RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Olufemi Taiwo: "Africa Must be Modern” ?

What exactly is ghetto behavior? I remember Philip Curtin, the historian, a few years ago , speaking about the ghettoization of African history.
By that he simply meant that African history was now in the hands of Black historians. We were all flaming mad at that sentiment.

How are you using the term? Is it about survivalism, 'bad' manners, poverty- OR WHAT?

Pretoria via Addis Ababa



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 kwame zulu shabazz [kwameshabazz@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 9:00 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: osafoaku@indiana.edu; andohs1@southernct.edu; anthonyakinola@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Olufemi Taiwo: "Africa Must be Modern" ?

Nua, Akwasi

Ha! Ok, now I understand your usage of the Malcolm X quote. Look forward to seeing you this summer. In the meantime, I'll do what I can to avoid ghetto behavior.

Forward ever,

kzs

On Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at 4:43:00 AM UTC-5, Assensoh, Akwasi B. wrote:

Brother Kwame (kzs):



We are not far apart in our views about Brother Malcolm X. In fact, on my return from "Ni hao" kingdom (China) in July, I will later in the year make efforts to visit with you in Mississippi, after visiting some family members and in-laws in Greensburg, Louisiana, and McComb, MS, respectively.



Please, the reported quote in your response, about Malcolm's puppies/biscuits/oven analogy, seemed to distort what I was implying: that one can live in the ghetto without necessarily being "ghettoish"! Of course, I also saw the other side (from Malcolm's perspective) that an African (or a black person) being in America for "donkey" years does not make the person anything else but still an African, and those classic words need no reinterpretation!



Anyway, try to find a copy of our Greenwood Press published 2014 biography of Brother Malcolm, which is deliberately slim for campus use, unlike the massive Manning Marable biography ("Reinvention"). Of course, my co-author and I avoided sensationalism in our much slimmer but still scholarly volume (with copious notations), again unlike the Marable insinuations about Brother Malcolm X's sexuality, etc. However, just bear in mind as well that we had nothing personal against Professor Marable, who was the Chairman of the Black Studies Department at The Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, Ohio in the mid-1980s. I held my one-year postdoc in that Department and also in the OSU Political Science Department.



In his own published autobiography (written with Alex Haley's help), Brother Malcolm X was proud of his "new" Yoruba name that you used below (Omowale), and we did edify it in our biography of him, just as we would have done for your own amalgamated adopted historic full name: Kwame+Zulu+Shabazz! Of course, you also did not need to preach to the choir about Brother Malcolm X's differences with his Brother Martin, who did complement each other in a variety of ways!



Peace!



A.B. Assensoh,

Chongqing, China.

________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>] on behalf of kwame zulu shabazz [kwames...@gmail.com<javascript:>]
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 8:46 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Olufemi Taiwo: "Africa Must be Modern" ?

Ni hao, Brother Akwasi.

I, too, am an expert on Omowale Malcolm X. And, like Malcolm, I'm a Black Nationalist/Pan Africanist. I'm working on a Malcolm X project. I have had several long convos with Malcolm's nephew, Rodnell Collins in Boston (adopted son of Malcolm's senior half-sister, Ella Collins) so I would be happy to exchange ideas on Malcolm's ideology (feel free to email me: kwames...@gmail.com<javascript:>). I've also done a few interviews in Ghana for the project. For example, I've talked to Kofi Awoonor. Awoonor knew Brother Malcolm and admired him. He had consented to do an interview for my topic prior to his untimely death in Ghana.

Yes, I know the Gbedemah story. Nkrumah leveraged it to get the Volta Dam Project going. What you might not be aware of is that it still goes on today. There are a good number a towns/areas where black people are not welcome, especially here in the Deep South (note that Malcolm spent very little time in the South), but also in the North. American public schools are more segregated today<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/separate-and-unequal/> than they were forty years ago. And it is just not true that Americans simply choose where they want to live today. Starting back in the 1970s when we started integrating schools, many whites fled to suburbs and pulled their children out of public schools. Poor Americans are stuck in ghettos or rural areas. They cannot leave because American institutions are still fundamentally racist and/or classist and keeps them impoverished. Yes, I have made a personal choice to live in ghettos because there is so much work to be done here. But, to be clear, many in my community don't have a choice. My family members in Inglewood, California don't have a choice.

You said Malcolm X:

"was quoted as saying that living in the ghetto was similar to a dog, in labor, rushing into an oven for privacy in delivering its babies, which are still called puppies but not biscuits."

