Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: For The Attention Of The Moderator

Ken,

I thank you (and Oga Cornelius) for the kind words. I briefly thought about an appropriate response to Gloria but thought better of it because the only response I could come up with was a personal attack worse than what she unleashed on me. I will only say this: Many African intellectuals, and I use the term beyond continental Africans, have self-esteem issues, a certain inferiority complex. I watch their interactions with their white peers, they are usually extremely respectful, obsequious and groveling even. When it comes to interacting with their fellow black peers, you get the sort of venom that was just visited upon me. We do not respect ourselves. If African intellectuals engaged in dialogue with each other the way they do with white folks, Africa would be on the moon - without help from anyone. There is something seriously wrong somewhere.

Ken, you should know me by now, there are things I have to say and let those who are aggrieved find a concrete statue of Ikhide and smash their heads on it. What I do around here does not pay my bills,  I do not define myself by it, I am prouder of my work as an educational leader in public education for over 30 years, 26 of them helpong to lead one of America's largest and best public school systems. The plight of people of color, of children of color is of course on my mind all the time. I just don't talk about it, I do something about it professionally, every day. And yes, for pay. I am here because I care about the things you just talked about. Gloria does not see me as someone she can have a conversation with as a fellow human being, she has been relentlessly patronizing and condescending to me. If she was white I would say her treatment of me is racist. Which is interesting because from what little I see of her, her arrogance is profoundly unearned.

What I will not yield ground to is my right to participate in a debate about our place on this earth today. I do not need patronizing "context" to simply say as we all are saying that there is a crisis in Nigeria's educational system. It is patronizing to remind me that all is also not well with education somewhere else. Who cares? As if that will make the problem go away. We see the result of our broken educational system in Nigeria, "doctors" who are glorified butchers, enthusiastic "writers" proudly penning prose and poetry in garbled grammar  that would upset me greatly  if it was my 9th grader's homework, etc, etc. 

Gloria and I differ in at least one world-view. I am fairly contemptuous of the rigid ideological stance of liberal orthodoxy. I think that we will need to examine our assumptions about Africa, the black race, strategies for empowerment etc, if we are to get out of the situation we are in. I think that African intellectuals, many of them at least, are self-serving and complicit in the mess that we find ourselves, believing that if they lecture us, that is enough, we should not do what they do, but what they say. And I say, a pox on all their thieving houses.

More substantially, armed with the gift of their sweet words, African intellectuals may have unwittingly talked Africa into a position of incompetence, hoisted Africa onto a (dis)advantage point beyond her competence. And Africa flounders while her intellectuals roam the West heckling the white man for what I don't know. And it is comic really. I am reminded of our father, the great Achebe's words:

 

"Once upon a time the leopard who had been trying for a long time to catch the tortoise finally chanced upon him on a solitary road. 'Aha,' he said; at long last! Prepare to die.' And the tortoise said: 'Can I ask one favour before you kill me?' The leopard saw no harm in that and agreed. 'Give me a few moments to prepare my mind,' the tortoise said. Again the leopard saw no harm in that and granted it. But instead of standing still as the leopard had expected the tortoise went into strange action on the road, scratching with hands and feet and throwing sand furiously in all directions. ' Why are you doing that?' asked the puzzled leopard. The tortoise replied: 'Because even after I am dead I would want anyone passing by this spot to say, yes, a fellow and his match struggled here.' "My people, that is all we are doing now. Struggling. Perhaps to no purpose except that those who come after us will be able to say: True, our fathers were defeated but they tried."" 

Chinua Achebe Anthills of the Savannah (pp. 117-118)

I salute you, Ken. I am still here. I am not going anywhere. Cornelius, see you on Facebook. I am there right now, dancing. *cycles away slowly*

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

---

From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 5, 2013 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: For The Attention Of The Moderator

gloria
i wonder if you are being fair to ikhide
he is very very critical of some figures in authority--in academe and in
govt. that is hardly "black people everywhere."
your post raises the question, how can one be critical, say of the
higher ed system in nigeria, without falling into the traps of
afropessimism. but you don't frame it that way; and you ignore how much
ikhide, more than any others on this list, has celebrated african
writing. he has done maybe more to celebrate and disseminate critical
voices and material in african lit than just about anyone i know. he
uses his list to present great writing to many people, and gives astute
judgments about the work. i value that quite a bit.
best
ken

On 9/5/13 10:14 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:
> Both of you miss the point.  Mr. Ikhide wants to expand his pool of  'followers, '
> and to do that he has to  spew venom and self-hatred against Black people everywhere.
> This is  more effective than an assassin's bullet or a KKK lynch mob.
>
> You are tagged a 'patronizer' if you attempt to introduce another dimension to an argument
> and  supposedly you are a non- patronizer if you imbibe the venom.
>
> Rush Limbaugh, the King of haters in America today,  has 1.2 million followers. How do you think he
>  amassed that impressive 'following'?
>
>
>
> Professor Gloria Emeagwali
> Prof. of History & African Studies
> History Department
> Central Connecticut State University
> New Britain
> CT 06050
> africahistory.net
> vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
> Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Cornelius Hamelberg [corneliushamelberg@gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2013 6:54 AM
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: For The Attention Of The Moderator
>
>
> On Thursday, 5 September 2013 10:51:28 UTC+2, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:
> You're now petitioning our kind hearted Moderator Professor Falola as a servant of Ogun<https://www.google.co.uk/#q=Ogun+(+Yoruba>  - the god of iron or Thor<https://www.google.co.uk/#q=Thor+(+Scandinavian> , ever ready with his hammer over a little bit of nothing....
> C'mon Chidi the poet, some tolerance please! Grant both yourself and others some reasonable degree of poet-ic license and the right/ freedom to let off some pent up steam (emotion)!
> What's wrong with immaculate conceptions such as "that body of thugs with PhDs"?
>  Or even that body of mugs filled with PhDs?
>  What's wrong with it raining cats and dogs?
> You know that there's some very strong language to be found in the Bible, in Dr. Johnson and in Shakespeare too...
> And dear Chidi, just in case someday you take part in the million dollar biblical quiz - and you the whiz are asked, "What is the shortest sentence in the Bible?"  (Please don't ask which Bible) but the shortest sentence in the so called "New" testamente is, "Jesus wept" – two words. The human Jesus wept and if those tears dried up or evaporated then they are still in circulation presently part of some great big cloud floating over Kaduna or ... (use your imagination<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJIB5y8ZTg>). Yes, God is everywhere – even there....
> And by the way, a happy new year to you too – Shana Tova it's the beginning of the year 5774 and May the year be sweet for all of us.....
>  We Sweden<http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/corneliushamelberg/>
>
>
>
> Moderator Sir,
>
> I have been wondering how some posts with expressions that fall far below the basic standard of decency in public discourse usually make it past the moderator's "hammer" in this tightly moderated forum. It could not have been a case of these expressions escaping the moderator's attention because they appear regularly, especially in "literary criticisms".
>
> Instead of the moderator's 'hammer" descending on whole topics, I suggest that the "hammer" should rather descend on posts with expressions like; "that body of thugs with PhDs" (reference to University lecturers in Nigeria).
>
> We can disagree and make our points without using expressions like the above.
>
> Be well sir,
>
> CAO.
>
> --
> Chidi Anthony Opara<http://www.chidianthonyopara.blogspot.com> is the Publisher of PublicInformationProjects<http://www.publicinformationprojects.blogspot.com>
>
>
>
> --
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--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu

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