Relations between Africans and Black Americans
By Farooq A. Kperogi
You would expect that it is natural that African immigrants in the United States and Black Americans should have robust relations. However, the relationship between African immigrants here and Black Americans is often hallmarked by mutual suspicion and distrust.
"We may have a common ancestry, and even a common skin color, but we view each other as different," said Andre Reynaud, a black American freshman from Lafayette, Louisiana, majoring in secondary education.
He said American blacks traditionally tend to have a dim view of all immigrants, and that African immigrants here are tarred with the same brush as other immigrants.
"Their accent is different; the way they live is strange," he said. "What you don't know, you either learn or ignore. And I think we generally ignore here."
But Uwaila Osaren, a final year journalism student who was born in Nigeria but raised in the United States, said the strained relations between African and black American students at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette is not representative of the general pattern of relationships between African immigrants in the United States and black Americans.
"I grew up in Houston, Texas, and it's not the same," she said. "I think it has something to do with the African-American culture in Louisiana. "They're not exposed to many different cultures. Here, it's either black or white."
Osaren opined that the reluctance of black Americans to relate with African students is not because they don't like Africans.
"They don't even mingle with the whites they grew up with," she said. "Why would they mingle with Africans they never knew? It's two separates, and they can't mingle."
She said she has been caught in the web of a huge relational ambivalence since she came to study at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, four years ago.
"I didn't fit with Africans because they consider me too American, and I didn't fit with Americans because they consider me too African," she said. "I'm the true meaning of African American."
For Richard Bargblor, a Liberian native majoring in nursing, the relational tension between African students and black Americans is the consequence of a historical grudge that black Americans have been conditioned to hold against Africans for the alleged complicity of their ancestors in selling the ancestors of black Americans into slavery.
"A lot of them have told me that our forefathers sold their ancestors to the white men," he said. "Maybe, that's why they're holding back from us." He insisted, however, that guilt is not inheritable. "Besides, our ancestors didn't willfully sell their ancestors," he added. "It was done under duress."
Bargblor also said he finds black Americans' use of swear words in their everyday conversations repulsive. "They use the 'f' word so easily," he said. "We don't use that in Africa. It's an offensive word."
Kyle Ward, a black American sophomore from Mississippi majoring in political science, suggested that it is difficult for African immigrants in the United States to mix smoothly with black Americans because over 400 years of spatial separation between the two groups also created an enormous gulf of cultural separation.
"They [Africans] are not used what we do," he said. "They don't understand why we do what we do. They have a totally different view of the world. That's why they don't hang out with us."
He contended that most African students who come to the United States devote little time for leisure, entertainment and sports—areas he said black Americans consider central to their cultural uniqueness. He said this fact limits avenues for interaction between the two groups.
"They're more focused on their studies because they appreciate the opportunities here," he said. "We take these opportunities for granted. They're foreign students. Period."
For Ben Adobor, a native of Ghana and graduate student in engineering, a major stumbling block in the relationship between black Americans and African students is the almost mutual unintelligibility of their English accents.
"It's ironic that I understand white Americans more easily than I understand my African-American brothers and sisters," Adobor said. "But I realize that they have as much difficulty understanding my accent as I have understanding theirs. They're easier to understand when you relate to them on an individual basis, but when you find yourself alone in their midst, they could as well be speaking Greek. You're lost, and wonder whether they're speaking English."
This sentiment about language barrier is mutual.
Rosetta Pickney, a black American student from Lake Charles, Louisiana, majoring in health information management, also expressed frustration with African accents. "We don't understand their accents, so we avoid them," she said.
But Adobor said the language barrier is secondary to the distortion of the African image in the mainstream Western media as a contributing factor to the strained relations between African immigrants in the United States and black Americans.
"All that they see about Africa in their media are images of starving, barely clothed children, AIDS victims, and so on," he said. "I wonder where the media get these images from. I think African-Americans are ashamed to identify with us because of this."
Pamela Hamilton, a black American graduate student in communication from Shreveport, agreed. "We have negative views of Africa that we received from slavery, passed through generations and now transmitted through the media," she said.
However, she pointed out that this negative perception is reciprocal. "Some African students that I have met also have negative views of African Americans," she said. "Few Africans understand what slavery has done to us."
Hamilton said although there are obvious cultural and even experiential barriers between Africans and black Americans, those barriers are not sufficient to break the social, historical and ancestral bonds that bind Africans and black Americans.
"There are people who have been able to overcome these barriers," she said.
But Kimberly Malveaux, a black American nursing major from Lafayette, Louisiana, said she thinks there are no barriers to overcome.