Sounds like you might be conflating several different quotes. The puppies/biscuits analogy was about identity. He was saying that being in America doesn't make us American--that we are still fundamentally an African people. You seem to be invoking the quote to suggest that Malcolm had a negative view of ghettos. His strongest following was in urban ghettos like Harlem, NY. Yes, he certainly spoke strongly against the conditions in ghettos and how the Nation of Islam was "cleaning up the Black Man."

However, the whole point of his work was not to abandon ghettos, but, rather, to try to change the conditions in ghettos. As Malcolm articulated, those conditions were created by white people and what he called the "White Power Structure." As for Accra, I think "glorious" might be too strong. Like West Jackson the infrastructure is extremely bad. There is lots of poverty in Accra and there is huge gap between the lifestyles of the wealthy and the poor in that city.

You also said that Malcolm and Martin fought for civil and human rights. I disagree. Malcolm rejected civil rights because he didn't believe that African people would ever get justice in the American legal system (I agree). Thus his appeal for a human rights agenda. It also important to note that unlike King, Malcolm never embraced integration. He advocated self-determination.

kzs

kzs
===
kwame zulu shabazz
email: kwame...@gmail.com<javascript:>
cell: 336-422-9577
skype: kwame zulu shabazz
twitter: https://twitter.com/kzshabazz
===
THE NEUTRAL SCHOLAR IS AN IGNOBLE MAN. Here, a man must be hot, or be accounted cold, or, perchance, something worse than hot or cold. The lukewarm and the cowardly, will be rejected by earnest men on either side of the controversy." Fredrick Douglass, "The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered" (1854).
===
EVERY ARTIST, EVERY SCIENTIST MUST DECIDE, NOW, WHERE HE STANDS. He has no
alternative. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction, in certain countries, of man's literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of national and racial superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. This struggle invades the former cloistered halls of our universities and all her seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. The artist elects to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice! I had no alternative! - Paul Robeson, speech about the Spanish Civil War at the Albert Hall, London,on 24th June 1937


On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 6:29 PM, Assensoh, Akwasi B. <aass...@indiana.edu<javascript:>> wrote:

Brother KZS {Kwame):



Today in America, it is a matter of choice to live anywhere one likes, either in a ghetto or in an elite section of Jackson, Mississippi. In the 1960s, when Dr. King and Brother Malcolm X were fighting hard for semblance of civil and human rights for Blacks and other minorities, there was no choice for black brothers and sisters. Imagine a Ghanaian cabinet member (Mr. K.A. Gbedemah), on a visit to Delaware, being denied service at an American gas station (because he was Black) for the White House to right the wrong by inviting him to the U.S. seat of power (the White House) to drink as much soda as he wished! Do you remember that sad scenario, Brother?



In terms of the ghetto analogy, Brother Malcolm X, the subject of my co-authored 2014 biography, was quoted as saying that living in the ghetto was similar to a dog, in labor, rushing into an oven for privacy in delivering its babies, which are still called puppies but not biscuits. So, Brother Kwame, remember that you can live in an American ghetto today by choice, but you need not let the ghetto live in you. Is that philosophical assertion by Brother Malcolm X clear to black brothers and sisters in today's America, who choose to live in U.S. ghettos while still wobbling in wealth?



Yes, Accra should be better than the West Jackson ghetto, in which you choose to live, because Accra -- in spite of its shortcomings -- is the glorious capital of a historic nation. PERIOD!



A.B. Assensoh, Chongqing, China.

________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>] on behalf of kwame zulu shabazz [kwames...@gmail.com<javascript:>]
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 5:50 PM

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Olufemi Taiwo: "Africa Must be Modern" ?

The "Ivory Tower" is over-rated. I've lived in American ghettos all of my life. I live in one now--West Jackson, Mississippi. Lots of crime, staggering poverty, and violence. White people avoid this part of Mississippi. Its much safer in Accra, Ghana. And I have definitely been impacted by the "brutish excesses" of American police who are instruments of the State and white power.

kzs

kzs
===
kwame zulu shabazz
email: kwame...@gmail.com<javascript:>
cell: 336-422-9577
skype: kwame zulu shabazz
twitter: https://twitter.com/kzshabazz
===
THE NEUTRAL SCHOLAR IS AN IGNOBLE MAN. Here, a man must be hot, or be accounted cold, or, perchance, something worse than hot or cold. The lukewarm and the cowardly, will be rejected by earnest men on either side of the controversy." Fredrick Douglass, "The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered" (1854).
===
EVERY ARTIST, EVERY SCIENTIST MUST DECIDE, NOW, WHERE HE STANDS. He has no
alternative. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction, in certain countries, of man's literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of national and racial superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. This struggle invades the former cloistered halls of our universities and all her seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. The artist elects to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice! I had no alternative! - Paul Robeson, speech about the Spanish Civil War at the Albert Hall, London,on 24th June 1937


