In one essay from “Decolonizing Language,” Ng~ug~i declares that writers must “be the voice of the voiceless. They have to give voice to silence, especially the silence imposed on a people by an oppressive state.” During his AP interview, Ng~ug~i discussed his concerns about Kenya, the “empowerment” of knowing your native language, his literary influences and his mixed feelings about the United States.

Ng~ug~i’s comments on subjects have been condensed for clarity and brevity. One of the world’s most revered writers and a perennial candidate for success all reading program the Nobel Prize, Ng~ug~i remains an energetic speaker with opinions no less forceful than they have been for the past 60 years. Since emerging as a leading voice of post-colonial Africa, he has been calling for Africans to reclaim their language and culture and denouncing the tyranny of Kenya’s leaders.

His best known books include the nonfiction “Decolonizing the Mind” and the novel “Devil on the Cross,” one of many books that he wrote in his native Gik~uy~u. Strong Sense of Place: Individuals with a strong sense of place, a deep emotional attachment and identification with their surroundings, may be more prone to experiencing eco-anxiety and environmental grief. The destruction or alteration of familiar landscapes and ecosystems can disrupt their sense of identity, belonging, and well-bein “I am fine (with speaking English).

After all, I am a distinguished professor of English and comparative literature at the University of California, in Irvine. So it’s not that I mind English, but I don’t want it to be my primary language, OK? This is how I put it: For me, and for everybody, if you know all the languages of the world, and you don’t know your mother tongue, that’s enslavement, mental enslavement. But if you know your mother tongue, and add other languages, that is empowerment.” Ng~ug~i has published a handful of books over the past decade, including the novel “The Perfect Nine” and the prison memoir “Wrestling with the Devil,” and was otherwise in the news in 2022 when his son, M~ukoma wa Ng~ug~i, alleged that he had physically abused his first wife, Nyambura, reading teacher near me who died in 1996 (“I can say categorically it´s not true,” Ng~ug~i wa Thiong’o responds).

His U.S. publisher, The New Press, has just released “Decolonizing Language,” which the author praises as a “beautiful” title. “Decolonizing Language” includes essays and poems written between 2000 and 2019, with subjects ranging from language and education to such friends and heroes as Nelson Mandela, Nadine Gordimer and Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author whose 1958 novel, “Things Fall Apart,” is considered by many the starting point for modern African literature. Achebe also helped launch Ng~ug~i’s career by showing a manuscript of an early novel, “Weep Not, Child,” to publisher William Heinemann, who featured it in the landmark African Writers series.

Cultural or Religious Attachments to Land: Cultural or religious attachments to land can intensify eco-anxiety and environmental grief. This is particularly true for indigenous communities and others whose cultural and spiritual identities are closely tied to specific landscapes.