Ken, Shina,
Like Esu, my guiding muse and imp, I am chuckling in the dark recesses of my hut. I don't even recall my thesis in any of this. All I said was the truth; Nigeria and Nigerians are better off under white rule. I have provided the evidence in hard dollars and in the devastation from black-on-black crime, what some euphemistically call rule. The incompetence, buffoonery and rampant corruption can not just be ignored; it states us in the face. Someone said clinically, and as a disciplined academician that he is, that colonialism did some good. If you as an academic cannot accept that, then you are a failed academic. Colonialism did some good. It doesn't sound pleasant but it did. Some folks want to truncate academic freedom, ain't happening. Let us be Obierika, let us think about these things. Apartheid did some good. Does that mean that the academics who say this want a return to hell? No. People just want to twist my words because when they see Ikhide coming, their yeye minds and brains get a heart attack! In this particular instance they were not even my words. I am not that smart; it would never occur to me to think like that. But like I said, I did go to Soweto, and I marveled at the beautiful homes, the roads, the utilities, systems built during apartheid. My mother in our village would kill to own one of those cottages that I saw in Soweto.
Anyway, Shina, good to know that you use stuff outside of tired textbooks in your classroom. That is as it should be. I was at the Achebe colloquium a year ago, had fun, a successful conference, but I met professors of literature who were still teaching 19th and 20th century crapola. One of them told me he doesn't know how to use email. Another one asked me to explain YouTube, and another had anger management issues when I suggested that what they were calling contemporary literature was ancient history, that the real contemporary literature lives and breathes free on the Internet and social media. I was s threat to his livelihood! Tufiakwa! And Ese howls with laughter! 😹
- Ikhide
- Ikhide
hi shina
the issue of colonialism and slavery
as i understand it, the abolition movement preceded colonialism. when the europeans had to decide whether to engage w africa or disengage. wasn't there a big policy struggle over that question, around the 1850s-1870s or so, with two camps--especially in england and france. there were the british traders in nigeria who wanted the govt to intervene, and others in london who were opposed to the expense. wasn't the rationale given for engagement abolition and eventually the civilizing mission?
what i can say w pretty much certainty that one of the major arguments used by the pro-engagement forces, which led to colonization, was that it was justified on the grounds of abolishing slavery. what reality that turned into we all know, the treaties, the conquests, all focused after the berlin conference. and finally the economic imperium that, in reality, collaborated with slaving practices. i've read a few books in the last years on that topic, and i alluded to one, the reincorporation of slaving practices in zanzibar so as to make profitable the clove plantations and have the taxation pay for the colony's expenses. another example is cadbury's cocao plantations on fernando po.
it is a misreading of history to ignore the ideological issues attached to the abolition movement and to the consequential economic practices of colonialism.
anyway, those are old stories that are pretty commonly known.
when my wife and i lived in cameroon in 1977-79, she worked in an architect's office with an older man who remembered, as a child, when he and his father would have to go to the market on weekends. it was during the war, and the africans were required to bring a certain quota of latex. the container broke on the way there, and when they arrived, the father was whipped as a punishment. the son remembered it, the pain, fear and humiliation, and in his adult years recounted it to my wife.
the cameroonians, in those days, alluded to the german years with some positive memories as well--the thin rail tracks were still visible, the water tower over the campus had been built by the germans. but they too whipped their colonial subjects when they disobeyed or failed to bring to their masters what was required. with time the pain was gradually forgotten, the memories became rosier. the historians know the realities and the harsh practices that accompanied the building of the rail lines.
lastly, when i first taught african lit in dakar, i used to sit at the bus stop with some old men, who recollected the old days when they had served in vietnam. one man had brought back a vietnamese wife, and they sold nems in their store there in Point E. another had a stationary shop, with a map of dien bien phu on the wall. the tirailleurs were proud of having served in the french army. the algerians, the people of madagascar, not so happy about that.
anyway, the old men told me i should be teaching their children french lit, not african. after all, they said, african lit was barely there; french had been there for hundreds of years.
i didn't need fanon to understand colonialism.
ken
On 4/4/15 5:26 AM, 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:
--
Oga Ken, I really like this analysis from both an enlightenment and pedagogical perspectives. The multidimensional complexity of the colonial enterprise will always inflect our teaching strategies.
But rather than beginning with the claim that colonialism 'abolished' slavery, isn't it correct to see colonialism as the second leg in the tragic Eurocentric trilogy beginning with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and continuing with the neo-colonial? You admit as much too.