On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 9:34 AM, Anunoby, Ogugua <Anun...@lincolnu.edu<javascript:>> wrote:

"It is only those who have not tasted the nastiness and the brutish excesses of the Neanderthals we call leaders that can afford to stay in their ivory towers and preach to the masses about the valor of 'self-reliance, national liberation, and the need to sacrifice individual freedoms for the. collective good." FO



I agree.

I will add that there is scholarship and there is scholarship. What use though is scholarship that is apparently oblivious of the value and quality of all human life, and uncritical and undiscerning of the injustice, pain, suffering, and in some cases death, that so-called leaders unconscionably visit on a majority of their fellow citizens ( especially the poor and the weak) in the pursuit of lofty, spurious, self-serving goals and objectives. Such leaders mostly destroy their country while claiming to be building it up.

A leader in my opinion loses their legitimacy and utility as leader when they become their country's single most important problem. Isaias Afwerki (IA) has become such a problem for Eritrea. That country will take decades to find her way back to enlightened shared purpose even after IA is gone.



oa

oa



From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:> [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>] On Behalf Of Folu Ogundimu
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 8:38 AM

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Olufemi Taiwo: "Africa Must be Modern" ?



Thank you, Brother A. B. for the eloquent testimony. It is only those who have not tasted the nastiness and the brutish excesses of the Neanderthals we call leaders that can afford to stay in their ivory towers and preach to the masses about the valor of 'self-reliance, national liberation, and the need to sacrifice individual freedoms for the. collective good.



Scholars like Pablo have no moral compass to face up to fascists and apostles of Stalinist terror. I had much respect for his erudite contributions to this list until his gutless attack on my integrity in defense of one of Africa's most reprehensible regimes. For such people, I have nothing but contempt.



Cheers. Enjoy China, brother



F.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:35 PM, Assensoh, Akwasi B. <aass...@indiana.edu<javascript:>> wrote:

Well said, Brother Folu!



I thought that President-for-Life Kamuzu Banda was the last shameless African Dictator, who sold his soul to the devil (including his Malawian fiefdom trading with apartheid South Africa) in order to have the leverage to remain in power for life!



Your eloquent words about brutal dictators reminded me of when some Ghanaian diplomats paid thousands of dollars for NEW YORK TIMES and other major newspaper advertisements in praise of I.K. Achempong's illiterate and brutal military dictatorship. That was the very time, in 1972, that Acheampong's military regime had forcibly arrested and detained our Business Manager (Mr. Ofori) and me (A.B.) as the Deputy Editor of THE ASHANTI PIONEER newspaper in Kumasi, Ghana solely because of a published editorial questioning massive corruption in and brutal dictatorship of the relatively young military regime.



Speaking of brutality and torture? In Acheampong's military detention, our hairs were forcibly shaved and some prisoners (including Mr. Ofori) had soldiers stepping on their private parts (to show them where power lies), whereby some of us came out of military detention with swollen private parts.



Mr. Ofori (with his swollen private parts) eventually died from the brutal and tortuous wounds after our release from Acheampong's National Redemption Council (NRC) military detention. Thanks to Amnesty International, Ghana Journalists Association, International P.E.N. and other international agencies, which campaigned for our release. I left Ghana there after, and I never went back to live in Ghana, hence Professors Achebe, Soyinka and several other International P.E.N. writers' association members often referred to me as "Ancient Exile".



Well, some scholars, who researched in Ghana, also praised Acheampong's regime and what they saw as the wisdom in its so-called "Union Government" proposal for Acheampong to foist himself on Ghanaians as a civilian President. That was also in spite of the regime's brutality! Therefore, it was no wonder that, in WEST AFRICA Magazine of London, I openly and heartily wrote to welcome the military regime that swiftly unseated the Acheamong/Akuffo military leadership and paid them back in their own deserving political coin!



Most certainly, brutality or torture of citizens in any fashion and anywhere in Africa is unacceptable!

A.B. Assensoh, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.

________________________________

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>] on behalf of Folu Ogundimu [ogun...@gmail.com<javascript:>]
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 4:30 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Olufemi Taiwo: "Africa Must be Modern" ?

