NGUGI WA THIONGOS MOVING

THE CENTRE AND ITS RELEVANCE

TO AFROCENTRICITY
JOSEPH MCLAREN
Hofstra University

Ngugi wa Thlongo, the well-known Kenyan novelist, dramatist,

and essayist, has examined the relationship between literary craft
and the sociopolitical issues facing contemporary Africa in its
relationshipto the West. Moving the Centre: The Strugglefor Cultural
Freedoms (1993) is composed of selections drawn from lectures,
speeches, and publications from 1980 to 1992. The collection is
divided into four sections, the first three addressing cultural disen-
gagement from Eurocentrism, colonial legacies, and racism, The
find section, Matigari: Dreams and Nightmares, recalls Ngugis
Yale University experience and a visit to Tanzania in 1987.
Certain essays in Moving ?he Centre were originally published
in African Americanjournals. The Writer in a Neo-colonial State
was published in the Black Scholar and Many Years Walk to
Freedom: Welcome Home Mandela! in the popular African
American magazine Emerge in 1990. The signature essay of the
collection was originally published in thc Journal of Common-
wealth Literature (Ngugi, 1991).
The retrospective nature of Moving the Centre has prompted
responses concerning the currency of Ngugis thought and the
development of his ideas in the post-Cold War era. One such
response by Boehmer (1993) in an edition of Wasafiritakes Ngugi
to task for dated political arguments,

These writings have an anachronistic feel not because the target of

their criticism is a thing of the past but because the writers own
JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES. Vol. 28 No. 3, January 1998 366.397
0 1998 Sage Publication#,Inc.
386
 McLaren I NGUGI W A THIONGO 387

approach remains Cold War,The content of his ideas, the language

of resistance, the strategies proposed have not been noticeably
modified in order to address our more dislocated, ideologically-
and ethically-muddled nineties world. (p. 67)

This comment implies a universal our, as if the world has pro-

gressed along an assumed continuum of political evolution. How-
ever, Ngugis ideas in Moving the Centre have relevance to the
debate over Eurocentrism, Afrocentrism,and multiculturalism. His
critique of Eurocentrism can be examined in relation to Afrocentric
critical theory and the writings of its foremost exponent, Molefi
Kete Asante. Asantes Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change
(1988), TheAfrocentricIdea (1987), and Kemet, Afrocentricity and
Knowledge (1990) can be paralleled to Ngugis Moving the Centre
in that both writers engage the center as a locus of cultural and
political transformation. Of particular interest is the way Ngugi
views language and the role of the African writer in the face of
neocolonialism. Ngugis support of indigenous African languages
has parallels to Asantes exploration of Ebonics, or Black English,
as a mode of discourse and expression. An additional relationship
between both writers is the inherent political nature of their works.
Both writers recognize the historical hegemony of the West; how-
ever, Asantes critique of Marxism contrasts sharply with Ngugis
espousal of Marxist ideology. Further comparative issues involve
Afrocentric conceptions of Africa as literal and symbolic space and
Ngugis particular concerns with the present neocolonial circum-
stances in Kenya.
As a theory, Afrocentrism resembles aspects of Pan-Africanism,
which has been relevant in the Ghanaian context. In the case of
South Africa, Gocking (1993) suggeststhat a Pan-Africanist Afro-
centricity (p. 46) may be a valuable adaptation of the theory.
Afrocentricity has also been seen us a continuation of a tradition
involving figures such as Garvey, Du Dois, Fanon, and Malcolm X
(Okur, 1993, p. 89).
Both Ngugi and Asante have contributed recent works that
reiterate ideas expressed in their earlier publications, Ngugis De-
colonizing the Mind( 1986)andhfoving the Centre essentially project
the same conceptions regarding the language issue. In Decoloniz-
388 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES I JANUARY 1998

ing the Mind, Ngugi (1986) delves into his early childhood experi-
ence and expresses the conflict of language dominance through
recollections of school life: Thus, one of the most humiliating
experiences was to be caught speaking Gikuyu in the vicinity of the
school (p. 11).
Similarly,Asantes three works on Afrocentricity evolved out of
his original conception. Each of these works contains specific
frameworks elucidating Afrocentric theory. Neither writer has re-
canted or chosen to take a position that is contrary to his principal
philosophies articulated in the 1980s and 199Os, which i s a sign of
ongoing commitmentto their theoretical or ideological viewpoints.
Both have been remarkably consistent in maintaining their objec-
tions to Eurocentric dominance of culture,
Asantes (1990) Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge poses
alternate organizationalstructures for Africaology and Afrocentric-
ity: interiors, anteriors, and exteriors.This work received a scathing
attack by Esonwanne (19921, who, in his review in Research in
African Literatures, questions Asantes fundamental definitions:
Who is the African, what is the nature of hisher perspectiv-
ism , , and what is the validity of a perspectivist theory of knowl-
e

