Teaching “Decolonizing the Mind”

If I had the opportunity to teach any piece of literature from this course, I would choose to teach the selection from Decolonizing the Mind, by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o.  Britain’s colonial empire was quite extensive, and their culture pervasive, disrupting the life and culture of millions of people over decades of rule. I think that the colonial enterprise of Britain and the ideology that came up with it continues to shape and have influence in many previous colonies. There are stories that have been buried with those people and cultures, and rich heritages that deserve to be preserved and maintained after such brutal degradation. Decolonizing the Mind is a great start to better understand the effects of colonial rule, and a way to branch off into other literature. I would imagine this would be best done in a high school classroom, although I would hope such topics had been brought up previously, due to the possibility of more mature content as a discussion of this type might lead to.

In the piece, Wa Thiong’o writes about the importance and nuance of language and how culture and identity are tied to language. The language of Gikuyu had a “suggestive power well beyond the immediate and lexical meaning,” it was nuanced and strong, the language of a community, of work, of life. The author goes into detail about the humiliation brought on by the superiority of the British, with English mastery becoming the most important attribute in one’s studies, and African languages becoming subservient. It’s important for students to understand the importance of language as part of colonial enterprise and learn from first-hand sources what life was like under British rule. It is a part of history well-known, but not necessarily well understood or understood outside of colonial administrators’ accounts.

I think it would be best to teach this piece in tandem with other accounts, juxtaposing different people’s experiences and ways of life, even including historical fiction. I particularly think reading some of the work of Chinua Achebe would be beneficial here, to further round out the discussion of colonialization. In order to fully understand where we are today, we must look to the past, recognizing that such harmful ideologies are not dead, but renamed. Students should be given the tools to think on a more global level, empathize, acknowledge the pain, and hopefully, help create the path to a better future. I think that being a teacher holds a certain responsibility to teach future generations about terrible events and periods in order to have perspective. I think it would be helpful to teach this piece in particular because it has anecdotal components, making the reader connect to the author, as well as mentioning themes on a greater scale, in the vein of a personal essay. It engages critical thinking skills and may help students better comprehend the topics and history brought up in such a piece. All in all, Decolonizing the Mind is a well-thought out piece that would greatly benefit discussion.