"My personal experience is that I relate with African men better than I relate with African-American men," she said. "There may be Africans who also relate better with African-Americans than with Africans. I don't see any tension here."
Meanwhile, Arinze Okolo, president of the University of Louisiana's African Students' Association and junior mechanical engineering student from Nigeria, said it is difficult to give a blanket and definitive description of the attitude of black Americans toward African students.
He said there are as many black Americans who are reluctant to relate with African students, as there are who are enthusiastic about mixing with them.
"I think those of them who take the trouble to go beyond media stereotypes and read up on Africa or ask questions about Africa tend to be friendly," he said. "Many of them attend our social functions, and we attend theirs too."
Bradley Pollock, Ph.D., professor of African and African- American history at the University of Louisiana's department of history and geography, attributed the reluctance of black Americans to relate with African students to their lack of exposure to different cultures.
"On this campus, most of the African-Americans are from small towns," he said. "They're just frightened of what they don't know. They may even be frightened of other African Americans they are not used to. It's not a Louisiana problem; it's a small-town problem."
Pollock added that even though there is some basis for the hostility of some black Americans toward Africans because of the notion that Africans sold their brothers and sisters into slavery, "it is not an accurate historical assumption."
"For instance, countries in East Africa, such as Uganda, were not involved in the slave trade," he said. "In any case, if you're nursing animosity against Africans because of that, what do you do with the white slave owners? It's been centuries ago. It's time for healing."
For Patricia Holmes, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication, insufficient communication between black American and African students is the cause of the mutual distrust between them.
"When they communicate, they'll realize that they have more reasons to come together than they have to stay apart," said Holmes, who is black. "Our shared ancestry and our shared history of slavery and colonialism are big enough reasons for us to come together."
She said the excuse of differences in accents as a reason for the low level of interaction between African students and black Americans is "rather weak."
"People from New York also have a different accent, so you won't talk to them because of that?" she asked rhetorically. "Africans don't all have the same accent. Do they stop talking to each other because of that?"
School of Communication & Media
Kennesaw State University
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
Rosalind has raised an important issue which should not be swept under the carpet. She framed it narrowly:--
"I'm curious why so many Nigerians appear to have such contempt for their Middle Passage brethren in North America."The issue of kinship across the Atlantic is important at the collective level.
A large part of the answer is the failure of Pan Africanism. In this failure, the blame should be put squarely at the feet of African leadership. Fanon anticipated it.
The seduction of the market, liberal democracy, immigration and competitive relationship constitute one cluster of the answer.
The failure of African states to develop and give hope is yet another. Rather than people going to Africa, Africans, characterized by the traumatized Mr Trump as members of the Commonwealth of shitholes, are the ones begging to leave their continent.
Sources of validation represent yet another. Both are not seeking the other for its own validation
It is an important issue.
Sent from my iPhoneRosalind,
You got this wrong. Friendship is a bilateral process. In some cases you go the extra mile until things stabilize. In other cases you may not. No relationship thrives if there are inferiority- superiority dynamics, real or imagined.
You should have asked a different question- what can be done to improve on African - African American
relations?
Your question in its present form has toxic overtones and that is not a great way to start.
Thousands of great relationships, families and so on have emerged over decades in healthy contexts.
Let us build on the successes.
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Rosalind Dawson <bah3688@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2019 11:34:55 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Kperogi's NemesisHello all,
I am a dissertator at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a tenured professor of English Literature and Composition. I'm new to this group but am thoroughly enjoying the comments regarding Buhari. Regarding registering groups, I think the discussion is a bit overbaked. Many groups in the U.S. don't bother because it's an unnecessary pain. Finally, I'm curious why so many Nigerians appear to have such contempt for their Middle Passage brethren in North America. I'm thinking postcolonial aftercurrents, but I'd definitely welcome your thoughts and observations.
Rosalind
--On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 9:22 PM Bayo Amos <aaeoee@gmail.com> wrote:
Kale,
How can any rational person argue in favour of Mr. Buhari, the great admirer of Mr. Abacha?
I get your criticism of folks using some faceless associations to project their pro-Buhari agenda but isn't yours a sort of idealistic inclination where what's at best a partisan opinion is elevated or even deified as the RIGHT position or holy grail--where any deviation is interpreted as heresy?
Thanks,
Bayo.
--On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 1:41 AM KALE OYEDEJI <kaleoyedeji@comcast.net> wrote:
--Drs. Falola and Kperogi, pardon my intervention here. I am real very tired of academics pretending to be apolitical when they allow themselves to be used by politicians. APC propaganda machine is greatly at work and they have a field day in the social media. Mr. Buhari is the most incompetent of the rulers Nigeria has ever had and yet some want us to believe that he is god chosen and his "anticorruption agenda" is laudable rather than laughable. Tell me the difference between APC and PDP. Show me any APC member that is been probed for financial impropriety.
