National Symposium on Ngũgĩ’s Legacy in Language, Liberation, and Literary Decolonization

The University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) hosted a national symposium titled “La Luta Literária: Ngũgĩ and the Battle for Language and Liberation” on Thursday, July 31, 2025. The event was organised by the department of English and Humanities (DEH) and brought together over a hundred acclaimed academics, writers, and public intellectuals to engage with the literary and political contributions of Kenyan writer and scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, with a focus on the themes of language, identity, and liberation in postcolonial contexts.

The symposium was inaugurated by Prof. Imran Rahman, Vice Chancellor of ULAB, alongside opening addresses from Prof. Kaiser Haq, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities, ULAB, and Prof. Shamsad Mortuza, Special Advisor to ULAB’s Board of Trustees. They focused on the urgency of revisiting Ngũgĩ’s insights on decolonising the mind in today’s global South. Prof. Mortuza also noted, “Ngũgĩ is a reminder that liberal arts is essential to the shaping of a free and self-aware society”.

The keynote speech, “Personal Encounters with Ngũgĩ: Emancipatory Theory, Creative Imagination, and Conversations That Transformed Me,” was delivered by Prof. Azfar Hussain, Summer Distinguished Professor at ULAB and Director, Graduate Program in Social Innovation, Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA. Prof. Hussain reflected on the transformative influence of Ngũgĩ’s work on his own intellectual journey. He gave an insight on his personal connection with Ngũgĩ and he also mentioned, “one cannot read Ngũgĩ’s work in totality, adequately and meaningfully, without paying attention to the foresights such as labour, land, language, and the body”, pointing out the varied nature of Ngũgĩ’s vision. His session was chaired by Prof. Kaiser Haq.

In the first featured talk, “The Colonial Politics of Language, Education, and Historiography: Ngũgĩ’s Thoughts and Decolonizing the ‘Postcolonial’ Countries,” Mr. Nurul Kabir, Chief Editor of New Age, critiqued the subtle colonial structures in the education and political systems of Bangladesh. “Colonialism is not only in language, historiography, and education. It is in the whole political thought,” he stated, as he drew attention to the independence, culture, and the political situation in Bangladesh. The session was chaired by Ms. Tina Nandi, Independent Researcher and part-time faculty, Department of English and Humanities, ULAB.

The first panel, “On Ngũgĩ: Language, Liberation, and the New Linguistics World,” chaired by Dr. Abdullah Al Mahmud, featured scholarly insights from Prof. Asifa Sultana from BRAC University, Dr. Mohammad Shamsuzzaman from North South University, and Dr. Abu Saleh Mohammad Rafi from ULAB. Discussions focused on the ideological and pedagogical implications of Ngũgĩ’s call to write in indigenous languages.

The second featured session by Prof. Mahmud Hasan Khan of ULAB was titled “‘Language’ and ‘Being’: The Relevance of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Heidegger in Ethnomethodology.” Chaired by Dr. Asifa Sultana, the presentation brought together philosophy and postcolonial theory to interrogate language as both a political and existential tool. Reflecting on linguistic justice, he remarked, “If we want to accommodate mother tongues in the name of translanguaging, that research has to expand their language base, exactly the way it was imagined by Ngũgĩ in the context of Africa.”

The day concluded with a panel discussion on “Ngũgĩ and the Global South: The Politics of Literary Continuance,” chaired by Prof. Khaliquzzaman Elias, formerly of Jahangirnagar University and North South University. Prof. Elias stated that, “To bring out creativity, to have an educated human soul, mother tongue is essential”. The panel also included Prof. Firdous Azim, Chair, Department of English and Humanities, BRAC University, who offered a feminist take on Ngũgĩ’s work; Prof. Shamsad Mortuza of Dhaka University, and Dr. Sarker Hasan Al Zayed, Associate Professor, IUB, who explored Ngũgĩ’s enduring significance to resistance literature and cultural survival in the Global South.

The recordings of the speeches have been uploaded to the department’s YouTube channel.