Language Influence On Language And Language
THE INFLUENCE OF AFRICAN WRITERS ON IDENTITY AND LANGUAGE
ABSTRACT
Language plays a great role in developing and shaping a society and its culture. Language defines a community. It brings into focus the identity of a person and the culture he belongs to. Language also acts as a kind of communication and it depicts and carries the culture of the people of a community. It creates a bonding between the people of a community, and becomes a part of who they are. Language shapes and creates a notion of how to look at the world and themselves. The African-American literature consists of works on the African American people and their culture. And in it we can see the influence of African language in shaping the identity of African people. The seminar paper will show how African writers like Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Frantz Fanon prefers writing in their own mother tongue and not in the old colonial languages of the colonial powers. According to these African writers, literature represents people’s struggle for liberation from their colonial subjects. For a better understanding, the paper will examine the works of the African writers like Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and others. In their work, we will see the power of language and how language is central to a community or a culture’s definition of themselves in relation to a more natural and social environment.
Keywords: African writers, language, identity, influence
ARTICLE
When we address the issue of language in
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