I see it as fraudulent to claim to be an umbrella organisation for a fictitious group just to write in support of an oppressive and wicked government. Any Yoruba that complains about the Fulani taking of the southwest, I tell them, "ohun ti oju ba wa ni oju nri". If you support Mr. Buhari to rig the last election, you deserve what you get from the Fulani.
Dr. Falola, I am terribly let down by your criticism of Dr. Kperogi on this nefarious group parading itself as representing diaspora nigerans. Anyone looking for a job with the present government you should go to Nigeria to apply for one but should stop pretending to represent some fathom diaspora nigerians.
I keep saying it, Yoruba have very short memories. How can any rational person forget the atrocities committed by Mr. Buhari during his military adventure as a military head of state? How can anyone not remember how many fictitious groups cropped up during the Abacha misrule? How can any rational person argue in favour of Mr. Buhari, the great admirer of Mr. Abacha? How can the south quickly forget PTF and its leader's war against the south? As Bolaji Aluko is wont of saying, I am shaking my head in alter dismay.
On May 28, 2019 at 8:04 PM "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkperogi@gmail.com> wrote:
Oga Falola,
You know I revere you immensely. I stand in uncomprehending awe before your vast oeuvre of prodigious and perceptive scholarship and your generous mentorship of generations of African scholars. In a recent piece that is yet to be published, I called you the "undisputed patriarch" of African scholars in the North American academe. It's obviously your prerogative to characterize my politics and interventions as you deem fit, but your impressions of me are completely divorced from the facts and are unmoored to the vaguest scintilla of evidence. I have my own sense of your own politics and your perception of social reality, which you will probably disagree with, but that's neither here nor there. Everyone has an opinion about everyone they know and interact with.
But, contrary to what you asserted, I have no wish list. I am no unthinking ideologue. When I gaze at reality, I make self-conscious efforts to ensure that my judgments are not mediated by the primordial, geographic, cultural, religious, etc. lenses that come to people naturally, but by my sense of what is true, just, and fair. I have consistently been critical of EVERY government in power since 1999. The records bear me witness. And this isn't based on some fictional wish list. It's nothing more than the good old philosophy of holding people in power to account. My trouble with you, sir, is that you sometimes ignore, or skirt around, evidence and make predetermined proclamations that merely affirm your presentiments. This issue isn't an indulgent academic exercise; it's about real, living people. People are dying and will continue to die as a consequence of the policies and politics of the people our colleagues are uncritically barracking.
You have two scholars who formed an "association" that pretends to be the "umbrella association" of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora and who issue willfully tendentious, prevaricatory, and morally outrageous pro-regime press statements that cause Nigerians at home to contact some of us that the association says it represents and you think to complain about their duplicity is tantamount to imposing a "wish list"? Seriously? Where is the wish list in expecting a two-man group not to lie that it's an umbrella association of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora? Where is the wish list in expecting two scholars of political science and communication not to lie that an economic subcommittee of their two-man group assessed the economic policies of their home country's central bank governor and found them to be sound even when all statistical data say Nigeria has the slowest growing economy in Africa, when vast swaths of Nigerians are writhing helplessly in existential torment, when Nigeria has become the poverty capital of the world and will continue to be so for another generation? What is wishful about expecting senior scholars that younger people look up to to not lie that service chiefs whose well-documented incompetence and corruption have led to the deaths of hundreds of people--and counting--should be retained?
There is way more I have discovered about this association than I have time to share here. Are you suggesting that the ethical infractions I listed here are justified? Have we sunk that low to the nadir of moral depravity that expecting basic decency from people is now wishful, quixotic expectation? By the way, how do I impose a "wish list" on people I have never met, would probably never ever meet, and have no power over? The notion of will imposition presupposes power asymmetry between the source and the target of the will, which isn't the case.
And the idea that my interventions are animated by "identitarian politics" is probably one of the silliest and most nescient things I've ever read in my entire life. People who told you that about me didn't deserve the honor of your response. Obasanjo is a Yoruba Christian from the South. Yar'adua was a Hausa-speaking Muslim (with a Berber ancestry) from the North. Jonathan is an Ogbia Christian from the South, and Buhari is a Hausa-speaking Fulani Muslim from the North. I was evenly critical of every single one of them, not because of their identities but because I am a journalist, and I feel both a professional and a moral obligation to hold their feet to the fire. As American journalist Lincoln Steffens once said, "Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it. It is the same story." That's why people in power need critical, independent voices to call attention to their abuse of power, not be their praise singers, in the interest of the society.
