Ngugi and the Purpose of Literature

In the essay, “On the Abolition of the English Department,” Ngugi expresses his opinion of the purposes of reading and studying literature, more specifically, African literature. His essay is directed towards his fellow Kenyans, and he questions the English Department that the university has now, arguing that a new department with African literature at the center should replace it.

So what does Ngugi think that the purpose of literature is? He believes that “[t]he primary duty of any literature department is to illuminate the spirit animating a people, to show how it meets new challenges, and to investigate possible areas of development and involvement” (NA 2094). For Ngugi, literature is a window to finding identity, particularly cultural identity. Studying African literature is a way to support the culture that one has come from, a way to understand culture and a group of people, a way to face the future.

Ngugi thinks that studying African literature can be a tool for understanding the nation of Africa (NA 2096). What better way to learn about your own nation, its history, its development, and its culture than to read the works of your own people? Understanding can happen more easily when reading works that have endured the history of your nation, and are the very roots of your nation.

I really like Ngugi’s argument that literature is a means of liberation (NA 2095). It offers a “multi-disciplinary outlook,” while enabling the students who study it to learn and see “fresh approaches” to new and different art forms (NA 2095). Literature allows “the student to be familiar with art forms different in kind and historical development from Western literary forms,” therefore broadening the scope of the student (NA 2095) from just the European literary forms to the African art forms as well. Through this, literature becomes a type of forward thinking, and a way to focus on the future.