AFRICAN PANORAMA
PROFESSOR K. MOSES NAGBE DISCUSSES THE DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH IN LIBERIA
K-Moses Nagbe is an established contemporary African writer, having authored several novels, poems and articles. A professor of literature and communications, he has spent the most part of his career teaching creative writing at the University of Liberia . He currently lives in the United States , where he works as an adjunct professor in both Montgomery College and P.G. College in Maryland . In the summer of 2004, Ray Martin Toe had an interview with Professor Nagbe which was published in the old New Democrat website. The interview covers not only how Nagbe began his writing career, but also the factors that have underpinned the diffusion of the English language in Liberia .
In our drive to document and preserve comments, utterances and sayings of men and women of the professor Nagbe’s caliber, African panorama is pleased to publish the interview entitled. "Showing a Path to Laughter: A conversation with K-Moses Nagbe” for the benefit of our readers.
Toe: How did you become interested in writing?
Prof. Nagbe: I am a second generation college-educated Liberian; which means my father before me went to college. Therefore, our home was a home of books. The second source was my interaction with a number of Peace Corps volunteers who taught me in elementary and junior high school at the Sasstown Government School . I remember writing my first poem in ninth grade. My Peace Corps language teacher said it was good and she told me to continue writing.
Toe: What was it like growing up and learning English at school in rural Liberia ?
Prof. Nagbe: In all fairness, I had a home advantage. We spoke English at home. Equally so, we spoke Kru (African Kwa language). So for me, there was a double blessing. This means, I grew up being basically a bilingual.
Toe: The English language has been spoken in Liberia for nearly two centuries. What might you say is the status of the language in our country? In other words, is English a first language or a second language in Liberia ?
Prof. Nagbe: Such question evokes an answer of many parts, because it depends on who is looking at the English language issue. For example, a native speaker of English (i.e. an American or British) is likely to conclude that Africa is a non-native speaking continent of English. Liberia is part of the continent; therefore Liberia is a non-native speaking country of English. Yet, Liberia evolved out of an American slave experience. Former slaves who, by the time of their repatriation to Africa , knew no other language but English settled there. They settled in the place to later become Liberia . Even so a negligible few were highly educated. So there was a literate and illiterate use of the language. Then many of the native Africans they met who did not originally speak English became inevitable speakers of the language because they were interacting with them. This configuration has bred the local type of English, which may pass generally for the Liberian Pidgin English. I guess that does not thoroughly answer the question. All I can say for now, is technically there are some Liberians for whom English may be described as the first language. There are others for whom English is a second language. For the former, they have grown speaking English from the first day they knew how to speak. For the latter they began to speak it either in their pre-teens or early teens. In short, this language concept that I just explained can be understood within the context of monolingualism and bilingualism.
Toe: Your mention of the evolution of Liberia reminds me of the relationship that subsumed between the African-American settlers on the one hand and the indigenous Africans on the other hand. It is said that the relationship was one of colonial domination. How did the interaction between the dominant settlers and the dominated indigenes impact the diffusion of the English language in Liberia ?
Prof Nagbe: It impacted it by creating a social, economic and political blueprint of survival for the native Africans. That is to say, for social acceptance, for economic well being, and for political inclusion, native Africans were compelled to use English with acceptable felicity. In a sense, the native Africans had to know English in order to enter homes of this dominant group. They had to know English to work in offices. They had to know English to participate in national politics.
Toe: In other words, the native Africans (the dominated group) had to integrate into the dominant African-American culture. But it is also said that the African-American settlers created a social-psychological distance between themselves and the native Africans. How did that distance impact the effort of the latter to learn or acquire the language?
Prof Nagbe: By creating a system of delayed acquisition of the language. For instance, native African children ended up in the homes of the dominant group as servants. Here, the process of re-socialization and assimilation began – e.g. the changing of African names to western names, discontinuing local cultural habits, etc. The servants eventually began to go to church. They eventually began to go to school.
Toe: You’ve mentioned church. Did Christian missionaries play any significant role in the diffusion of English among indigenous Liberians?
Prof Nagbe: There is no doubt about it. After all, English was the missionaries’ basic medium through which they sought to bring Christianity to the land. Some built schools in addition to their churches. Some even built clinics. All of these ventures helped to facilitate learning and the use of English. Immediately, one should not lose sight of the two situations. On the one hand, the missionaries in a sense needed something from the natives – to become a part of the flock they were expanding. How well they succeeded in that mission justified their continued stay. On the other hand, the repatriated Africans rarely needed something from the native Africans. Had they their own settled will they would not have probably bothered with the native Africans. Why? Because they knew that quickly assimilating this group meant almost immediate power struggle, and the native Africans being of a larger population would have marginalized them or even subjugated them. They were coming from one slave system. Naturally, they had to detest or even cringe at the idea of falling into any other situation of subjugation. In short, the missionaries could not create a distance between themselves and the native Africans, but the repatriated had to create the distance.
Toe: Let’s now talk about your writings. Your first book entitled, We are One, was collection of short stories published in 1986, shortly after your return form the United States. How did you, a 26-year old Master’s degree holder, feel being a published author?
Prof Nagbe: Naturally, I felt good. But as I have always felt about knowledge, I was cautiously happy. You see, knowledge has so many part s to it. Therefore, one who has or believes he has a talent has to celebrate modestly as a sort of respect for those who also may have the capacity to create an interactive forum for expanding what has been created. In short, no one has monopoly on knowledge and therefore no one should needlessly boast of being the only producer of knowledge.
