RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Dolly Parton, Africans, CountryMusic, and Humanitarianism

Interesting. The first time I encountered fellatio in a serious discursive sense was when I left Nigeria and was doing my first graduate degree in the psychoanalysis class and when treating the history of sexuality.

To be honest I felt repulsed because in Nigeria it was  a taboo topic for class discussion.

Here it was being discussed like it was recipe for baking cake.

 I decided instantly it wasnt something I wanted to pursue as scholarly specialisation.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com>

Date: 28/11/2020 18:47 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Dolly Parton, Africans, CountryMusic,  and Humanitarianism

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​OOA, you are almost correct. I left Nigeria shortly before the outbreak of the civil war. Before then most educated Nigerians had moulded themselves not only in the image of the Whiteman but had also decided to conform to the behaviours and values of the Whiteman in the most minute details. "The educated African", Lord Lugard remarked already in his 1922 book, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, "imitates European dress and customs closely, however ill adapted to his conditions of life, and may be heard to speak of going 'home' to England. He has, as a rule, little in common with indigenous tribes of Africa, ..... The Europeanised African is indeed separated from the rest of the people by a gulf which no racial affinity can bridge. He must be treated - and seems to desire to be treated - as though he were of different race (a Whiteman)." The Europeanised and educated Nigerians, as observed by Lugard, are called in Yoruba parlance ÒYÌNBÓ ALÁWÒ DÚDÚ, meaning Whiteman with Black Colour simply because of their acquired tastes and behaviours towards fellow non-English language literate Nigerians. During my own time in Nigeria, few listened to country music which our Yoruba people characterised as ORIN ARÒ or ORIN ÒFÒ, meaning funeral/mourning song or lamentation/sad/sorrowful song, to mock the music.

Few generations of Nigerians after 1967, especially the school, college, and university going, were attracted to Euro-American music, including Country music, since it lured and aroused them as well as stimulated their sexual instincts which was why those Nigerians wrongly refer to the alien music as sentimental. Most Euro-American music are always about sexual love while in Nigeria music is about teaching morals and how to escape from abject poverty. From the time immemorial, European men in particular have never been sexually disciplined and they lacked sexual control. One just has to remember that in the 14th century, 33% of European population was wiped out by bubonic plague but by 15th century Europe had become overpopulated to the extent that they had to wipe out the aborigines in America, Australia, and New Zealand to settle their surplus population. The display of lack of sexual control by the Whiteman began right from the time slavery where African women were constantly raped. As Calvin H. Hernton pointed out in his book, Sex & Racism, "In the key cities of the South in such states as Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, mulattoes constitute a large proportion of the Negro population. Mississippi, where segregation is said to be strictest, has the highest number of mixed-race children between White men and Black women, although racially, although White men never considered Black women as human females but she-dogs." Unlike Europe, the purpose of sex in Africa has always been to procreate. Therefore, sexual intercourse is restricted within married partners. Getting married between a man and a woman in Nigeria, before the coming of sentimental music, was not only the concern of the would-be husband and wife as they had to obtain the approval of parents, and at times, the entire relatives on both sides of the would-be couples. There was no pre-marital sexual taste or trial marriage or boys' and girls' friends. Boys and girls were required to keep their virginity until marriage but a polygamous man, a widow or a widower remarrying were exempted from the virgin requirement on marriage. Polygamy as it was then practised was to ensure that available females were mated since obviously, there were more females than males. On sexual discipline and self-controlled in Africa, the first British Governor General of Nigeria, Lord Lugard, observed, "The custom, which seems fairly general among the negro tribes of suckling a child for two to three years during which a woman lives apart from her husband, tends to decrease population."  Unlike Europe of Lugard where a nursing mother was forced into sexual intercourse by the husband, the Nigerian man was so sexually disciplined as to refrain from subjecting his nursing wife to sexual burden. Apart from the aforesaid, the only sexual activity recognised in pre-sentimental music Nigeria, was between a male and a female performed with their biologically prescribed sexual organs.

