Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.

Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.

Many people do not know that Jesus did not speak Latin or English or Hebrew; he spoke Aramaic. But nobody knows that language. So we're talking about the Bible itself being a translation of a translation of a translation. And, in reality, it has affected people's lives in history.

We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.

Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.

It was a revelation for me, in a practical sense, that you could write in an African language and still reach an audience beyond that language through the art of translation.

I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power.