Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

..

 

 

"…the exchanges on the list have exposed more than his lies; they have opened the issues that your posting elucidates. i am not in a position to read abani's mind, or know anything about his life prior to coming to the u.s. but the effect of his extravagant claims is like those of the writers you describe who profit from the sympathies awakened by their stories". – Prof Kenneth Harrow

 

 

I propose that the above be adopted here as the core of Professor Harrow's position. Any other thing he says should be secondary. If Professor Harrow believes the above, I can only urge him to understand our umbrage and unwillingness to cut Mr Abani any slack, because, based on the above and the subject of our angst immensely profiting from such unearned "sympathies", he should be exposed far and wide! Letting him be or ignoring this and not taking it further is to soil our national history as a people. It is an attack on the conscience of the true writers and activists who suffered through pain in the hands of the state for their art or politics. Getting every institution and every person who has conferred any type of credibility on Abani's personal stories of torture claims to now examine the truth is public service in aid of truth and knowledge. That is where we are going and Abani better get ready!

 

 

…

 

 

 

 

 

From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 30 November 2011, 1:32
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

thanks for this, amatoritsero.
your story reminds me of the multiple requests for letters for asylum that are directed to me (for rwandan and burundian cases).
you can imagine the delicacy of the situation when the applicants' stories are not really credible, and when the means of ascertaining many of the facts impossible. we country specialists for amnesty are generally sympathetic, but also have to draw the line when the claims just don't square with the facts.
some might say, cut them slack.
so, me, too--i would want slack, not for abani, but for my airing my questions. most people take me to be defending him, which i am not doing. i began this whole brouhaha by stating that when i went to google to find out what he was talking about, i couldn't turn up anything, so i thought nothing more of it.
the exchanges on the list have exposed more than his lies; they have opened the issues that your posting elucidates. i am not in a position to read abani's mind, or know anything about his life prior to coming to the u.s. but the effect of his extravagant claims is like those of the writers you describe who profit from the sympathies awakened by their stories.
if you heard some of the refugee stories, you'd think the hutus were still committing genocide in rwanda.
abani's stories have the same effect, and that is what is at stake here. i appreciate your responding concretely, as well, to the questions i posed, about the possibility of his having spent jail time. maybe he needed those stories for himself, for his own construction of his sense of who he is? if you read the VIrgin of Flames you can see how his central character is obsessed with castration, an issue with extensive psychoanalytical repercussions. adichie spoke of the one story about africa that her roommate had; this is another story, and maybe it is for abani himself, not just to pump up his audiences' sympathies.
ken

On 11/29/11 10:42 AM, Amatoritsero Ede wrote:

Dear prof. Harrow,

Now I am knee deep in it! Got to elaborate. I understand your present realization of the certitude of a misrepresentation of personal history by the subject. I reffered to an earlier incredulity and doubt, a doubt which is still to be sniffed in the suggestion that perhaps the subject was incarcerated for a minor infraction, which he then enlarged for career benefits. That is still major doubt. I can assure I never heard of 15- year olds going to jail in Nigeria. A minor was sent to a juvenile correction center. Sometimes writers from the bad bad south get pressured to tell tales in the metropolis by the cultural industry due to stereotypes. I was PEN Canada writer in residence at Carleton from 2005-2006 under PEN Canada's writer-in-exile network. At a pen gala event opening the Toronto international festival, I was of course naked out by name tag as writer-in-exile. A lady at my table noted abs turns swiftly to me and demanded "ah! So what's your story." And thR lady next to her showed interest, looked at me expectantly. Now imagine the temptation. I worked with prof. Soyinka and others in Germany towards an anti-Abacha campaign, we had a ken saro-wiwa week etc etc. All that before I ever drey of canada and the phd. So all I had to say was that I was jailed, molested, nearly killed or killed but resurrected like Jesus on the their day. And I would be feted and given awards. I told the lady I had no story. I left nigeria as a student, came to Canada am had some problems unrelated to direct political persecution and approached PEN since as a member of PEN Nigeria I am automatically a member if PEN international, and PEN canada by default. They lost interest in me for the rest of the night! What happened I think us that Abani fell for it. He did not need the tales. He is a brilliant writer. But who has never been tempted? I was at that PEN meeting. But I resisted the temptation. When this matter came up on Krazitivity, which I moderate, my final position was leave the man alone. Who knows what drives each of us. But I can tell you for sure that man has never been to jail in his life.

