Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okigbo - Mythmaker & towncrier at Heavensgate

Chidi,

Now I'm not going to go far astray.

We encounter, "To be or not to be" - and that never fails to get us
going some way or other down some mental railway line on the way to
Enugu or some slippery track to wherever and back...

Or imagine you wake up - as I did one morning in Owerri, to hear a
voice passing by my window shouting,"I am the everlasting!". At first,
I thought that it was some crazy man going by, only a few days later
did I know that it was a serious pentecostal preacher on duty, doing
his "Early Morning Call" and that on that occasion he was not talking
in his own name but had only been quoting – not plagiarizing Jesus of
Nazareth, hopefully, with his permission....

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=Jesus+:+I+am+statements&oq=Jesus+:+I+am+statements&gs_l=hp.12..0l4.0.0.1.1233.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0.les%3B..0.0...1c..5.psy-ab.0NR5RAkX0Hs&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43287494,d.bGE&fp=72b9c73243d0bb8d&biw=1024&bih=610

As you always remind us, in defence of your commerce, "Reproductions
in part or in whole, in whatever forms, of ChidiAnthonyOparaPoetry/
Quotes except for non-profit information and education purposes,
without a written permission from the Author is not allowed."

Methinks that it's OK that thou art now fighting tooth & nail to
defend thy intellectual property rights, thine inalienable legal
rights & entitlements to all poetic property which is copyrighted and
therefore legally thine, for which reason thou wouldst therefore not
like others (pretentious monkeys) to be going around reciting thy
lovely verses in public and getting standing ovations for them all,
without thy express permission - knowing that thy permits are only
generously given for non-profit information or education purposes.
About that every one who is not Chidi is forewarned : Be it anathema
to append any other name or signature as author of
ChidiAnthonyOparaPoetry/Quotes not even for non-profit information and
education purposes, without a written permission from The Author – or
else!

What about for Humanitarian purposes? For the good of all mankind – do
we have permission then?

As one who enters a new world when I meet your poems and some of your
sayings, I am curious as to not so much your purpose or motivation but
as to the source or sources of your inspiration - your muse. For
those baptised by the holy Ghost - that is claimed as their
inspiration – for some others it's Beatrice.

Can we non-atheists agree that the Almighty is the source of
scripture ? Of poetry?

It is often said that "Great Minds think alike". Even to the point of
divine coincidences - even synchronicity, such as when Uwais al
Qarani all the way in Yemen intuited that the Prophet of Islam's front
tooth had been martyred at the Battle of Uhud, Uwaid did the same to
his own...

In no time at all ,we will then get tangled up in "Who or what is a
great mind?" Is Mwalimu X ," a great mind"? He may continue all his
labours under such a self-impression. In fact isn't that what some not
so great minds do: assemble an array/ arsenal of what others (great or
not so great minds) have said or done – analyse or even disembowel
such matter and hopefully come out with something new - some original
knowledge which was not in the world before?

As you say in one of your saying, "Di road wey thief follow go after
im thief, na di road dem
dey follow go find am."

Like a blithering idiot ("full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing")

