Dear ALL:
At exactly 6.20 pm today, the opening ceremony of the 6th Toyin Falola International Conference on Africa and the African Diaspora (TOFAC) came to an end at the Redeemer's University, Ede, Osun State.
The opening ceremony ceremony had its thrills and pomp. The air was filled with the usual ambiance of academic and intellectual sophistication and camaraderie. There are over 200 scholars and graduate students expected at this year's events, and many turned out for the opening. The theme for this year's Conference is AFRICANITY. And this theme is apt in the face of the battering that the African continent continues to receive in economic, cultural and political terms. And this is despite the euphoria of the "Africa Rising" discourse that celebrates certain economic statistics about the continent.
After the opening protocols jump-started by the Vice Chancellor of the Redeemer's University, Prof. Debo Z. Adeyewa; the brief remark by the representative of the paramount ruler, the Timi of Ede; the reading of the impressive citation of the honoree, Prof. Toyin Falola; and the no less stimulating citation of the key note speaker, Prof. Nimi Wariboko, the programme had a few minutes lull until the arrival of the guest of honour, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Governor of Osun State.
In his characteristic ebullience, Governor Aregbesola set the hall on fire with not only his well-time joviality, but critical comments on the state and travails of Africa and Africans. His opening salvo is straightforward and biting: "Africa is more of mystery to Africans than non-Africans. Continental Africans are hardly conscious of their Africanness and therefore take their identity as Africans for granted." According to him, there are actually two conceptual "Africas". The first "Africa" is the one "endowed with huge and humongous [sic] human and material resources. The second is the largely underdeveloped Africa with a history of slavery and colonialism, ravaged by wars, hunger and the leading global aid recipient." The urgent task therefore, for him, is to regain Africa's preeminence through the harnessing of her human and material endowments. First, "we are not going to become an economic powerhouse if agriculture consists mainly of producing the raw materials for others industrial production." Second, there is the need to review Africa's educational dynamics, especially the language of teaching. Third, women empowerment is critical. "For to deprive a society of half of its productive forces is to economically cripple that society and stymie its prospect for development." Governor Aregbesola concluded: "Considering the situation in Africa, it is very seductive to ask for a second independence, not from external forces this time, but from self-imposed restrictions. The identity, recognition and respect we seek from outside will only come when we change our situation internally."
Prof. Nimi Wariboko delivered an excellent key note address that dazzled the audience with the pure brilliance of its political sagacity and philosophical depth. The key note was continuous with Governor Aregbesola's for many reasons. First, both are friends who, according to Wariboko, have met on a few occasions to discuss the issues of Africa and Nigeria's progress. Second, and most unusually, Prof. Wariboko's cogent recommendations about rethinking Africanity was foregrounded on the bombastic linguistic dexterity of a politician!
Titled "Constructing Africa's Greatness: The Neglected Path of Community, Narratives, and Care of the Soul," the key note speaker outlined two key points round which the address would revolve: first, the idea of "Africanity as a tradition or a discourse that should be located in a tradition," and second, the TOFAC's organizers' awareness of a lack (or is it a hole?) in Africa's current march of civilization. The question: How can "the care of the soul," taken as "a lateral, immanent journey deep into social existence in order to transform any subjection of human beings to the heteronomous instrumentalization of their lives," "empower the citizens to reject or resist anything that works against human flourishing and at the same time enable them to make the ethical choice that serve the common good?"
The deep philosophical moment came but through an unusual avenue. Prof Wariboko generated his four great ideas about the greatness of Africa through a playful interrogation of the colourful language of Chief (Dr.) Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, a Nigerian politician. According to Mbadiwe, "When the come comes to become,they will know that we the men of timber and caliber and of caterpillars and bulldozers have come to stop all unstoppables and bulldoze and bulldoze-able." So, for Prof. Wariboko, since Africa's development or greatness has been coming but has not come, how then "does come comes to become?" This question can be resolved into four philosophical undestanding about Africanity and Africa's greatness.
The first is what Prof. Wariboko calls "When come becomes came" or the logic of retroactive causation. At this level, "the present ignites the possibilities of the past." The second is "When come becomes to-come" meaning "a new me, my future, is about to come [and this is not] dependent on the interplay of my past or present." The third possibility is "when come becomes becoming". This means "the present is fully under the power of new beginning, the miracle of the new, the not-yet." And finally, "when the come comes to become, the un-become must become." In other words, Africa at this point comes to a moment of ethical decision. Prof. Wariboko brought this scintillating philosophical reflection on Africa's selfhood and greatness to an end by calling for a focused rebuilding of "our societal ethos with new narratives, good stories." In the absence of this, according to him, our engagement with Africanity becomes useless, and Africans becomes most miserable of all human beings.
This was a most suitable point at which to bring the opening session to a close and allow the audience to go for tea break and digest the critical lessons of the plenary.
The parallel sessions commenced immediately after the tea break, and the various scholars from all around the world began the crucial task of engaging the idea of Africanity and Africa's place in the world.
Adeshina Afolayan
Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429
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