WOLE SOYINKA AND HIS YORUBA PAGAN TRIBALISTS CULTURE
http://allafrica.com/stories/201202100742.html
Nigeria: Soyinka - Still in Bo-Ro-No State
By Adamu Adamu, 10 February 2012 DAILY TRUSTcolumn
Professor Wole Soyinka, who appears totally ignorant of the most burning issue in international current affairs, betrays an unacceptable level of illiteracy on a related issue at home.
On the issue of culpability for the origin of Boko Haram, Mahmud Jega says of Soyinka that he thinks he knows; Sam Nda-Isaiah says he doesn't, and is hopelessly dead wrong; Mohammed Haruna says he only peddles pure rubbish. All the three are right, but the truth really is that he doesn't even understand - and probably never will.
This is because the tunnel vision with which he sees the country has been conditioned by three factors--an unfounded cultural superiority complex, a hubristic pagan worldview and an experience in which he saw the man died.
The issue of Boko Haram merely gave him another opportunity to take on his imagined old adversary--the Northern Establishment, which he now holds responsible for the creation of Boko Haram.
This is simplistic and laughable; but it saves this unready analyst the trouble of having to know the background to the situation, engage in serious analysis of the issues involved, draw the necessary conclusions and find a way forward for society.
Certainly, a knowledge of the varieties of groups on the Islamic revival scene, which no one on the international scene should today be without, the fact that Boko Haram predated the Jonathan administration, and is confined to a corner of the country that is held by one of the opposition parties, and is opposed to all constituted authority including that to be wielded by the Northern leaders that were supposed to have founded it, would make Soyinka's simplistic explanation all too obvious--and it might have been made to draw attention away from suspected US involvement.
No doubt, Soyinka suffers from tribal hubris of which he needs to be cured. Going by the themes of his literary output, he seems to believe that his race is the greatest and the most cultured--and therefore, by implication, his pronouncements must be the best and the final word the world is waiting for.
But what is this Yoruba culture in which people like Soyinka take so much pride? No doubt, his people love their language and love singing in it; they love their bodies and love waltzing them into a variety of dance forms. They love their lives and are always impulsively proud to say that they love the culture that has come to define the way they see themselves and view others.
However, what Soyinka holds aloft is not culture: it is paganism; though it must be admitted that it is quite elaborate. But the possession of a pagan past is no accomplishment; it is a fact of history and every tribe has had one; and after the advent of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, there is nothing more to glory in animistic heathenism: it is there at the centre and origin of every type of primitiveness.
The issue therefore should not be the promotion of the pagan culture of a distant past, but the cultivation of culturedness in present conduct.
The proof and relevance of culture should be in its attitudinal pudding, measured by its practical moral utility in setting the standard of what is acceptable in human conduct; and not in the elaborateness of ancient idolatrous rituals.
For us, it represented the sub-humanness of our primordial cultural history; and we are not proud of it, and nor are we any more captivated by its elaborateness or by the depth of meaning and the symbolism of its meta-paganism. Of course that is not to say that cultural mores are without meaning. Not at all. They may often in fact be too pregnant with a variety of meanings capable of interpretations; but their import is for a world that is past and gone--and better forgotten.
Man's cultural and social development have today passed the ignorance and obscurantism that paganism has to offer and the superficialities of the animus of those whose antipathy to divine values today finds expression in the cultivation and promotion of this new international pagan culture.
But there is no superiority in paganism: there was nothing in Yoruba native forest theology that was more diabolical than the heathenism of the Savannah, where, in the Benue valley, there is magic that is blacker than Sanponno; and in Niger valley, a Satanism that is darker than Esu's; and among the Maguzawa there are totems that, though benign, are no less occultist.
The rituals of Tsumburbura were every inch as complex and elaborate as the possessed incantations of Ogun or the thunders of Sango, and no less diabolical. The Satanology of Santolo would beat every mumbo jumbo of Ifa Orisa divinations. The rites of Mai Barhaza would any day be more picturesque than the dance of the Egungun masquerade; and Babule and Dan Galadima more demonic than Ogboni totemism, and of women just as chauvinistic.
