Ngugi’s Essays; Decolonizing The Mind, Wins The 2019 Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Prize
The question is why should Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o not win any German Literature prize only to be awarded the 2019 Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Prize and yet the people with the so-so kind of output in literature in the likes of Bob Dylan went ahead to win the coveted literature Nobel Prize ?. Such type of experiences justify a reflection that Europe has always gambolled with the image of Africa. Especially in such like a case where the doyen of literature in kikuyu language is awarded a peace prize but not literature prize. My comments are a reaction on the 2019 Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Prize worth €25,000 that was given to Ngugi in recognition of his struggle to establish written literature in Kikuyu language.
Even though the Jury of the prize committee commented that the prize is chiefly a regard to Ngugi’s enlightening on anti-colonialist topics, reference to traditional African theatre and narrative art and advocacy of the preservation of mother tongue as a mark of identification, but still such recognition need to come for literature prize organization not from peace prize organization
According to Wolfgang Lücke and Thomas Schneider, the two Jury members on the Prize committee, the prize was awarded in recognition of Ngugi’s 33-year-old collection of essays under the title Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, first published in 1986. The Jury of the prize committee praised the essays for being the most studied, storied and cited books in African literature and postcolonial studies, and the foremost globally arguing for linguistic decolonisation.
The prized book Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, is comprised of four essays: The Language of African Literature, The Language of African Theatre, The Language of African Fiction, and The Quest for Relevance. It borrows a lot from France Fanon, Paul Feire, Jean Paul Sartre, Edward Said and Gavitr Spivak.It is a collection of essays using the Marxist model of resistance to language conguest.
Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Prize was started in 1991 in the city of Osnabrück in Germany. It is the named after Erich-Maria, the author of All Quiet on the Western Front. This is the 15th time the prize has been given. The 2019 Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Prize was chaired by Osnabrück University president Wolfgang Lücke, and Thomas Schneider, the director of the Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Centre.
Ngugi is the first black African writer to win this prize, the previous winners are: Lev Kopelev (1991), Hans Enzensberger (1993), Uri Avnery (1995), Ludvik Vaculik (1997), Houshang Golshiri (1999), Svetlana Alexievishh (2001), Dan Bar-On and Mahmoud Darwish (2003), Leoluca Orlando (2005), Tony Judt (2007), Henning Mankell (2009), Tahar Ben Jelloun (2011), Abdallah Frangi and Avi Primor (2013), Adonis (2016), and Aslı Erdoğan (2017). The Prize will be presented to Ngũgĩ on 29 November at Hall of Peace in Osnabrück city , Germany.
Alexander Opicho writes from, Lodwar, Kenya Mail-opichoalexander”gmail.com