Sunday, October 25, 2015

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Intervention

Okey:

A brilliant response!

My intervention is always driven by the need for peace, the protection of the poor, and the warning to scholars to be responsible.

Let us factor the process into your argument, the long process of building enduring institutions. The post-colonial state has not been successful in doing this, and has built on colonial inheritances.

Read my statement along with No.

5.     Our cultures are in transition, and there are those who profit from the  maintenance of the old. That profit may generate their conflicts.

Many of what we want and wish for will not happen overnight—we have to work for it as a process, and hope for the emergence of a vibrant citizenship. The opportunity we are losing in this forum is not to build alliances and networks that are not shaped by ethnicity.

TF


Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)


From: Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sunday, October 25, 2015 at 4:52 PM
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Intervention

"If the Ondo people say they must have only one King, let it be, if only to protect the poor and the powerless, and call the leaders of groups and associations by other names, Chairman, President, etc. I am a Nigerian in Ondo, not an Ondo man, and this difference has to be respected. If they celebrate their Ogun festival, if I cannot join them, that should not be time when I will bring my Ibadan festival to their doors. They have the right to be angry" --- Prof. Toyin Falola.

1) As someone who has been called names or had innuendos unjustly hauled at me before on this forum, I couldn't agree more with Oga Falola's intervention about the need for civil discourse.

2) I do, however, wish to take issues with portions of Prof. Falola's take on the "Republic of two thousand kings," especially the ones I've excerpted above.

As the Eze Ndi Igbo controversy raged, what continued to exercise my mind was this question: Why would or do Igbos in Akure need to have an Eze ("monarch, leader, spokes persons--take your pick) of their own in that city or territory? Is the Eze Ndi Igbo different from the Sarkin Hausa in Owerri or the Sarkin Garki, Okigwe? Is the title or purpose different from the Yoruba Oba in Owerri which position has been in existence since the 1920s when Shell Petroleum Corp established its first-ever headquarters in Nigeria right there in Owerri (ever heard of "Shell Camp", Owerri?)? In short, why would a group of Nigerian citizens of one ethnicity in another part of Nigeria dominated or "owned" by another ethnic group feel the need to have a "monarch" of their own? 

Two answers immediately come to my mind. One is the incomplete or unequal citizenship that has been the bane of all efforts supposedly geared towards creating social cohesion in Nigeria (and, indeed, much of post-colonial Africa). Our "one Nigerianess" is always defined by our ethnic identities that have been officially rendered irrevocable. The other answer is the frightening speed at which neo-medieval impositions and/or assimilation is ravaging the country while we pretend to pursue "secularist" and "modern" aspirations, even as we fail to grasp the contradictions. I'm referring to the apparent perfunctory assimilation of socio-economic and power structures similar to what obtained in the European "Dark Ages" of pervasive insecurity and which made recourse to self-help or the protection of rapidly multiplying "war lords" imperative as a matter of survival. Any wonder why those of us who are otherwise well-schooled in the liberal arts and sciences and who boast impeccable credentials as "democracy and human rights activists" would break your skull if you question why you should be somebody else's "subject" in a Republic? Not only that, being a "chief" seems to have become the crowning moment in the careers of many an academic in our neck of the woods. Why should the auto parts trader in Akure or Oturkpo be different, if in the Antonio Gramscian perspective, the intelligentsia are championing or legitimizing this pernicious brand of cultural hegemony that advances the interests of ruling elite?

