Dear Sir,
I'm feeling a little depressed right now , because of this. How I wish that I would be reporting back to you about the event and just to make you a little extra envious I would have added , "Wish you were here ! " or as we say in Krio, tauntingly, " Babu yai O !"
He is usually in a prophetic mode when in Stockholm. He was in that mode in 1979. For those of us familiar with the Oga as pre-eminent man of letters, social critic, public intellectual and political activist, the subject matter of his lecture , "Intolerance has become the ruling ideology of today" suggests the avuncular, conscientious elder statesman mode.
Prior to the announcement that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize he was last reported to be directing traffic in down-town Lagos (on reading which news I thought of Ogun the Patron Saint of taxi drivers and Oga Soyinka, a veritable saint in his own right – like Saint Francis , saving the dog, Ogun's sacrificial animal, from annihilation by errant motor vehicle drivers driving without brakes, albeit today, as I write this the mind is a little richer, thinking of Ogun's sacrificial animal as described in the opening Chapter, "Ogun's Gift" in Oga Falola's Counting the Tiger's Teeth
The subject matter , probably chosen by he himself of course promises the delivery of content that should be wide-ranging, given the kind of world - the sometimes perverse world that we are living in presently, sexual anarchy, strident, self-righteous women, some of them their womanhood violated, battered and bruised and now in their millions on the barricades and on the counter-attack, screaming " metoo!"; some of the politicians in the same class and category specially reserved for animals, then there's the current scene in Africa , China in Africa, there's missed opportunities and retributive justice , a favourite theme of his – the land grabs and re-distribution of Papa's land , without compensation in South Africa, Zimbabwe, there's the theme of political repression and election rigging in many places, soon to happen in Cameroon and when it comes to home turf Nigeria – thank our lucky stars there's freedom of the press there , just as here in Sweden , so , to be sure he will not spare pernicious corruption or Boko Haram , he may even dilate of Fulani Herdsmen , and last but not least, Abubakar Bukola Saraki
Unfortunately, Nobel Laureate Soyinka is more than a mega pop star, so the seats were fully booked - completely taken within minutes of the announcement being made that Wole would be holding forth on 4th October at the main public library, entrance free of charge. You know, the literary groupies among the womenfolk (and some of the men too.) If they were charging a gate fee, all the tickets would have still been taken - as even for Wa Thiong'o , except that the for Africa's Nobel Laureate some of the profiteers could have bought tickets only to sell them at twice the price. It's still called "The Black market" ( which reminds me, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu once said in an interview – I think it was in West Africa and he was interviewed by Stella, he said, " The military usually take over for one reason only : for profit!" )
I was last at the venue where our Laureate held forth two years ago , with Christer Svensson, to listen to Katarina Frostenson whose future as a member of the Swedish Academy now hangs in the balance...
Will be phoning the library later in the day to ask for a copy or audio recording of Brer Soyinka's lecture. I still have a recording of the first press conference etc. at the Swedish Academy, when Mo Yan was awarded the Noble Prize in 2012 , lacking his postal address, never got round to sending it to Don Pius Adesanmi for whom it was destined...
Still in this thread , some words of reprimand addressed to those of us still mentally afflicted and suffering from arrogance, including spiritual pride - from Chapter 2, pages 9-10 of "Adornment of Hearts" by Muzaffer Ozak" which unfortunately is not available on PDF, but these books by Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak are freely available :
Irshad: Wisdom of a Sufi Master
Love is the Wine - Hohm Press
From Chapter 2, pages 9-10 of "Adornment of Hearts" by Muzaffer Ozak" :
" At this stage, Satan will try to destroy you with his temptations. He may insidiously corrupt your heart with vices like hypocritical ostentation and sanctimonious pride. If a disciple or dervish performs acts of worship out of such motives, this is a greater sin than simply neglecting to worship, because polytheism is hidden in hypocritical show, and sanctimonious pride is an attribute of Satan, Stan considered himself superior to Adam, and was expelled from the Divine Mercy for saying: " I am higher than Adam . You created him from earth, while you created me from fire: To you I will prostrate but not to Adam"
Thus, a disciple is expelled from Divine Mercy and can find no enlightenment if he regards himself as superior to others, and if he is arrogant in his worship. He will be an object of ridicule to people and to Satan himself, and will be tarnished in both worlds. A disciple should conform in speech and attitude to the maxim:
They are wheat and we are chaff
They are virtuous, and we are worthless
He should regard himself as inferior to all other beings. He should not look down even on an unbeliever, but tell himself : " This person could be blessed with true faith. I have no way of knowing what my own state will be at my last breath. If I fail to preserve my faith, how will I enter the presence of Truth? "
As the dervish witnesses the power of God in all creation, he looks with the eye of truth, seeing and giving thanks, seeing and taking thought.
