Diary: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, (2) The Politics of Translation

The Bible in Gĩkũyũ

Read Part One of this post here!
Translation—a kind of dialogue or conversation among languages—is another challenge to the orthodoxy of monolingualism. Translation is one of the means by which languages and cultures do and can give life to each other. Translations can be seen as conversation; a conversation, as opposed to commands or exhortations, assumes equality among interlocutors. The Bible in Gĩkũyũ, another part of my culture, was a translation of a series of translations, English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic all the way back to whatever language that God, Adam, and Eve used in the Garden of Eden. I was very impressed by the fact that Jesus and all the characters in the New and Old Testament spoke Gĩkũyũ! Even God, in the Garden of Eden, spoke Gĩkũyũ!