Not everything done in Europe and the US is bad but in Nigeria, and indeed the entire Africa, we have the tendency of copying bad, and not good, things from them. The post-sentimental music Nigeria has given rise to the importation of million kilograms of condoms from Europe and the US in order to encourage illicit sex among citizens. With the arrival of sentimental music, Nigeria also imported various forms of sexual practices that were previously unknown in our culture. Now Nigerians talk freely about homosexuality, lesbianism (tribadism), zoophilia (sexual intercourse by humans with animals otherwise known as bestiality), rape and fellatio (oral sex) which have no corresponding or equivalent words in any of Nigerian languages since those perverse proclivities and vices were never practised. My main point on this particular thread is not about country music and Dolly Parton and her donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt University Hospital to conduct research for the discovery of vaccine for COVID-19, but that the University in question expended the money received for the purpose for which it was donated to get the desired result. If compared with Nigeria since independence, especially, from 1985 and hitherto one will see that in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA), public officials, selected or elected, appointed or employed who are entrusted with funds for socio-economic welfare development of Nigeria used to steal the funds with impunity contrary to what was obtained at the Vanderbilt University Hospital with regards to the research and discovery of vaccine for COVID-19. The core issue here is that researchers at Vanderbilt University Hospital are satisfied with their agreed salaries and allowances, thus making it unthinkable for them to steal funds entrusted in their cares for research. Besides, they are aware that should they steal the fund that is so vital for the survival of many people the law would effectively be deployed to get the thieves incarcerated. In Nigeria, public officials in all the MDAs who are highly remunerated to encourage efficiency and maximum production constantly divert public funds into their private use!! Thousand cases of theft of public funds have been pending in courts for decades as the pilferers of billions of naira of public funds were granted bail and their cases adjourned sine die. In some cases, the pilferers of public funds remain in office without being questioned or sacked. Why are most Nigerian intellectuals on this forum unwilling to tackle their intellectual colleagues in charge of Nigeria's MDAs for lack of performance and thievery? We have heard hypocritical intellectuals on this forum complain about high petrol pump price in Nigeria, whereas their intellectual colleagues at the Nigeria's oil refineries receive daily allocations of 445,000 barrel of crude oil per day with zero production of petrol and they don't even account for what happens to the unrefined crude oil received!! ​https://punchng.com/refineries-gulped-n81-41bn-refined-zero-crude-nnpc/    

Refineries gulped N81.41bn, refined zero crude – NNPC – Punch Newspapers A total of N81.41bn was expended on Nigeria's refineries between January and August this year but the facilities refined no drop of crude oil all through this period, latest data obtained from ... punchng.com

​So, let us forget Country music and Dolly Parton's donation and, instead, concentrate on the honesty and efficiency of the team of researchers at Vanderbilt University Hospital in discovering vaccine for COVID-19 and by extension ask ourselves why Nigerian intellectuals have largely been unproductive in every field of human service where they have been employed and afforded the opportunity to display their expertise.

S. Kadiri 

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
Sent: 23 November 2020 01:36
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Dolly Parton, Africans, Country Music, and Humanitarianism

 

I think Alagba Kadiri left Nigeria shortly before the influx of country nusic to Nigeria ( most likely left early 70s)

I remember vividly that country music made its inroads into the Nigerian music scene from the mid to late 70s from the university campuses.  We were the generation that baptised it.  By the early 80s it boomed from many music shacks.  It portrayed ( because of its idyllic evocations) literally that America was an El- Dorado.  The archetypal land of green pastures as literally portrayed in country music. 

 I remember one of my undergraduate female mates who fell head over heels in love with it ( particularly Dolly) and in all her gestures portrayed herself as an idyllic country American, born in the wrong place ( this attitude was a big turn off for me and made me distance myself gradually from her.  She was not the closer Igbo friend who wanted both of us  to go over and settle in the US with her brother.  She is Yorùbá.  I distanced myself from both. Ibrahim Babangida performed the magic they could not pull off- made me leave)

I can see why by the time of  Moses's coming of age it would be everywhere particularly within the Pentecostal groups ( American export to Nigeria) to which he belongs.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Sabella Abidde <sabidde@gmail.com>

Date: 22/11/2020 23:42 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Dolly Parton, Africans, Country Music, and Humanitarianism

Good greetings brother Salimonu Kadiri,

 

I get brother Moses Ochonu's position…

 

I was born in and grew up in Lagos and went to boarding school in Ilorin. Shortly after Ilorin, I moved to Jos for two years. In between, I spent time with friends, family, and in-laws in Osogbo, Ibadan, Bauchi, Ife, Port Harcourt, Benin, Warri, Sapele, Akure, and Calabar. In all these places -- along with music from the Caribbean/West Indies -- there was country music.

