His literary work has made the Kenyan cultural scholar and writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature for many years. In his essay collection "Decolonizing the Mind," he analyzes the intellectual consequences of European colonialism, the suppression of African languages, and thus the destruction of cultures. Even after the end of colonial rule was achieved, European cultural dominance persisted. Europe's languages, its thinking, and its perspective on history and the present continue to influence African self-understanding to this day. Through Ngugi's essays, it becomes clear that African languages are an essential means of liberation from colonial systems of power and thought. For language forms the foundation.