Monday, October 21, 2013

RE: Fw: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Publishers Weekly Review of Okey Ndibe's forthcoming book, Foreign Gods, Inc.

OGA KEN writes "that the engines of colonialism are not always 100% oppressive." I take this to mean that some aspects of colonialism were "humanizing," carried by some imperial vehicles of egalitarianism and inclusion. Agreed, but one has to delineate intended or planned and unintended or accidental by-products of positive effects of colonial rule. For instance, the European imperialists introduced "Western education" whose products - the educated elites - championed anticolonialism in the aftermath of the Second World War. Absolutely great and positive, but we need to make clear that the imperialists did not set out to establish schools so that in the end, the products of the schools would gain conscientization and empowerment to uproot colonialism. Then again, what was the nature of African initiatives in Dakar?

 

Kwabena 

 


From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of kenneth harrow [harrow@msu.edu]
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 3:57 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Fw: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Publishers Weekly Review of Okey Ndibe's forthcoming book, Foreign Gods, Inc.

dear ikhide, gloria,
much as i love to agree with folks, there is a real issue in here, that now maybe we can address, at least a little.
what does it mean to say: "African literature owes its prominence and survival to the West, and unlike most, I am deeply appreciative to the West and to the white man for keeping our stories alive. It has come at a huge cost though. Relying on the West to give us stature, resources and structure has been humiliating on many levels. The most important has been what's been and being lost in translation. On the other hand, what is the writer to do?"

i want to suggest at least two things:
--the "west" to which this debt is being owed can't be simply some thing called "the West and the white man" as if there were no africa in the west.
you can make that claim if you want, and i am not going to go back to egypt to dispute it, but there is no west without its others, no sense of itself as the Europe/Land of the White Man, without its black colonies and its colonial Other.
if that sounds a bit much, i refer you to gikandi's last two books, where this point is expanded enormously with the claim that the material basis of the wealth of the west was not only built on slave labor, but that the Idea of the West was equally grounded in that relationship of master to slave. further, there  master may have called himself white, but it was a lot more than skin color that gave that word meaning: it is like all superstructure terms, one grounded in a doubled cause-effect relationship to a material base.
i am sorry to become a prof here, but i want to expand this beyond the point of dependency of the master on the slave and the slave's status and position as other that gives the master a place to occupy. who was the master, in this relationship, when it came to african literature? what was achebe's role w heinemann, after all? editor of the aws series. not alone, and not for the life of the series, but enough to have a powerful hand in shaping it.
who were the publishers of mongo beti in paris???? not of camara laye, but beti? and of the bulk of what was to become african literature for our generation? it was presence africaine, with african and caribbean publishers, editors.
who was the white man who directed lilyan kesteloot's pen when she wrote the first book on negritude? or even who directed sartre's pen when he wrote that famous preface to black orpheus? was senghor not a driving force, or cesaire, or diop, or a generation who were not mere passive recipients of white man's largesse. and after all, where did lilyan live? whom did she marry? where was she based? cameroon, the congo, dakar, for decades, till she became a fixture there. was she "the west and the white man" or some other kind of other?
who shaped the press that soyinka published in ? what shaped that body of literature.

i don't think that this, the heritage of colonialism, can be reduced to a black/white, all negative/all positive position, as we all had assumed during our years of embracing the revolution. during the revolution, we have to accept the logic of fanon, or we can't embrace a struggle. but we are in the aftermath of struggle now, and have to acknowledge things we couldn't before: that the engines of the revolution have their own hiccups, flaws, and even catastrophic moments (one of which, for me, was revealed when i learned that the anc tortured its opponents); and that the engines of colonialism are not always 100% oppressive, as is seen in the french cultural center in dakar, a beacon of glorious culture work, or in the agencies that financed african cinema. the ideological use that france made, and makes, of supporting african culture might be annoying; we can call it a mixed blessing, but that is my cry to ikhide and gloria: a mixed blessing, a mixed curse. let's not throw out the baby with the bath water
ken

On 10/21/13 2:05 PM, Ikhide wrote:
LOL! SMH. Wetin concern agbero with overload? I am sure Professor Gloria Emeagwali and Ikhide were married in the first life. It must have been the war of the roses, because Gloria is still pursuing Ikhide everywhere he goes, taunting him, jeering at him.
 
