In Defense of Ngugi

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I enjoyed Things Fall Apart. Achebe spoke of the need to create a "new English... altered to suit a new African surrounding," and I think he accomplished that goal admirably. The use of Igbo words and phrases along with Achebe's unique sense of imagery and description place this book in the category of rare reads that change the way people think about the English novel. However, Achebe's accomplishments are not at the center of Ngugi's arguments. Instead, Ngugi is more concerned about who benefits from this "new English": the African audience or the Western audience.
Ngugi proposes that each language has a "dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture." He points out that in places such as Sweden and Denmark, English is a convenient means of communication, but not a carrier of culture. To Ngugi, there is no inherent danger in having separate languages for ease of communication and the preserving of history and culture. However, the plight of countries afflicted by what Ngugi terms "neo-imperialism" is quite different. In these countries, English (or French, or any equivalent colonial language) represents the minority of languages spoken yet holds the native tounges in a stranglehold. The prevailing mentality is that any idea worth discussing or writing about must be articulated in English. When Achebe writes in English, he is subtly reinforcing the notion that African talent and ideas must be adapted to English. Ngugi's concern is that such a mentality will result in a starvation of the native languages as writers like Achebe begin a mass exodus of writing and intellectual talent from the native languages to English. The result is a new genre of Afro-European literature infused with borrowings from African cultures and languages, yet at the same time it contributes to the deterioration of the source material.
Who does the Afro-European novel benefit? It cannot benefit the vast majority of the African audience that cannot read or speak English. We must assume that it mostly benefits the English speaking reading public of Western countries and the tiny minority of English speakers who make up the "intellectual elite" in African countries. Achebe was not "wrong" to write in English. Unfortunately, the success of Things Fall Apart subtly reinforces the notion that English and other colonial languages are the appropriate vehicles for all intellectual and artistic endeavors in African countries.