How could "identitarian politics" possibly be the motivation for my critical intervention in Nigerian politics? Take Buhari, for example. I share more in common with him than I don't. Like him, I am a northerner. Like him, I am a Muslim. Like him, I am a Sunni Muslim. In fact, more than him, I am the son of a Sunni Islamic scholar who not only learned Arabic and Islamic jurisprudence but thought it for years. The only things we don't share in common is ethnicity and state of origin, but anyone who understands the sociology of northern Nigeria would know that religion is the most significant marker of identity there. Professor Jibrin Ibrahim is from Kano, but because he is culturally a Christian, Kano people have more emotional connection with me than they do with him.
People in my local government and, in fact, in my hometown and extended family are fanatical Buhari supporters out of religious solidarity. In 2017, the emir of my hometown, who is my cousin, summoned the entire emirate council and put a call to me on speakerphone. He proceeded to tell me that the entire community was appealing to me to stop my critical commentaries on Buhari. I asked the emir why he never called to say I should cease writing critical articles against Goodluck Jonathan because I was just as critical of Jonathan as I am of Buhari. He was quiet. I told him I had an answer: religious and regional bigotry. He was offended.
As I write this, my natal community in Nigeria ostracizes me because of my consistently critical commentaries on Buhari. So if "identitarian politics" is based on collective identity and my natal community in Nigeria is pro-Buhari, which collective identity's politics do my criticisms serve? In any case, I am personally known to Buhari. I have his direct line. I know more people in the highest echelon of Buhari's government than I've ever known in my life. As recently as 5 months ago, a northern governor called to say he had arranged a meeting between Buhari and me. That is the third attempt to get me to meet with Buhari since 2016. I've turned down every attempt to "reconcile" me with the president because I have no personal issues with him.
Why can't people understand that there are people who have a sensitive moral conscience, who are actuated by higher ideals, who are not given to crass mercenariness, who are too conscious of their own unconscious to avoid falling prey to the easy lures of instinctual, reactionary identity politics? The answer lies in projection: the subconscious psychological process that disposes people to attribute to others the unconscious negative traits and emotions that dwell in them. If enablers and defenders of fascism and corruption call me "arrogant," I'll wear it as a badge of honor.
Farooq
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorJournalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogiAuthor of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 3:53 PM Toyin Falola < toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Sam and Kperogi:
I have written a long essay on Kperogi, but I am not ready to share it. If you, Sam, wants to read it, I can give it to you right away.
The fundamental error, in Kperogi's framing of politics, as I have argued in the essay, is what I have tentatively called "the limitations of a commitment to a wish list." In a "wish list," you construct a set of ideals (they can actually be right, as in saying that you want to eliminate poverty); they can be realistic (as in saying you no longer want a military regime); they can be pragmatic (as in saying that Atiku should win); they can be fundamental (as in the allegation that there is an intent that the Fulani want to dominate.) I have cumulated Kperogi's wish list over a ten-year period and created an algorithm.
The problem, as I have argued, is that a wish list, if pursued, creates its own problem. His wish list with respect to the last election that produced Buhari is clear cut, well defined, unapologetic, and principled. He qualifies to be called a committed citizen, irrespective of what his critics would say. Citizenship is an entry to nationalism as well as to identity politics. Contrary to what his critics have said, my essay says that he is not a victim of identitarian politics, that is to say, he is not a "tribalist." Yes, he uses language in an arrogant manner, but I can create a footnote—human beings use their talents, and that talent can be a dictatorship of some sort.
Here is the flaw, which I will connect to yet another essay on Moses whom I deliberately provoke and who falls into my trap, over and over again, is that you cannot impose your wish list on others. Second, as you relate to others, your wish list actually becomes unsustainable. The capacity to disintegrate that wish list is where the zone of leadership is in a contentious space. Kperogi is flawed in the ring of that space.
Thus, to understand Kperogi's recent critique of the two professors, you cannot see it as a stand-alone. It is data that feeds part of a larger theory that I am testing.
Stay well, great one.
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://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Samuel Zalanga <szalanga@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at 2:27 PM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A Reply to Kperogi.doc
Professor Falola,
Thank you very much for your question. I will try to be very brief in explaining my position and response. But first, I appreciate that a person like you with great experience and high standing can recall the contribution that Professor Agbese made to pro-democracy struggles in Nigeria in the past. I have heard of others apart from the ones you mentioned who used some Nigerian Diaspora Organization in the U.S. as a stepping stone for a more lucrative position in Nigeria. This is an example of what I meant when I said that a single event should not be used to portray a person in a manner that makes him or her look as someone who is just after himself or herself.