Abeg madam, remove hand from my shirt, I nor fit fight! I nor wan marry! I am happily married sef! Na by force? Shuo!
 
Abeg, Gloria, I kneel down beg you, leave me alone, I nor wan marry! Let's just be friends!
 
*cycles away slowly*
 
ps.
 
I hate this new yahoomail!
 
- Ikhide
 
Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide




On Monday, October 21, 2013 1:42 PM, "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:
"I am deeply appreciative to the West and to the white man for keeping our stories alive." Ikhide
 
I hope you are appreciative of the East, too, for giving the paper on which the books are written
and  maybe the printed word, too. (China etc.). No offense to Guttenberg but the Asians did it first.
 You also have to be appreciative of the Arabs (Syrians/Lebanese) for the alphabet they passed on to
the Greeks and Romans.
 
Be grateful to the Syrian –American, Steve Jobs,  co-founder of  Apple Computer
and  Mark Dean, the African – American inventor-   for contributions to  the PC… …..
that we use to access the internet.
 
And the internet itself? Well Philip Emeagwali said he invented it- and so did Al Gore.
But that's another story. Ha Ha.
 
But most of all don't forget to be thankful -   for the 300 years of  unpaid slave  labor that helped to
build the Western world.
 
Prof. Falola keep writing your books. We shall consult them.
 
GE
………………………………………………………………………
 
 
 
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 11:01 AM
Subject: Fw: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Publishers Weekly Review of Okey Ndibe's forthcoming book, Foreign Gods, Inc.
 
Ken, I will die without writing a book. I am too ashamed to publish at home (our publishing houses are mostly giant staplers), and too embarrassed to publish in the West (I am the other, they will italicize my world). As we say in my village, "it doesn't worth it!"
 
That is pretty much what I said on Facebook yesterday. African literature owes its prominence and survival to the West, and unlike most, I am deeply appreciative to the West and to the white man for keeping our stories alive. It has come at a huge cost though. Relying on the West to give us stature, resources and structure has been humiliating on many levels. The most important has been what's been and being lost in translation. On the other hand, what is the writer to do? Hand over a loved work to the giant staplers that call themselves publishing houses in say, Nigeria? I don't know, we may be stuck. Or maybe not. You should see the awesome works of African writers on the Internet. The Internet is fast becoming the publisher of choice for most writers of African extraction. There is hope.
 
Globalization has been great for us. Whoever says there is a digital divide does not know squat. Be well.
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
 
 
On Sunday, October 20, 2013 12:55 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
congrats to okey.
i wish okey, or ikhide, or someone knowledgeable about the publishing industry, would give us a comment on the choice of okey to go with this press. i would like to know, at least briefly, how such a choice to opt for this press would compare with choosing a nigerian press.
i want  it clear that this is not a reproach, but rather an attempt to understand better how globalization is framing these kinds of decisions.
all i gather, going to soho's website, is that it is a small, hip new press. i don't know what the options in nigeria would be; i don't know if by publishing with soho it won't be readily available in nigeria, or africa, but rather would be going for a western set of readers? are there nigerian presses being distributed here in the states that would be attractive to writers like okey?
i look forward to reading your book okey, wherever  it comes out!
ken
On 10/20/13 12:07 PM, Ikhide wrote:
 
Congratulations, Okey...
 
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
 
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michigan state university
department of english
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east lansing, mi 48824
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Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 11:01 AM
Subject: Fw: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Publishers Weekly Review of Okey Ndibe's forthcoming book, Foreign Gods, Inc.
 