edge? (p.205).In lclulcolmXas Cultural Hem andOtherAfrocentric

Essays, Asante (1993) responds to Esonwannes remarks in equally
combative terms, generally arguing that Esonwanne does not
understand the concepts in Kemet, Afmcentricity and Knowledge.
Asante (1993) challenges Esonwannes claim that Afrocentricity
developed as an alternative to Eurocentrism and concludes that
Esonwanne did not thoroughly examine the text (pp. 62-63).
In addition to Asante, the Afrocentric perspective has been
supported by a variety of critics and scholars such as Wade Nobles,
C, Tsehloanme Keto, Linda James Myers, Maulana Karenga, and
Marimba Ani (Dona Richards), The psychological dimensions of
the theory are explored by Myers (1988) in Understanding an
Afrocentric World View:Xntroduction to an Optimal Psychology, in
which she asserts, Afrocentric psychology informs us that it is the
sub-optimal world view, itself, that is faulty (p. 15). The historical
applications of Afrocentricity are argued by Keto (1991) in The
 McLarenI NGUGI wA THIONO'O 389

Africa-Centered Perspective of History: An Introduction. Keto fol-

lows the views of Asante in defining Afrocentricity, showing how
both geography and language have contributed to a Eurocentric
dominance; however, Keto adds Asiacentric and Americocentricto
the list of centers from which history can be observed (pp. 6-7).
Ngugi also addresses the notion of multiple centers and the validity
of these various locations as long as they do not lead to cultural
dominance.
Afrocentric theory is contained in Marimba Ani's (1994) Yu-
rugu: An African-centered Critique of European Cultural Thought
and Behavior. Ani's comprehensive work addresses cultural and
political issues. She asserts,
This study of Europe is an intentionally aggressivepolemic. It is an
assault upon the European paradigm; a repudiation of its essence. It
is initiated with the intention of contributing to the process of
demystification necessary for those of us who would liberate our-
selves from European intellectual imperialism.(p. 1)

Ani acknowledges the Influence of Asante (1990), who consid-

ers the existence of parallel centers in Kemet, qfmcentricity artif
Knowledge, in which he asserts, "Africalogy secures its place
alongside other centric pluralisms without hierarchy and without
seeking hegemony" (p. 12). A similar viewpoint regarding the
nonhegemonic dominance of a particular center is expressed by
Ngugi (1993) when he refers to the transforming and renaming of
the English department at the University of Nairobi in 1968: "The
relevant question was therefore one of how one centre related to
other centres. A pluralism of cultures and literatures was being
assumed by the advocates of the re-named departments of litera-
ture" (p. 9).
Both Asante and N y g i conceive of centers that da not dominate
other locations from which culture emerges, However, it is implied
by both writers that to achieve a shift in cultural centeredness from
the West to Africa, certain readjustments regarding views of Europe
must be achieved. Their works are clearly polemical and attack
Eurocentric dominance in a tone consistent with Chinweizu,Jemie,
and Madubuike (1983), who consider their project to be "unnribash-
390 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES I JANUARY 1998

edly polemical and pedagogical. Chinweizu et al. consider Af-

ricas prose literature to be under attack from a dominant and
malicious eurocentric criticism (p. 1).
In Part I of Moving the Centre, titled Freeing Culture from Euro-
centrism, Ngugi reiterates the cornerstones of his literary position
expressed in Decolonizing the Mind (1986). In the signature essay
of Moving the Centre, Ngugi (1993) offers a historical-political
framework for evaluatingthe shift in focus from aEurocentric basis
to n tri-continental one initiated in the postindependence period
in Africa and other parts of the so-called Third World.
This was the sixties when the centre of the universe was moving
from Europe, or, to put it another way, when many countries
particularly in Asia and Africa were demanding and asserting their
right to define themselves and their relationshipto the universe from
their own centres in Africa and Asia. (Ngugi, 1993, p. 2)

