Oga Falola,
To elaborate on the point about the interconnections between what might seem like more urgent existential and substantive issues and issues that might seem less tangible, more abstract, and thus less inconsequential, the perfect analogy is the growing popularity of intersectionality and intersectional analysis in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. In essence intersectionality is the recognition that social phenomena and social constructs that may seem separate and unrelated, such as race, creed, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and culture, are coextensive with one another and inform one another. Such is the connection that you have to recognize all of these phenomena as aspects of the same problem and you do violence analytically to one side if you focus only on the other. This the whole point of intersectionality is that you cannot fully analyze or understand one without simultaneously looking at the other.
In the same way, and in addition to the robust explanation given by Udogu, I would say that the issue of representation in national appointments is not only central to nation-building and national cohesion, but it is ultimately related to the issue of whether the nation survives or atrophies. If people do not feel that they belong to the national project, why should they contribute to it and if they don't contribute then how can the nation endure and how can you blame them for wanting out? If representation is trashed and the nation is polarized, how can economic and tangible projects be successfully pursued? How can the nation prosper and if it does how can citizens benefit from that prosperity?
Philosopher Axel Honneth captures the interrelatedness of the tangible and intangible, the concrete/economic and the abstract/representational when he argued that all human struggles are defined by two overarching imperatives: redistribution and recognition. In other words, people desire as much recognition (representation, belonging, dignity, respect) as they do redistribution (socioeconomic goods and opportunity).
On Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 5:04 PM Uyilawa Usuanlele <biguyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
--Oga Prof.,I second Biko's prescription. Thank you.Uyi
From: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 4:42 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Is Something Wrong With Me?Kpele o
Something is definitely wrong with you!
Why are you lifting a cup of coffee to your 'sleep' at 3AM?
I join others in reminding you that you need your rest for we need you.
Instead of coffee, drink water from 6PM and go to bed latest by 10:30PM
Take a deep breath and count yourself to sleep with a focus on you breathing.
Africa will still be there for the superman to save the next day, fi i le.
Get you 8 hours of sleep every night, old man, and that is a prescription.
Biko
--On Tuesday, 2 June 2020, 14:58:26 GMT-4, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
dear allplease join me in applauding our renowned, respected moderator. his work on behalf of ALL of US, in postings about everything to do with africa, from politics, to religion, to current events, to covid... all this indeed is demanding, stressful, and difficult for him, but informative, healing, community building for us. what do the people do about all those nurses and doctors and grocery store clerks, who are out there risking their lives so that we might be able to live and go on with our lives? they take out a few minutes, maybe thursday at noon, go to their windows, balconies, and applaud. why? not just to show appreciation, but really to say, we are all one.toyin falola, you are never alone. we all appreciate you much more than you will ever know.👍❤️🙌😁ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 8:04 AM
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Is Something Wrong With Me?--Reading some items on this site as well as others, as in the case of appointments in Nigeria, I have come to the conclusion that something is wrong with me as a person and with my emotion. When there are bigger issues, as in the ongoing protests, the devastations by COVID-19, the behavior of President Trump, declining economies in Africa, I become obsessed with those issues. I forfeit sleep and food. I will hold a cup of coffee and won't be able to raise it to my sleep. I feel betrayed.
I wonder how some of you are able to leave the bigger issues and focus on the smaller ones, sometimes totally irrelevant to the concerns of our civilization and collective humanity. How are you able to disconnect and live your normal life?
At 3AM this morning, I came to the conclusion that you are the ones who are doing the right thing and that something must be wrong with me.
Moderator
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