Sin-
cerely
said,

http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/corneliushamelberg/


On 4 mar, 16:12, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.op...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do all these grammar translate to the fact that writers can now copy
> other writers' works verbatim and append their names as the owners of
> those works without being required to give credit to the original
> owners? I ask because my Motor Park mentality does not seem able
> anymore to understand what is going on here now on plagiarism.
>
> CAO.
>
> On 4 Mar, 08:18, Biko Agozino <bikoz...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > 'No one has a copyright over the alphabets'. - Fidel Castro
>
> > Biko
>
> > ________________________________
> >  From: basil ugochukwu <ugochukw...@yahoo.com>
> > To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> > Sent: Monday, 4 March 2013, 6:48
> > Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series -Okigbo- Mythmaker & towncrier at Heavensgate
>
> > There's even more on "Plagiarism and Originality" from Mark Twain here
>
> > ________________________________
> >  From: Biko Agozino <bikoz...@yahoo.com>
> > To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> > Sent: Sunday, March 3, 2013 3:02:19 PM
> > Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series -Okigbo- Mythmaker & towncrier at Heavensgate
>
> > "Regarding the creative process, let it be understood that I am not necessarily
> > speaking of originality. I have read critiques of artistic works that appear to make originality
> > the benchmark of creativity, blithely dismissing such a work on the grounds that it is not
> > 'original'. Some masterful works – in all genres – have been produced
> >  that are based on
> > deliberate imitativeness. Or plagiarism. There are different kinds of plagiarism, some can
> > actually emerge as a new product of its kind, a kind of creative provocation, or a
> > commentary on the original, sometimes a sleight of expectations or attribution – what is
> > sometimes called signification – especially in American literary discourse. So, we are not
> > speaking here of originality." Wole Soyinka, speech at FESPACO 2013
>
> > ________________________________
> >  From: kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu>
> > To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> > Sent: Sunday, 3 March 2013, 12:13
> > Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series -Okigbo- Mythmaker & towncrier at Heavensgate
>
> > i once wrote at great length about beyala's plagiarisms, about ben okri's pain at being plagiarized by her, etc etc. what struck me most was her denial (in the face of overwhelming evidence), her weaseling over the issue, her cheesy exploitation of "african oral literature" as an excuse. it was in striking contrast with ouologuem's wonderful, in your face "Lettre a la france negre" in which he bravely asserted his revolutionary defiance of capitalist copyright ownerships of texts. (the spirit of 1968).
> > the topic is indeed interesting, fascinating--not the space for pure
> >     legalism or tedious moralism, nor for dumb pretentiousness. we use
> >     the term "intertext" in lit crit to signify that relationship
> >     between an original text and a later version. shakespeare had his
> >     famous intertexts, and, in fact, there is no such thing as any work
> >     of literature that does not ground itself, in one way or another, in
> >     that which preceded it.okigboused poems that had already appeared
> >     in print, and i've read ikhide's essay on this, and applaud him for
> >     signalling it. we can place the one poem next to the earlier version
> >     of the other, and see howokigbo'sdelicate sensibility led him to
> >     change this word or that. we might have liked it better if he had
> >     said something like "in tribute of..." as djibri diop mambety does
> >     to "the great old man," durrenmatt, on which he based his
> >     masterpiece Hyenas. anyone who has actually read durrenmatt's Visit
> >     of the Old Lady will note that the borrowing was significant, not at
> >     all loose. the acknowledgment a sign of djibril diop's integrity.
> > my great amusement over the beyala affair, when she was being sued
> >     by ben okri's publisher, was that she won the Grand PRix du Roman,
> >     the highest award in france, given by the academie francaise in
> >     1996, the same year that one of the members of the academie that
> >     voted her the award was himself also charged with plagiarism!! she
> >     plagiarized from many sources, some extremely extensively. again my
> >     shock was in discovering that one of her prime sources was from
> >     dangarembga herself, Nervous Conditions having been translated into
> >     french. maybe she figured anglophones wouldn't notice.
> > ken
>
> > On 3/2/13 1:17 PM, Ikhide wrote:
>
> > "The enduring legacy of Labyrinths can be traced to a number of reasons. The romance of the poet's life and death. Also, the uncontainable and uncontaminable passion ofOkigbolovers. But in the main – and this is the point – because, in th...e words of one of his protégés, "Okigbowrote damn good poetry." "O mother mother Earth, unbind me; let this be/The ram's hidden wish to the sword the sword's/secret prayer to the scabbard." In other words, we have inOkigbothat vintage poetry that makes "broadcast with/eunuch-horn of seven valves": the poetry that remains evergreen."
>
> > >- Dr. Hyginus Ekwuazi, poet and writer, lecturer in the
>
> >                 Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan
>
> > >http://sueddie.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/okigbo-mythmaker-towncrier-at...
>
> > >I very much enjoyed this essay on the poet ChristopherOkigbo, very fascinating ( I can't get enough ofOkigboso ignore me). I do think though that scholars should also endeavor to talk about the plagiarism issues that plaguedOkigboand his works. A few years back, I wrote an essay on the issue, ChristopherOkigbo'svoice. Rather than diminishing him, such conversations would only add to the rich complexity that is his life.
>
> > >- Ikhide
>
> > >Stalk my blog athttp://www.xokigbo.com/
> > >Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
> > >Join me on Facebook:www.facebook.com/ikhide
>
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