In lasciviousness and pure voluptuary the Gelede Festival pales in comparison to the Dala Dance of Nakedness.
In number, in hideousness of Satanism and in the comprehensiveness of misguidance Obatala's 4,000-odd Orisas would prove no match for the fetishism and atheistic devilry of the numberless Iskoki of pre-Islamic Bahaushe. Or of the pre-Christian Tiv man, for instance. But all these are facts of which no one is today proud, or on account of which cultural superiority is assumed over others.
Perhaps Soyinka's--and Nigeria's--problem lies in the fact that the Nobel Laureate considers himself an intellectual whose word the world looks forward to. And he is not. True intellectualism is not the mere fact of having been to school or teaching in one. It is all about being conscious, sensitive and aware of the circumstance and of one's role in it and one's readiness to sacrifice and suffer to make it better.
You are either born an intellectual or you are not: it is an attitude that cannot be learnt; because education and experience only help to refine and sharpen an already existing predisposition--being analytical, being objective and being truly concerned. While some intellectuals choose only to expose a bad situation, others, in addition, fight to change it; and of these, those that succeed are those unencumbered by prejudice of the kind that Soyinka has always exhibited.
It is not a quality that the receipt of an international prize -not even a Nobe l- can confer on one; and a literary career based solely on the exploration of themes in Yoruba paganism is insufficient a social platform for someone like Soyinka, who is really not fully intellectualised, to articulate usefully on any of the many contentious national issues. That is why Soyinka is never known to have offered a solution that works; or that, when looked at closely, makes any sense.
Of issues even within their areas of primary interest, they have no real knowledge - only fancy and conjecture and an overarching desire to belong to the cultural metropolis from which they unconsciously take their cue in spite of all the parroting of authentic Ogun-ness.
Nigeria has changed from the closed society of 1964, but those unable to see, or are averse to seeing, healthy change in the nation have decided to cling to the uncreative fiction of the Wetie. And the fact that he is not understood - in his literature and in his analyses - and is therefore not generally effective shouldn't mean that he doesn't belong to that distinguished class of tribal jingoists and sectional propagandists; because even if his analysis is not clear - and is probably not even an analysis--his objective is always only too obvious, not least because, as far as the North is concerned, what he bandies about as analysis of its condition and role has remained unchanging over all these years.
Three decades and someone has still not grown culturally or developed intellectually; and what a coincidence that Boko Haram also originated in Bo-ro-no State!
Someone like him who has chosen the narrowness of a pagan world view and eschewed the universalism of divine guidance or even that offered by objective secular multiculturalism will never taste the sweetness of true intellectualism. With a mind fixated on hatred and all muddled up with an incurable anti-Northern animus, it has become permanently set and is now a part of character, but too superficial and too ossified to be of any intellectual use.
In our situation, it is not those who do not know who are lost, it is those who do not want to learn who are; and all those pretentiously bookish creatures whose knowledge is only from books are in reality ignorant even of them. Of this and of Boko Haram, he doesn't really understand--and probably never will.
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ICPC quizzes Odu'a boss, others
Written by Akinwale Aboluwade
The Group Managing Director of the Odu'a Investment Company Limited, Mr. Adebayo Jimoh, and four other management staff of the company were on Tuesday quizzed by officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other-related Offences Commission over alleged misappropriation of N10.3m belonging to the company.
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The anti-graft agency had on Monday invited them to Abuja for interrogation following a petition by the former Estate Manager of the conglomerate, Mr. Ademola Ridwan.
Ridwan called on the ICPC to investigate the alleged fraud involving the lease of the company's property situated in Apapa, Lagos State while he was an official of the company.
He alleged that rather than being commended for uncovering the fraud, he was sacked while those allegedly involved in the deal were promoted by the management.
It was gathered that those quizzed were the Head of the Human Resources Department, Abimbola Ilori; a former Head of Estate Department, Dare Aseweje; the current Head of Estate Department, Mrs. A. Odutola; and one Adedapo.
The petitioner, who claimed that he was sacked because he exposed the alleged fraud, explained that he became suspicious when he noticed that his signature was forged on two documents that were presented concerning the property.
