RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?

Ikhide,

 

You lament that folks do not know that Fanon wrote the statement “for the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white" and at the end of that paragraph you claim that Wretched of the Earth was a must read in the seventies. You could be read as suggesting therefore that those who did not know Fanon made that statement must not have read Wretched of the Earth.  But that quote is coming from page 10 of Black Skin White Mask, a book that remains Fanon’s most problematic. It is for good reasons that folks don’t know or care about the book that much. It is the most Eurocentric of Fanon’s works, too Freudian, and too reductionist in its racial optics. So, if those Nigerian youth were enraged, they should know they have never being alone. I am sure you agree with this also in that book:

 

“Out of the blackest part of my soul, across the zebra stripping of my mind, surges this desire to be suddenly white. I wish to be acknowledged not as a black but as a white. Now- this is a form of recognition that Hegel did not envisage - who but a white woman can do this for me?
By loving me she proves that I am worthy of white love. I am loved like a white man. I am a white man. Her love takes me onto the noble road that leads to total realization ....... I marry white culture, white beauty, white whiteness. When my restless hands caress those white breast, they grasp white civilization and dignity and make them mine".

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ikhide
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2010 1:57 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?

 

Ebe,

 

Listen to me very carefully. A good Nigerian friend of mine posted this quote by Frantz Fanon on Facebook: "However painful it may be for me to accept this conclusion, I am obliged to state it: for the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white." There were about 25 respondents, 95 percent of whom obviously did not know (a) who Fanon was, and (b) that he has been dead for some time now ;-) Many called him a white racist. Evidence? This is a quote, in response to the status posting, verbatim, by a Nigerian, educated in one of Nigeria's "fine institutions of learning.":  "Why does this white men came to our land and exploy our resourses?" Verbatim, sir, I kid you not. (BTW, "President" Goodluck Jonathan's English was that bad on Facebook until some of us started wailing, then things improved somewhat. You may now find those grammatical errors in a book that was recently "launched" with Soyinka, and some of our fine writers in attendance!). Someone in the Facebook group, distraught kept begging enraged Nigerian youths to please google Fanon before commenting further.  There you have it, that is what my generation, of misrulers and wine-swilling wanna be white intellectuals has done to children. The greatest crime on earth is to steal from the mouth of a child. My friends have been doing that without shame and compassion. In the seventies, if you had not read Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, you would probably not be allowed into a party ;-)

 

My focus is on why Nigeria is in such a mess, let everybody go worry about his or her own country jo. We know why it is in a mess. We also know that it is easier to do nothing about it than to well, do something about it. So back to Fanon. It is our destiny. We are waiting for the white man to come bail us out again, just as he bailed us out with cell phones, Facebook, etc, etc. Today, every house in Nigeria is a dysfunctional municipality unto itself, with walls surrounding each broken home. This is my prediction. Walmart is coming to Nigeria. Very soon. They will start selling self-governance kits on aisle 419. "Gofment in a box!" is what they will call it. You buy it, you pour water in it, and everything that you need to live free and happy away from the bastards in government will magically appear. - good education, roads, security, light, water, etcheteram etcheteram. For a modest fee of course. For a modest fee. Of course. My family in the village would pay gladly for the privilege of being white and comfortable. Because they see us, being white and comfortable ;-)

 

Like I keep saying, I am happy to waste my time with all of you, bullsh*tting. It is easier than working. Besides, we have said all of this before. All I need to do is go to the archives, cut and paste what we said last year, put my name on it and voila, I am an inttelectual. Nonsense. I said it. Sue me.

 

- Ikhide   

 

 

 

---

From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thu, December 23, 2010 12:40:16 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?

"So altough it does matter that there has been this general improvement in conditions; it is equally important and decisive that there is still mass missery and poverty, and that the gap between the rich and the poor has widened tremendously!"


Jaye,

For goodness sake, the Chinese have only been in the business of industrial capitalism for a few decades and you expect "mass misery and poverty" to be a thing of the past? This is a country of over a billion people and a country that until roughly two decades ago was a rustic habitat of peasantry. I know that Chinese economic ascent has been called a miracle but even that miracle has a limit and is still evolving and growing. Give it time please. The country is just emerging from a prolong period of closure and peasantry. transitions are always messy. Check history. At last you concede the great strides and "general improvements in conditions" going on in China. We in Africa could use some "general improvement in conditions." In fact we need it badly and we don't really care how it is delivered--through capitalism or some other economic model, through liberal democracy or some other political model. Let's hope and work towards the just order of "egalitarian equity" but let's not sleep in the meantime and abandon our people in poverty and destitution while other Third World nations' leaders make decisions and sacrifices that translate into massive dividends for their citizens.

