David Lloyd speaks with the world-renowned Kenyan novelist, playwright and poet, critic and widely influential postcolonial theorist, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Together, and with special guests Timothy J. Reiss and Noenoe K. Silva they discuss the problem of the colonisation of languages and Thiong’o’s new book Ngugi In the American Imperium.

David Lloyd is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. He is an expert in postcolonial and cultural theory.

Timothy J. Reiss is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at New York University. He is an expert in classical and renaissance literature and is the author of Against Autonomy: Global Dialectics of Cultural Exchange.

Noenoe K. Silva is a Professor of Indigenous Politics at the University of Hawai’i. She is an expert in Hawaiian and indigenous politics and is the author of Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine. He is an expert in African literature and post-colonialism and is the author of Decolonising the Mind.

Podcast:

 

This interview originally aired on the Scholars’ Circle. To access our archive of episodes and download this interview, click here.

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Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in this discussion reflect the views of the guests and not necessarily the views of The Big Q. 

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