With regard to registration of associations or organizations, there are so many dimensions to the issue. In principle I have no objection to groups meeting freely without registration depending on what they are doing, but in practice I have a hermeneutic of suspicion about that because there are different types of groups in a liberal democratic society. But let me begin by saying that a lot about your question has to do with the distrust of the state and the struggle for maintaining social order in a complex society. This is a huge issue that I cannot discuss here. But if after hundreds of years, modern people cannot still create a state that they trust, it suggests we should raise large questions about the nature of the society they have created. Fukuyama wrote a book on Trust where he criticized neoclassical economists for not taking trust seriously as a foundation for creating a well-functioning society. They just focus on exchange.
The freedom do associate in a liberal democratic society is I believe part of a larger pantheon of themes that are characterized as the liberal ideology of liberating human beings from tyranny and oppression. So in this respect, progressive groups such as the one you mentioned in Texas can freely organize and be subversive or operate without formal public registration. In doing so, they have contributed to creating a more just and fair society. The only problem is that this same right or freedom the groups in Texas enjoyed whether registered or not can equally be enjoyed in a liberal democratic society by hate groups such as the ones in Charlottesville. There are lots of things that hate groups can do to make life horrible for others without breaking the law actually.
Some weeks back, I reviewed a documentary film on Charlottesville and other similar groups across the United States whose ideology is white or racial supremacy. When the incident at Charlottesville happened last year, or was it in 2017, I was out of the country. I wanted to really understand what happened and decided to order the documentary film titled "Documenting Hate." One of the major challenges the authorities had which constituted a serious security problem is that many of such groups across the country operated without registration. Security agencies had to use video recordings to capture certain consistent faces that appear in such events and try to track and identify the relevant individuals. I have also used a documentary film on the history and activities of KKK groups where they preach hate message. But in this case, the police are there to even protect them because of the freedom of expression. It is hard for me to see anything that groups with progressive agenda can do to defy the state that right-wing groups cannot equally do. It is like a draw game. Other factors will make the difference but not simple freedom to associate without registration.
Registration of associations can be used by the state to jail or track individuals and prosecute them, but lack of registration also create security situations in the country that people only become worried about when violent events happen. So part of the question is the distrust of the state, depending on what it is, and then part of the question is whether the lack of registration automatically guarantees a better and progressive society, given that any right that a progressive group can claim to propagate its ideas in defiance of the state as in Texas, can equally be claimed by hate groups or something similar in propagating their messages or vison of the new society somewhere in the United States. In my assessment, progressive groups require more effort to build themselves because they are trying to build bridges and promote a more inclusive and just society. It is easier to organize hate groups, because they appeal to the narrow selfish human interests, and they can be smaller in size but much more energetic. And as Mancur Olson argues in "The Rise and Decline of Nations," for social groups to shape public policy, they do not have to be many in terms of membership. They can be small but if they are highly motivated and well-organized because of the gain and satisfaction they can get from their activities, they will make far more impact that is disproportionate to their size in society.
In support of the line of reasoning that groups should not be judged by someone with regard to the validity or utility of their ideas in the public square, Juan Stuart Mill, I believe in his book "On Liberty" argues that ideas as articulated by different groups or individuals should be allowed to compete in a free market place of ideas where the market or the public square can decide which one is right and which one is wrong in the long run. This is where politics and consumer behavior almost overlap. But here we are almost at a point similar to Nozick's reduction of justice to commutative exchange. In other words, in so far as there is a willing seller and buyer, whatever result that comes out of a transaction is just even if it is unfortunate. In this case, if organizations as the sellers of ideas in the public market place are matched with buyers or consumers of their ideas, whatever result that comes out of the transaction is fine. Of course there is a commitment to protecting human dignity. No group should violate the human dignity of others. The problem is that people hardly angry on what these boundaries of human dignity are especially in a neoliberal hegemonic economic system which we take for granted. That is why we need the state to intervene through the courts etc. On the surface, the liberal society claims to offer a lot to human beings, but it fails because laws alone cannot inform human conduct if there is no virtuous cultivation of moral and ethical restraints as Alasdair MacIntyre would argue in his work on virtue ethics.