Best regards

Amatoritsero

On Tuesday, 29 November 2011, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
> dear amatorisero
> thanks for your reply. i did not express doubts over the claims that abani had not been imprisoned for his writings. if you would please reread what i wrote you will see that. might he have been imprisoned at all, on any charge, and then decided to turn that experience into the full-blown stories he is now making up? why not? at this point to ask that question is not to doubt the statements by all those on the list that he had not experienced what he claimed. i am not denying his "armed robbery," simply trying to understand the basis for his having made it up. of course, he might never have seen the inside of a prison cell as well.
> there were people who knew him back then and who could easily state that he never went to prison. tess doesn't categorically say that because she was his teacher, not acquaintance.
> let me repeat, in my last postings i did not express incredulity that he could have lied; i expressed dismay that he has come to this point in his public statements. his claims about having been imprisoned for his writings, about the young boy and his penis being nailed, about fela, all have been refuted convincingly, and i have not defended him for making those claims.
> ken
>
>
>
> On 11/29/11 4:27 AM, Amatoritsero Ede wrote:
>
> Prof. Harrow,
> I did not want to wade into this. But you force my hand when you keep doubting. Perhaps you are trying to be politically correct. You do not believe the evidence of pius, emetulu, etc etc, and all the activists in here. Why not simply send an email to Akin Adesokan who was in jail, or Ogaga ifowodo who was also in jail - albeit not because of their writing. You must know these guys, sir. I am older than the subject you are discussing. I was in Nigeria during the time covered by his narrative. I have been a poet since the 80s. I lived in Nigeria till 1994. There is no way none of us fellow Nigerian writers/activists wont have heard of those incarcerations if they happened. One thing with Nigeria is that no matter the amount of repression there is an irrepressible watchdog press, a section of which goes underground every time there is crisis and reports everything. The pure and simple fact is that none of the tales took place.  Period. We might however say, well, leave the man alone. To each his own; that then is a different matter entirely. But your prevarications and incredulity that a writer of such a status could commit such a sleight of hand, is precisely what makes 419 scam effective. I wish you know how many people in the metropolis made a career out of Ken Saro-Wiwa's death; reclaiming the latter's torture and suffering as theirs to short circuit immigration obstacles, demand asylum, kindle affection from women, get ahead as a writer etc etc. I do not want to go into this elaborately because sincerely it is embarrassing for me too. I feel i am made complicit in the matter indirectly because a so-called intellectual has descended to levels we usually reserve for those who one assumes do not know better. Let me explain what i mean. If your family member is accused of robbery, armed or not, with overwhelming evidence found on his person, handcuffed, and dragged before a court, sentenced etc, do you disagree with the hard facts and shameful truth or simply hide in embarrassment or deny? You seem, sir, to be choosing the last option. This matter has been a long festering sore; now it is making pus all over the place. One is indeed speechless.
>
> Amatoritsero
>
> On 28 November 2011 23:45, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
>
> hi pius,
> i see your point, but in my way i was not really cutting him any slack. i don't think that it is impossible that he went to prison, but that doesn't mean much. maybe he did, maybe it was for a small thing and a small time, and he turned that into these fabulations, these stories. why is that cutting him slack? i didn't say his stories were plausible, but that he is now in a position where he has to bear the heat for his claims. aren't we basing our rejection of his claims on their implausibility? all i said was that there were people, witnesses to his whereabouts, who could attest directly to the facts.
> my metaphors of trouble the waters and air of fabulations are simply expressions of the same doubts sounded by everyone else on the list "penis nailing and all." his performance didn't undo those doubts for me, but became a "sad sight" of a major writer exposing himself to public humiliations, which is what is happening now. i called all this troubling. i could have used stronger language, but in the end, my posting is intended to share the doubts expressed by funmi and ikhide et al. as for trouble the waters, it might mean lots of things to lots of people: for me it is the title of a film about hurricane katrina where the troubled waters wrecked a good part of a city, and destroyed people's lives. it is a metaphor that doesn't necessarily cut slack.
> bottom line: i am not in disagreement with the postings that have effectively shown him for a fabulist, and his performance that funmi asked us to watch was particularly
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
> For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
> For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com --
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

--  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

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com