Thanks for this intervention, Professor Emeagwali. An article I wrote in my grammar column on August 3, 2014 titled "5 Words Native English Speakers Never Ever Use for Themselves" might interest you.
-- Snippet: There are certain words that native English speakers in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand liberally use only for people they perceive to be culturally and racially inferior to them. I call them vocabularies of racial differentiation and exclusion. In this article I am concerned only with words whose racial "othering" is so subtle that most linguistically undiscerning people don't notice it. I must add that modern native English speakers who use these words aren't racist or intentionally offensive; they are just subconsciously influenced by their socio-linguistic environments. 1. Chief. Most English dictionaries define this word as the head of a "tribe" or "clan." That's why it's also rendered as "tribal chief." Since Europeans—or at least contemporary Europeans—have no "tribes" (see the entry on "tribe" below), they have no "chiefs." Only nonwhite people do. What Europeans had or have are "kings." But a little more context is needed to unpack the ethnocentrism of the term. I recently read an 1821 British Foreign Office document titled Correspondence with Foreign Courts Regarding Execution of Treaties Contracted. On page 110 of the document, the reader finds that the British colonial government actually went out of its way to purposively discourage people in their African and Asian colonies from calling their monarchs "kings." King, the document says, is reserved only for a British monarch. Monarchs in the colonies should just be called "chiefs." If the chiefs enjoy enduring historic prestige among their people, they might be called "paramount chiefs," but never kings. An Indian "chief" Nigerians have internalized this nomenclatural discrimination and call their monarchs "chiefs." This is especially true in northern Nigeria where non-Muslim—or non-Emirate— traditional rulers are called "chiefs" and their spheres of traditional influence are called "chiefdoms." In southern Nigeria "chief" is chiefly prefixed to the name of a traditional title holder. (See my June 15, 2014 article titled "A Pragmatic Analysis of 'Emir,' 'Sarki,' 'Oba' and 'Chief' in Nigerian English.") Won't it be nice, in the interest of linguistic equity, to prefix "Chief" to the names of these European monarchs: the Chief of England, the Chief of Denmark, the Chief of Norway, the Chief of Spain, the Chief of Sweden, the Chief of the Netherlands, the Chief of Belgium, etc.?
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com
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"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 9:48 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:
Why do we continue to use the virulent word 'witchdoctor'?
This is a toxic word that racist colonialists
invented for Africa.
For other parts of the world, for the same phenomenon,
they use the word 'shaman' and 'medicine men'.
For Europe itself they use the term 'psychic', 'diviner' etc.
Let us elevate our discourse.
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
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: HOW A NIGERIAN WITCHDOCTOR, SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS IN JAIL, CONCOCTED SUPERNATURAL POWERS FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS
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*
* HOW A NIGERIAN WITCHDOCTOR, SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS IN JAIL, CONCOCTED SUPERNATURAL POWERS FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS<http://africansuntimes.com/2015/05/how-a-nigerian-witchdoctor-sentenced-to-14-years-in-jail-concocted-supernatural-powers-for-drug-traffickers/>
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* MUGABE REFUSES TO SHAKE HANDS WITH XENOPHOBIC KING ZWELITHINI<http://africansuntimes.com/2015/05/mugabe-refuses-to-shake-hands-with-xenophobic-king-zwelithini/>
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