Decolonising the Mind by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Decolonising the mind is a work of Ngugi wa Thiong'o explains how colonialism has deemed African languages unworthy of use- both by the Colonisers and the Colonised. He explains how a "cultural bomb" was dropped on Africa so the mind of Africans were controlled. "Make them hate themselves" was the mission. He was born in a large peasant family. They spoke Gikuyu. About language, he said:

"We therefore learnt to value words for their meaning and nuances. Language was not a mere string of words. It had a suggestive power well beyond the immediate and lexical meaning. Our appreciation of the suggestive magical power of language was reinforced by the games we played with words through riddles, proverbs, transposition of syllables or through non-sensical but musically arranged words. So we learnt the music of our language on top of the content. The language, through images and symbols, gave us a view of the world, but it had a beauty of its own. The home and the field were then our pre-primary school but what is important, for this discussion, is that the language of our evening teach-ins, and a language of our immediate and wider community, and the language of our work in the fields were one."

In Kenya, English became more than a language, it was the language, and all the others had to bow before it in deference. Students were given punishment if they were caught speaking Gikuyu in the vicinity of the school. This was seen in the schools where European languages were idealised, the streets where African language became synonymous with the language of the peasantry and at the prison cells were those African writers whose choose to stay true to their mother tongue were held. When they were in school, English was imposed upon them. Students who passed in other subjects but failed in English had to remain in the same class means they had to reappear in the same class. This book is a thought provoking dissection of the effects of colonisation in the African literature. This book raises the question of self and culture, imperialism and language through the eyes and stories of someone who grew up in colonial Kenya and has spent his life fighting to separate African literature from the European influences that have so pervaded it.