Part of the reasons for our incomplete and/or unequal citizenship (hence, or social cohesion conundrum) is the colonial policy of defining and drawing ethnic identities in stone whereas these same identities have always been fluid in the same "Africa" we so fiercely claim to defend and celebrate in the Diaspora. This is why I am puzzled that Prof. Falola, our own Giant of African history, would make the following statement: "I am a Nigerian in Ondo, not an Ondo man, and this difference has to be respected." I'm not sure why, like the Flanders ultra-nationalist who do not foresee ever sharing their ethnicity with a French Belgian, Prof. Falola does not realize that he seems to have foreclosed the possibility--and the reality in many cases on the ground, even though some of us privileged intellectuals refuse to accept it--of cultural hybridization, assimilation, or even "exit, loyalty and voice" in the Albert O. Hirschman sense from identity groups as we know them today in Nigeria. Should academics lend legitimacy to rigidly exclusionary concepts of citizenship and at the same time wonder why the Hausa or Yoruba in Owerri--or any other similarly excluded group that have probably contributed more to the development of the host-community that continues to define them as the Other--would seek to create a "king" of their own? If we go beyond the seemingly irresistible excitement about "the Igbo problem," we are likely to discover that most major urban centers in Nigeria (and I dare say, in Africa) are grappling with this problem which African academics may be inadvertently exacerbating. 

A little factoid can help contextualize my stance on this matter. This Christmas, over 2,000 cows will be slaughtered in Owerri--as has been done since the last 100+ years, but there are no "indigenous" cattle breeders in that city. Millions of dollars, Euros, CFAs, yuan, etc. (perhaps greater than the entire money in the vault of the local Central Bank of Nigeria branch in the state) will be exchanged in the parallel forex market at Ama Awusa, Owerri. This "industry" is controlled over 90 percent by "Hausa" operators, with Igbos sometimes being contended as middlemen. All the stew pots cooked for all manner of ceremonies in the city will depend on onions that few Owerri residents care to know how they're produced. No celebration for chieftaincy, anniversaries, weddings, diaspora thanksgiving, etc. in the city will be worth it without a trip to Rotobi Street--named after the richest Yoruba family that have lived in Owerri longer than over 95 percent current of all residents of the city. Can we not see anything wrong with perpetually excluding these citizens from the life of the city? Is it justified to claim that a "Sokoto man" who has been in Owerri longer than Eze Njemanze III (the current "traditional" ruler of Owerri) can never be an "Owerri man," whatever that means?

Neither "Ondo people" nor "Owerri people" have historically or always had one king or festival. It would be patronizing, or even downright insulting for a non-initiated like me, to remind historians about the relationship between migrations and cultural osmosis and the making of the both ancient and modern Africa, nay our world as we know it today. Must we always see the performance of Birnin Kebbi festival in Owerri as a threat and "reason to be angry," rather than an opportunity to enrich the cultural heritage of all that live in Owerri? The latter perspective seems to be more in line with what modernity, let alone cosmopolitanism (really, why we're all academics/intellectuals) is all about. It calls for neither assimilation nor rejection of the Other, even from a minority, less powerful position. As Zvetan Thodorov (the French historian) reminds us, we're all cultural hybrids; and the 21st century belongs to those who, while not giving up who they are, are willing to borrow from the Other and create something new in a truly "transdisciplinary" sense. Perhaps, that explains why the Igbo are always "causing problem" wherever they call home. But they also cherish the fact that no one is calling for the arrest of the "President" of Egbe Omo Oduduwa in Washington, DC. because the First Citizen of the city--and the most powerful ruler in the world--who lives in the White House goes by the title "President."

Peace as always!

Okey





On Sun, Oct 25, 2015 at 9:22 AM, 'M Buba' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Very timely intervention, indeed. But before this name-calling door is shut, and now that you've mentioned Sokoto (someone has to!), I'd like to point to the completely unprovoked attack on Sokoto, the Sultan and the Baobab tree on a piece about (1915) railway in a 10-point agenda for Buhari by Dele (Pulitzer) Olojede:

"Today Sokoto has a few baobabs and a Sultan. Who cares about baobabs and Sultans?"

I thought great traditions and diversity are at the heart of the narrative of Sokoto and its Sultan and its baobabs. So, we must all care about their symbolic significance in the light of UN's Sustenable Development agenda. Mr Olojede has caused unnecessary hurt to a whole value system, possibly because he's aware that no one cared enough to discuss his piece, let alone flag this unhelpful assessement of a 1915 puported dialogue between Lugard and the newly turbanned Sultan Muhammadu Maiturare! 


