What does it mean to “decolonise the mind”?

In this episode, we explore Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s influential book Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature — a work that continues to shape conversations about culture, identity, and creative expression across the continent.

Building on our previous episode on Axelle Kabou’s What if Africa Was Refusing to Develop?, we shift the lens inward. While Kabou interrogated Africa’s resistance to structural transformation, Ngũgĩ invites us to examine the deeper terrain of thought — the languages we use, the stories we tell, and the mental perspectives shaped by colonial education.

We revisit Ngũgĩ’s journey from writing in English to embracing Gikuyu as an act of artistic and political liberation, and reflect on why, despite his global stature, his work has not always been widely read within Africa itself.

Tune in as we unpack the four pillars of Decolonising the Mind, explore the politics of language in theatre, fiction, and everyday life, and consider why these questions remain urgently relevant today.

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00:00 Intro

01:23 Book Intro and background

03:17 The Author

08:05 The main themes

08:46 The Language of African Literature 

22:56 The Language of African Theatre 

30:58 The Quest for Relevance

37:55 Outro