Ken, I will die without writing a book. I am too ashamed to publish at home (our publishing houses are mostly giant staplers), and too embarrassed to publish in the West (I am the other, they will italicize my world). As we say in my village, "it doesn't worth it!"
 
That is pretty much what I said on Facebook yesterday. African literature owes its prominence and survival to the West, and unlike most, I am deeply appreciative to the West and to the white man for keeping our stories alive. It has come at a huge cost though. Relying on the West to give us stature, resources and structure has been humiliating on many levels. The most important has been what's been and being lost in translation. On the other hand, what is the writer to do? Hand over a loved work to the giant staplers that call themselves publishing houses in say, Nigeria? I don't know, we may be stuck. Or maybe not. You should see the awesome works of African writers on the Internet. The Internet is fast becoming the publisher of choice for most writers of African extraction. There is hope.
 
Globalization has been great for us. Whoever says there is a digital divide does not know squat. Be well.
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
 
 
On Sunday, October 20, 2013 12:55 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
congrats to okey.
i wish okey, or ikhide, or someone knowledgeable about the publishing industry, would give us a comment on the choice of okey to go with this press. i would like to know, at least briefly, how such a choice to opt for this press would compare with choosing a nigerian press.
i want  it clear that this is not a reproach, but rather an attempt to understand better how globalization is framing these kinds of decisions.
all i gather, going to soho's website, is that it is a small, hip new press. i don't know what the options in nigeria would be; i don't know if by publishing with soho it won't be readily available in nigeria, or africa, but rather would be going for a western set of readers? are there nigerian presses being distributed here in the states that would be attractive to writers like okey?
i look forward to reading your book okey, wherever  it comes out!
ken
On 10/20/13 12:07 PM, Ikhide wrote:
 
Congratulations, Okey...
 
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
 
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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
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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ikhide
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 11:01 AM
To: Kenn Harrow; USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Fw: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Publishers Weekly Review of Okey Ndibe's forthcoming book, Foreign Gods, Inc.
 
Ken, I will die without writing a book. I am too ashamed to publish at home (our publishing houses are mostly giant staplers), and too embarrassed to publish in the West (I am the other, they will italicize my world). As we say in my village, "it doesn't worth it!" 
 
That is pretty much what I said on Facebook yesterday. African literature owes its prominence and survival to the West, and unlike most, I am deeply appreciative to the West and to the white man for keeping our stories alive. It has come at a huge cost though. Relying on the West to give us stature, resources and structure has been humiliating on many levels. The most important has been what's been and being lost in translation. On the other hand, what is the writer to do? Hand over a loved work to the giant staplers that call themselves publishing houses in say, Nigeria? I don't know, we may be stuck. Or maybe not. You should see the awesome works of African writers on the Internet. The Internet is fast becoming the publisher of choice for most writers of African extraction. There is hope.
 
Globalization has been great for us. Whoever says there is a digital divide does not know squat. Be well.
 
- Ikhide
 
Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
 
 
On Sunday, October 20, 2013 12:55 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
congrats to okey.
i wish okey, or ikhide, or someone knowledgeable about the publishing industry, would give us a comment on the choice of okey to go with this press. i would like to know, at least briefly, how such a choice to opt for this press would compare with choosing a nigerian press.
i want  it clear that this is not a reproach, but rather an attempt to understand better how globalization is framing these kinds of decisions.
all i gather, going to soho's website, is that it is a small, hip new press. i don't know what the options in nigeria would be; i don't know if by publishing with soho it won't be readily available in nigeria, or africa, but rather would be going for a western set of readers? are there nigerian presses being distributed here in the states that would be attractive to writers like okey?
i look forward to reading your book okey, wherever  it comes out!
ken
On 10/20/13 12:07 PM, Ikhide wrote:
- Ikhide
 
Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
 
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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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--   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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