Pablo:

This is your first contribution to this debate and it is shamefully disappointing. I am insulted that you will refer to me as 'someone who has ceased dialogue as a way of avoiding discussion.'



I have a name, signed my piece, made my principled objection to the massive violation of people's rights by uncouth brutal dictators. It is OK for you to serve as an apologist for the regime because you have privileged access to the country, you do not wish to endanger your own access , you have no family members who suffer at the hands of the 'Vagabonds In Power' as our Fela of blessed memory would say.



Chill, my brother. Defend the indefensible, sell your soul to the devil.



Good luck



Folu

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 15, 2015, at 3:12 PM, Segun Ogungbemi <segun...@gmail.com<javascript:>> wrote:

oa,

A country that denies her people of their freedoms and rights is a threat to humanity. What is going on in Eritrea is indefensible. And it is shameful.

Prof. Segun Ogungbemi

On Jun 15, 2015, at 4:28 AM, "Anunoby, Ogugua" <Anun...@lincolnu.edu<javascript:>> wrote:

That individual rights are denied or unequal does not mean that the rights are not there. If they were not there, they could not be denied and described as unequal.

The case you make for the denial of individual rights in Eritrea was made in Mao's China, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Fascist Spain, and the Soviet Union to name a few countries. It is now recognized in the countries that the denial was wrong. It served little good purpose at the end of the day in the sense that same or even better outcomes could have been achieved without the denial.

The national liberation you claim for Eritrea as excuse for abuses by the state is a delusion because the greater threat Eritrea faces is posed by its authoritarian government and not her neighbors. That government is a threat to its people and Eritrea's neighbors.



oa

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:> [mailto:usaafric...@go<javascript:>,glegroups.com<http://glegroups.com>] On Behalf Of kwame zulu shabazz
Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2015 8:04 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Olufemi Taiwo: "Africa Must be Modern" ?



OA,



As I noted previously, I would say Taiwo gets this thing about individual rights wrong or just partially right. To my thinking, African American appeals for justice were more about collective rights than individual rights. To be clear, I'm not saying that individual rights should be abandoned. I am saying that, in some instances, collective rights are foregrounded. Wartime is one such instance. The importance of collective rights was also the point of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.



And where on the planet do these vaunted "individual rights" exist? Here in the western world rights have always been unequal. Indigenous people, Black people, Brown people don't have "individual rights" in the USA. Kaleif Browder, a young African American boy, was held for three years<http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/kalief-browder-1993-2015> at one of the most violent prisons in the USA, Rikers, without being charged. He committed suicide. Native Americans are at the bottom<http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/13/1-in-4-native-americans-and-alaska-natives-are-living-in-poverty/> of every quality-of-life indicator.



I am unclear as to what "human history" you are referring to. And I disagree that the Eritrean struggle for liberation was "delusional." I have not even heard Eritreans who are critical of the regime make that claim. Or perhaps you mean delusional as in a creeping disenchantment post-struggle a la Armah's "Beautyful Ones?"



Time will tell.



Presently, Eritrea's status is precarious. I think that is obvious to all--hardly "bogey." Here in the USA "we" have sacrifice supposed "individual rights" for a regime of mass surveillance cloaked as "national security" (Rand Paul made minor dent in the Patriot Act, but that was more political than principle). But surveillance has always been a fact of life for African Americans.



On Jun 14, 2015, at 6:54 PM, Anunoby, Ogugua <Anun...@lincolnu.edu<javascript:>> wrote:



"... In such instance individual freedom must be sacrificed for national liberation."

kzs



Is the case being made that the end justifies the means?

What national liberation? Who is it for? What is its cost including shame to Eritreans?

Is the suggestion that national liberation is not possible except individual freedom is denied? Of course it is.

It is usually autocratic political regimes that employ the bogey of national security to legitimize the denial of citizens' personal freedom- a fundamental human right.

Samuel Johnson was right when he said that " the flag is the refuge of a scoundrel."

Human history is likely to repeat itself in Eritrea. A majority of Eritreans will sooner or later acknowledge the wanton waste of blood, time, and treasure they endured for the delusion of national liberation, if they do not already.



oa





From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:> [mailto:usaaf...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>] On Behalf Of kwame zulu shabazz
Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2015 4:21 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Olufemi Taiwo: "Africa Must be Modern" ?



Folu,



I stand my statement. Essentially what is at issue is the realpolitik of revolution. And there are just too many Eritreans challenging these hyperbolic charges that Eritrea = Nazi Germany to ignore. Yes, young people are fleeing Eritrea. But thats true in many parts of Africa. Yes, there are for

...

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