Dear Kwame Zulu Shabazz,
The greatest weapon of mass deception in Nigeria, which has always been deployed by the minority educated elites, is ethnicity. Whenever educated and competing exploiters of the masses share the same faith, they turn to ethnicity to out-compete one another. Therefore, and starting from the Presidency downwards, ethnic origin is presented to the majority illiterate citizens as a very important qualification for election, selection, appointment or employment into any office in Nigeria and not the competence and ability to produce what the office is designed for, to produce for all Nigerians. In reality, those who occupy offices on behalf of their ethnic groups never exempt their own ethnic groups from non-delivery of goods and services to all citizens as required by law from their offices. The minority literate elites only exploit ethnicity to advance their personal political and commercial interests. Whereas individual office holder should be held responsible for failure in office, it is not so in Nigeria. Rather, his /her entire ethnic group is automatically associated with, and blamed for, his/her failure even when it is obvious that his/her ethnic group is also suffering from the failure of the official. As we all know there was no plebiscite among the Igbo requesting the revolutionary Majors strike on January 15, 1966 and certainly, the approval of all Igbo people was not sought when the ethnic supremacists and reactionaries stole the coup from the revolutionary Majors. When the casualties of the military putsch that catapulted an Igbo person to the head of government became known, all Igbo were associated with, and blamed for the coup d'état. It is from this angle one has to understand the events that led to the secession war in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970.
An indisputable facts of history is that 99.9% of the January 15, 1966 coup executors were of Igbo ethnic origin and 99.9% of the military officers, as well as 100% of civilians/politicians murdered in the coup were non-Igbo. If we accept your United Nations Convention's definition of genocide to imply intent to destroy in whole or in part an ethnic group, should we not also accept that the coup d'état of 15 January 1966, was targeted against non-Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria and, therefore, a genocidal act was committed?
Consequent to the coup d'état, an Igbo man took the reign of office from a non-Igbo Nigerian which made the majority illiterate Nigerians, including the Igbo themselves, to believe that the Igbo have taken over Nigeria. An Igbo military man was the head of government of Nigeria when riots broke out all over Northern Nigeria from where most of the victims of the genocidal coup of 15 January 1966 came, and directed against the Igbo, on 29 May 1966. Can one reasonably classify the riots that started in the North on 29 May 1966 as genocide against the Igbo when the head of government at the time was an Igbo? After he was overthrown on 29 July 1966, the riots continued in the North because Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon who succeeded him was not recognized by the military Governor of the Eastern Region, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Ojukwu's opposition undermined and weakened the ability of Gowon to gain control over the entire country. Towards the end of September 1966, a broadcast by radio Cotonou in Benin Republic announced that northerners in Eastern Region were being slaughtered and when that broadcast was relayed by Radio Kaduna, it generated retaliatory actions against the Igbo in the North. By the third of October 1966, riots had subsided and lives had returned to normal. You seem to regard riots in the North between May and October 1966 as a partial genocide and, therefore, you wrote, "The Igbo of Nigeria were targeted but not wiped out." I disagree with you. Igbo were targeted for revenge for what happened in January 1966 and the September 1966 Radio broadcast from Cotonou, even though the revenge was out of proportion, but it was not genocide. The history of the subsequent war of secession never revealed any intent of the federal forces to wipe out the Igbo. Horrible things happened before and during the war on both sides of the divide, but they would never be classified as genocide.
S. Kadiri
Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för kwame zulu shabazz <kwameshabazz@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 31 december 2018 01:17
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Unfair Asian Critiques of Adichie
Skickat: den 31 december 2018 01:17
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Unfair Asian Critiques of Adichie
Hi Ken,
The UN definition is important if one is to build a legal case on the charge of genocide. Agree that many folks have some intuitive sense of genocide. In fact I invoked it in the Māori example. The Māori were wiped out. Likewise, here in the USA, the indigenous people were slaughtered and reduced to less than 3% of the population (We could complicate this a bit if we count Mexicans of other Latinos as indigenous. But I won't get into that here). I dont think anyone needs to look up the UN to figure out that the indigenous people of the Americas were victims of genocide. I think it this is a crucial issue. I devote the first day of my Intro to Africana Studies course to the genocide of Native Americans. From there I make connections between Native American and Black/African struggle.
