labor, declaring their backed