Toe: Obviously you started out writing at a fairly young age. Since then, you’ve been a prolific writer. One wonders about your energy. Where does that come from?
Prof Nagbe: Well, one can look at it in a number ways. Perhaps, I have this flow of inspiration I obtained while I moved from one book to another in my parents’ home, or in the rented homes of affable Peace Corps Volunteers in Sasstown. Something was taking form in my psychic without my conscious input. And as I grew, that egg got warmer and warmer, a birdie eventually cracked the shell. It too got warmer and warmer. It too took flight from its nest and has since then been flying in the sky of my mind. This means, it is the mere love for writing that has been driving me. Knowledge, to me, is a huge giant standing with legs apart, in and I have loved holding a leg and strolling round and round about it like a child fumbling the leg of a parent.
Toe: I understand it is passion that drives or keeps you going. But a westerner might ask: Are there any financial gains?
Prof Nagbe: This question should take us back to the answer of the previous question. Anyone who does a thing not primarily out of deep-seated love for it but for external benefit is likely to bring the leg to an immediate position of rest before he has had time to stretch and to stretch and take off. In a society where there is a high illiteracy rate, compounded by a mere survival economy, a writer rarely writes for money. So has it been in my case. One thing I do know, though – for my writings I have enjoyed the admiration and respect from a huge number of my compatriots.
Toe: What are your writings about? I mean the themes of your novels.
Prof Nagbe: In a larger sense, I am interested in social harmony. I like to watch my characters rise through contentious situations to the stage of joy and laughter. There may be minor offshoots, but the celebration of life in the midst of despair is integral to most of my writings. In our contemporary world rife with cruel manipulations, conflicts, war, death and destruction, I know no other significant healing theme.
Toe: How would you explain that to an outsider who may find such attitude cynical?
Prof Nagbe: Laughing comes in several forms, but the laughter and celebration I refer to should be interpreted within the context of spiritual acceptance. I don’t mean “spiritual” within the context of religious spirituality, because too often humans without scruples do manipulate others with that. Instead, I am using spirituality within the context of how the human chemistry absorbs inevitable heat or inevitable pain of inevitable despair and transforms it into a moment of celebratory reflection. The metaphor can be clarified within the context of what humans do with the sun to produce solar energy, a dam to produce electricity and the windmill to sometimes turn turbines. I we all can harness anger and its ego-driven motivations to produce love, to produce peace, harmony which has long left our world is capable of returning.
Toe: Can we speak of any Liberian writer as your mentor? In other words, which Liberian writers do you admire most?
Prof Nagbe: Such question is complex because any grown-up person irrespective of whatever profession he pursues becomes a sum total of both good and bad influences through which he wades to arrive at his professional destiny. Thus, he must not in good conscience set on the road of listing mentors. Of course, there several people I respect in the field of writing. I seem not to have answered your question. The truth is, I have none for now. This must not be seen as implicit arrogance. I must be seen as respect for social harmony. Whom do I name, whom do I leave out?
Toe: Probably, there aren’t many Liberian writers of fiction. With your rich experience in teaching literature and writing at the University of Liberia , what might you attribute that to?
Prof Nagbe: Several factors. I named too earlier. First, the audience. Second, less thriving economy that does not permit very many people to patronize products that seem to have no relevance to vital means of survival. Third, even the basic funding to help writers produce manuscripts may be unaffordable. Others naming the factors add language incompetence, but to my mind anyone who is sure of his audience and lives in a society of thriving economy, will strive significantly to perfect his language competence. But sometimes, let’s face it, the content of a piece of writing may compensate for the language. I have no doubt that even when an artist or an athlete is fainting, the huge cry of a supportive crowd can almost instantly infuse huge dosage of energy for better performance. I must hasten to add though that a critical body of literature has been produced by Liberians some of which is now coming to light and entering the international market. I’ll give you a few. Joseph Walters from Liberia wrote the first novel in English from Africa . It entitled Guanya Pau: A Story of an African Princess. That was in 1891. Charles Cooper (Varfilli Karlee) wrote a novel entitled Love in Ebony in 1932. Roland Tombekai Dempster wrote The Mystic Reformation of Gondolia in 1953. In the decade before that, he Dempster, H. Carey Thomas, Bai Tamia Moore and a few others published Echoes of the Valley, a collection of poems. That was in 1947. Those poets called themselves the Jungle Poets of Liberia. This was an important collection because for the first time, Liberians were beginning to experiment with forms other than conventional poetry. In a sense, that volume epitomized a radical literary movement. These poets have passed for our share of the Romantic poets known in England and America .
Toe: Since the publication of Bulk Challenge, you’ve been silent. What are your latest novels?
Prof Nagbe: There are certain things that sometimes drain mental energy; so that the mind and the body need a moment of reflection. It is like taking a car to the garage for servicing. The is not in disuse but it is being turned up. Lour war, the Liberian civil war, has drained energy out of most, if not all, Liberians. The war has drained energy out of me. As a writer, I must not sit down for the mere empty lamentation of the troubles that have passed in these many years. I must gather energy to help show the path of laughter and of celebration. That is what in my silence I have been contemplating and I have been weaving. Thank goodness I have a few more things going. I have got two more novels out. Sun at Midnight was published in 2003. The second novel, Wings for the Next Day, was in 2004. All published by AuthorHouse.com. The first centers on women dealing with self-identity and feminine power. The latter centers on war and the dehumanization of humanity.
