Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's Decolonizing the Mind

This video lecture takes on Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's famous work of postcolonial theory, entitled Decolonizing the Mind, of which we are reading excerpts for my online Brit Lit II class. Ngugi focuses principally on the role of the English language, English literature, and colonial education in denigrating, eroding, and criminalizing indigenous cultures as a way of reformulating how colonized peoples saw themselves and their relationship with the world around them. He argues that British education and the enforcement of the English language compromised his own Kenyan culture and Gikuyu, his first language. Ngugi advocates the reclamation of African culture and the excision of British culture and the English language--though he understands that one can never go back before the colonial encounter, he argues that the only way Africans can once again take pride in Africa and African culture is by teaching it and making Europeans/Westerners acknowledge the validity, legitimacy, and importance of African languages and cultures.


*If you’d like to reference this information or would like to ask me a direct questions for an assignment you are working on, that’s awesome and I am glad to help. Below you will find a model of an MLA citation for this video. Please insert the title, date posted, and url for this specific video.

Zapkin, Phillip. “Title.” YouTube, uploaded by TheatreofPhil, date posted, url.