He said, "I became suspicious because the letter bore my name as a signatory knowing that I did not authorise such a letter and that the company did not mandate any middleman to act on my behalf.
Crittal Hope (Nigeria) Limited, Mushin, Lagos State.
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O'net Telecomms.
| Incorporated in 2002 as Odu'a Telecoms Limited, (ODU'ATEL) now branded as O'net. Licensed for fixed wireless Operation on 3.5Ghz and 800Mhz frequencies deploying CDMA Fixed and Mobile Telephony and Internet as well as Broadband Internet for corporate organizations, Institutions and Research Institutes and Virtual Private Network Services for Banks and other Network organizations in all five South Western States of Nigeria and beyond. |
Askar Paint Ltd. | Askar Paints (Nig.) Ltd. was established in 1961 to manufacture paints and it is well known for its brands-Durosyn and Polyplast. In addition to paints, the company manufactures other chemicals and allied products like glue, clear finish wood preservatives and red oxide. |
Cocoa Industries Ltd.
| Cocoa industries Limited was established in1965 and its Nigeria's first cocoa processing company. In addition to processing cocoa beans into butter powder and cake, the company also produces and markets Vitalo – a cocoa based beverage drink. The company also exports cocoa butter. |
Odu'a Printing & Publishing Co. Ltd. | Established in 1956, Odu'a Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd. is engaged in exercise books production, security printing, all business and office stationeries, maqazines, journals, annual reports, seasonal greeting cards, calendars, promotional posters & flyers, T- shirts, face caps & plastic ID card printing |
Wemabod Estates Limited. | Established in 1963. Wemabod Estates Limited is one of the biggest property and estate in Lagos, developing companies in sub-Sahara Africa. Some of its famous properties are: Western House, Investment House in Lagos and Cocoa House in Ibadan, Oyo State. |
The Commercial Farmers' Academy. | New farmers in Nigeria not only face the challenges of securing land and funding, but also obtaining the management skills and technical know-how to be able to run a farming business successfully in today's business environment. In the light of this, Odu'a Investment Company is establishing a commercial farmers' academy to provide top quality practical skills training to new and emerging commercial farmers in this part of our country. |
Westco Farms Ltd.
| Westco Farms Limited (RC 640323) Incorporated on 30th November 2005 is the new joint purpose vehicle established by Odu'a Investment Company Limited and Shepherd Agriculture (Africa) from South Africa. It is therefore a subsidiary of Odu'a Investment Company Limited. a. Aquaculture using the new floating cage system designed to achieve an initial target of 100 tons of catfish per annum. The technology is a new innovation in aquaculture engineering and fish friendly system that will derive the most from the fish. b. Commercial Farm Training centres located in all the states of the South West to encourage and teach subsistence and so called small-scale farmers to make their farming enterprises profitable ventures. The training will consist of applied technical knowledge, practical farming skills and Farm Business Skills with the slogan "Training people in the business of farming". The Academy will be modeled after the Buhle Farmers' Academy of South Africa. |
E & O Power & Equipment Leasing. | Established in August, 2005, the company's main business lines are sales, maintenance and leasing of Power Generating Set – 17.5KVA – 1000KVA & cooling equipments. |
E & O Power & Equipment Leasing. | Western Hotels Limited is made up of two hotels. Premier Hotel with 87 rooms and Lafia Hotel with 60 rooms. The rooms are well designed and furnished to standard with swimming pools and a Casino. The two hotels engage in outdoor catering for all occasions |
Lagos Airport Hotel Limited.
| Lagos Airport Hotel started business in 1942 as Grand Hotels and was later expanded and renamed Ikeja Arms Inn in 1956. In 1961, it became known as Lagos Airport Hotel. It is located on the popular Obafemi wolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos State. It has a total of 277 rooms, three restaurants, a standard swimming pool and a number of conference rooms. The hotel also engages in outdoor catering for all occasions. |
Odu'a City Hall. | ODU'A CITY HALL is situated within the Cocoa House complex The hall is for commercial letting for AGMs receptions, dance etc. |
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