USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: On Achebe's There Was A Country.

"My citation refers to a man with all his degrees being so allergic to reading a material before criticizing it. I wonder what that tells us about his education.

Nobody here is is averse to disagreements. My point is that many so-called Nigerian intellectuals have taken their epistemic allergies to a very nauseating level. How can you disagree over something you have not got yourself acquainted with? How could come up to pontificate on a book you have not read? What does that tell us about the kind of education many of us got?.

I hope that helps your appreciation of my submission.
-----Franklyne Ogbunwezeh".

Couldn't it have been a failing with nothing to do with possession or non possession of degrees?
-------CAO.

On Sunday, 28 October 2012 19:55:45 UTC+1, Ikhide wrote:

I had said elsewhere I would not have the time to read Chinua Achebe's new book, There Was A Country. I have a backlog of many books and manuscripts that I am determined to finish before taking on anything new. And besides, as an amateur student of the Nigerian civil war, and a child caught up in the war (the Biafran occupation of Benin City) I was not sure what I was going to learn new there. Yesterday however as I sat in my car waiting for my son's football game to end, I turned on my kindle app and it was there.

 

Reading it clearly makes the profoundly sad point that many who have "reviewed" the book dispensed with the inconvenience of reading it. It is a sad commentary on how we conduct the business of scholarship these days. Many people should be stripped of their degrees, they are a disgrace to scholarship.

 

There are many things to disagree with Achebe about, but one comes away with a sad realization that we are witnessing the passing of an era, of principled hard working writers and thinkers, well educated and brought up to believe in intellectual rigor. Please go and read that book before you open your mouths one more time. The man puts together a compilation of sources including our own Professor Toyin Falola in order to tell a moving compelling story about his life. And yes, it is not all about Biafra. There are powerful passages there for instance about the burden of the writer of African extraction, profoundly moving are his thoughts on what we should be preoccupied with.

 

It is a great look back, one that should elicit a more coherent and respectful engagement than what we are currently witnessing. To be fair, our educational system is at best incoherent, in reality in shambles. People are reacting with pieces of dog-eared junk because we have not invested in an infrastructure that keeps our history intact. It is our loss, not Achebe's.

 

I would like to put this book down, but I can't because I am simply in awe at the grace and courage of this man who was born into many wars that he did not ask for.

 

- Ikhide

 

- Ikhide

 

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