Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-148) and index.

Dismembering practices : planting European memory in America -- Re-m embering visions -- Memory, restoration, and African renaissance -- Fro m color to social consciousness : South Africa in the black imagination .

Novelist Ngäugäi wa Thiong'o has been a force in African literature for decades: Since the 1970s, when he gave up the English language to c ommit himself to writing in African languages, his foremost concern has been the critical importance of language to culture. Here, Ngugi explo res Africa's historical, economic, and cultural fragmentation by slaver y, colonialism, and globalization. Throughout this tragic history, a co nstant and irrepressible force was Europhonism: the replacement of nati ve names, languages, and identities with European ones. The result was the dismemberment of African memory. Seeking to remember language in or der to revitalize it, Ngugi's quest is for wholeness. Wide-ranging, eru dite, and hopeful, this book is a cri de coeur to save Africa's cultura l future.--From publisher description.