Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Caution

Dear Moderator and members of this fast-becoming historic place of discourse:

That is a most notable intervention defining the RIGHT place of a prudent moderator.

Permit me to call up a proverb fitting for this: " Agba ki wa l'oja, k'ori omo titum wo."

That means in some translation-An elder cannot be in the market-place, and yet the head of a new babý,( resting on the back of the mother, tied to it by her wrapper) stays warped.

Bro Pius can help me finetune that translation.

But considering the value of this place called USAfrica dialogue, the intervention is most appreciated. We need this market-place kept fairly decent! This is moreso when you imagine that the regular actors on this stage are much outnumbered by its larger, even if mostly silent audience.

Much regards, Prof Falola!

Laolu Akande

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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From: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>

Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2012 13:45:31 +0000

To: dialogue<USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Caution

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!"