RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Freedom to be our African selves

Oga Ken:
I am sure that some of us are cautious in engaging in debates about this topic because of the fear of being tagged homophobic. Then again, I have always been in the trenches of controversial topics. Now, how many people in the world, let us say Africa, are/were impacted by Kant, Mudimbe, and Morrison? This laundry list of villains and heroes/heroines comes from your own academic worldview. As much as one supports rights and freedoms for all, irrespective of sexual orientation, etc. don't you think that the 28-year old African deserves to be re/educated by you rather than unleashing rhetorical grenades from above, specifically an assumed superior position, typical of the Western home-grown tradition. The West didn't get up one night to accept homosexuality. Generous dissent, consensus building, and holistic education are what have transformed how homosexuality is constructed and perceived today in the West. Don't you think that similar approaches are what we need to bring to the African scene? Of course, you may talk about leap-frogging the "problem" because it has been solved elsewhere. The Akans of Ghana, great philosophers, would tell you that when the frog wanted to leap like a monkey, the frog broke its legs because it lacked the practiced and cultivated steps of the monkey.  
Kwabena

 

 

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Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 17:04:18 -0600
From: harrow@msu.edu
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Freedom to be our African selves

the germans gave us hitler, but they also gave us kant
the congolese gave us mobutu, but they also gave us mudimbe
the nigerians gave us abacha, but they also gave us fela
the americans gave us bush, but they also gave us toni morrison
let's see: the south africans gave us botha but they also gave us mandela

now, olu, i don't know what you are giving us, but it doesn't really seem to work in terms of rhetoric or logic. i think you want to give us museveni as a brave hero, but i ain't buying it.
ken

On 3/4/14 4:29 PM, Olu Abejide wrote:

I am a 28-year-old African male. well, this profiling may not sound relevant in our everyday lives in this part of the world; maybe elsewhere, too.
However, the profiling may help my interlocutors understand the background that colours my judgments and, chiefly, my writings, for better or for worse.
Of course, I did not choose to be born in, and belong to, Africa but do not consider it either a biological or geographical error or aberration, Lucifer Mandengu-style.
I am an African, as Thabo Mbeki would put it.
That is quite important especially when tackling issues relating to African existence as some people may probably get it twisted.
Writing is one of the simplest ways to court controversy.
Sometimes I court it inadvertently because of my being an African male, which condition predisposes me to certain worldviews which may not be an easy swallow for others.
That is why such issues as the recent Ugandan law that prohibits homosexuality, and in particular the defiance shown by President Yoweri Museveni, capture my imagination.
I cannot help but admire Museveni for his bravery and his moral uprightness in light of the bullying from Western countries that even threatened to withhold aid from this “poor African country”.
The surfeiting love shown by the west to Africa in recent times on the issue of gay rights follows a well-worn trajectory.
They gave us slavery.
They gave us colonialism.
They gave us neo-colonialism.
Now it is gay rights and these kind people, in showing us the way, will not give us aid if we do not accept homosexuality! Read More

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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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