When he sees someone older than himself he should show respect, thinking, " This noble being is my senior; Surely his worship of the Truth is greater than mine.". And with those younger , he should think affectionately : " They are my juniors, surely their sins are fewer than mine."
Those who do not follow a true spiritual guide cannot see their own faults and shortcomings..."
I have just phoned the library and was told that the lecture was not filmed because he didn't want them to film it, it was recorded but it, it's not certain that it will be published - it depends on his publishers; however there was an interview with him just before the lecture and that interview will be sent on Swedish Television on Sunday in Babel a literature programme) , so hopefully, I'll keep you posted..
On Thursday, 4 October 2018 16:33:13 UTC+2, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI wrote:
I wish I could attend the lecture. Pls keep us posted if you can.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>Date: 04/10/2018 15:13 (GMT+00:00)To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com >Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re- The Boko Haram "Technical Defeat" Ruse is Unraveling2
--Indeed Sir,
They need a reality check. Why should anyone think that Baba Kadiri or any of his acolytes would be on the side of the demons?
" Intolerance has become the ruling ideology of today" is the title of the lecture that will be delivered by Wole Soyinka at the main Stockholm public library at 1800 hrs this evening
On Thursday, 4 October 2018 14:13:13 UTC+2, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI wrote:Lawrence:
The import of Baba Kadiris logic is semiotic move in mythoclasm. A person erects a myth. The implications of the myth are followed through to their logical conclusion to demolish the absurdity of the original myth.
If Farooq Kperogi's friends and relatives in the military intimate him with the failure of battle against BH under Buhari are they not the real reasons the war is failing if Buhari himself cannot constitute himself into a one man army but only a C- in C?
Should Farooq not supply the names of such personnel so they can be flushed out to be replaced by more effective soldiers to ensure the ultimate success of the war which Farooq pretends to be after?
That is the import of Baba Kadiris sarcastic analysis and no one should act as if they did not get it!
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: 'ugwuanyi Lawrence' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>Date: 04/10/2018 11:55 (GMT+00:00)To: Usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re- The Boko Haram "Technical Defeat" Ruse is Unraveling2
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--
"As if he were a master of ventriloquism, Farooq wrote, "I periodically speak withrelatives and friends in the military fighting Boko Haram, and they say little or nothing has changed except that propaganda and media management have become more effective. The fat cats in the military still exploit and feed fat on the misery of the foot soldiers."
Comment: It is almost as if this submission addresses the worry with the first part of the entire essay. Could the author not have addressed your worry by supplying the source of his claim?
" Farooq's relatives and friends in the military who are supposed to be fighting Boko Haram must be the fat cats in the military still exploiting and feeding fat on the misery of the foot soldiers."
Comment: This is a shocking allegation that is prejudicial .Except one is a rented intellectual, no one in love with truth which this goal of scholarship would make this claim or find it valid to hold. Facts are sacred and lies and prejudice destroy. Either one has the facts or he/she should be patient enough for facts to emerge. To function otherwise is to fall victim of what Olusegun Oladipo(1999) once called "intellectuals against the intellect". This statement is not far from that!
"Obviously, only fat cat military relatives and friends of Farooq Kperogi could have time and afford to speak to him while foot soldiers are dying in the battle field. The war is still lingering on because Farooq's fat cat military relatives and friends are profitting from the war financially, although it is not as eye-popping as under Jonathan. Should the security agents arrest and arraign those fat cat military relatives and friends of the learned professor, the first thing he would do is to shout that Buhari is a dictator. The next step is to get a successful lawyer who knows the judges but not the law to arrange bails and sine die adjournments of the unpatriotic fat cat military friends and relatives."
Comment: An elementary lesson in logical thinking and informal fallacies would clearly not allow the manner of thinking that has been presented here. From a spurious/unfounded claim we have a whole lot of hazy hypothetical deductions that are not just illogical but a-logical (interpreted to mean against logic)!
"The entire world knew that when Buhari took over from Jonathan, 29 May 2015, a fifty-thousand square kilometres land area in the Northeast of Nigeria was occupied and declared a Caliphate by Boko Haram"
Comment: True!
"It is obvious that the military fat cats who are friends and relatives of Farooq Kperogi still exploit and feed fact on the misery of the foot soldiers fighting Boko Haram because their predecessors in office who did the same thing have been granted freedom from penalty by the independent third arm of the government, the corrupt Nigerian Judiciary. And there, Buhari is helpless."
Comment: Hazy, narrow and guilty of the fallacy of Argumentum ad Hominem-"The friends of Farooq are bad people because he said that there are bad people"- This is the import of the above claim and why it is fallacious!
L.O.Ugwuanyi
DVC-LUGA
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