Holding Back

• Daily

I remember, historically speaking, a time when there was no state because I grew up in a society where literally there wasn’t a state, at least in its centralized, coercive form.

The state embodies a static concept. When controlled by a class, it is an instrument for holding back society—holding back creativity, art, movement, change, renewal.

—Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kikuyu author