USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: MOSES OCHONU: THE COMMA BEFORE THE PERIOD

WOW!

On 24/03/2017, 'Adekunle, Julius' via Yoruba Affairs
<yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> Congratulations to Prof. Ochonu. We wish you success in your new
> assignment.
>
>
> Julius
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Sati Fwatshak <sfwatshak@gmail.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2017 9:56 AM
> To: Toyin Falola
> Cc: dele.jegede@miamioh.edu; Paul T. Zeleza; Gbenga Dasylva;
> moyo.okediji@utexas.edu; Gbenga Akosile; Mickie Koster; Olajumoke
> Yacob-Haliso; Chap Kusimba; bayo; ab Assensoh; mario.j.azevedo; Abosede
> George; raliatsola@yahoo.com; Tanure Ojaide; arinpe adejumo; dialogue;
> Omowunmi Sadik; Adeyemi_balogun@yahoo.com; Jimoh Oriyomi; agwale Agwuele;
> mimikofemi; josephayodokun@gmail.com; Odugbemi Ibrahim; Yvette M
> Alex-Assensoh; Felicia Ohwovoriole; Osondu, Epaphras; M Buba; Abayomi Ola;
> Bukola Adeyemi Oyeniyi; Nasong'o_Shadrack; odey ODEY; Ayobami Salami; Wale
> Adebanwi; agbetuyi; Ropo Ewenla; Segun Ojewuyi; Afolayan, Funso; Alexius
> Amtaika; deity:; Anene Ejikeme; adeyemi_bukola_oyeniyi oyeniyi; Mosadomi,
> Tola; Tunji Olaopa; Ashafa Abdullahi; Admin; Babs Sobanjo; kolawole adekola;
> ololadeololade70@gmail.com; Aribidesi Usman; Sifiso Ndlovu;
> folahanolusola@gmail.com; Bolaji Akinyemi; Odia Ofeimun; Ademola Araoye;
> obasa; Bello Maryam; badebua@yahoo.com; scot; Bamitale Omole; Nemata Blyden;
> Akinloye A Ojo; Jalloh, Alusine; fallou ngom; Babatunde; Martin Shanguhyia;
> kayodeonipede2004@yahoo.co.uk; ayo_olukotun-yahoo.com; Steiner Ifekwe;
> Mukhtar Bunza; ZALANGA SAMUEL; Udogu; Dawuni, Josephine;
> bensonigboin@gmail.com; Oyeniyi, Bukola; Gloria Chuku; Caroline Tushabe;
> kolapo.abimbola@howard.edu; shegunadebayo@gmail.com;
> julia.binter@wolfson.ox.ac.uk; Bode Ibironke; Yoruba Affairs; tunde
> jaiyeoba; Kenneth Kalu; misschristines@utexas.edu; Philip Akpen; Abimbola
> Asojo; tadegbindin@yahoo.com; charlesomotayo@yahoo.com;
> fortuneafatakpa@gmail.com; kgifesi@austin.rr.com; Ochayi Okpeh; DOYIN
> AGUORU; Uzoma Osuala; ogun Ogundiran; adigunagbaje@yahoo.com; dele jegede;
> Adekunle, Julius; Carina Ray; Femi_Osofisan Osofisan; Micheal Afolayan;
> ajigbadejube@gmail.com; Emmanuel Babatunde; Olasope Oyelaran; aaa adesanya;
> ogundimu; bridy.4real@gmail.com; Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso; Adenle, Adewale;
> nikeajayi_52; Vusi Gumede, Prof; Chima Korieh; Abdul Bangura; Uyilawa
> Usuanlele; aborah@utexas.edu; Ademola Dasylva; ebunoduwole2k2; aka;
> Akinyemi,Akintunde; Oladele Balogun; Chukwuemeka Agbo; olupayimod@gmail.com;
> bteboh@umassd.edu; dotunayobade@utexas.edu; Egodi Uchendu; AdeěleěkeĚ
> AdeěeĚňkoňě; PHILIP_OGUNDEJI OGUNDEJI; Olufunke Adeboye; Bessie
> House-Soremekun; Adeleke_Adeeko Adeeko; tolujudes@gmail.com; Yusuf Adedayo
> Hauwau Evelyn; Vik Bahl; kpdasylva@yahoo.com; MOLEFI K. ASANTE; Stephen
> Akintoye; muffyakande@yahoo.com; kwame Essien; samadek_2017@yahoo.co.uk;
> Victor Ekpuk; SamuelOloruntoba; lekan pearce; Afolabi, Omoniyi;
> tunde_babawale@yahoo.com; olatunji oyeshile; Abidogun, Jamaine M; Pamela
> Smith; Michael Vickers; nimi; bimbola adelakun; Yemisi Obilade; Saine,
> Abdoulaye; dijiaina; olubomehind@yahoo.com; Ogungbemi; samson ijaola;
> Akinjide OUNTOKUN; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; Shennette Garrett-Scott; Wale
> Ghazal; akinlabi; M Insa Nolte; adjepong@utexas.edu; Adeshina Afolayan;
> babaadii@yahoo.com; Gaf Oye; Saheed Aderinto; Oluwole 2 Dasylva; Tade Akin
> Aina; tony agwuele; akandeoj@yahoo.com; babjid74@yahoo.com; Olukoya Ogen
> (koyaogen@gmail.com); orelikesdat@yahoo.com; Bisola F; Adejumo, Christopher
> O; dele Ashiru
> Subject: Re: MOSES OCHONU: THE COMMA BEFORE THE PERIOD
>
> A very big congratulations, Moses, for this achievement. I rejoice with you
> and wish you all the best, as I look forward to you receiving more honors in
> future. Sati
>
> On Mar 24, 2017 11:40, "Toyin Falola"
> <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu<mailto:toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>>
> wrote:
> MOSES OCHONU: THE COMMA BEFORE THE PERIOD
>
> I thought we use a comma in a sentence because we have more to say, and we
> detour via semicolons, colons, dashes, brackets, and other punctuations
> before we get to the king of them all, the period. And if you misuse one, as
> in failing to recognize that a semicolon is the husband of a comma, on top
> of it with a longer orgasm, but declimbed to become the heir to a period, do
> not blame me if Farooq, the friend of Moses, hammer you on the head. And
> please do not say that because English is a foreign language, semicolon can
> replace a colon. Not so, as one lives in the village and the other in the
> city, meeting once in a while to quickly depart.
> Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, this is no more than a comma, as
> more words will pour in a deluge (I need not add rain or flood to a deluge!)
> as foretold by that Prophet, whose name I cannot remember at this time.
> Moses was surprised at his news, as he put it on his Facebook that one of
> his admirers sent to me.
> Since I got into this profession, holding an endowed chair has been my
> ultimate goal. It is the highest institutional academic recognition and I
> dreamed of one day attaining that height. Glory be to God; that dream has
> come true. Although I aspired to it, I did not think that it would come this
> soon, making it even sweeter. Moses Ochonu
> As an aside, I am not on Facebook, perhaps because I don't know what a face
> is doing in the company of a book! An Eyebook, yes, but one is yet to be
> created. And even when some friends created one for me, I asked it to be
> taken down. And my son works for Facebook in London! Thank you all for
> supporting his daily bread. But Moses forgot to add, even as huge
> achievements, that he has declined offers from Columbia and Yale! Unknown to
> him, whenever those searches commence, names are solicited, as universities
> must do, that his name, from our own end, is always there. Always there!
> I predicted it would happen: for him, for Clapperton, for Ibhawoh, for Nimi,
> for Wale, for Chika, for Ugo, the Nwokeji Of Ugoland in Oakland country.
> Ibhawoh's own came at the speed of light, becoming a national figure. I have
> one or two other names to add, and one name to delete as I play God with the
> future of His own creation.
> I have the unusual privilege, a few of which I share with Salah Hassan and
> Paul Zeleza, of compiling names for all the biggest awards. Some get it,
> some miss it, but I keep re-nominating, adding more lines, more evidence,
> more arguments. I have even spent hours without end to promote deserving
> people like Ama Ata Aidoo, thinking that if we failed with Ngugi we should
> move to another person. One missed what I once nominated him for, and I am
> completing a book on him just to re nominate him! This is our own Victor
> Ekpuk who has missed the MacArthur genius award for reasons that baffle me.
> The story of Moses is about to begin; what he sees as the end, I see as the
> beginning. So, I can only compose a comma on his sweet achievement, my own
> sweeter dreams!
> It is no secret that I admire Moses, and that I see him as ten times more
> talented than me in terms of the ability to conceptualize and complicate,
> not to talk of his refined use of language. I don't have his language, not
> even close. He is a better historian than me. Even all my graduate students
> in the last ten years know that I see him as my intellectual superior. I
> have invited him to Austin to speak to my seminar; and to Nigeria to give a
> Keynote. I have visited him, and I enjoyed a good meal at his place in
> Nashville. He once invited me to his campus to engage in a stimulating
> dialogue, pairing me with Mamdou Diouf. What a great conversation! I have
> sold him where it is possible to, recently inviting him to give a talk at
> the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
> We sometimes disagree on intellectual grounds, as I occasionally initiate
> debates in private email messages different from those on Dialogue where I
> don't want anyone to accuse me of corrupting my role as a moderator. Even my
> occasional intervention to ask people to stop talking is greeted with "Am I
> using your mouth?" All what I can do is to say "No sir!" I am an incurable
> Pan-Africanist, and Moses, Farooq Kperogi, Akin Ogundiran, Augustine Agwuele
> and a new breed of African intellectuals do not always see things my way. It
> is precisely because they differ, for creating alternative paradigms, that I
> actually worship them. A scholar who operates only in the company of those
> who always agree with him is a mediocre. We flourish because we have
> critics. Once in a while, one of them will be angry and send me a rude
> private message; but I will smile, saying that the future of Africa that I
> imagine does not leave me with the luxury of a fight. Conflict requires two
> people for it to work—I know of those who engage in conflicts with me, but I
> do not know of any human being that I engage in conflict with.