 

 

On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 10:17 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

moses and jaye
i have been apprehensive about hogging too much the air space in my dialogue with moses, and jaye is making points along the lines of my thinking, so i will let his comments stand for mine, with my thanks. i am referring especially to the last three postings which cover china and nigeria.
moses, if there is really anything particular you want me to respond to without burdening the list with my thoughts, please send them to harrow@msu.edu.
otherwise i will jump in just when the bug bites me too hard
ken

On 12/23/10 8:05 AM, Jaye Gaskia wrote:

Perhaps it is also important that we put in historical perspective the origins
of the specific expression of capitalism in the scandinavia states, as well as
the origins of the welfare state in capitalism in general.

 It took a world wide chronic crisis of capitalism, producing two world wars and
provoking revolutions in Russia and parts of eastern europe [before the 2nd
world war&  the iron curtain], and the threat of socialist revolutions in
mainstream europe itself, for keynesianism, which hitherto had been on the
fringe of capitalist political and economic discourse to become accepted as
mainstream and become the basis of social engineering of the post world war 2
years, to mitigate the crisis of capitalism, and reduce the risk of revolution.
 And it succeeded, thanks largely to the opening up of the colonial possessions
for rapacious capitalist expansion and which helped to finance the welfare state
in europe.
 It is the structures laid down in that period to underpin restored capitalist
growth, improve conditions of living and stave off revolution that is still
holding Africa and much of the former colonial possessions captive till this
day.

 It is the internal resistance and manouvrings of new nationalist elites from the
former colonies within the sysytem that is generating the momentum for tinkering
with and restructuring, however minimally, the current global architecture of
capitalism; hence the gradual replacement and eventaul surplanting of the G7,
then G 8 by the G 20.
 Afterall the world's population has increased tremendously, and there are many
more 'countries' and states now than there were post war; so their is a little
bit more room at the apex of the capitalist pyramid to jostle. Like every
ecosystem, the capitalist system has its carrying capacity for successful,
dominant, and dominating countries and peoples.
 Regards,
Jaye Gaskia



----- Original Message ----
From: kenneth harrow<harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wed, December 22, 2010 11:17:35 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?

moses
maybe it is the case that the aspects of scandinavia which you admire are the
"socialist" aspects of their society. maybe your statement about embracing
capitalism, despite its flaws, because it will lead to the creation of wealth
for all, or almost all, ignores the possibility that the very poverty in africa
about which we are concerned has been created, not mitigated, by the capitalist
system that has held it in thrall, during colonial days, neocolonial days,
globalization days.
i am not an historian, so you can correct me here. i thought it generally the
case that the economic situation throughout much of africa has deteriorated
since independence. that when socialist models in tanzania or guinea were tried,
or at least when neocolonialism was resisted, the economic clout of the western
states was enough to subvert those efforts.
you keep referring to the failures of socialism as though there really had been
a state in which the proletariat had become the ruling class. no one believes
that.
no one on the left would defend the authoritarianism that told hold of states
that flourished the banner of socialism or communism. you are attacking a straw
dog, while touting those aspects of societies you admire that actually approach
more successfully ideals of an egalitarian distribution of wealth, which flies
in the face of capitalism, especially capitalism today.
you speak of progress as if it were evident. sorry, i would disagree. just
within my lifetime i have seen the great disparities of wealth appear in the
u.s.; have seen homeless appear in reagan and thatcher's day, where before they
were rare; have seen the continuing demise of the inner cities. while the rich
got richer.
maybe the 10% that hoard the wealth in many african states might be criticized
equally for following this model of accentuating disparities in wealth and
ignoring social services. that model is the neoliberal model of the imf.
it is up to us to resist it. we don't have to call for a socialist revolution to
do so; but when we advocate for a movement back to greater programs for the
disinherited, for less freedom for companies to generate profits for themselves,
we are taxed as advocating socialism.
so be it.

ken

On 12/22/10 4:04 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu wrote:

Capitalism is flawed in many ways, but its excesses and flaws and their impacts
on the poor can be mitigated while still harnessing its wealth-creating
potential. There is no contradiction here, just nuance that is grounded in a
quest for progress and the need to defeat or reduce extreme poverty.

-- kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu

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kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu

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