Deriving Meaning

Language discourse in the early years after colonialism centred on meta-language – that is, can an intellectual discourse be truly African if it is done in a Western language? There is a common assumption that African educational systems would benefit more from the use of indigenous languages. The underlining idea is that language has intrinsic resourcefulness, and using indigenous language will help Africans grasp ideas directly. Therefore, this chapter discusses Michael Afolayan’s Fate of Our Mothers as a text riddled with variations of languages and highlights how the memoirist balances the Yoruba cultural mosaic of the different ways of life and translated some Yoruba words into English. It explores the nuances of language in the memoir, orality and socio-cultural identities, Yoruba life and its communitarian nature, and the search for meaning through the lens of language.