THE LINGUISTIC STRATEGY OF AFRICA IN CULTURAL COLONIAL INTROSPECTION

NGUGI: LINGUISTIC STRATEGY IN AGE OF ANTI-COLONIZATION

恩古吉：去殖民化时代的语言策略

BY:聂品格 | TRANS: 伊娃 | REV：梅重九

ORIGINAL VERSION SEE:LITERARY AND ART THEORY AND CRITICISM,ISSUE 4,2024

• ORIGINAL TITLE: ARGUMENTS ON GLOBAL POETIC THEORY AND THE WORLD LITERATURE AS METHOD :DIALECTICS OF THE “WORLD” AND “GLOBE”
• AN FORMAL DECLARATION: THE VIEW PRESENTED IN THE ARTICLE DO NOT REPRESENT OUR STANCE

ABSTRACT: Tension between the “world” and “global”constitutes the world literary theory’s origin and developing special historical context of the time and space,but the theoretical isomorph between the two hasn’t been valued enough. Ngugi’s “ global theory of poetry”takes the world literature as the method of which rethinks and recognizes the world and rebuilds the world order and the contemporary system, heals the gap between the metaphysical world in the western world (literary) theoretical tradition and physical global (reality). Ngugi’s world literary thought originated from the argument of Nariobi in the end of 1960,it rethought of the world literary order, which was developed into the theory of “the shifting center” in 1990, provides a substitution method for the rebuilding of the world order; although the theory about“ the embryology of the world”created by Xie Yongping, is not in lack of critical consciousness, the stubborn disease remains still over the reality.The “global theory of poetry” points to the present, which has a guiding significance to the reality in practice of abolishing the colonial practice.

摘要：“世界”与“全球”之间的张力构成了世界文学理论的滥觞与发展的独特历史时空语境，然而二者的理论同构性尚未得到充分重视。恩古吉“全球诗学”将世界文学作为重新思考、认识世界以及重建当代世界秩序和体制的方法，弥合了西方世界文学理论传统中形而上的世界（文学）与形而下的全球（现实）之间的裂隙。恩古吉的世界文学思想发轫于20世纪60年代末的内罗毕之辩，对世界文学秩序进行再思考，90年代发展为“移动中心”理论，为重构世界秩序提供了替代性方案；谢永坪的“世界生成”理论虽不乏批判意识，但凌空于现实之上的痼疾仍在。“全球诗学”指向当下，对去殖民实践具有现实指导意义。

THE KEY WORDS: NGUGI; THE GLOBAL THEORY OF POETRY; THE WORLD LITERATURE

PRELUDE

引言

In 1998, the American historical scholar Bruce Mazlish compared the difference of semantics between the world and global, indicates that the distinguishing of the semantics between the “world” and “globe” in English, relies on the distinction of space layers, supposes that, the “globe” puts more emphasis on the stereoscopic perspective inspection, namely to highlight the feeling of space when overlooking the earth from the outer space. Relative to the feeling of space, a dimension of “human”is added to the “world”, namely what the “world”means is “the existence of human”; its center is the earth, including everyone and everything in the world. Additionally, the “world “ can also be imagined, for example, “ the next world”, indicating the posthumous life, also can it refer to the generation——e.g. the scholar circle. The “world”can be constructed too, for example, the first world, the second world and the third world. Based on this, the domestic scholars start from the historical discipline, think that from a viewpoint of semantics, it is not too severe to regard the “global history” as a equivalence of the “world history”, the Kenya writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o created a new word “globalectic”,interpreted the intersection and difference between the world and globe from a perspective of literature. As a classical writer of criticizing age in Africa literary history,and a writer of transition over the theoretical age, in Ngugi’s literary and art thoughts and theoretical criticism , the “globalectic” is one of the important concepts, to which is gradually paid attention by the domestic scholars,and his special building of the literary theory of the world and the relevant practice, is also one of the topics that embedded in the research of the African literature and the world literature. However, in the problematic conscious frame presented by the western post-colonial vocabulary such as destruction, subversion,embezzlement, parody,heterogeneity, inversion writing,and under the logic of the “ problematic colony”that derives from that, the theoretical potentiality of the literary and art thought of Ngugi and the ideological dynamic energy of the utterance of anti-colonialism among it are veiled, the internal embryological logic and running mechanism of the theory as such, the writer’s theoretical construction and the political connotation and implication behind the literary practice, are also not clear.

