RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who wants a return to colonialism?

Ken,
I hope you are not underestimating our intelligence.

You can pivot in the direction you choose- when you
choose to do so, and for whatever reason - but don't attempt to
drag everyone along with you.

I think one can tell the difference between Naipaul and Soyinka.

GE

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow [harrow@msu.edu]
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2015 1:22 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who wants a return to colonialism?

dear folks,
it would be good to read bekolo's piece, and to rethink the attacks on ikhide
both are being provocateurs. neither is actually praising colonialism or white rule, but critiquing the power structures and elite ruling classes of today. our responses of defensiveness-how bad colonialism really was--moves away from the point of the critique, which is the failures of current ruling classes and elites.
in bekolo's piece, he alludes to the failures of national liberation, not only because of failed leadership and exploitative rulers, but also because of the larger world system within which the constraints on african states are cast. he writes:
"JPBO: In this age of multinational corporations, what government can reasonably claim to run its economy? The concept of self-determination
has become little more than a political weapon in the hands of a corrupt ruling elite claiming to face off with Western powers, while consigning its people to an ideological prison and robbing them blind."

but at the same time, he excoriates the failures at home:
" The white man may be gone, but the pillage and the oppression he brought are still there. That, we kept. The people in power now are proud of this government, this omnipotent blunderbuss of a thing they didn't even create, whose sole goal was to oppress and exploit. In the eyes of this elite of ours, the country is a cake there for the eating, not a common project, something we all work at together."

the rest of it--the call for writes to come back, is jokingly presented as provocation. the serious call for help is not framed as a return to colonialism, but for an honest collaboration, under african rule, and not subordination. he writes, " that we need all the outside help we can get. And let's let the people decide how much of that help we want and if and when we want it to stop."

in that context, the question of who decides, say, how much chinese business should be welcomed, is joined to the question of who should be ruling, and for the good of whom. when he writes, "let the people decide how much of that help we want," the question has to be, how does the people act to decide. and that's the rub.
we can say the election that just took place is a start--but hardly the end, hardly the goal. will the new govt be an instrument of the people, or vice versa?

anyway, anyone who's been reading ikhide, or who knows bekolo's work, understands their real position is one of radical critique. at times it is hard to hear it because the acrimony can be so acute. but that too we can understand, when disappointment is so strong.
to defend ikhide, and my point here, i would ask, is there actually any stronger advocate of african writing around? not imitative, not eurocentric, not "world" literature, but african literature?
ken

On 4/3/15 10:44 AM, 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:

Around here, I generally do not engage in "dialogue", I say my piece and move on. My time is precious, I find that people are holding on to ideologies, prejudices and opinions that have atrophied and calcified their minds. It is too late for them to learn new tricks. I am finding also that age does that to you.

It is intellectual dishonesty or supreme deftness to suggest that anyone that says that Nigerians were better off during colonial times is calling for the return of the white man. That's silly. If you free me from a bad marriage, marry me, and you then proceed to treat me worse than the previous marriage, I have every right to tell you that I was better off in my previous marriage. That does not mean I want to go back to my old hell. There are other options and I should keep looking. The new black on black colonialism, apartheid, slavery that poor blacks are enduring in the hands of black rulers and their intellectual sidekicks is especially painful. From South Africa to Nigeria, some of the worst atrocities to happen to our people have been under black rule. The data is right there. I was born on the eve of our independence, come to my village, the only things standing outside of ugly mansions er country homes built by the new thieves are relics of colonialism, broken roads and wate
r taps that have been dry since the sixties. How is talking about that yearning for colonialism or apartheid? It is at the very least a stinging rebuke of our collective failure as thinkers and leaders. Let us just admit it from the comfort of the white institutions we live eat and breathe in- we have failed Africa. There is no need parsing my words. The truth stares us in the face.

You sit here in the West and get defensive all day about your humanity; in the process you have elevated yourself beyond the limits of your competence. You are in bondage and even those back home are in bondage, everything is mimicry of the West, no ideological core, nothing. You don't believe me? Take your white plumber to Nigeria. The gates of Aso Rock will open for you as soon as they see his whiteness! Be there forming superior. Nonsense.

And for the record, this is what I said earlier about all of us. We should accept responsibility for our mess. The white man is the least of our problems; we are the problem! It is time to star thinking and acting differently. Right now we are the caricature we dread.

- Ikhide
------------------------------------------
Visiting South Africa's Johannesburg in 2005 left me confused. I expected a joyful place, ringing with the bountiful fruits of freedom from the horror that was apartheid. Instead, I saw in the eyes of the poor, fear and despair and one wondered if they knew the difference between the past and the present - or if there indeed was any difference. At this conference, poor blacks served the participants with a certain deference and trepidation that stayed with me all through. The Black and White conference participants seemed fine with it. What seemed obvious was that the black ruling class had merely mounted the saddle of the former oppressors and were now using the same state-sanctioned instruments of oppression to oppress the poor - and amass power and wealth. I looked around me and it just seemed that white on black oppression had been replaced with black on black oppression. No compassion.

This horrific dysfunction is repeated in virtually all black African nations. The poor in my village are blissfully unaware that they were freed from colonialism; huge swathes of the village look like a place time forgot. Take those nations freed from colonialism; not much in terms of the culture and structure has changed. All over the land, the intellectual and ruling elite swagger like drunks, armed with pie charts and PowerPoint slides, mouthing bullshit as the poor ferry them from broken hovel to broken hovel on their backs. No one holds them accountable because they own the bully pulpit.

It is as if the warriors merely took over from the white man, shoved the poor into "boys' quarters" and ghettoes and continued the looting and brigandage. In the case of apartheid South Africa, the oppressors came to stay with their families and so they built robust structures and institutions for their enjoyment and use. The colonialists came, ruled as if from afar, built temporary structures - which was fine since their families were back home attending real schools and being taken care of by real hospitals. Each time they got sick, they would fly back home to have their rashes treated. Today's post colonial African ruler is exactly the same as his white ancestor. His families are abroad and each time he has a cough, he flies home to the West to be taken care of in real hospitals. There is no investment in his society - because he does not believe in his society.

The dysfunction is now being aggravated by the uncritical adoption of a form of crippling governance, what I call democracy without accountability, an aping of what happens in the West. Outside of slavery and AIDS, nothing has hurt African nations more than decades of looting in the name of democracy. Why are things the way they are? Why are we like this? Until we confront our challenges with real honesty and rigor, African nations will continue to be the butt of jokes in the international community of nations.

We are headed in the wrong direction. That much is obvious, let's not lie about things. Our intellectual elite must stop bleating inanities and admit that there has been a rank failure to lead from their end. Our intellectuals have become the problem; lazy and loud parrots of lies and obfuscation all so they can feed their mouths. All I see is mimicry, and loud parroting of stolen ideas. In the absence of a robust infrastructure; of home-grown accountability, in the absence of a real willingness to work, our nations will remain caricature nations. We must think about these things.

And no, I do not agree with Jean-Pierre Bekolo Obama. A return to colonialism would be silly. But read his interview; he has thought hard about these things.

http://chimurengachronic.co.za/in-over-our-heads/

- Ikhide




--
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<mailto:harrow@msu.edu>

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