Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Logic of Blaming

No mind Dr. Eze and his mis-philosophy of white supremacy. Who said that white men do not blame others? Ask Trump. Read Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe to better understand the philosophy of non-violence preached by Achebe.

Chielozona should read deeper and he will find that Achebe was very critical of Okonkwo for the way he beat his wives, abused his daughters, and neglected his artistic father, leaving him to die of kwashiokor while Ebubedike boasted of being the greatest yam farmer, wrestler and warrior. That was why the spirit of the dad was demanding a goat from him which he refused to give because he did not leave him a chicken. That man he despised was the one who raised him as a single parent but Okonkwo would make everyone think that he wiped his own nyash as a child. His own son did not approve of his toxic masculinity and chose to better himself through education but the maniac thought that he was a lazy child. After the race, we shall count the miles.

Furthermore, Okonkwo was told in no uncertain terms that it is an abomination for a man to kill a child that calls him nna. When he wanted to single-handedly cook death for the oha by declaring war on the colonizers all by himself, he was told that you can stay in the hut of the poor man to see the ruins of the mansion of the careless hero. When he went to Mbanta on exile to hold a pity party instead of being grateful for the refuge he was given, his mother's brother schooled him on the meaning of the name, Nneka. Finally, when he took out his depression on the African messengers of the white man, the community told him that madness does not catch everyone at the same time. 

Okonkwo went off to give a bonus to the agents of death and so the final critique from the community was that he was buried like the carcass of a dog.

What sort of African philosopher says that Africans can never be critical of Europeans without being dismissed as blaming others? Even Europeans are critical of the records of Europe in history.

Biko

On Sunday, 9 December 2018, 13:16, "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:

This is what I classify as crass, unsophisticated, neo- colonial apologetics.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chielozona Eze <chieloz@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2018 6:23:02 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Logic of Blaming

 

Obododimma,

You are unto something profound here. Reading you reminds me of Areoye Oyebola, one of the very few African intellectuals to defy the overwhelming tendency in African thinking to always begin every discourse by accusing the West and conclude it by positing what they believe to be authentically African.

 Your sharp analysis of African blame-game is similar to what I'm working on now. What you call the logic of blaming, I call the syllogism of a wounded psyche. Blaming others is a typical post-colonial phenomenon. It is borne of Africa's shock of defeat at the hands of the white man. It is a particular form of despair at the overwhelming superiority of Western mastery of reality and Africa's failure to do the same. The African resorts to what my friend Denis Ekpo calls moral posturing. Moral posturing results from accusing others, and it functions in the illusion that once the other has been shown his/her place, then the accuser is, ipso facto, clean/redeemed, absolved of all culpability.

One of the major decisive points in African syllogism of the wounded psyche can be found in Things Fall Apart, in the scene in which Obierika, humiliated by the ignominious death of Okonkwo, turns to accuse the district officer of having driven Okonkwo to kill himself. Another is yet Obierieka's judgment that the white man put a knife on the things that held Umuofia together and they fell apart.

 Chinua Achebe, as the literary scholars among us here would attest, helped shape African postcolonial thought. But it is a particular brand of thought that derives its potency from accusation - J'accuse. The syllogism of that brand of postcolonial thought is simple, if not simplistic. First premise: Accuse the white man (God, there's a bunch of evil that can be traced back to him). Second premise: posit the black man's implied innocence as the victim of history (Is he innocent?). Conclusion: posit African "X" or African "Y".

I'm wondering what would have been the color of postcolonial African thought if Obierieka had acknowledged that Umuofia never really stood together and that Okonkwo was also to blame for his death.

Thanks for sharing.

Chielozona

Chielozona Eze

Professor, African Literature and Cultural Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze

www.Chielozona.com

My latest book: Race, Decolonization, and Global Citizenship in South Africa.

On Sat, Dec 8, 2018 at 4:35 PM Obododimma Oha <obodooha@gmail.com> wrote:

You need a refreshing weekend. You do. Don't mind Obododimma with that
"Our Odelele Choice." Now, you need to know something more about
blaming others, especially when it has been made a family business. I
would like you to have "The Logic of Blaming" this weekend.

To read the full essay on one of my blogs, click on this URL:

https://x-pensiverrors.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-logic-of-blaming.html

Thank you.

Obododimma.

--
--
B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
Department of English,
University of Ibadan.

COORDINATES:

Phone (Mobile):
              +234 8033331330;
              +234 9033333555;
              +234 8022208008;
              +234 8073270008.
Skype: obododimma.oha
Twitter: @mmanwu
Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/

--
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.

--
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.

--
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.