Dear Toyin,
A comment made at the STORYMOJA-HAY Festival in Nairobi early this year was that Africans in the Diaspora often have a time-frozen image of "tribal" Africa. Their narratives ignore positive viral effects of events like the impending African "Nations" football --not what Americans vulgarly and anti-colonially call "soccer"-- competition due to start in South Africa very shortly.
When is an EKITI State citizen a non-"rebellious" member of the "Yoruba race"? Is it only while in Abuja hustling for plots of land or when serving as a Commissioner in Fashola's government?
A BBC correspondent was startled by roars of excitement and approval earned from a multi-regional crowd by a student who was playing the role of President Olusegun Obasanjo at a summit conference of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) at Addis Ababa in 2004. I had met this spectacle at Ahmadu Bello University each time a student simulated Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida. I met it again on October 1, 2012 by multi-ethnic secondary school students of all classes of Anglican Girls Grammar School in Abuja when a student simulated President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.
I was directing this leadership training project to students at Ahmadu Bello University from the 1977/78 academic year to 1989/90, and quickly learnt that the student simulating the role of the head of state of Nigeria was the most demanding because it was the one role most closely scrutinized by audiences. Those of Bukina Faso under Thomas Sankara, Muamar Gaddafi, Jerry Rawlings and Samora Machel followed closely because students identified with them as carriers of the banner of African liberation.
Most observers of American electoral and legislative politics during the Obama era are shocked by the tribalism ( "Jewish,Irish,Hispanic, Asiatic, Polish" "Tea Party "etc) in votes. The recent rejection of a black woman as nominee for Secretary of State had similar echoes. She and her followers must be very distressed by the raw side of American "nationhood". But one also hears voices which insist that in running her melting pot America is still way ahead of "nations" in European Union.
Let giving up on Africa demand more brain-searching from us all.
Okello Oculi
From: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: ayo_olukotun-yahoo.com <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2012 1:24 PM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Intervention: Afolayan's Ethnic Theory
Dear all:
My eyes caught a sentence in Mr. Adeshina Afolayan's intervention that,I think, is so profound that it merits serious consideration: it shakes the roots of elite theory of ethnicity, while also making nonsense of class analysis. How can this be? I think Professor Olukotun's influential column in Nigeria should be devoted to this. If it is true, it is also the location of untapped power, the very space to rupture the state. Or am I exaggerating the significance of Afolayan's thesis?
"The informal sector of the economy is the burial ground of patriotism in Nigeria."
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
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