RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ken Harrow's Trash Discourse

Bro Chidi:

I am not sure if you want me to respond to your brief below, or if it is meant for my in-law Papa Ikhide. Whatever be the case I wish you would not become one of those magisterial umpires.

Kwabena


________________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara [chidi.opara@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2013 11:47 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ken Harrow's Trash Discourse

"-----In fact, how many hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc. must
one take to write a review-------?---------"
-----Kwabena.

The umpire mentality! One of the banes of contemporary African
Literature.

CAO.



On 11 May, 16:19, "Akurang-Parry, Kwabena" <KAP...@ship.edu> wrote:
> Ikhide, My Brother-In-Law:
>
> My sister, or better still, your wife, has told me that you are too judgmental and think that you are always right. How do you make the determination that Papa Biko's review was "rushed"? In fact, how many hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc. must one take to write a review, and how do you situate rigor in periodizing a work of scholarship? In the end, you realize that your take is as much an opinion as Biko's.
>
> Kwabena
>
> ________________________________
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Ikhide [xoki...@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2013 9:08 AM
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ken Harrow's Trash Discourse
>
> Hmmm. Interesting. This "review" as inchoate and rushed as it is, is a commentary on how many of us do the business of "intellectual discourse." I know the genesis of this petty-minded "review." Many will recall Biko Agozino's musing that the Boston bombings may have been racially motivated. And Kenn Harrow's push back (and mine) that it wasn't. Well, you would think that this would be an opportunity for rational respectful conversation. No, not Agozino, like many African intellectuals who are only used to giving lectures, who hate having conversations, he fought back - like a bully. He reminded Kenn that he had his book, Trash, and made veiled threats about the nature of the "discourse" in the book, and how he is just reading it and he would share his thoughts in due course. Any dolt could have imagined that the review would be caustic. Agozino need not have bothered.
>
> And so we have the "review." A poorly thought out essay that diminishes the author immensely - as a petty little man with a PhD. And diminsishes scholarship because I am sure that underneath all that bluster is some scholarship worth reading. Which is a shame. Professor Harrow's book is a thoughtful contribution to the subject, one that deserves a thoughtful, balanced review. Agozino's does not improve upon the silence, it only muddies the waters where there once was clarity. In my world, given the history between Agozino and Harrow, he would have had to recuse himself from reviewing the book. No, that is now how we roll. We are mean like that. Nonsense.
>
> - Ikhide
>
> Stalk my blog atwww.xokigbo.com<http://www.xokigbo.com/>
> Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
> Join me on Facebook:www.facebook.com/ikhide<http://www.facebook.com/ikhide>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Biko Agozino <bikoz...@yahoo.com>
> To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 11:59 PM
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ken Harrow's Trash Discourse
>
> Ken Harrow's Trash: Garbage In Garbage Out
>
> Reviewed by Biko Agozino
>
> Ken Harrow is a very thoughtful writer whose contributions to online debates is always a signal to me that a thread is important enough not to be junked automatically. I was pleased to see that his new book has two chapters on Nollywood whereas his past books on African cinema ignored this iconic genre because, according to him: 'The images scattered to the wind in Nollywood films are continually relegated to the rubbish bin by celluloid film standards' (p. 279). Gloria Emeagwali alerted me to the controversial nature of the new book when she questioned online why the author obsesses with trash and why there is no distinction between the people and trash in the book.
>
> Having read the book, I admit that the author has an original thesis that he argued with varying degrees of conviction mixed with serious doubts. To argue that there are tropes of trash in African cinema is far from the mantra that African cinema is trash or that Africans are 'worthless people'. The author over-generalized his observation of trash in some scenes by concluding that such trash is what defines the films, the culture, the politics, the law and the people. 'What is worthless? Who is trash?' He asks provocatively (p. 57). No one is worthless, and everything is not trash should be the answers.
>
> Follow link to read on and or to leave a comment:
>
> http://massliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/05/ken-harrows-trash-garbage-in...
>
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