This whole issue is similar to the debate in economics, which should not surprise us as liberal ideology traverses both economics and politics. The related question in economics is why should there not be free trade? The argument is similar. If we allow the government to regulate businesses by requiring all producers of goods to be registered it will lead the state to deny some people their freedom to engage in free commerce. There is evidence to support this. But on the other hand, while free trade or unregulated trade sounds like a good idea about granting the individuals the freedom to engage in transaction as willing sellers and buyers with no one's interference, yet Joseph Stiglitz has demonstrated how the idea of free trade that is unregulated has been used to the disadvantage of the masses in many countries, both in the developed and in the developing world.
Along the same lines, one would argue that not allowing people to cook food and sell it anywhere they have space to do so in the U.S. is limiting people's freedom because there are willing sellers and buyers and frankly the price may be cheaper if allowed. But because of public health concerns etc. the government said, no. Thus, to cook and sell food one must be registered. It seems like there is public support for this. Depending on the nature of the state, registration is a kind of quality control on what someone claims to do and whether they are doing it well. Not all people may be informed enough to judge what various groups claim to be doing. Left-leaning groups will complain that the right wing state will use registration requirement to silence them, and Right-leaning groups will equally complain that the left-wing state will use registration requirements to silence them. Ideally, customs and traditions of respect for the human dignity of all should regulate human conduct beyond the law, but liberal society broadly conceptualized generally undermines customs and traditions in order to create a more homogenized society, notwithstanding the talk about multiculturalism.
Moreover, there are some who would argue that in our world today, the production, spread and consumption of certain ideas can be potentially damaging as the consumption of some kind of food. There are many ideas that were distributed in the social media by the Russians during the last presidential elections in the United States. Some of it was intentionally and deliberately aimed at poisoning the population consuming the information, which cannot be traced initially to anyone specific producer or group at the time. But when people believe the poisoned information like food, they begin to hate or fight each other with great public repercussions as we have come to realize after the 2016 elections. Now there is effort both in the United States and other countries to increasingly regulate the social media in many countries because the consumption of its product can be dangerous sometimes especially when the product is there but we cannot identify who exactly is responsible for it and why? Knowing who is responsible for producing it can really help in maintaining social order. European countries are struggling with this concern very much now.
For me, at this stage, what I feel about liberalism is that what it gives you with one hand, it takes away with another. It is the recognition of this that led MacIntyre to emphasize virtue ethics instead of simple reliance on the law to regulate our complex human society. But as a society, we are too much in a rush and few in society care to cultivate virtue ethics because that slows people down in their pursuit to reach their state of "Nirvana" so to say.
To conclude, in my assessment, registration is in theory not a big deal at all. The freedom to associate is one of those juicy promises of liberalism to humanity. But lack of registration or registration should be understood within the broader context of the structure and process of liberal democratic society, which promises a lot in terms of freedom and liberation of people but conducts itself in such a way that results in making people fight each other as it heightens egocentric behavior while undermining the genuine sense of community. Any strategy that can be used by a progressive group to defy the state can also be used similarly by some kind of hate group on the far-right. At the end, it is like a dog eat dog world, a Social Darwinist social order that is packaged as liberalism's attempt to emancipate and free people from political tyranny.
Yet, the major tyranny that liberalism fails to address is the tendency of tyranny within many of us human beings today in our psyche, where human appetitive desires take over and contorl the mind, reason and the soul. The social crisis in the wider society is a manifestation of this inner crisis in the human psyche that we encounter today at a more egregious level. Religion has tried to address it but in my assessment, I have the feeling that this human appetitive desires that have taken over the human consciousness have also gotten a privileged seat at the inner-sanctum of many religious places of worship. Such religious organizations may be free to organize as part of civil society without registration, but that does not help us in terms of guaranteeing a pathway to "Dar es Salaam," the "New Jerusalem," or the "Neoliberal Utopia," among other visions of human ideals.
Thank you very much.
Samuel
Samuel Zalanga
Bethel University
Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Reconciliation Studies,
Bethel University, 3900 Bethel Drive, #24, Saint Paul, MN 55112.
Office Phone: 651-638-6023
On Mon, May 27, 2019 at 6:53 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Sam:
Can you please elaborate on one point regarding the legitimacy or otherwise of an association based on registration and non-registration? Registration is an instrument of control by the state, a policing instrument to throw innocent people into jail. It is also an instrument to delegitimize as in characterizing some organizations, as in the case of many anti-apartheid ones, as terrorist organizations. It is a tool. You can be subversive by refusing to register as we did with the Zapatista Movement in Austin. I was in several anti-war associations but we did not register as we knew the consequences on our individual members. If the birds perch and human beings use catapults to kill them, no one teaches them to keep flying without perching as your stones will keep missing!