 

I was never a student at any Nigerian university; however, I visited friends, in-laws, and family members at UI, OAU, UNIJOS, UNIBEN, UNIPORT, and ILORIN. Again, in all these institutions – along with music from the Caribbean/West Indies -- there was country music.

 

Country music is also a staple in the many Nigerian homes that I have spent time in, in this country especially if they are from the lower half of Nigeria. I have lived in DC, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington State, Florida, Minnesota, and Alabama. And I have visited no fewer than 38 other states. Same thing, same story…country music!

 

Frankly, I know of no Nigerian my/around my age (48-65) who grew up in Nigeria who does not have an affinity for country music. In addition to the names brother Moses mentioned, I could easily add a couple more, i.e. Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings. The "biggest" of them all (in the Nigeria of my youth) was Don Williams, Jim Reeves, Dolly Parton, and Kenny Rogers.  

 

So, I get brother Moses Ochonu's position.

 

All the best,

 

Sabella Abidde

On Sun, Nov 22, 2020 at 4:28 PM Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:

​..... when I first came to the US as a student, I took pride in telling my African American housemate of my fondness for country music - classical country embodied by Don Williams, Dan Seals, Kenny Rogers and of course Dolly Parton. /....../ My friend (the African American housemate) of course didn't know the extent to which country music was very much a part of our lives in Nigeria, how we woke up to it, how it accompanied us on long trips and how the public airwaves were saturated with it - Moses Ebe Ochonu

If Moses had limited himself to telling his African American friend of his personal love for country music, there would not have been any problem. But the claim that country music was very much a part of our lives in Nigeria, at any period of time in history, cannot be true. In the 50s Calypso music from British West Indies was very popular in Nigeria (mostly in the South) from which the West Africans developed the High Life music. Of course, we have various and different kinds of local music too. In the 60s, Soul music was developed in the US, and became very popular in Nigeria, especially among the educated elites. In the 70s, Reggae and Rap music which developed in Jamaica and the US respectively made inroad into Nigeria. Whether we are talking about Calypso, Soul , Reggae or Rap music, they all have their origins in African rhythms, which explains their embracement and acceptance in Nigeria (Africa). On the other hand, Country Music, also known as bill-hilly music, is a kind of folk songs associated with western cow boys in the south eastern part of the US. Dancers of country music form square or circular figures in which partners in rows face each other. That kind of rhythmless music can never be attractive to Nigerians (Africans) who by tradition and culture are used to not only listening to music but dancing to it. Thus, it is not unlikely that a minority of literate Nigerians came across country music, a white folk's music and decided to adopt it as a symbol of their being civilised and culturally refined. Landing in Nashville the original home of Country music, I can understand the survival instinct in Moses that pushed him to tell his Nashville pal that the most popular music in Nigeria was Country music. The Yoruba aphorism says, Bi a bá dé ibi tí eran'ko péjo si, nse lã nwa nkan ti ojó ìrù fi há ìdi, meaning, when one finds self in the congregation of animals, one must find something that looks like tail to fix to the buttock. The wisdom in that aphorism is that one must pretend to be an animal in the midst of animals in order to attract their acceptance of oneself and avert their hostility. When you are in Rome you do as the Romans. When you are in Nashville, Tennessee, you must pretend to love country music.