1998年，美国历史学者布鲁斯·麦兹利斯（Bruce Mazlish）从词源学的角度对比了“世界”和“全球”的词义差异，指出英文中“世界”和“全球”的词义区别在于空间层次的区分，认为“全球”更侧重于从空间的立体的视角考察，即突出从太空中俯视地球的空间感。相比空间感，“世界”多了一个“人”的维度，即“世界”意为“人类的存在”；其中心指地球，包括地球上的每个人和万物。另外，“世界”也可以是想象出来的，比如“下一个世界”，意指死后的生活，也可以指代一类人——比如学术界。“世界”还可能是建构出来的，譬如第一世界、第二世界和第三世界。1基于此，国内学者从历史学科出发，认为从词义角度来看，在“全球史”和“世界史”之间简单画等号并不十分严谨。2肯尼亚作家恩古吉·瓦·提安哥（Ngugi wa Thiong’o）则从词义角度创造了一个新词“globalectics”，从文学角度阐释“世界”和“全球”的交叉和不同。作为非洲文学史上“批评时代”的经典作家和“理论时代”的过渡作家，3恩古吉的文艺思想和批评理论——“globalectics”则是其中的重要概念之一——渐为国内学者关注，而他构建别样世界文学理论的论说及相关实践，也是内嵌于非洲文学和世界文学研究的议题之一。然而，在“解构”“颠覆”“挪用”“戏仿”“异化”“逆写”等西方后殖民批评语汇所表征的问题意识框架内，以及由此而来的“问题殖民”4的逻辑下，恩古吉文艺思想的理论潜能和其中反殖民话语的思想动能被遮蔽了，理论本身内在的发生逻辑和运行机制，以及作家理论构建与文学实践背后的政治内涵和隐含意图亦难彰显。

In Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing（2012), Ngugi deliberately created “globalectics” which is of rather ambiguity.According to the etymology, “globalectics” can be deconstructed into “global” and “poetics”, or “global “ and “dialectics”. The key point of why this word causes debates and ambiguity, is ultimately whether the author is stressing the “poetics”or “dialectics” .Ngugi briefly interprets that: “both of them ”.In other words, “globalectics” is just indicating the world literature that as a literary text, and as a method too .( namely a global dialectics) suppose that the western world literary view started from the Goethe , is a forecast of teleology, a certain purpose which signifies the future, then the world literature of Ngugi is just indicating the current methodology, and taking the Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe as elements of the world, to observe and recognize the world through multiple centers ,namely to take the world literature as a method.

在《全球诗学：认知的理论与政治》（Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing, 2012）中，恩古吉有意创造了极具歧义的“globalectics”。根据词源，“globalectics”可拆解为“global”加“poetics”，或“global”加“dialectics”。该词引起歧义和争论的关键，在于作者究竟强调“poetics”，还是侧重“dialectics”。恩古吉一言以蔽之：“两者都是。”5换言之，“globalectics”既指向作为文学本体的世界文学，也指作为方法（即一种“全球”辩证法）的世界文学。如果说始于歌德的西方世界文学观念，是一种目的论的预测、一种指向未来的目标，6那么恩古吉的世界文学则是指向当下（去殖民运动）的方法论，将非洲、亚洲、拉丁美洲、欧洲作为世界的构成要素之一，透过多个中心观察和认识世界，即将世界文学作为方法。

01

THE WORLD LITERATURE AS MAJORITY IN AFRICA

非洲作为主体的世界文学

In September 20,1968, Nairobi University held the 42nd board meeting of literary institution, Ngugi, as an acting director of the English department, submitted a report titled with “About the Abolishing of the English Department”. This reform of the literary institution promoted a thought module of re-introspecting the education institution in English speaking countries at areas of Africa, western Africa and Caribbean. The premise of reform is that, the relation between Africa and Europe is not naturally like what it presents now, but the hierarchy constructed by human. Ngugi tried to create a new method of consideration of Africa, so as to re-introspect the relation between Africa and Europe, replace the status of the European knowledge, and manner of comprehension in literary institution of African University. This reform provided a challenge to the method of main stream ideology, and the thinking of the “special manner”of Africa out of the definite example.