Fanon is placed in the foreground of this geopolitical realignment,

which is also defined in relation to the tendency toward a redefini-
tion of self, an exercising of the right to name the world (Ngugi,
1993, p. 3). Transforming Chinua Achebes character Okonkwo
from Things Full Apart (1959) into a symbol of resistance, Ngugi
coins the phrase the Okonkwos of the new literature, referring to
the African and Caribbean writers who created the so-called new
literature of the 1960s. Ngugi (1993) views the African diaspora as
consciously articulating its own political positions through literary
art, in contrast to universal conceptions of reality that are based on
particular cultural views articulated as universals: The probIem
arose only when people tried to use the vision from any one centre
and generalise it as the universal reality (p. 4).
For Ngugi, the notion of the center is tied to his creative process
and his conception of audience. In his early novels, he practiced the
kind of narrative strategiesthat grew out of his writing for the West,
although numerous African and non-Western readers have explored
his works. The unfolding realization through the 1970s that the
modes of discourse in which he produced his early works, namely,
English and Western novel forms, were counter to his political
goals, led to a shifting of his literary center to influence a Gikuyu-
 McLarenI NGUGI WA THIONGO 391

speaking Kenyan audience. This move did not prevent the transla-
tion of his later novels into European languages or other African
languages.
The very act of repositioning audience suggests a new axis of
literary production. However, Ngugis recentering does not limit
his ideas of cultural pluraIism. He argues for cultural pluralism-
multiculturalism-and restates the problem as one of under-
standing all the voices coming from what is essentially a plurality
of centers all over the world (Ngugi, 1993, p. 11).
The conception of a moved center and its relationship to plural
notions of culture is voiced in parallel terms by Asante, who is
concerned as well with African value systems. The notion of
renaming in contexts and metaphors other than those inherited
through colonialism or slavery is central as well to definitions of
Afrocentricity as expressed by Asante (1987). Asante defines Afro-
centricity as placing African ideals at the center of any analysis
that involves African culture and behavior. He employs a literary
model, using Leslie Fiedlers universal literary romantic tradition
to show the centered nature of certain literary theories inasmuch as
African writers are not concerned with the romance variety of
literature (Asante, 1987, p. 6).
Ngugis center includes aspects of Marxism, unlike Asantes
(1988) Afrocentricity, which in its earliest formulation (it was
originally published in 1980), argues against Marxisms relevance
to Afrocentricity.
Marxisms Eurocentric foundation makes it antagonistic to our
worldview; its confrontational nature does not provide the spiritual
satisfaction we have found in our history of harmony. This history
of harmony, stemming from a strong sense of God-consciousness
in nature and each other, is denied by European materialism which
views harmony as a lack of progress, (Asante, 1988, p. 80)

In The @mcenfric Idea; his second book on Afrocentricity),

Asante (1987) contends that Marxism is not helpful in developing
Afrocentric concepts and methods because it, too, is a product of a
Eurocentric consciousness that excludes the historical and cultural
perspectives of Africa (p. 8), This position is obviously different
392 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES I JANUARY 1998

from that of Ngugi, who reaffirms his connection to Marxism in

the preface to Moving the Centre. Placed strategically at the end of
the preface, Ngugis (1993) recognition of the relevance of Man-
ism is connected to his own sense of humanism: to paraphrase
Marx, will human progress cease to resemble the pagan idol who
would drink nectar but only from the skulls of the slain? Ngugi
sees this struggle as one whose goal is to correct the imbalances
of the last four hundred years (pp. xvii-xviii).
Although both Ngugi and Asante are concerned with similar
historical dimensions and have parallel notions regarding domi-
nance, Ngugis praxis is connected to ideology of the Zeft as is, for
example, the discourse of Amiri Baraka, who, like Ngugi and
Asante,recognizes the dilemmas associated with Eurocentrism. In
Asantes Afrocentricity, Marxism is mechanistic and has used
forms of social Darwinism in its interpretations of culture. Ad-
ditionally problematic for Asante is that Marxism is grounded in
its own particularity (Asante, 1987, p. 8).
Ngugis response to his own association with Marxism is pre-
sented in nondogmatic terms in an interview published in the
Brooklyn-based Black newspaper, the City Sun (Outside, 1992).
The interviewer suggests that Ngugis critics have noted that
Ngugis writing often reflects African orality and the sort of
philosophy of dialectical materialism found in Marxist thought.
In response to the question How does that strain of thought
combine to form your artistic world? Ngugi responded,
All these areas affect one another, not in a mechanicalway, but they
interact, and mutually act upon each other. As a writer, one must try
to capture that complexity, that things develop through the working
out of their own internal contradictions,but they also develop within
an external environmentof interacting with other phenomenn, other
cultures and other societies. (Outside, 1992, p. 16)