The Idoma people in Nigeria or anywhere in the world do not need anyone's permission or registration to come together to discuss issues of concern to them. However, if they want to raise funds, and they don't want to be accused of mail fraud, like Marcus Garvey, they can do the paperwork.
Thousands and thousands of organizations remain un-registered—in churches, mosques, communities, etc.
The issue, to me, is not about registration, but about voice—who speaks for the others?
Pita Agbese was active in the 1990s in pro-democracy movements. He did not push to benefit from it and returned home as Kayode Fayemi or Julius Ihonvbere did, but his contributions to the termination of military rule in Nigeria were solid.
As a moderator, I only issue cautionary statements, and I don't get involved.
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://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Samuel Zalanga <szalanga@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, May 27, 2019 at 6:19 AM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A Reply to Kperogi.doc
Thank you very much OAA. I read the email exchanges that took place in this forum with regard to the essay written by Farooq on Professor Gwamna and Professor Agbese. I am writing this to share some of my thoughts about it because I was at the conference that Farooq made reference to and even made a presentation there. Of course I am not one of the organizers but I remember inviting three friends of mine to attend the conference / forum. Two of the friends I invited are from south western Nigeria while the other is from Southeastern Nigeria. Two of them are professors: one is a systematic and contextual theologian and the other is criminal justice scholar. The other is an employee of the state of Minnesota.
In my assessment there are two main parts to the concerns raised by Farooq about Professors Agbese and Gwamna. One has to do with claiming to represent an organization that is not registered, and the implication that this was done for dubious reasons or so it seems as he argued. The second part has to do with the claim that the two persons are engaged in some kind of propaganda to support the Buhari administration in spite of the terrible situation that the Buhari government has created in Nigeria.
Let me start by saying that just as Farooq accorded respect to the two persons based on their meeting at the Zumunta Convention last year, I too will start from there but I will go further. I have met many Nigerians in the United States, but Professor Gwamna who is a senior colleague to me has become like a brother to me. I am from Bauchi but he is from Southern Kaduna. I remember hearing his voice reading news in Radio Nigeria Kaduna when I was younger. I visited him in Iowa twice and the most recent was last Easter. I celebrated my last Easter break with him. This is my full disclosure. I have come to know his spouse who is a very kind woman. I have had extended contact and interaction with them such that while I agree that the concern Farooq raised about representing an organization that is not registered is a legitimate one, I do not want people to just totalize the character of the two persons around that. Please try to know them as persons in a holistic way. There is more to each one of us than just one wrong decision. I observe a lot and while people do make mistakes, I do not see anything in the life of Professor Gwamna that indicates that he is the kind of money-chasing person that he is being made to look like. His life is characterized by faith, moderation and humility. One can still make mistake but let us not from a distant just use one mistaken decision to draw conclusion on a person's character please.
Professor Agbese is someone I see not just as a senior colleague too but as a mentor since he was the classmate of Attahiru Jega. Jega returned to Bayero University Kano while I was still there as an undergraduate but I did not take a course from him. I however used to see him regularly at the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences. Although Professor Agbese visits Nigeria frequently according to Farooq, yet, this is not something that started recently. Even before Buhari became president he used to travel to Nigeria a lot. I am not sure also, but I have heard him speak on the role of the military in Nigeria in many conferences in the past, which indicates to me that either that is his area of specialization or one of the areas of his scholarly focus. His interest in the military is not starting now. This would help in greatly explaining his interest in the military. Now, again this does not mean that this makes it right to represent an unregistered organization but please, I do not want us to rush to totalize someone's character just based on such a mistake. That is why I feel strongly that Professor Agbese's picture should not have been in the article written by Farooq. In my view, that went too far. This is almost like treating someone as a criminal. From the way Farooq wrote, at some point it looks like he did some intensive research and knows a lot about the two persons. But I was surprise when he asserted that the two persons live in the same town. In fact, the distance between where the two live is more than two hours drive or thereabout. Let us all be careful about claiming details on things on the ground. I have visited Professor Abegese's house too but in my observation, I did not see any extravagant lifestyle that one may suspect based on Farooq's article, unless of course if I made a mistake in my observation which I could..
