ON ABOLITION OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT BY NGUGI WA THIONGO 1938-2025 In Urdu and Hindi

“ON ABOLITION OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT” NGUGI WA THIONGO 1938-2025

•Introduction of Ngugi wa Thiongo

•Introduction of essay

•Problems with existing English Department

•Politics of language and literature

•Call for decolonization

•Proposal of Abolishment and Replace

•Objectives of the new literature department

•Conclusion

•On abolition of English Department notes

PDF

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Ngugi wa Thiong’o a renowned Kenyan writer, scholar, and post-colonial

theorist, widely regarded as one of Africa’s most influential intellectuals.

Born: january 05, 1938, Kamirithu, Kenya

Died: May 28, 2025,Buford, Georgia, United States

•Began literary career writing in English, later made a radical shift to

writing in his native Gikuyu language as an act of cultural and political

resistance.

•Known for novels, essays, and plays that critique colonialism,

neocolonialism, and cultural imperialism.

•Powerful advocate linguistic decolonization.

•He has taught major universities around the world, including Yale, New

York university, and the university of California, Irvine.

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Introduction of Essay

Ngũgĩ opens the essay by presenting the context: it’s 1968, and Kenya (and

much of Africa) has gained political independence. The University of

Nairobi like many African institutions is still running its English

Department based on colonial models.

"What should the content and structure of a university literature department

be in a newly independent African country?“

•Introduces the theme of Decolonization (political, educational and

cultural)

•This essay is not just critique, but a proposal for constructive change

•Tone and Style Bold and confrontational. Clear, academic, yet accessible.

• A literature department should reflect the cultural, historical, and

linguistic realities of its students, not promote a foreign worldview that

alienates them from their roots.

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Problems with existing English Department

Ngugi criticizes the structure and content of the existing English Department at the

University of Nairobi

1. The English Department is a product of colonial education. It was designed to

impose British culture and values on colonized students. Even after independence,

it continues to teach students to admire English culture while ignoring their

own.“The study of English literature was given central importance, while African

literature and languages were marginalized or ignored.”

2. Students are taught Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, etc., but not African oral

literature, Swahili poetry, or local storytelling traditions. As a result, African

students become disconnected from their own heritage. They learn to value foreign

ways of thinking and see their own culture as inferior.

3. British literature is seen as high and universal. African literature is seen as tribal or

primitive, if it is considered at all. This promotes a racist, Eurocentric view of

culture and literature.

4. The syllabus focuses almost exclusively on British authors. There's no room for

studying African, Caribbean, or even other postcolonial literature. It reflects the

imperialist belief that only English literature is worth studying deeply

Key Idea: English Department is not neutral, it upholds colonial values. This is

why it should be abolished and replaced with something culturally relevant.

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Politics of language and literature

Role of language in shaping identity, culture, and power language is not neutral, it

carries culture, memory, and worldview. Therefore, literature in English (a colonial

language) continues to impose foreign values on African minds

1. Language is the carrier of a people's culture, values, and worldview. When African

students study only English literature, they also absorb English ways of thinking.

African languages are rich in wisdom, but are ignored or looked down upon in

formal education. “Language carries culture, and culture carries the entire body of

values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world.”

2. When students only read British literature, they begin to identify with British

characters, history, and morality. They stop seeing themselves reflected in literature.

This creates cultural inferiority, a form of mental colonization.

3. English becomes the language of the elite, of education, of “proper” knowledge.

African languages are excluded from academia, making them seem unworthy or

backward. This separation divides people and enforces colonial hierarchies even

after independence

Key Idea: Language is not just a tool of communication it is the foundation of

how we think, live, and define ourselves. If Africans are taught only in English,

they will continue to live in mental slavery.

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Call for Decolonization

He argues that African education must break away from colonial structures and instead build

something rooted in African history, languages, and cultures.

1. The existing system is built to serve colonial interests to produce Africans who admire

the colonizer’s culture. African literature and experiences are treated as inferior or

irrelevant. This must change not through minor reforms, but by dismantling the entire

framework.