1968年9月20日，内罗毕大学召开文学院董事会第42次会议，作为英语系代理主任的恩古吉提交了题为“关于废除英语系”的报告。本次文学院改革在东非、西非和加勒比地区的英语国家，都催生了一个重新审视教育机构的思考模式。改革的前提是，非洲和欧洲之间的联系并非天然如此，而是人为建构的等级秩序。恩古吉试图创新思考非洲的方式，以重审非洲与欧洲的关系，重置欧洲的知识、理解方式在非洲大学文学系的地位。本次改革提供了挑战主流思想的方法，以及在既定范式外思考非洲的“别样方式”。7

Ngugi supposes in his report, that the literary institution should stand on the local language and cultural practice of Kenya even in Africa. This claim has a close relation with the de-colonization movement under the global context, stimulated English majors in post-colony to rethink of the discipline practice. Students Diana Brydon ,and so on, precisely identified the close relation of the Nairobi literary reform proposal with the de-colonization movement that swept through the whole world. In other words, Ngugi’s literary reform directly pointed to the de-colonization movement at that time. For deeply analyzing the inner relation between the two, we need to re-visit the text of that report “ About the Abolishing of the English Department”.

恩古吉在报告中提出，文学院改革应立足肯尼亚甚至非洲的在地语言和文化实践，这一呼吁与全球语境下的去殖民运动密切相关，激发了后殖民地英语专业学生对学科实践的反思。8黛安娜·布赖登（Diana Brydon）等学者准确指认了内罗毕文学改革提案与全球如火如荼的去殖民运动的密切联系。换言之，恩古吉的文学改革直指彼时的去殖民运动。为深入分析二者的内在关联，需重访“关于废除英语系”报告的文本。

The report includes twelve detailed rules of reform: A.the attribution of the document is the reform of the course setting of the literary institution; B. The future development in the literary institution and its relation with English department; C. The value ,development orientation and location of literary institution,and so on; D. A query about the role that the English department has played in Africa, and its status.E.The basic premise of the reform: must thoroughly re-estimate a certain stubborn view, which means the British tradition and the emergence of the modern west is the core origin of the African consciousness and cultural legacy, the Africa is the extension of the west; F Take the Africa as the main body, and the African literature as center, so as to observe other culture; G.Place Kenya, East Africa, and Africa on the center, and the literature of Caribbean and African-American as complements; H.based on points mentioned above, propose the abolishing of the English department, for which the literature system with African language as a substitution. H. The European literature, Asian literature, and the literature with African language develop collaboratively ; I. Besides the language of Swahili, French, and English, other languages such as Arabic,Hindi, Kikuku,Luo, and Acambar language,and so on, all should be taken as the electives listed in the syllabus; J. In respects of literary course, set up the verbal literature, literature with Swahili language( and the Arabic and Asian literature),the European literature elective,and the modern Africa literature:namely the poetry and novels created by African with English and French; K.Value the research of the verbal tradition .

报告包含12条改革细则：（一）文件的性质是对文学院课程设置的改革；（二）文学院内部的未来发展及其与英语系的关系；（三）文学院的价值、发展方向和定位等问题；（四）对英语系在非洲所起作用、所处地位的质疑；（五）改革的基本前提：必须彻底重估一种根深蒂固的观念，即英国传统和现代西方的出现是非洲人意识和文化遗产的核心根源，非洲成为西方的延伸；（六）将非洲作为主体，将非洲文学视为中心，以便于观察其他文化；（七）将肯尼亚、东非、非洲置于中心位置，旁及加勒比和非裔美国文学；（八）基于以上七点，提出废除英语系，代之以非洲语言文学系；（九）欧洲文学、亚洲文学和非洲语言文学协同发展；（十）除斯瓦希里语、法语和英语外，其他语言如阿拉伯语、印度语、吉库尤语、卢奥语、阿坎巴语等，都应作为选修课列入教学大纲；（十一）在文学课程方面，设置口头文学、斯瓦希里语文学（以及阿拉伯和亚洲文学）、欧洲文学选修课，以及现代非洲文学——即非洲人用英语、法语等创作的诗歌和小说；（十二）重视口头传统的研究。9

Obviously,what Ngugi means is to underline the major status of the African language and culture, at the same time referring to the development of the languages and culture of the other areas in the literary institution. Ngugi and his colleagues have ever manifested that , the verbal literature is a genre deserves to be researched, however, it rather hasn’t got it’s approval in the literary institution. The absence of the verbal literature, conceals a certain presumption of colonialism,namely “whatever we are dealing with, the history or the literature, it will not exist until it is written.” The course reform ,is the powerful contradiction against that discourse,also is it the direct respond to the colonial experience, and the re-discovering of the former writer of colony. Hence, the report “About the Abolishing of the English Department” reminds us of which, there is a demand for regarding the experience of colony as a sort of general phenomenon, to establish an intercommunity of the anti-colonization revolutionary literature in the group of the former colonial writers, so as to carry out the de-colonization movement.

