Language
Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms
Ngugi wa Thiongo is a giant in the decolonization community, in 1986 he wrote Decolonizing the Mind, he also wrote Theory and the Politics of Knowing, Secure the Base, Something Torn and New, amongst many others (including a list of fiction works). This post shares some notes from his 1993 book Moving the Centre: The […]
Tags: #Cultural Freedom #decolonization #Language #Moving the Centre #Ngugi wa Thiongo
An African Renaissance: Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Ngugi wa Thiong’o is one of the most important voices on language and decolonization. His works include Decolonizing the Mind (1986) and Theory and Politics of Knowing (2012). This post shares some notes on his 2009 Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance (copy appears available here). “colonialists did not literally cut off the heads […]
Tags: #decolonization #decolonize #Language #Ngugi wa Thiongo #postcolonial
Language & Governance in the African Experience
Notes from The Power of Babel: Language & Governance in the African Experience (1998) by Ali A. Mazrui and Alamin M. Mazrui” “One of the gross linguistic anomalies of post-colonial Africa, in fact, is that whole classes of countries are named after the imperial language they have adopted as their official language. We do constantly refer […]
Tags: #Africa #decolonization #Language #Mazrui #The Power of Babel
Secular Translations
A couple of notes from Talal Asad’s “Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self and Calculative Reason” (2018): “Today an important failure is our inability to create a form of collective life on this planet radically different from the liberal capitalist states in which we live. The failure seems to be due not to any lack of […]
Tags: #Capitalism #Language #Liberalism #Secular Translations #Talal Asad
Education, Politics and Social Change in Ethiopia
In looking for research that explores the challenges of ethnic federalism and language in Ethiopia, I came across the book “Education, Politics and Social Change in Ethiopia” (2010), edited by Paulos Milkias (Concordia University) and Messay Kebede (University of Dayton). All of the contributing authors are based outside of Ethiopia, which is not necessarily negative, […]
Tags: #Education #Ethiopia #Language #Politics #Social change
Decolonizing the Mind
Linda Tuhiwai Smith wrote “Decolonizing methodologies” (1999). Ngugi wa Thiong’o wrote “Decolonizing the Mind” (1986). This is essential reading and the insights are numerous – from curricula design and literary critique to social transformation and liberation. In this post I focus on one of Ngugi’s central and influential arguments about the power of language. The […]
Tags: #decolonization #Decolonizing the Mind #Language #Ngugi wa Thiongo #Power
Reflections from Benedict Anderson
Benedict Anderson, author of the well-read “Imagined Communities” (1983), has authored a short autobiography / set of reflections called “A Life Beyond Boundaries” (2016). The book is an interesting read about his journey toward, and through, academia. The book was inspired by a request to share this experience with a Japanese audience, which was published in […]
Tags: #Benedict Anderson #Fieldwork #Language #Positionality #Research questions
About me
Logan Cochrane
Associate Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last fifteen years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
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