Something Torn and New

Remembering African Culture

Over more than three centuries ago, Africans were brought to the western world. Forcibly disallowed to use indigenous languages, these now diasporic Africans had no choice but to adopt western languages and discontinue the use of their mother tongue. On the surface, taking a people’s language doesn’t seem to be a grave issue. One could simply just learn to communicate through another language. However, language is intertwined with a people’s culture. It is not simply intertwined, but it is the key to understanding a people’s culture. Language is perhaps the most important aspect of culture, housing a people's memory and identity. It is also responsible for cultural memory or “the act of transfer from the past to the present as a result of shared experiences in regards to conventions, practices, or norms.” Language as culture is the total memory bank of a people’s experiences in history. Therefore, stripping a people of their language means stripping a people of culture, and it inhibits the flow of cultural memory. This inhibition results in the continual death and vague memory of culture as generations pass. In Something Torn and New, Ngugi wa Thiong’o speaks about eradication of native African languages in the Diaspora and the integral roles these languages play in the memory and restoration of African culture. The dismemberment of African culture and memory fell in the hands of the vicious encounter of linguifam, during colonialism, but the revival and remembrance of African languages through the Harlem Renaissance helped restore and to remember the African culture, producing a sense of wholeness.

In order to successfully exert power and control over the Africans, the Europeans had to depreciate the value of and eliminate African culture, which included aspects such as dance, art, music, traditions, and most importantly, language. The primary goal of colonialism was to control...