In this and similar unhelpful comments, the question to address is, as the Kenyan anti-corruption czar noted in his Uganda address: 

 "what must Africa do going forward?"

Well, one thing that Africa(n scholars) can do is to go beyond the borders and begin to spend some extended period of time in their 'home' universities, in order fully to understand, document and analyse the multi-layered discourse of ethnicity, citizenship, indigeneship and related identity-affirming nomenclatures. At the local level, these concepts become labels whether or not they are properly understood as such. As scholars, the need for you to come home and face these public policy fiascos has never been greater.

If there's anyone out there who cares about Africa going forward, and is able to overlook the shortcomings of the Sultan and our baobabs, we'd like to give them a place in the sun.

Wassalam,


Malami

Prof Malami Buba
Department of English Language & Linguistics
Sokoto State University
PMB 2134, Birnin-Kebbi Rd,
Sokoto, NIGERIA

On 25 Oct 2015, at 13:07, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

 On a "Republic of two thousand kings" by Professor Osuntokun which I posted to generate a vibrant debate, it is time to make my intervention before I begin to reject future postings on the subject:

 

1.     Scholars are expected to define and work for the ideals, as in our struggles to eliminate racism in the US, and dangerous group politics in Africa that have produced genocide in Rwanda, and civil wars everywhere.

2.     In defining those ideals, we are privileging civic/secular institutions over the primordial. The primordial has its values, and they structure our identities, but it has its limitations in terms of citizenship in modern states. Scholars have to look for the best in those primordial and look for the best in the evolution of our modernity. No one can ask me not to eat my favorite food, amala and abula, as I cannot stop anyone from eating their dishes. But my food preference should not be the total determinant of my being and politics.

3.     We have to be sensitive to people's lives. Irrespective of practices, anything that can lead to violence, killing the innocent, exodus of people, etc. must not be encouraged. Any statement or measure that lead to the death of one person is irresponsible anywhere in the world.

4.     Local cultures must be respected. I have had alcohol in Sokoto, but I went to the spaces they created for it. I even had cold beer in Maiduguri but in spaces they allowed me to. The hotel in Sokoto said I should not bring alcohol into the room. I think it is disrespectful for me to smuggle alcohol into the room. If Muslims want no pork, why make institutional arguments over the selling of pork. If the Ondo people say they must have only one King, let it be, if only to protect the poor and the powerless, and call the leaders of groups and associations by other names, Chairman, President, etc. I am a Nigerian in Ondo, not an Ondo man, and this difference has to be respected. If they celebrate their Ogun festival, if I cannot join them, that should not be time when I will bring my Ibadan festival to their doors. They have the right to be angry.

5.     Our cultures are in transition, and there are those who profit from the  maintenance of the old. That profit may generate their conclicts.

6.     Without a diversified economy, xenophobic arguments will be made. We have not created enough opportunities for our people. We accumulate resources that are not distributed very well. Every human being deserves the right to good food, good health, access to water, and a good bed to sleep at night. We should work for this common good, see them as fundamental rights of citizens. The empty stomach of a Kanuri is not different from the empty stomach of an Ijo man.

7.     The poor are short-changed. New warlords have emerged all over the country collecting money from poor traders, transporters, market women, etc. The contemporary Eze, Sarkin, kabiyesi etc. are not "traditional" but new devices in the political economy of resource extractions and expression of bigmanism. The politics of the "big man" is a dangerous one which scholars should be careful to support.

8.     All scholars must support and promote the efficiency of the informal sector, as this is the key to the survival of the majority of our people.

 

 Dear scholars,  stop calling yourself names that undermine our collective integrity as migrant scholars: silly names as eccentric, Old Lady, xenophobia, eccentric, separatist, tribalist, etc. Make your arguments, as Mbaku, always the hero in all these arguments, do.

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