Language and Identity in The Danger of a Single Story

Language, identity, and culture are closely linked together as the one determines the other. Language, any form, is not merely a string of words. It holds a power unknown to man as it is the foundation of both identity and culture. English is a globally known and spoken language, yet, with that said, it is not a language that a lot of people speak, especially here in South Africa. It is the fourth language spoken, yet its dominance affects every aspect of our lives as well as our identities. This dominance undermines African languages as individuals are programmed to think that English is ‘the’ language. This essay explores how the dominance of the English language and colonization shaped Ngugi’s argument regarding identity and how it goes hand in hand with the use of the language. In addition, it will also be arguing how a single story shapes a person’s perspective, especially Ngugi.

The term identity has multiple facets as it does not just have one fixed definition. In its broadest sense, it refers to the multiple characteristics that contribute to who we are. These characteristics provide a link between us and society and a link between the way we see ourselves and how others see us. Identity also encompasses the concepts of the individual’s choice in how they want to shape their own identity and how much control they have in shaping that identity with the control or constraint that is practiced over them (Woodward 2004). This “choice” refers to the decision they make on how they choose to identify themselves, for example, they would go to book clubs because they choose to identify with readers. The control in shaping our identities introduces a tension between the personal and the social. This tension, in the context of social constraints, is gender, ethnicity, line of work and social class.

Furthermore, identities can be fixed or fluid as they have tendencies of changing as one develops, or they can be fixed in terms of knowing who they are. Another contributing factor to one's change in identity, is the world that they live in, their society. The society also plays a major role in the construction of one's identity as it provides constraints in choosing that identity. Identity can also be a performance to an audience namely; society, peers and family.

Ngugi clearly demonstrates that our language keeps us rooted to our culture and the knowledge that came before us. Adding to that, Ngugi points out that the languages we speak, namely our mother tongues, play a significant role in constructing our identities. “The choice of language and the use to which language is put is central to a people’s definition of themselves in relation to their natural and social environment, indeed in relation to the entire universe.” (Ngugi 1987). In his perspective, language goes hand in hand with identity. As much as we choose to identify ourselves with a group with similar characteristics and personalities to us, the language that we speak also plays a role in helping us find a sense of belonging and recognition.

With that said, we get a clue in what Ngugi (1987) meant we he stated that with the dominance of English, colonization, and imperialism, Africans lost themselves, their identities to the iron rule of colonizers and the disregarding of their native languages. Africans where socialized according to what the colonizers believed to be just, and this justification came with the belief that colonization and imperialism were done to save Africa, a means of salvation. This also brought about the dominance of the English language as Africans were programmed to believe that English was ‘the' language, totally disregarding their native languages. 'Thus, language and literature were taking us further and further from ourselves to other selves, from our world to other worlds.' (Ngugi 1987). With this statement, the Kenyan author clearly depicts how disadvantageous the dominance of English was to him and other Africans as they ‘lost' themselves. Ngugi sheds a light on how with the happening of colonization and the dominance of the English language, Africa underwent a change that will forever cast a shadow over everything.

Furthermore, by saying “ourselves” and “our worlds’, Ngugi is the identities the Africans had before colonization and the dominance of English, their ‘previous’ selves as well as the world or environment that they lived in, '…and the language of our immediate and wider community, and the language of our work in the fields was one.' (Ngugi 1987). The word “our” is a possession pronoun, and by using it Ngugi is showing a sense of possession and inclusivity as he is referring to the people of Africa and himself as a whole, meanwhile excluding the colonizers. The 'our worlds' refers to the world Ngugi before colonization as Gikuyu, his native language was widely in their community. Their culture was maintained in the stories that told the children in their native and the games that were played, namely riddles, proverbs and transposition of syllables. This all changed when the children were forced to learn English at schools and the stories they had to learn where in English. This is where the “other selves” and “other worlds” become significant. These refer to the new identities and environments or worlds they had to not acquire but adapt to due to colonization and the dominance of English. And due to this, not only was Ngugi’s harmony with his native language broken, but he also lost his identity. This dominance was making Ngugi become someone that he was not and placing him in a world that he didn’t belong in.

In addition, Ngugi, also depicts how colonization not only happened in the ‘battlefield' where physical violence was involved, but it also happened psychologically beginning in the classrooms with the youth where the seed was planted. 'The physical violence of the battlefield was followed by the psychological violence in the classroom.' (Ngugi 1987). This ‘psychological violence' is seen when Ngugi shares his childhood experiences on how they were forced to learn English as they were not allowed to speak their native tongue at school and they were caught doing so, they would be punished. 'Thus, children were turned into witch hunters and in the process were being taught the lucrative value of being a traitor to one’s immediate community.” (Ngugi 1987). Since at Ngugi’s (1987) school, a button was passed around to whoever spoke in their native language and the one who had the button last would have to ‘rat’ on they got the button from, this taught children to be ‘traitors’ to their own kind. To put each other in the firing line for the sake of saving their own skin.

Further disregarding African languages, colonization taught the youth of Africa that without knowledge of the English language, one couldn’t thrive in life. Ngugi (1987) also argues that the English language was the key to success during colonial times in Kenya. With English dominating, during the colonial times, other languages, African languages, had to bow down to its dominance. This is shown when his literature education transitions from Gikuyu to English and thus losing a sense of himself and cultural literature in the process.

