I was just pulling your great legs that have given you solid groundings in such matters. Absolutely, you are doing a great job for Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Be well, and enjoy the weekend.
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Ikhide [xokigbo@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 1:58 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Noo Saro-Wiwa: Peering into Nigeria ever so darkly
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 1:58 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Noo Saro-Wiwa: Peering into Nigeria ever so darkly
Oga Kwabena,
Too funny. Many thanks for your feedback. My works stand on their own merit. I have no truck with my country Nigeria, nothing but admiration for the beautiful people trapped under the civilian jackboots of those who begged them to fight for what passes for democracy today. I have been relentless in my contempt for what the political and intellectual elite have done to Nigeria, ruining everything in its path while ensuring that their own children are abroad enjoying a real education and functioning municipal services. I have also railed against the mimicry engineered by our thinkers as a way of assuring the West of our shared and equal humanity, whatever nonsense that means. The unintended consequence of racing against the West through rank consumerism and a growing culture of entitlement has been to shove black Africa further and further behind. I have argued that we need to take a deep breath and assess a different way of doing business in the interest of the people of Nigeria. And maybe I should collect all of my personal opinions into books because I have not lacked for providing suggestions and solutions to our myriad issues. I have been attacked by the apostles of orthodoxy because my views are unconventional and counter-intuitive and quite frankly scares the crap out of them because they don't want to know the true answers to my many questions. The personal attacks please me no end because it means I have struck many chords and punched many drunken buttons. Yeah, it is the truth, our intellectual elite are just as complicit in the shame playing out in Nigeria as their friends in Aso Rock and NASS. If you are a university lecturer and you will not allow your child in your classroom because it is not a real "university" then you are a damn hypocrite for yelling at Ikhide for pointing that out ;-) That's all I am saying, over and over and over again. The good news is that people are now getting the method to my madness. This is not Guyana, no one here is Jim Jones, and I am definitely not drinking the Koolaid of orthodoxy.
Be well. Today is Friday for me. See you on Monday. Next Tuesday.
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
From: Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kaparry@hotmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 8:50 PM
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Noo Saro-Wiwa: Peering into Nigeria ever so darkly
Ikhide:
I thought you were critiquing your own genealogy of perspectives on Nigeria (see the cut-and-paste below) and had to slap my forehead before realizing that it is actually your critique of Noo Saro-Wiwa's book Looking for Transwonderland! How nice!
Kwabena.
--------------
"Instead several chapters are devoted to narrating what the alert reader already knows about Nigeria, very little of which is good. The analysis is rushed and the condescension is cutting, with little compassion and reflection on why things are the way they are. Those who write from the vantage point of the West tend to look at Africa using Western civilization as an asymptote. Black Africa compares very unfavorably with the West for many reasons, including the rank ineptitude and thievery of many of the leaders that sent many of us, their children, abroad away from the unnecessary roughness that they have turned Black Africa into… There is this neediness, acertain desperation to link us to a preferred civilization, to assert our humanity, in a way that pleases the preferred civilization. It is an asymptote…So, without reading the book, you can imagine what Saro-Wiwa has to say about Nigeria: The dysfunction, the incompetence, the comedy of errors, the corruption, the violence, the patriarchy, the misogyny, the pathetic mimicry of everything Western, the new Christianity, the spiritual and physical decay, she records all in painstaking detail… Like many Diaspora writers, Saro-Wiwa's energies are devoted almost solely to whining about Africa's numerous failings and offering very little in terms of substantive analysis and solutions. When she does, her solutions are alarmingly simplistic. As an aside, Nigerian writers have to decide whether they want to be writers or armchair social activists. They have been saying the same things for too long, it gets old and exhausting.."
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:17:06 -0700
From: xokigbo@yahoo.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Noo Saro-Wiwa: Peering into Nigeria ever so darkly
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com; Ederi@yahoogroups.com
I enjoyed reading Noo Saro-Wiwa's book Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria, a slim travelogue (272 pages) published by Granta books. I also hated reading it. Be warned, O gentle reader, it starts and ends with an attitude. Right from the airport. Saro-Wiwa on a few months visit to Nigeria seems determined to be miserable:
"The plane broke through the clouds and swung low over a sea of palm trees that abruptly became endless tracts of metal rooftops. That vista still choked my heart with dread. I made my way through the airport's mustiness and out through the exit, where I was ambushed by the clammy aroma of gasoline, so familiar and potent."
"The plane broke through the clouds and swung low over a sea of palm trees that abruptly became endless tracts of metal rooftops. That vista still choked my heart with dread. I made my way through the airport's mustiness and out through the exit, where I was ambushed by the clammy aroma of gasoline, so familiar and potent."
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
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