> This achievement, as much as Moses would like to think of it as his, belongs
> to us all, the fulfilment of my own dream for Africans and Africa. And
> because this is a dream comes true, our register must respect the registrar
> of language.
> Age gives me the privilege to offer a sermon, the register that I just
> mentioned. Here is one. It is so sweet to sleep and have sweet dreams. In
> some cases, the dream is so sweet that you wish you never woke up,
> interrupting it! Someone once wisely counselled, however, that no matter how
> sweet your dreams may be, if you do not wake up and pursue them vigorously,
> they will remain just that – dreams! – nothing concrete at all to show for
> the dream. Waking up years later with the taste of ashes in the mouth
> because time was spent dreaming, no time was spent working, no dream life to
> show for it.
> A sermon must have its application. Our brother, colleague, and friend Moses
> did not make that mistake. From his days at Bayero University, Kano, where
> he obtained his BA History, he showed his acumen for dream-making and
> achievement. For the entire duration of his studies there, he held the
> Bayero University Scholarship for Outstanding Academic Performance,
> eventually also scooping up the Michael Crowder Prize for the Best Student
> on Modern African History and the Best Graduating Student in the Department
> of History of the class of 1997. His department did not hesitate to offer
> him an immediate graduate assistantship the same year. With such stellar
> early achievements, no future political detractors can ever say Moses did
> not graduate from the Department of History at Bayero!
> An application must become motivational. Having started so well, it is no
> wonder that his career became studded with one starry achievement after the
> other. Obtaining subsequent degrees in African History from the University
> of Michigan at Ann Arbor, he was appointed assistant professor at Vanderbilt
> in 2004, becoming associate professor in 2011 and then professor in 2015. He
> has published three books, with two others forthcoming, numerous articles in
> refereed journals and chapters in books, and is a sought after keynote
> speaker and guest lecturer. His research in this time received various
> recognitions including various grants and fellowships. Many would have
> rested on their laurels at this point but Moses wanted the Chair, and never
> relented for one day. He knew what he wanted when he stepped into the
> American academy: the almighty endowed Chair!
> A motivation must turn into a testimony. Professor Moses Ochonu is indeed
> deserving of this most recent and highest recognition of his university. He
> has established for himself the distinguished reputation of being one of the
> leading scholars of northern and middle belt Nigeria today, joining the
> ranks of the like of Smith, Adeleye, Mahdi, Usman, to mention but a few
> since I am just in the comma mood. His important 2014 book, Colonialism by
> Proxy: Hausa Imperial Agents and Middle Belt Consciousness in Nigeria, the
> finalist for the prestigious ASA Herskovits Prize for the Best Scholarly
> Book in African Studies in any Discipline in 2015, subverts the accepted
> understandings of the mechanics of indirect rule in British colonial Africa,
> and especially in northern Nigeria. He argues there that it was
> "subcolonialism" and not indirect rule that dictated British policy because
> the Hausa-Fulani overlords of the non-Muslim people of the middle belt
> negotiated their domination of these populations by recourse to claims of
> superior authority conferred on them by the Jihads of the early 1800s. His
> fine and sophisticated analysis of these dynamics are major contribution to
> the corpus of Nigerian history, setting him apart and above his peers.
> A testimony goes with a confessional. Moses is passionate about Nigeria, and
> this is evident in his continuous and numerous commentaries about Nigerian
> affairs. He is deeply engaged in puzzling the challenges and proposing the
> solutions for the country's progress. We know him here on the USA Africa
> Dialogue Series forum, as a voice that brings gravitas to any conversation
> he is engaged in, nuancing his analysis with uncommon insight, an eye for
> the fine points, and an attempt at objectivity on many divisive topics. On
> Facebook, he has already reached the limit of the number of friends that he
> can accept because thousands are so keen to read what he has to say on the
> various issues of the day! His essays have appeared in major Nigerian
> newspapers in print and online and his provocative article "The Shattering
> of the Buhari Mythology" in African Arguments was voted by readers as the
> 2016 Best Article of the Year. He is not a Nigerian academic that observes
> and comments about the country from a distance; no, he takes time out to
> visit, navigating pot-holed roads, locating the latest and best chicken suya
> spots in Abuja, and even taking time to appreciate Big Brother Nigeria on
> TV!
> A confession ends in a blessing. This March, Moses already celebrated his
> birthday, and the news of his appointment to the Cornelius Vandebilt Chair
> must be perhaps the best birthday gift he has ever had. We celebrate with
> him, and wish him bigger dreams, above all.
> This is a comma in the long sentences that I need to write on Moses, the
> intellectual messiah of our time, just one of the commas before I reach the
> end with a period.
>
> 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)
> http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/
> http://www.toyinfalola.com<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://www.toyinfalola.com&c=E,1,mzjR-ZyFp7aYt2twezbqu7pAICTHa6BXaGnT6T3FeQtE8J8xN5FotQiY2_aNQ2KGs2-Sa_j5KeI8MRBdSEZT5mvmNiv7Uy-L0oj1uiOncxEdVHZQaQ,,&typo=1>
> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
> http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
> http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Yoruba Affairs" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to yorubaaffairs+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.