2. What are you asked to do in 10.4.2? You will read two selections and answer questions along the way. You are reading from an interview and a short selection. Both of these deal with culture and how the older culture is being forced to change or is taken over. One side wants to keep the traditional ways and one side forcing change.
3. These two selections Also show how one side – the natives with their traditional customs and language might feel downtrodden and small compared to these larger, newer ways and people. However they find inspiration in their older ways to persevere and to continue their stand.
4. #1 In the first paragraph, the author writes about his childhood. He writes, "I can vividly recall those evening of storytelling...other children who worked in the fields." What is the author's purpose for explaining this memory from his childhood?
5. Text for question 1 ."The stories main characters were usually animals. Ngugi said "Hare/rabbit is small and weak, but full of innovative wit (brain power), was our hero. We identified with him as he struggled against the brutes of prey (those that hunted us or tried to dominate us) like the lion. His victories were our victories and we learned that the apparently weak can outwit the strong. (A note from Mrs. Hill - So they were learning a lesson with these stories: that although they are weak (oppressed by stronger forces) they can use their brain to hopefully overcome their situation and outwit their enemies.
6. When you think about it Ngugi’s situation was very similar to the Rabbit’s situation. Both were small or weaker when compared to their opponent or the person standing over them. They were facing a brute, someone preying over them, wanting to dominate them. So maybe Ngugi’s people were inspired by the rabbit who overcame his enemy that was much larger – the odds stacked against him, yet he faced his opponent courageously and victoriously.
7. Question 2 The Europeans used the English language as a way to control the education of the Africans. Provide one detail from the reading that shows how language can be used to control someone .
8. You will find the answer to question 2 on the next slide. You will need to read the text and then put the answer in your own words to receive credit.
9. Text for answering #2 Africans were controlled by forcing them to speak European languages—they attempted to teach children (future generations) that speaking English is good and that native languages are bad by using negative reinforcement. This is a process recognized by the great Martiniquen writer, Franz Fanon. Language was twisted into a mechanism that separated children from their own history because their own heritage were shared only at home, relying on orature in their native language. At school, they are told that the only way to advance is to memorize the textbook history in the colonizer's language. By removing their native language from their education they are separated from their history which is replaced by European history in European languages. This puts the lives of Africans more firmly in the control of the colonists
10. #3 #3 Look back at paragraphs 4 and 5. Identify one example of figurative language Refer to the selection entitled "NgugiWaThiongo and Chinua Achebe on the Politics of Language and Literature in Africa" in order to answer the following question
11. Text for answering #3 . "the bullet was the means of physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation. Subjugation means to enslave, to conquer, to bring under another’s control. So explain this quote.
12. #4 What does Sinbad symbolize? The encounter between Sindbad and the old man of the sea, for instance, has always haunted me. You know the story. Sindbad finds an old man unable to cross the river and he has pity on him. Sinbad carries the old man on his back. (Sinbad is a helper, one who is kind and helps someone in need.) But the old man refuses to get off and instead plants his long nails even more deeply into Sindbad. The sailor grows thin even as the old man waxes fat and oozes comfort. For it is Sindbad who does everything: he carries and feeds the old man in sun and rain and wind.
13. More on sinbad sucking the blood and life out of Sinbad in order to get what he wants) and feeding on Sindbad reflected a certain reality that I then only vaguely understood. Now I know. Sindbad is from the underdeveloped world politely referred to as the developing or third world.
14. #5 What does the old man symbolize? Sinbad carries the old man on his back. (Sinbad is a helper, one who is kind and helps someone in need.) But the old man refuses to get off and instead plants his long nails even more deeply into Sindbad. The sailor grows thin even as the old man waxes fat and oozes comfort. For it is Sindbad who does everything: he carries and feeds the old man in sun and rain and wind. I was born in a colonial situation and I suppose the image of the parasitic old man sitting(so the old man is like a parasite sucking the blood and life out of Sinbad in order to get what he wants) and feeding on Sindbad reflected a certain reality that I then only vaguely understood.
15. More on the Old Man The old man could come from anywhere—Europe, America, or Japan—but his contemporary home is the United States and he has the nuclear-armed Ronald Reagan for a president.
16. #6 Refer to "Writing for Peace" in order to answer the following question. In the final two paragraphs, describe the imagery the writer uses in order to share his thoughts about peace in an imperialist world.
17. #6 continued Peace should be the very least mean raising human consciousness to an uncompromising hatred of all exploitative parasitic relations between nations and between peoples within each nation. In our world today, this would mean continued exposure and opposition to imperialism currently led by the US. “Get off our back!” should be the unanimous cry of all the democratic forces of peace. For we must all struggle for a world in which one’s cleanliness is not dependent on another’s dirt, one’s health on another’s ill-health, and one’s welfare on another’s misery. Peace is only possible in a world in which the condition of the development of any one nation is the development of all.
