Ngugi

It only makes sense that people must learn history and gain knowledge about their own backgrounds before they can expand and understand different cultures. After reading “On the Abolition of the English Department” by Ngugi, Liyong, and Owuor-Anyumba I realized that some countries have needed to fight for this freedom. Why would Europeans try to teach Africans through an “English Department”? Isn’t it obvious that these students want to learn about their own literature and languages? Americans have such an ego centric view of everything. We think that our way is the only way and also the best way so why wouldn’t people want to be like us? Why wouldn’t these Africans want to learn about English literature?

Every human being has a right to learn and read about their past, about where they’ve come from and the strong history they are tied to. Peter Wasamba spoke on this a bit in his lecture. He talked about the importance to not interfere with other countries and try to force our (American) culture on them. Everybody works through situations different and it is important to connect with these other cultures, and even to help them when they are in need. But during this process we need to allow them to have freedom to handle things in the way their culture acts.

In the Ngugi article it states, “…education is a means of knowledge about ourselves. Therefore, after we have examined ourselves, we radiate outwards and discover peoples and worlds around us….things must be seen from the African [fill in country name here] perspective.” I think the world needs to start appreciate the colorful cultural differences that exist. Especially the United States, because we aren’t “better” or “right”, but rather we are view and comprehend things in a different way then other countries. And it is these differences that make our world unique.