In his response, Ngugi, avoiding any direct reference to Mam,

presents a philosophy that is inclusive but not relying an slogans
or ideological clichts. Asante (1987) sees Afrocentricity as more
inclusive than Marxism because Afrocentricitytries to reorient our
 McLaren I NGUGI WA THIONGO 393

world view in ways that challenge social Darwinism, capitalism,

and most forms of Marxist theory (p. 8).
Despite this difference in philosophy, further evidence of
Ngugis relevance to Afrocentricitycan be found in Asantes use of
Ngugi as a reference. Asante (1987) cites Ngugi when supporting
his own views regarding language: Therefore, when the Kenyan
writer Ngugi wa Thiongo gives up writing in English to write in
Gikuyu, he is on the path to Afrocentricity (p. 125). Furthermore,
Ngugi is used by Asante (1987) to support the notion of cultural
colonization and oppression through European languages, which
diminish chances for mental liberation (p. 167). Similarly, NiI-
gun Anadolu Okur (1993) uses Ngugis comments in Decoloniz-
ing the Mind to address the way Eurocentric objectives were
evi-dent in the syllabus of the English departments in African
schools (p. 93).
The question of language is central to both Afrocentricity and
Ngugis readjustment of the center, Ngugis position on writing in
indigenous African languages has relevance to Asantes valoriza-
tion of Ebonics, Nygis argument has been stated in many of his
earlier works; he had begun writing in Gikuyu while in detention,
during which time he composed Devil on the Cross (1982).
In Moving the Centre, Ngugi essentially reiterates his support of
writing in indigenous African languages but uses additional
arguments to advance his views. In Imperialism of Language:
English, a Language for the World?-originally presented in a
BBC seminar in 1988 and published in Gikuyu in the Yule Journal
of Criticism in 199GNgugi goes over his reasons for turning to
indigenous languages, One of the reasons is that European lan-
guages have become the languages of powef)because of their use
8s official languages in commerce and science. However, he argues
that a world language should be based on the absolute inde-
pendence and equality of all nations in the economic, political, and
cultural spheres (Ngugi, 1993, pp. 37,39)+
quality of languages is central to Ngugis position and grows
out of his support of pluralism of centers. Often criticized for not
wFiting about nature in his early novels, Ngugi (1993) dcconstructs
the floral metaphor, transforming the romantic symbol into a state-
394 JOURNAL OF BLACK SMJRIES/ JANUARY 1998

ment of language equality: A world of many languages should be

like a field of flowers, not dominated by a particular flower on
account of its colour or its shape (p. 39). The problem with
selecting English as the language of the world is that it has grown
in the graveyard of other languages. Ngugi proposes Kiswahili
as the language for the world because it has not depended on its
economic, political or cultural aggrandisement. Satirical humor,
an overlooked aspect of Ngugis discourse, emerges clearly when
he remarks that if a language for the world is to be chosen, English,
like all other languages, can put in an application (pp. 38-40).
Ngugis selection of Kiswahili, a language with broad usage in
Africa, somewhat answers critics who see a Gikuyu center as
limiting and ethnocentric.
Although some critics have thought Ngugis position on the
language issue to be extreme, he has held fast to his arguments,
despite the reality that his prose works are, for the most part, still
composed in English and that, for quite obvious reasons, he lectures
in English. (However, Ngugi has delivered lectures in Gikuyu, has
published prose pieces in the language, and is involved in the
production of a Gikuyu-languagejournal.)
Interestingly, certain critics who support his position on lan-
guage have, nevertheless, offered objections to aspects of his
praxis, He has been critiqued by Lupenga Mphande (1992) for his
failure to use ideophones. Mphande addresses a dilemma in
Ngugis support of African languages: If Ngugi insists that African
writers should write in their native tongues, why does he draw his
aesthetic principles from the European languages he condemns?
(p. 128).
For Asante, the issue of language in the African American
context involves the concept of Ebonics, or Black language, He
connects language to liberation-Language is the essential instm-
ment of social cohesion, (Asante, 1988, p, 32)-and discusses the
ways in which Africans on the continent or in the diaspora have
humanized European languages, He supports the creation of a
metatheory, which can evolve in its explanation of certain African
American language characteristics such as Ebonics. The relevance
of language to issues of Afrocentricity has also been expressed by
 McLoren I NGUGI W A THIONGO 395