由此可见，恩古吉意在强调非洲语言和文化的主体地位，同时旁及其他地区的语言和文化在文学院的发展。恩古吉及其同事曾表示，口头文学是值得研究的文学体裁，在文学院却未获认可。口头文学的缺位，隐匿着某种殖民主义假设，即“无论我们处理的是历史还是文学，未落笔成文，即不存在”10。课程改革即是对此论调的有力反拨，也是对殖民经验的直接回应、对所有前殖民地作家的再发现。因此，“关于废除英语系”报告提示我们，有必要将殖民经验视为一种普遍现象，在前殖民地作家群体中建立反殖民革命文学的相通性，以合力开展去殖民运动。

The complication of course arrangement of the literary institution, is rooted in the complexity of the power relation during the colonization period, the colonial education centered on the UK( the English literature) becomes the important path and content of Ngugi’s construction of the imagination of the “world”. In terms of his reminiscence, the first English lesson was to visit an authentic manor of England . Although the language culture touched and learned in the colonic school split away from “my” daily life and the productive experience , what “I” have seen and heard from the manor of England is so far newly as being experienced just now.In other words, this “world” centered on UK shaped “my” imagination of the “world”. Based on this imagination of the “world”, Ngugi’s cognition of the literature mostly remains in the literature of England, and a unconscious acceptance of and influence from the map of the “world” centered on UK, constructed by his English teacher of literature. Ngugi always takes the Bible designated by the king James as a criteria, in his letter to the classmate of the high school Kenneth, he stressed one more time of the Bible’s classic attribution showed in grammar being of English, and rather be proud of his understanding the Bible with English version: “ please send to me more things wrote by you... but no using big words. It’s best for learning how to use English,through re-reading the Bible.” While on the other hand, Ngugi had ever refuted the teacher of English literature in the class,precisely pointed out that “ Jesus doesn’t speak English, whereas the Bible is translated in English.”It’s no doubt that he started to question the world centered on UK, namely he had early been aware of a fact that the world is not only the English world.

文学院课程设置的复杂性，根本源于殖民时期权力关系的复杂性，其间以英国（英语文学）为中心的殖民教育成为恩古吉构建“世界”想象的重要途径和内容。据他回忆，第一节英语课就是参观一座地道的英国庄园。11尽管在殖民学校接触、学习的语言文化脱离“我的”日常生活和生产经验，“我”在英国庄园的所见所闻仍记忆犹新。换言之，这个以英国为中心的“世界”塑造了“我”有关“世界”的想象。基于对此“世界”的想象，恩古吉对文学的认识也多停留于英国文学，潜移默化地接受英国文学教师为他建构的、以英国为中心的“世界”地图。恩古吉一直将詹姆斯王钦定本《圣经》奉为圭臬，在给高中同学肯尼思（Kenneth）的回信中，一再强调英文版《圣经》文法的经典性，且因自己通晓《圣经》英语而洋洋得意：“再给我寄些你写的东西来……但别用大词。重读《圣经》，瞧瞧如何用英文最好。”12但另一方面，恩古吉曾当堂反驳英国文学课教师，明确指出“耶稣不说英文啊，《圣经》是翻译成英文的”13。可见，他开始质疑以英国为中心的“世界”，即意识到“世界”不只有英国。

Ngugi’s reform of the course in the literary institution: which shows his focusing on understanding of the constitution of what is so called “the world literature”, benefited from his re-thinking of the “world”. The rethinking of the world , is the important theme of literature and scholarly ideological development in 1967 when Ngugi came back to Kenya . During the period of learning in Makerere University(1960-1964), Ngugi also touched the literature of Africa, India and Caribbean, except the elective of the English literary classic, that was his first meeting with the “new literature” of Africa and Caribbean, of which many years later, “still being a new impression on him ,that occupied with an exciting emotion in perceiving and recognizing the world out of the center Europe”.

