Decolonizing the Canon: Considerations of Third World Literature

WITH REVEALING reference to Brecht, Ngugi wa Thiong'o in Barrel of a Pen stated what it is he considers to be the task of the Western writer in regard to World Literature: must expose to his European audience the naked reality of the relationship between Europe and the Third World. He has to show to his European reader that, to paraphrase Brecht, the water he drinks is often taken from the mouths of the thirsty in the third world and the food he eats is snatched from the mouths