Ngugi (1987) describes the English language as having two characteristics; it is the carrier of culture and the main device for communication. He further explains how it, in terms of being the device for communication, has three parts; namely speech, written signs, and origins and development. These parts work hand in hand in forming this collective called language. Without these working together, language as communication becomes vague, especially the speech and the written parts of language as, in some societies, they tend to represent each other. Language seen as a carrier of culture is seen as in people’s behaviour in a community, their ethics, morals, values and their conception of what is wrong or right. Culture is seen as this tool that can convert that which people see and imagine through speech and written language, into a language. Through Ngugi’s explanation, we learn that culture and communication create one another. “Language is thus inseparable from ourselves as a community of human beings with a specific form and character, a specific history, a specific relationship to the world.” (Ngugi 1987). This then reinforces what Ngugi says that language and identity go hand in hand as with language, one already has a relationship with the world and other individuals who speak the same language and share similar characteristics.

In contrast to Ngugi, Achebe believes that although the dominance of the English and colonization caused catastrophe, it did unite certain parts of African, that were scattered, and it gave a language that they can use. They can use this 'tool' as means of communication or as a carrier for the burdens; “…but I feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience.” and serve as transportation for their messages. Achebe sees English as a central and unifying language that Africans can use to talk about Africa and he contends that it would be “impossible” to learn all the African languages just to communicate with one another. Achebe (1975) advocates for us to make use of the language that we have inherited and believed that its beneficial to write in English, which contrasts what Ngugi believes in. Yet they do share similar views in terms of people abandoning their mother tongues now that they have learned the English language, which is a language that is not their own. Achebe describes this abandonment as a “…dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling. But for me, there is no choice. I have been given the language and I intend to use it.” (Achebe 1975).

With Adichie, the discussion of the danger of a single story comes to play. A single story has the immense power of having a disastrous effect on a person's, or a whole nation's image. Adichie dives deeper into the topic as she describes the power that the single stories have as when told, they become the story with which something is remembered. Chimamanda also had single stories when she was growing up which constricted her to believe everything that she was told which is like what colonization did to the youth of Kenya. The single story that Ngugi and the Kenyan youth grew up with was that English was the language and it was necessary for children’s progress and in the process, disregarding the children’s native languages. To further reinforce that single story, there were rewards given if anyone achieved in English. Adichie (2009) says in her speech: “The single story creates stereotypes. And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete. They make one story the only story.”

By this Adichie meant that these single stories that we are told create these stereotypes which constrict our views of what is right and true, thus we believe those stories and take them to be the only truth and nothing else. These single stories also have disastrous outcomes because they make us realize how unequal and different we are.

Makubalo’s (2007) article argues how English plays an important role in the construction of learner’s identities. The article also sheds light on how English is a language that is widely used for teaching and learning in schools and that some learners are expected to have a certain understanding of the language despite it not being the language that they commonly speak. In one of the case studies, a learner, Thabo’s, identity continuity changes with the different peer groups he associates himself with. His identity is linked with this idea of being African and speaking African languages, automatically excluding non-Africans and those who do not speak African languages. Without even realising it, Thabo is performing his identities to the different peer groups that he sits with, in turn revealing the multiple identities that he has. This also ties in with Ngugi and the multiple identities that he had, 'our selves and other selves', as well as the performances he had to do in front of the different audiences, namely at school, home and with friends.

Furthermore, another scholar, Anna, who’s involved in the case study, made a rather interesting statement that added emphasis to what Ngugi stated: “[i]n another way it's bad because people are forgetting their roots and their own languages, because they are conforming to English…when you learn English you also learn the culture of the English…and people become more modern and more westernised instead of sticking true to their roots…' (Makubalo 2007)

This ties in perfectly with the “other selves” and “other worlds” that Ngugi argued about and how the dominance of English was just ‘destroying’ their identities. The roots that people are forgetting refers to the identities and cultures that they had before colonization and the dominance of English as Ngugi said. The way people are socialized makes them disregard where they came from, their cultures and native worlds. Instead, they believe and adapt their lives to the single story that westernization is key as well as the identities that come with it.

To conclude, English maintains its position as a dominant language in most countries, especially here in South Africa. Although it has now become a language of choice, its dominance is still made relevant by the commonly known and believed single story that English is the ladder to social elitedom. Ngugi ties up the dominance of English to one's identity in terms of how it can influence an individual's identity. Ngugi's single story was how significant and dominate the English language was and how their languages and identities had to bow down to it. Ngugi's single story was also my single story as I was taught that my native language, Xhosa, wouldn't get me anywhere. I was told that I need to be able to speak Afrikaans and English to be ‘take seriously' because English was a universal language used in universities as well as in the job market. As much as I agree with Ngugi that with the dominance of English, we have ‘lost' ourselves, I also agree with Achebe (2007) when he says that we shouldn't dwell in the negative that is associated with the inheritance of English. Instead, we should rather rejoice and use the language as a device in which our burdens are carried and African messages and experiences are told.

References:

1. Ngugi wa Thiongo. 1987. “The language of African literature” in Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Zimbabwe Publishing House. pp. 4-20
2. Achebe, C (1975). The African writer and the English language. In Morning yet on creation day (pp. 55-62). London: Heinemann.
3. “The Danger of a Single Story” talk filmed July 2009, TEDGLOBAL 2009. Online [Available] https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
4. George Makubalo (2007) “I don’t know… it contradicts”: identity construction and the use of English by high school learners in a desegregated school space, English Academy Review, 24:2, 25-41, DOI: 10.1080/10131750701452287