I also like the larger picture-two hands analogy. I hear the colonialism-did-some-good argument a lot in my African Social and Political Thought class a lot. I am going to introduce my students to the Bekolo interview and Ikhide's comments. But in the final analysis, it is the larger picture that really counts in thinking about and teaching colonialism.
Adeshina Afolayan
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
Date:Fri, 3 Apr, 2015 at 11:06 pm
Subject:Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who wants a return to colonialism?
it isn't easy to combat the entire mindset of most americans and american children who were raised on cold war ideologies and then american supremacy as a natural and good thing. it is something of a shock for the children to hear that the u.s. hasn't been a beneficial, excessively generous nation, that resistance to us from latin america bespeaks a lack of gratitude, etc etc
the dominance of colonial discourse is maybe hard to stomach, but eventually not very hard to demystify. only a few intransigent students would be able to read King Leopold's Ghost without feeling complete outrage. but i think it has to be done gently. i would begin with the claim that colonialism abolished slavery, and then parse it carefully showing how forced labor and worse constituted a reinstatement of slavery, and i'd use the case of zanzibar or mali to show its reinstatement there. i'd use oyono's vie de boy to show how destructive its supposed positive targets of conversion and civilized rule actually were.
in the end, we have such a broad historical swathe to work on, we'd always win, except for maybe supremacists who couldn't be convinced of anything.
anyway, that's to the side of your question about when ikhide's provocations go off the tracks. that's his own call, his own judgment and strategy and belief. i just wanted to point out the larger picture shows a man who does more for advocating the accomplishments of african authors than most anyone i can think of. he laments the negatives in africa, but at the same time points out over and over this great author and that great author.
ok, let's say he can be a curmudgeon. cool it ikhide. we can come together on the basics.
i have one last point here. if we really want to consider, what positive accomplishments of colonialism could be cited, why do so without asking what the complete price was paid for this accomplishment. for instance, a great road was built; how many died to build it? a railroad when down to the coast, in congo brazzaville, and you could actually state how many lives per mile were paid. there were certainly well-intentioned people like di brazza; what was, in the end, french policies in the republic of congo. when you read the account of total in the congo, who wouldn't be shocked? there is the larger picture, which is why i pointed out the psychological damage. at the same time, i read, and taught, nwapa's autobiographical work, ba's une si longue lettre, where these women praised effusively their british and french teachers. what was the final cost of having imposed this educational system on africans? i cited ch hamidou kane about the two canons: the gun and the alphabet. if every right hand that gives has to be viewed alongside the left hand that takes, then we can ask what we were left with in the end. not just the one hand, but both hands count.
so here is my story on this: for years i visited the cinematheque in dakar that was housed at the french cultural center. anyone who has lived in dakar will have to sing the praises of the directors of that center who brought so much wonderful european and african culture to the community. a really wonderful treasure.
a few years ago i returned. the cinematheque was gone. i can tell you, there were irreplaceable treasures in that center, films not available anywhere else created by mahama johnson traore and other early african filmmakers. the holdings were incredible.
they had decided to end the cinematheque. i asked where the films wound up. they were dumped, gone for good. i was broken hearted.
so, unfortunately, despite the good directors, they were there to serve the french foreign policy interests in africa. they did a lot that was good. but in the final analysis, the left hand took back what the right hand had given because.... well, the hands were in the service of another.
i don't want to overstate this. the good work of the center remains commendable. there were good people who tried to give of themselves during the colonial regime--everyone knows that. but you have to see the larger picture to understand the fuller significance of their acts. that's how i see it. not all good, not all bad; but in the end, colonialism's destructiveness was enormous on so many levels it is difficult to see the good. i hope we can demonstrate this convincingly to our students because those demystifications are needed for today even more than ever.
ken
On 4/3/15 2:01 PM, Bode wrote:
The problem is that I get students who tell me all the time colonialism has done a lot of good. I just graded an essay on Ngugi's Globalectics in which my student was making that same argument but not as a provocation or from any frustration. The questions I would ask Ikhide are: Is the critique of the present only possible in relation to the negative colonial past or in relation to a positive vision of the future? Does he have a positive vision of the future? What is the line between provocation and insensitivity about colonialism? Excessive provocation can become wrongheaded and irritating at times.
On 4/3/15, 1:22 PM, "kenneth harrow" <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
--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
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