2. Education should reflect the lives, histories, and struggles of African people. African

students must study their own literature, oral traditions, and languages as central, not

optional. This creates pride, connection, and intellectual freedom.

3. Literature is not just for entertainment or aesthetics. It can be a weapon of liberation,

helping people understand their oppression and imagine freedom.

4. Political freedom is not complete without cultural freedom. As long as Africans continue

to think in colonial languages and admire colonial literature, they are still mentally

colonized. Education must aim for total decolonization; mind, language,and imagination.

Key Idea: “We must reject the domination of foreign culture and reclaim our own. True

freedom begins with the liberation of the mind.”

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Proposal of Abolishment and Replace

Abolish the English Department and replace it with a new, inclusive Department of Literature.

This proposal is not just symbolic it is a complete rejection of colonial academic structure and an

invitation to build an African-centered literary education.

1.The English Department, by name and nature, privileges British literature and European culture.

Reform is not enough complete removal is necessary to create space for true change.

2.Ngũgĩ proposes a Department of Literature with equal emphasis on all literatures; African,

Asian, Caribbean, Latin American, and European. A structure that allows African literature and

oral traditions to be at the center, not the margin. A curriculum that studies literature in its

historical and social context, particularly in relation to African realities.

3.Multicultural and multi-perspective approach, rather than Eurocentric. Interdisciplinary: linking

literature with history, sociology, philosophy, and politics. Study of both oral and written forms of

literature.

4.Literature should help students understand history of colonialism, their struggles for freedom,

their present cultural challenges. It should connect with the everyday lives of African people, not

isolate them in foreign ideals.

Key Idea: “We are not rejecting English literature, but rejecting its privileged position. We

demand a literary education that begins with ourselves.”

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Objectives of the new literature department

Aims, goals, values, and guiding principles of new literature department

1.New department must place African literature both oral and written at the heart of its

curriculum

2.Literature must not be treated as a timeless, abstract art, but as a living response to

historical and social forces. For example, African literature should be read alongside the

colonial and anti-colonial struggles, liberation movements, and local traditions.

3.The department should still study European, Asian, Caribbean, and Latin American

literature — not to reject them, but to study them critically and comparatively.

4.African oral traditions like folktales, proverbs, praise poetry, and storytelling should be

respected as literary forms. African languages should be used as mediums of instruction and

literary study, not just

5.Literature must play a role in nation-building. It should help students understand their

cultural identity, analyze social problems, and imagine a better future. It should inspire

critical thinking, creativity, and social responsibility

Key Idea: “Literature must grow out of the soil of African reality — from the voices of its

people, the rhythms of its languages, and the pulse of its history.”

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Conclusion

In this final part, Ngũgĩ brings all his arguments together and makes a powerful conclusion. He emphasizes that true

independence goes beyond politics it must involve a deep cultural and intellectual transformation. He urges African

universities, especially literature departments, to become agents of liberation, not tools of continued colonial

domination.

Ngũgĩ insists that education is never neutral it either liberates or enslaves. Colonial education was designed to enslave

African minds, and if unchanged, it will continue to do so .Universities must take active responsibility in shaping free,

conscious, culturally rooted citizens.

Literature plays a key role in shaping people’s values, imagination, and understanding of the world. It can either uphold

colonial ideas or resist them. The new literature curriculum must be used to nurture critical, liberated, and self-aware

African thinkers.

Political freedom is meaningless without mental freedom. As long as Africans think through the lens of colonial

languages, literature, and values, they remain mentally colonized. The university must help African students reclaim

their cultural identity, languages, and pride.

Ngũgĩ ends with a clear call to action, abolish colonial departments that center English culture. Build African-centered

institutions that reflect African realities. Use literature and education as tools of liberation, not imitation.

The struggle for decolonization must happen in the classroom as much as in politics. Education must become a

liberating force, and literature departments must be remained to serve the needs of African students and society

“The classroom must become a battlefield for the decolonization of the African mind.”