Description
“Ngeti’s elementary school teacher had instructed him that language determined the kind of reality he would inhabit. Ngeti could either choose to “see far” and to know the world as it was, or be compelled to sit in a circle (suggesting tautological information that goes nowhere in particular) with other “fools” for the rest of his life, literally recirculating their blind and uninformed opinions.” (Smith and Mwadime 2014: 48)
Drawing on Email from Ngeti, discuss how his declared “love” of English reflects broader questions of power and inequality. In your response, be sure to address the following questions: (1) How did English come to represent possibility or potential for Ngeti and those around him? (2) Can we understand Ngeti’s relationship to the English language as a form of dispossession, hope, or something else? Why? Compare this relationship between language and reality with at least one other assigned reading from the course.
Sample Solution