恩古吉对文学院课程改革——其中凸显他对所谓“世界文学”构成的理解——的关注，得益于他对“世界”的重新思考。重新思考世界，是恩古吉1967年返回肯尼亚后文学、学术思想发展的重要主题。在马凯雷雷大学期间（1960—1964年），恩古吉除修习英国文学经典外，还接触了非洲、印度和加勒比的文学，这是他“与非洲和加勒比‘新文学’的首次相遇”，时隔多年，“从欧洲以外的中心认识和感知世界的激动心情，仍记忆犹新”。14

During this period, Ngugi’s inspiring of literary creating partly originated from optimistic emotion generated from the global society, culture and politic reform in 1950s-1960s. When being asked of where the courage of writing novel came from, he attributed to the global situation of that time: “ the Cuba revolution of 1954, the movement of workers from Caribbean and countries’ independence in areas of Caribbean, the Mao Mao movement of 1952, the independence of Ghana of 1957, and the Algeria war in 1960, the emancipation of Tanzania in 1962... societies at that time exploded into great power, bred the hope, we can change this society, an intrinsic change will happen in the future.” These historical factors constitutes the realistic basis about Ngugi’s imagination of the “ new world”.

这一时期，恩古吉文学创作的灵感部分源于20世纪五六十年代全球社会、文化、政治变革所产生的乐观情绪。当被问及大学生何来写小说的勇气时，他归之于彼时的全球形势：“1954年的古巴革命，加勒比工人运动和加勒比地区各国的独立，1952年的‘茅茅’运动，1957年的加纳独立，1960年的阿尔及利亚战争，1962年的坦桑尼亚独立……当时的社会爆发巨大能量，孕育了希望，我们可以改变这个社会，未来将发生根本性变化。”15这些历史因素构成了恩古吉有关“新世界”想象的现实基础。

During the period of learning in University of Leeds(1964-1967), Ngugi’s imagination of the “world” exceeded the England even the Europe. He deeply researched and compared works of Conard and George Lamming, thinks that what the former wrote is the colonial heterization, but chose to be the part of the empire, its mentality contradictory to the British imperialism originated from the loyalty to the empire, ignored the revolutionary dynamic energy concealed in one who was oppressed, his writing still started from which taking the empire as center. While Lamming was very precisely from another respect of the empire,which taking the anti-colonization and anti-imperialism as the core of creation. Ngugi saw from Lamming more potentialities of fighting and resistance, therefore, during his studying for a master’s degree, Lamming and Caribbean literature were taken as his object of research, in which the main task put the emphasis on the theme of exile and status in Lamming’s works.

在利兹大学期间（1964—1967年），恩古吉对“世界”的想象逸出了英国甚至欧洲。他深入研究、对比了康拉德和乔治·拉明（George Lamming）的作品，认为前者书写了殖民异化，但“选择成为帝国的一部分，对英帝国主义的矛盾心态源于对帝国的忠诚”16，忽视了被压迫者潜藏的革命动能，他的写作仍以帝国中心为起点。拉明则不同，他非常明确地以帝国的另一面——去殖民化与去帝国化——为中心展开创作。恩古吉在拉明身上看到了更多抵抗和斗争的可能性，因此在攻读硕士学位期间选择将拉明和加勒比文学作为研究对象，重点研究拉明作品中的流亡和身份主题。

In reading Lamming, he got insight into the genetic relation between the colonialism and capitalism, what is so called by him“ the contradiction of the western modernity began with its robbery and plunder from other nations”, whereas in age of Lamming, “ the capitalism has evolved into the imperialism of swallowing the whole world... the western modernism was evolving into the post-modernism, the colonialism was evolving into the post- colonialism. Hence, the modernism and post-modernism are all rooted in colonialism”. In other words, the colonialism and capitalism are all “derived from the same root”. As long as the capitalism exists, the colonialism will surely stand in different forms. More over, Lamming reminded people of the historical reality in 1950s that the western Indian workers, students and various intellectuals emigrated to Britain,which made the power relation between the colonist and the colonized more strikingly. These groups came from the different colonies of UK,whether from literal meaning or metaphoric meaning, were all “the locust from the same ship. As the community of anti-colonist or anti-imperialism, they together participated the progress of de-colonization.

