Father-Son Relationship and African Decolonization

In his book Decolonizing the Mind, Ngũgĩ deplores how the African literary circles used the colonizer’s logic and language to discuss the future of their own cultural heritage. Highlighting the debate about a core method of decolonization, he wrote “in the literary sphere-they were often seen as coming to save African languages-against themselves” (Ngũgĩ 7). Of course, Ngũgĩ was talking about African writers who devoted their lives attempting that salvage African heritage using languages other than African languages, which Ngũgĩ deeply criticizes in his book. And although Achebe’s trilogy was written in English, they are considered crucial in the decolonial movement that importance of which is heavily emphasized in Ngũgĩ ’s book. For my thesis, I want to explore the impact of various forms of colonization on more intimate bonds within the African individual, namely the familial bond of father and son. In addition to that, I will attempt to highlight the importance of using the colonizer’s language in these books.