Keto, who suggests that the very use of English connotes a bias
toward a particular geographic center. Despite this bias, the malle-
able nature of language accounts for transformations such as those
evident in Black English or Ebonics (p. 11). The transformation of
English in the African American context can be explained through
Ebonics, the prototypicd language of African Americans. The
term represents the joining of ebony and phonetics and is best
understood through metatheory, which goes beyond existing theo-
ries of language and allows for broaderunderstandings of language
(Asante, 1987, pp. 35-37).Furthermore, African languages them-
selves demonstrate a malleability and can be linked to elements of
Ebonics.
Yoruba, Asante, Ibo, Hausa, Mandingo, Serere, and Wolof had to
combine elements of their language in order to communicate with
each other and the English. Ebonics was a creative enterprise, out
of the materials of interrelationships and the energies of the African
ancestral past. (Asante, 1987, p. 57)

In Asantes discussions of Nommo, he identifies elements of

orature and examines a model of language based on Akan cultural
traditions. Similarly, a reliance on African cultural paradigms is
also expressed in Henry Louis Gates Jr.s (1988) The Slgnifiing
Monkey, in which the Yoruba Ifa is explored as a critical trope.
Gatess theory contains viewpoints consistent with certain aspects
of Afrocentricity: The black tradition has inscribed within it the
very principles by which it can be read (pp. xxiii-xxiv).
Asantes views on language and the oral tradition can be linked
to Ngugis. Both valorize languages that emerge from the masses,
In Ngugis case, using Gikuyu, which might appear to limit his
audience to one particular ethnic group, is, nevertheless, a political
statement for the validity of addressing a primary audience that i s
not European, Asantes Ebonics supports a Ianguage use that is
counter to the dominant practice of standard English usage, and his
interpretation of Nommo is applicable to the immediacy of orature.
Nygis exploration of orature can be seen in his Gikuyu novels
Devil on the Cruss (1982) and Matigari (l987),in which song and
story suppIant the devices of the Western novel, However, Ngugi
396 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES I JANUARY 1998

has also suggested that it is possible to achieve orality in English

or other European languages, a moderation of his hard-line views
on writing in African languages.
It seems to me that the possibilities of an oral literature or the verbal
arts [are] so vast that African literaturebe it in European languages
or African languages-can only gain from that reliance. (Outside,
1992, p. 15)

The relevance of Ngugis Moving the Centre to Afrocentricity

can be seen in a variety of ways, especially in Ngugis realign-
ment of cultural centers and his challenging of Eurocentric
patterns of cultural dominance. Despite certain ideological dif-
ferences, both Ngugi and Asante continue to address the struggle
to position African and diasporic languages in the foreground of
cultural discourse.

NOTE

1. Although originally published in 1980 by Amulefi Publishing Company in Buffalo,

@vcentrlcity: Ths Theory of Soda1 Change was later nvised and published by Africa World
Press in 1988, It mpresentsone of the first book-lengthformulationsof Afrocentricity. I have
used thc revised edition.

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Asante, M. K. (1990). Kemct, Afrocentrtclty and knowledge. Trenton. NJ Africa World
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Asante, M,K,(1993). Mulcolm X as cultural hem and QtherAfrocentric essays. Trenton,
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Chinweizu, Jemie. 0.. & Mndubuike, I. (1983). Toward the decolonimtion of African
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Gates, H. L. Jr. (1988). The signifilng monkey: A theory of qfricun-American literary
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Gocldng, R. (1993). Afrocentricity: Implications for South Africa? Africa Insight, 23(1),
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Keto. C. T. (1991). Thc qfrica-centend perspective of history: An introducrion. Laurel
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Mphande. L (1992). Ideophones and african verse. Research in African Lireratuns, 23(1),
117-129.
Myers, L.J. (1988). Understandingan Afrocentric world view: Introduction to an optimal
psychology. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o. (1982). Devilon thd cross. Portsmouth, N l t Heinemnnn.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, (1986). Decolonizing thc mind: The politics of hguage in 4frict-m
literature. Portsmouth, NH: Ileinemann.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o. (1987). Matigad (Wanpi wa Goro, Trans.). Portsmouth, N H IIcinc-
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Ngugt waThiong'o. (1991). Moving the ccntn: Towards a pluralism of cultuns. Jaurnul of
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Ngugi wa ThlOg'O. (1993). Moving the centre: Thc struggle for cultural fnedoms.
Portsmouth, N H Heinemam.
Okur, N. A. (1993). Afrocentricity as a generative idea in the study of African American
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Joseph McLann, Ph.D.,IS M ussoclate pmfetsor of English ut Hofstra UnlverslQ

He hru written numeruus articles on B k k literatun und cultun. Ilisforthcoming
book, Langston Hughes: Folk Dramatist in the ProtestTradition, 1921-1943,will be
published by Gncnwood Press.