Even Prof Soyinka's best friends will admit that some of his prose is difficult to penetrate. Because I tend to prefer simple writing, I prefer the plays and the series of memoirs starting with Ake (so evocative that I was moved to go and prepare 'Yoruba pastry' - as my mother's cookbook called it- to fully enjoy the reading experience) for the simple reason that I can understand them. Call me thick, or lazy-minded, but there it is.
Now, if we have to start adjusting our opinions about this writer or that according to whether they are Yoruba or Igbo, or from anywhere else for that matter, this forum and Nigeria will be poorer for it.
Would we have determined that a contributor to this forum was pro this or anti that before the Achebe controversy? Was there anything that Ikhide said that would have even caused such a thought to have even crossed anybody's mind?
Please, Prof Falola has said something that we should all take to heart. And to be proud of, or to favour one's own ethnic group, or to take special pride in the achievement of a member of one's own group does not mean that we must be anti others.
Only Prof, Bangura may be a registered Democrat, but he don't like Obama o ...
Ayo
Ayo
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama
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Moderator:What is not elevating in my opinion that Ikhide is decidedly anti-Yoruba? In what way is that observation insultive if I may ask?Unless you are telling me that I must deny my "feeling", personal observation and conclusions based on a well-defined pattern over time! I bet, you will soon start telling us that to even vent our ethnic sentiment is not elevating!Ikhide clapped excitedly for Achebe; he openly denigrated Awo (PBUH), now he lampoons Soyinka and dropped the clincher by comparing his book to a muck raker's. Is a trend not established here? Must we all sleep in one direction? Must our view of the world be monochromatic? To be sure, even ethnic-based contributions have inherent scholarly value.Ikhide has vented pro-Biafran sentiments on this forum. And, that was in the heat of the debate against Yorubas action and /or inaction. That at a time when Biafrans called Yorubas cowards, treacherous and other unsavoury names.Kola/
From: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Caution
To: "dialogue" <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, November 3, 2012, 6:45 AM
To remind contributors to focus on debates and not insults. That someone does not like Soyinka's book does not make him anti-Yoruba; and if you do not like Achebe's book this should not make you anti-Igbo. Were I to say that both Achebe and Soyinka are not my favorite authors, am I anti-Nigeria? I do not like Things Fall Apart, but I like Arrow of God. I can give you my reasons, but am I anti-Okonkwo?--
I have read the eight essays in Soyinka's Of Africa, but it is both a waste of my money and time, as I have come across six of the essays before in the collections released by Bookcrafts. Am I anti-Soyinka for saying that it is a waste of my time? It is a work of introspection, and it should not be compared with Achebe's There was a Country, a definitive book that marks a moment in history and which has an immediate entry into the canons of that moment. No question, There was a Country will be with us for ever; Of Africa will head to the shelves to be rescued in footnotes and endnotes. In expressing my own conclusion on both books, you can disagree with me and reach a different conclusion, but am I pro-Igbo and anti-Yoruba? When Ikhide said that Nigerian universities are sub-standard, when did he tell you that he is excluding the University of Nigeria, Nsukka from his observation? When Bangura says that he wants Romney to win, people tend to forget that he is a card-carrying member of the democratic party and once served on the executive of its branch. Bangura is not even a Republican, and responses of hatred, collecting money, etc. are made in ways that rubbish a person's preference and opinion. That Bangura wants Romney to win does not mean that he hates Obama, unless you want to say that the minimum of 45% of the country's population who will vote for one candidate or the other do so on the basis of hatred. Were I to say that I prefer Buhari to have won the last presidential election in Nigeria, do I hate Ijo people? Let us exercise maturity.Some people do not have a particularized frame of mind. My best friends are Igbo, and the person I want to see everyday is Gozie Ifesinachukwu. No Hausa person has ever made a single unkind statement about me. The historian who I now respect the most is an Idoma by the name of Moses Ochonu. He writes so well, and I told Professor Nimi Wariboko yesterday that God created him and Moses on a special day. Nimi and Moses are now Africa's treasures. Where a society is well ordered, Nimi Wariboko would be the one to have received the honorary doctorate at the University of Port Harcourt where he graduated and not Mrs Patience Goodluck.I know Professor Aluko, the great teacher of blessed memory, and his son Professor Bolaji Aluko. I have had meals with both of them. They enjoy good arguments, see themselves as reformers, and they just want you to give them evidence whenever you make a point. Professor Aluko, the late economist, could have a vigorous debate with you for 3 hours non-stop. Both the father and son will not let you get away with an unsubstantiated statement.If you see injustice, a struggling person, the poor, the victimized, and you wait and pause to ask where the person comes from, your humanity is in question.As the site has become a major reference one, be aware that all messages are archived, and they not only represent individual opinions but the collective intellectual orientation of an entire generation.1. Do please generate debates that elevate, and not personal attacks.2. Rationality--supply evidence, and use the evidence to make cogent arguments. For instance, I could argue that cholera killed more people in a war than guns. Then, you could now say what caused the cholera? And I can reply, and we generate a thread.3. Debates are not to be won, but to extend the frontiers of knowledge.4. Wisdom has no boundaries, no beginning, no end.5. All humans make mistakes. In noticing the propensity to make mistakes, a Yoruba proverb resigns with an anti-climax: "Even God is not wise enough!"
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