Africa taught the world about decolonisation, so why have we gone quiet about it? :: Mmegi Online

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a professor of Indigenous studies, an Indigenous woman, here in Canada. We were speaking about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the late, towering Kenyan intellectual who has long argued that language is the key battlefield in the struggle for decolonisation.

“You know,” she said, “this whole language of decolonisation that is now so loud [in Canadian institutions] began with African scholars.” She’s right.

Long before decolonisation became a buzzword in Western universities and policy circles, it was the fire in African scholarship, literature, and politics. Our writers, Ngũgĩ, Chinua Achebe, Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral, Ousmane Sembène, were not just theorising liberation. They were living it, fighting for it, writing it into existence. In the 1960s and 70s, the cry for decolonisation echoed through Africa’s lecture halls, publishing houses, and liberation movements.

Already have an active account? Log in here.

Or Sign up and get unlimited access to premium articles.