在阅读拉明的过程中，他洞察了殖民主义与资本主义的基因关联，即他所谓“西方现代性的矛盾始于对其他民族的抢劫与掠夺”，而在拉明的时代，“资本主义已演化为吞噬全球的帝国主义……西方的现代性正演变为后现代性，殖民主义演变为后殖民主义。因此，现代、后现代都扎根于殖民主义”。17换言之，殖民主义和资本主义“本是同根生”，只要资本主义存在，殖民主义便以不同形式屹立不倒。此外，拉明提示了20世纪50年代西印度工人、学生和各类知识分子移民英国的历史现实，更加凸显殖民者与被殖民者之间的权力关系。18这些群体来自不同的英国殖民地，无论从字面义或隐喻义，都是“同一条绳上的蚂蚱”（They are all in the same ship literally and metaphorically）19。他们作为反殖民或反帝国共同体，共同参与了去殖民进程。

It is the creation of Caribbean literature represented by Lamming, enlarged Ngugi’s imagination of the world , the community of anti-colonialism in Lamming’s works, stresses the major status of Asia, Africa and Latin America in anti-colonization movement, the expression with subject attribution of the “third world”literature was thereby highlighted, and the base of Ngugi’s ideology of the course reform in Literary Institution in 1968 was constituted too. Something needs to be pointed out is ,that in reform of the course in literary institution, Ngugi hadn’t abolished the European literature for stressing the major status of the African language literature. Just as he reads in his report, “ the European literature is the first origin of the literature with modern African English, French and Portuguese, and the other important origin of the literature with Swahili language, Arabic and Asia; the African tradition ...constitutes the third and also the most important source. They all construct the realistic base on which we grow up,also are they our foundation from which to start out and walk towards the world culture. It’s no doubt, that , “abolishing of the English department” is not a call for the abolishing of the English literature, but requiring to change the name of the English Department into Literary Department, and then to re-organizing the courses, make the African literature and the literature it concerns come to be the main body, and the translation of the English and the other European literature reversed to be the periphery of the center, which is the starting of the Ngugi’s construction of the African world -literature with African experience as its main body.

正是以拉明为代表的加勒比文学创作，扩大了恩古吉对“世界”的想象，拉明作品中有关反殖民共同体——强调亚非拉在去殖民运动中的主体地位，由此突出“第三世界”文学的主体性——的表述，也构成了恩古吉1968年文学院课程改革的思想基础。需要指出的是，在文学院课程改革中，恩古吉未因强调非洲语言文学的主体地位而祛除欧洲文学。如他在报告中所言，“欧洲文学是现代非洲英语、法语和葡萄牙语文学的首要来源；斯瓦希里语、阿拉伯语和亚洲文学是另一重要来源；非洲传统……构成了第三个也是最重要的源泉。它们都构成了我们赖以成长的现实基础，也是我们走向世界的文化基础”20。可见，“关于废除英语系”并非呼吁废除英语文学，而是要求将英语系的名称改为文学系，并重组课程，使非洲文学及相关文学成为主体，英语和其他欧洲文学的翻译处于中心的外围，是恩古吉构建以非洲经验为主体的非洲-世界文学思想的发端。

The report questioned the methodological effect of knowledge organization on shaping the (post-）colonial subject. The document requires to re-arrange the cognition progress, especially to place the literature of Africa, Caribbean, African in foreign countries and Asia and the Latin-America in the center of the new order, and the European literature on the edge. Briefly, it demands to replace the center of the cognition world, substitute multiple centers for the past west center. During the reform of the course in Literary Institution, Ngugi to some degree split away from the world literary imagination centered on the English literature, “ with a new cognition of the literature of Africa, Asia, and Latin- America, came back to Kenya in 1967”. This report comprised of the European literature , literature of Swahili and Arabic and Asia, African language,can also be regarded as the origin of its world literary ideology.

报告质疑了知识的组织方式对于塑造（后）殖民主体的作用。文件要求对认识过程重新排序，尤其将非洲、加勒比、非裔及亚洲和拉美的文学置于新秩序的中心，将欧洲文学置于边缘。简言之，它要求置换认识世界的中心，将过去的西方中心置换为多中心。文学院课程改革时期，恩古吉一定程度上摆脱了以英国文学为中心的世界文学想象，“带着对非洲、亚洲和拉美文学的重新认识，于1967年回到了肯尼亚”21。这份囊括了欧洲文学、斯瓦希里语及阿拉伯语和亚洲文学、非洲语言文学的报告，亦可视为其世界文学思想的滥觞。