The performance of language has been a prominent subject matter in the past four readings. How we speak, sing, or utter anything from our mouths’ dictate power and subjectivity over ourselves. In Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire quotes, “Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning.” (Freire 77) Freire emphasizes that dialoguing and asking questions is the way to liberation. So, if the oppressed speak and begin to ask the questions against the oppressor change can occur.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, The Language of African Literature gives specific examples on how taken the language from a culture erases the voice of the culture. “Language as culture is thus mediating between me and my own self; between my own self and other selves; between me and nature. Language is mediating in my very being. And this brings us to the third aspect of language as culture.” (Thiong’o 44) This statement connects to Freire because if we take away the language of people we will no longer be able to tell the history of the people; which in return makes the people oppressed.

You can see the effects of losing language to a dominant language and how it harms the culture in Aimé Césaire, From Discourse on Colonialism. Ceasire, begins with the story of the Four Indian Kings. Their native names taken away and given traditional British names. Their stories told through British language; changing their history completely.

Lastly, Augusto Boal’s practice shapes language and how we use it. In his exercises found on chapter four’s Poetics of the Oppressed, many of his games or exercises are done silently. This helps us communicate with one another strictly through body language which is universal and non-hierarchal.