I differ slightly on what you call intuitive ideas about genocide. My sense of it is that people tend to think of genocide as not just a plan or attempt to wipe out a group, but also the *actual fact of being wiped out.* The Navajo Indians of California were targeted and wiped out. The Igbo of Nigeria were targeted but not wiped out. I think we all agree that would happened to Igbo citizens was horrific. But I could imagine someone leaning on the intuitive idea of genocide and wondering how there could be so many Igbo in Nigeria today if there were victims of genocide. The Navajo, by comparison, were decimated to such a degree that they are invisible today.
All Black Lives Matter,
Brother Shabazz
Pronoun: African
On Dec 30, 2018 3:07 PM, "Harrow, Kenneth" <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
dear kwame, et al
the un defn of genocide could be applied when a very small number of people are involved, if they are targeted because of their ethnicity, etc. that seems a weakness in the defn.
i also think we all have an intuitive sense of genocide, which occurs when "they" are trying to wipe "us" out. i am happier with this simple way of thinking about it.
in the case of german history, in africa, we could argue that real genocide was intended and carried out against the herroros. for arendt, that was the first genocide in history, but maybe she was wrong.
the cherokees were targets, among many other native peoples, in the u.s. long before the herroros. think about the slaughter of buffalos, intended to starve the indians! what brutality.
and i know all of us could cite many other cases.
i must say it saddens me to see such deepseated dissension still today about whether the case of biafra was one of genocide when so many people died under tragic conditions. it was an historical crime and tragedy. i won't enter into the debate about who was at fault--i've read the comments and see no clear path to convince one side or the other to join together in condemning the deaths. in a sense until that happens we won't have true reconciliation.
ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of kwame zulu shabazz <kwameshabazz@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2018 2:04:27 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Unfair Asian Critiques of AdichieSister Gloria,https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.un.org_en_genocideprevention_genocide.html&d=DwIFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=Zy8I_UX8z9DLbmf5YJ0EIg&m=RQ4CYBr6uh9Wi9RnfVWqtwimLgc80jBm_rI3nqMPp8w&s=yLUcr1JU8lBmRFWeVri7sRK7bQmKi1JKVhUMAFQ7Ztw&e=
Here is a definition of genocide from the UN:
"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such."
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_details_We-2DCharge-2DGenocide-2D1970_page_n1&d=DwIFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=Zy8I_UX8z9DLbmf5YJ0EIg&m=RQ4CYBr6uh9Wi9RnfVWqtwimLgc80jBm_rI3nqMPp8w&s=5A57lLQeDksJUNPEFCcJhDgrcMxCMI3c66KORLdw9YA&e=
If we accept this definition, then the test would be proving that a specific racial, ethnic, religious or national group was targeted.
Biafra and South Sudan would be candidates because, arguably, Igbos were targeted in Nigeria and non-Muslims were targeted in South Sudan. I say "arguably" because it would be up to the respective groups to support their case with evidence.
Syria, Iraq, Yemen are all horrific, but they dont seem to fit the UN definition. A specific group like the Kurds fit the UN criteria.
In New Zealand, the Māori were virtually wiped out (reduced to about 14% of population) and replaced by whites. This is a clear case of genocide.
African Americans made an official charge of genocide against the US govt in 1951. Signatories to the document included W.E.B. Du Bois, William Patterson, Paul Robeson, and Claudia Jones. You can read the entire document here:
"We Charge Genocide"
Current archives at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__groups.google.com_group_USAAfricaDialogue&d=DwIFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=Zy8I_UX8z9DLbmf5YJ0EIg&m=RQ4CYBr6uh9Wi9RnfVWqtwimLgc80jBm_rI3nqMPp8w&s=pl1pJK2lcoNd3gqrSON7KeCRIj7I2ccoMFE4TshmIGk&e=
Some of us believe the US govt plotted to assassinate Malcolm X because of his potential as a pan-Africanist, his growing influence in the Muslim world, and his plan to take our (African American) case to the UN.
All Black Lives Matter,
brother shabazz
Pronouns: African
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