As for the conference organized in Minnesota last year, it went very well. Indeed, I wish there were more people in attendance. It was not propaganda as some may think. The presenter truly brought to limelight a lot of details about what is happening on the ground in Nigeria in fighting insurgents in order to help Nigerians here understand the complexity of the situation in Nigeria. Yet, he also encountered tough questions and scrutiny. I will say as my friends who were there would say also that if the goal was propaganda then the person did not succeed because it was a serious forum for intellectual discussion. I was not paid and no one dictated to me what to present on. I wish there would be more of such forums organized because that will help Nigerians in diaspora understand some of the things happening on the ground. After living in Nigeria for 13 months in 2017-18, I realized that we assume too much that armchair expertise or philosophizing here by us can bring immediate change in the distant grassroots communities in Nigeria or Africa at large. This is not a de-legitimation of the work we do, but I prefer praxis in the sense of the dialectical relationship between theory / ideas and existential life and struggles of people out there in the real world. And seeing the reality on the ground in Nigeria made me feel humbled about what kind of civil repair I can initiate in Nigeria from here. People in the conference were free to express their disagreement with the presenter and the body language of the presenter did not indicate he was shocked about that. He is a very educated military officer and did an excellent job in articulating his analysis of the issues and he got challenging feedback.
While food and accommodation was provided to those who attended the conference, this, in and of itself in my assessment should not immediately qualify as something dubious except of course if someone has some other kinds of evidence. For example, there was a time an organization at the Graduate Theological Union in California received funding from Templeton Foundation to promote dialogue on science and religion in Africa. They invested seventy thousand dollars or thereabout to organize an initial conference about this subject matter at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. At the very time the conference was to take place, the United States invaded Afghanistan and for security reasons, the organizers were advised not to travel to Nigeria for security and safety reasons. The organization requested me to represent them instead, which I did. But they paid for all people's food and accommodation at the conference in so far as one's paper was accepted for presentation. So my point is not to say that I know exactly the details of anything but in my assessment, having seen something like this somewhere and long ago, it should not be immediately assumed that organizing the conference in Minnesota was dubious. I know that all that attended felt it was a value addition. With regard to the press release, in and of itself, there is nothing wrong since it is an expression of their perspective, except for the point that Farooq made about representing an organization that does not exist. But let us treat that as a mistake and be cautious not to use it to totally condemn their lives and character. There are many press releases that I never read, e.g., from the White House.
I do not think that Professor Agbese and Gwamna do not feel the pain coming from the violence in Nigeria. There was one conference in Atlanta, where Professor Agbese made a thorough analysis of the Fulani Violence in Nigeria. What I will say briefly is that he examined the intersection of factors and processes that led to the violence instead of isolating just one factor as many people do. With regard to the fact that as Farooq claims Professor Agbese supports Buhari, I believe while many will disagree with that, but if he chooses to do so, the best one can do is to provide counter evidence. In this forum, there are many opinions that disagree and sometimes it is not just disagreement but as Thomas Kuhn would say in "The Structures of Scientific Revolution," the different positions people take are incommensurable. Before the elections in Nigeria, people supported different candidates. Yes, intellectuals should not sell their conscience but at a deeper level, conscience itself is not developed in social or cultural vacuum. Owing to elective affinity and how the intersection of social and material interests can subconsciously create a plausibility structure for a worldview and political arguments, intellectuals may end up supporting something that cannot claim universal applicability to all social and interests groups. Of course this does not mean that we should discard the question of "social responsibility."
The way Professor Agbese is presented is that he is too close to the military. Well, I do not know as much as Farooq claims to know but I know that Agbese did his sabbatical at Bingham University which was established by the denomination I grew up in i.e., ECWA. It is not necessarily one of the highly rated universities in Nigeria. Would not someone highly connected to the military establishment or the government of Buhari as implied be able to use his connections to get a more strategic location for his sabbatical through the military at for instance, The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru (Plateau State) or even the Army Resource Center in Abuja? How much will Bingham pay him? Bingham University has been in serious financial difficulty. I truly believe they did not pay him on time. Please let us not rush.
I agree with Farooq that it would not be good or nice for anyone of us to represent an organization that is not registered. Even if we have good intentions, doing so can create concern about our intentions, but that notwithstanding, please let us not rush to judge these two people based on one issue or mistake. And let us all learn a lesson from this. It is always good to understand people in different or numerous ways than doing so based on one issue. I do not deny that humans can make mistake or make wrong judgement but let us not reduce the complex life of a person to one issue or event please. These two persons are not perfect human beings and I am not sure there is one, but I believe if one knows them closely, he or she would not rush to put them in a pigeonhole.
Samuel Zalanga
Bethel University
Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Reconciliation Studies,
Bethel University, 3900 Bethel Drive, #24, Saint Paul, MN 55112.
Office Phone: 651-638-6023
On Sun, May 26, 2019 at 12:16 PM OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
Let me thank Bitrus Gwama for this modulated response stating his side of the story.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------
From: "Dr. Bitrus Gwamna" <bgwamna@gmail.com>
Date: 25/05/2019 11:15 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A Reply to Kperogi.doc
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