Acclaimed novelist and scholar Ngungi Wa Thiong’o says Africans have a moral obligation to lift the continent out of the current challenges that continue to constrain its economic progress.
The Kenyan born literary giant is on a visit to South Africa to deliver several public lectures in commemoration of Africa Month. He stopped writing in English in 1981 after the publication of his highly acclaimed social critique,” Decolonising the Mind”.
Wa Thiong’o is worried about the failure by continental leaders to break the shackles of colonialism after more than five decades since the majority of African countries gained their independence from colonial rule.
“It’s not that somebody wakes up and says ‘I want to work against Africa’, No. Decolonising the mind should be a reflection about how to bring economic, political and cultural liberation. With colonised minds we must not be seeing how much we contribute towards impoverishing Africa. African liberation is not complete without economic empowerment”
– By Tshepo Ikaneng
