Quotes from Wizard of the Crow

“Why did Africa let Europe cart away millions of Africa's souls from the continent to the four corners of the wind? How could Europe lord it over a continent ten times its size? Why does needy Africa continue to let its wealth meet the needs of those outside its borders and then follow behind with hands outstretched for a loan of the very wealth it let go? How did we arrive at this, that the best leader is the one that knows how to beg for a share of what he has already given away at the price of a broken tool? Where is the future of Africa?”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“The condition of women in a nation is the real measure of its progress.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Does rough weather choose men over women? Does the sun beat on men, leaving women nice and cool?' Nyawira asked rather sharply. 'Women bear the brunt of poverty. What choices does a woman have in life, especially in times of misery? She can marry or live with a man. She can bear children and bring them up, and be abused by her man. Have you read Buchi Emecheta of Nigeria, Joys of Motherhood? Tsitsi Dangarembga of Zimbabwe, say, Nervous Conditions? Miriama Ba of Senegal, So Long A Letter? Three women from different parts of Africa, giving words to similar thoughts about the condition of women in Africa.'

'I am not much of a reader of fiction,' Kamiti said. 'Especially novels by African women. In India such books are hard to find.'

'Surely even in India there are women writers? Indian women writers?' Nyawira pressed. 'Arundhati Roy, for instance, The God of Small Things? Meena Alexander, Fault Lines? Susie Tharu. Read Women Writing in India. Or her other book, We Were Making History, about women in the struggle!'

'I have sampled the epics of Indian literature,' Kamiti said, trying to redeem himself. 'Mahabharata, Ramayana, and mostly Bhagavad Gita. There are a few others, what they call Purana, Rig-Veda, Upanishads … Not that I read everything, but …'

'I am sure that those epics and Puranas, even the Gita, were all written by men,' Nyawira said. 'The same men who invented the caste system. When will you learn to listen to the voices of women?”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Your own actions are a better mirror of your life than the actions of all your enemies put together.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Stories, like food, lose their flavor if cooked in a hurry.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“I believe that black has been oppressed by white; female by male; peasant by landlord; and worker by lord of capital. It follows from this that the black female worker and peasant is the most oppressed. She is oppressed on account of her color like all black people in the world; she is oppressed on account of her gender like all women in the world; and she is exploited and oppressed on account of her class like all workers and peasants in the world. Three burdens she has to carry.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“... for I had reached a point in my life when I came to view words differently. A closer look at language could reveal the secret of life.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Unshed tears of an unrequited desire for vengeance are exhausting and require privacy.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“But when did this anger take root? When snakes first appeared on the national scene? When water in the bowels of the earth turned bitter? Or when he visited America and failed to land an interview with Global Network News on its famous program Meet the Global Mighty? It is said that when he was told that he could not be granted even a minute on the air, he could hardly believe his ears or even understand what they were talking about, knowing that in his country he was always on TV; his every moment - eating, shitting, sneezing, or blowing his nose - captured on camera.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“That was one of the most rewarding things about spending nights in the open. Birds were bound to wake you up, and whether they carried good or bad luck, at least they woke you up with music.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Prayer after all is a form of begging and it was the cornerstone of all religions. Ask and it shall be given. Everyday followers of the different faiths, whether named after Jesus or Muhammad or Buddha, get on their knees and beg god for this or that. They pray that their Lord and Master will hear their cry. Yes, prayers are blessed. Begging is blessed. Among the followers of Buddha, the holiest are known by their vows of poverty, and they are sustained in the path of holiness by begging. Didn't Buddha himself renounce the trappings of wealth for a life and begging and purity?”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“There was a time when slavery was good. It did its work, and when it finished creating capital it withered and died a natural death. Colonialism was good. It spread industrial culture of shared resources and markets. But to revive colonialism now would be an error. There was a time when the cold war dicated our every calculation in domestic and international relations. It is over. We are in the post-cold war era, and our calculations are affected by the laws and needs of globalization. The history of capital can be summed up in one phrase: in search of freedom. Freedom to expand, and now it has the chance at the entire globe for its theater. It needs a democratic space to move as its own logic demands.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“They argue that the modern world was created by private capital. The subcontinent of India, for instance, was owned by the British East India Company, Indonesia by the Dutch East India Company, our neighbors by the British East Africa Company, and the Congo Free State by a one man corporation. Corporate capital was aided by missionary societies. What private capital did then it can do again; own and reshape the Third World in the image of the West without the slightest blot, blemish, or blotch. NGOs will do what the missionary charities did in the past. The world will no longer be composed of the outmoded twentieth-century divisions of East, West, and a directionless Third. The world will become one corporate globe divided into the incorporating and incorporated...to become the first voluntary corporate colony, the first in a new global order..with NGOs relieving us of social services, the country becomes your real estate.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Tus propias acciones son un espejo mejor de tu vida que todas las acciones juntas de tus enemigos.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“—El mundo no tiene corazón. —Entonces hay que cambiar el mundo. Darle”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Hay una gran belleza en el hombre vestido de percal y calzado con sandalias, sin más armas que un bastón para andar y su credo de la no violencia, que se enfrenta al poderoso imperio británico, ¿no”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Hay algunos que aman su historia y el color de su piel, y hay otros que odian su historia y el color de su piel...”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“Por abundantes que fueran los peces en el mar, se necesitaba una red o un sedal y un anzuelo, como mínimo.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

“El agua que bebo, la comida que como, la ropa que uso, la cama donde duermo; todo está determinado por la política, sea ésta buena o mala. La”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, quote from Wizard of the Crow

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