BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Many African and Ethiopian intellectuals and academics back in the 1960s and 1970s locked horns over whether Ethiopian writers and African writers by extension, should write in their respective languages or in English, French or Portuguese, that is to say in the languages of the former colonialists. The issue was highly divisive even if it engaged some of the brightest African minds of the post-colonial era. Writing in European languages was considered by some as a betrayal of the independence and cultural emancipation of Africans. It was a time when the memories of colonial oppression were still fresh in the minds of hundreds of millions of Africans who had just shook of the shackles of European cultural domination.
Although the debate was more vivid among prominent African writers and the literati in Europe, it was also an issue that divided Ethiopian men of letters and academics. Ethiopia has never been colonized in the conventional sense of the term by a European power. The Italian fascists stayed in the country for five years they spent defending themselves against the attacks of the patriotic forces that finally ejected them from the country. However, the post-WWII period had witnessed the modernization or Westernization of the Ethiopian educational system that led to lifting English to the status of a medium of instruction in schools and universities.
African writers who chose to write in one of the languages of the colonial powers argued by saying that their books could be bought and read in European metropolises where there was not only a high level of literacy but also because the book publishing industry was highly developed. On the contrary, these same intellectuals maintained that in Africa a high level of illiteracy prevailed, the purchasing power of the few educated Africans was very low and the publishing industry was non-existent or close to being insignificant. On balance, we can say that those African writers who chose to write in the European languages apparently won the day simply because they were educated in the European countries while their cultural and linguistic links to their native countries were weak.
On the other hand, those African writers who chose to write their works in the local languages were not only rare but also sooner or later changed their minds and started to write in European languages. This was mainly because they were threatened with poor sales and a small reading public where the book market was undeveloped or non-existent. Fame and fortune obviously could come to them if they wrote in their adopted languages to their adopting reading public with a relatively strong purchasing power, a well-founded publishing industry and a long history of reading culture.
When it comes to Ethiopia, the debate was less driven by an aversion of the colonial experience than by pride in the local language (i.e. Amharic) and local culture. The proponents of writing in the local language or languages were driven by a kind of linguistic and cultural pride, maintaining that Ethiopia had a very well developed culture and its own script when the so-called European colonial powers were non-existent and their societies were still living in caves and forests.
Writing in English was thus considered an insult to Ethiopian national pride whose foundation was the national language that has its own well-structure alphabets. Also, memories of the military victory against Italian colonialists at Adwa and during the last world war were still fresh in the collective memories of Ethiopian elites and the public at large.
The proponents of writing in English were in the minority although the adoption of English as a medium of instruction in Ethiopian schools and colleges apparently helped them promote their cause. The debate however turned in favor of those who advocated writing their original works in Amharic and then, if possible, translating them in one the European languages and mainly into English which was just becoming a global lingua franca by virtue of Britain’s centuries-old colonial and cultural domination.
Among the Ethiopian writers who fiercely defended this line of argument, i.e. writing in the national language, was Mengistu Lemma, the best poet and playwright of his generation who, from the pulpits of the university college as well as in his many articles to newspapers defended his standpoint from the point of view of Ethiopian patriotic and/or cultural pride. Some of Mengistu lemma’s writings were translated into English by the author himself who had a good command of the language as he studied in Britain in his younger years.
The debate was subsequently laid to rest only to flare up from time to time as the new local literati who came of literary age or returned from the West after long years of education encouraged Ethiopian writers to write in English in order to reach a greater number of readers and popularize Ethiopia’s cultural heritages to the outside world. Solomon Deressa, who later became one of the most prominent Ethiopian poets living in the West and Poet Laureate Tsegaye G/Medhin who also studied theaters in London tried to write some of their poems in English although they could not reach a wider reading public because their works were eclipsed by abler African writers who had already established themselves even during the colonial times.
The two writers left behind a number of poems written in English. However, they did not enjoy public reception in the West as they could not compete with more popular and established writers. Other African writers and Nigerian poet and playwright Wole Soyinka were lucky enough to be published in the West. In the case of Soyinka, he became the first African poet and playwright to be honored with a Nobel Prize.
The debate went on and off and there were occasional flare ups in local and international media as to the merits and disadvantages of writing in local or foreign languages. More recently, prominent Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Tyongo came up in defense of writing in the local Gikuyu instead of using English as his first language of choice. A typical example is the story of his biggest novel, i.e. Wizard of the Crow, which was originally written in Gikuyu and then translated into English by the author himself. Ngugi has always been an ardent defender of writing in African languages instead of using English or French as a language of choice. Wa Tiongo is of course an African writer of the post-colonial period and he had strong ideological reasons to take that line and still continues to maintain it.
In the context of Ethiopia, writing novels and poems in English has been left to the few authors who tried to use the language to produce works that deal with domestic political and social issues. In the mean time a number of able writers who had a good command of English have produced a number of novels. Abe Gubegna (The Savage Girl) is one of them, followed by the likes of Sahele Sellassie Berhane Mariam (Warrior King, Firebrands). English language and literature has recently been recognized as a minority language and given as a post-graduate course at local universities mainly at the Addis Ababa University. Some of the books in English written by Ethiopian authors are also on the teaching curriculum.
Ethiopians living in the Diaspora were more successful in using English as a medium of writing their fictional works. New and upcoming writers like Dinaw Mengistu and Maaza Mengiste have written award-winning novels that have become bestsellers in the United States. These writers are members of the new generation of Ethiopian authors who were born and lived in the United States while they are writing about Ethiopian experiences. Dinaw is writing about the Ethiopian Diaspora experience in the US while Meheret Mengiste’s latest novel (The Shadow King) deals with the role of Ethiopian women during the anti-fascist resistance after Ethiopia was invaded by fascist troops.
The debate that span over many decades now seems something passé as the advantages of writing in English have become obvious and English has virtually become the language of global culture. It is also obvious that English or French could be used as mediums of writing in order to acquaint Ethiopian history, culture and politics to the international reading public. Many more Ethiopian writers will certainly continue to write in one of the foreign languages or translate local works in order to convey Ethiopian themes to the international audience and put the country on the global literary map.
The globalization of culture and even literature seem to have given a provisional answer to the above-indicated dilemma. Writers all over the world are apparently required to write in the “language humanity can understand” by creating conditions for the synthesis of cultures and literatures. Technology is making us global writers and readers whenever we open a blog page or read a soft copy of an old literary classic. The message seems to be the following: write in any language you like and rest assured that you will be read anywhere in the world although you may not become reach even if you keep on sweating at your table for many more years.
The Ethiopian Herald February 20/2021