Moses eulogised Dolly Parton for donating one million dollars ($1m) to Vanderbilt University Hospital to aid their research for vaccine against COVID-19. The late Chinua Achebe once observed rightly in his book, Anthills of the Savannah that, "Charity is the opium of the privileged, whereas the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary." I agree with Achebe that what the world needs is socio-political and economic justice and when that is done there will be no need for charity. Of what use is the charity of weapon manufacturers and sellers when they donate money to the Red Cross to take care of victims of war? Does a cocoa farmer, for an instance, need charity aid instead of adequate payment for his product so that he can have the same standard of living as the consumers of his cocoa? What has impressed me mostly in Dolly Parton's donation and the behaviour of the recipients of her donation, unlike Nigeria, is that the donation was expended on what it was meant for. In Nigeria, funds paid by the government to research and find vaccine COVID-19 would have been stolen with impunity. At best the EFCC or ICCP will charge the culprits to court where Judges will grant them bail after monetary handshakes and the case will be adjourned sine die. For those who may think I am exaggerating, let me remind them of the Makurdi flood disaster in Benue State in 2012. Jonathan's led Federal Government paid N500 million immediately as flood relief to the flood victims who were forced into refugee camps. But flood victims got nothing and one of them, named Dennis Igbana told Premium Times, Nigeria, "Now some people are making jest of us, they took advantage of our situation to enrich themselves while we live in abject poverty, they are constantly praying yet for another flood because of what they stand to gain." The then Chairman of the Benue State Committee on Flood Disaster Relief Management, Theophilus Adzaagee, attributed the delay in resettling the victims to what he termed, lack of comprehensive data!!! About five months after the camps for flood victims were closed, 24 November 2012, fire gutted Local Government Education Authority in Wurukum, Makurdi, where relief materials meant for the flood refugees were stored. The Governor of Benue State, then, was Gabriel Suswam. When his two terms tenure ended in 2015, he became a Senator. He was charged in Court, in 2016,  by the EFCC for stealing billions of naira, he received on behalf of Benue State from the Federal Revenue allocations. He has since been granted bail and his case adjourned indefinitely while he continues to make laws as a legislator. As it is in Benue, so it is in every state in Nigeria. A case like COVID-19, should not depend on individual charity in search for cure or vaccine, rather it should be financed by the entire world under the auspices of WHO. Despite that, I still appreciate the honesty of the team from Vanderbilt University Hospital for spending received donations for the purpose for which the funds were donated.

S. Kadiri 

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Sent: 20 November 2020 15:54
To: USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Dolly Parton, Africans, Country Music, and Humanitarianism

 

Nigerians/Africans' relationship with country music is a subject that requires a sustained academic investigation.

Such is the depth of this relationship that when I first came to the US as a student, I took pride in telling my African American housemate of my fondness for country music—classical country embodied by Don Williams, Dan Seals, Kenny Rogers, and of course Dolly Parton.

My friend, a hip hop connoisseur, was not amused. In fact he was scandalized. In America, young black people do not go around proclaiming their love of country music. Doing so will cost them many coolness points.

My friend of course didn't know the extent to which country music was very much a part of our lives in Nigeria, how we woke up to it, how it accompanied us on long trips, and how the public airwaves were saturated with it.

This post is not about country music per se, and I have given this preamble only because it is relevant to the point I want to make.

To fully grasp the profound ways that American country music speaks to African working and middle class imaginaries and articulates values, hopes, and sentiments popular among Africans of those classes, please read Pius Adesanmi's essay on the subject. It is one of the essays in his award winning book, Africa, You are Not a Country.

Africa's country music fandom underscores the trans-national mobility and resonance of folk mentalities that are nurtured by music--any music--that celebrates and is attuned to the struggles and solidarities of simple working people wherever they may be.

It is not useful to cheapen such transnational musical flows and the sentimental work that they do by subsuming them reductively in an analytical premise of cultural imperialism. That would occlude the ways in which music and other aesthetic expressions travel and are adopted, adapted, appropriated, and repurposed in unexpected places and in unexpected ways outside the familiar nodes of soft imperial power.

Enough of the digression and excessive academic analysis, for I don't want to be guilty of the same over-analyzing that I'm warning against when it comes to the simple folk pleasures of country music. I am here to talk about Dolly Parton. I grew up listening to her music. Her melody and voice were all-purpose soothing balms for us. Her music told us that things would be alright even if they appeared bleak in the moment.

Little did I know that I would end up in Nashville, smacked in the so-called Mecca of country music where Dolly and her iconography and imagery are ubiquitous.

At first I was just happy to be living in the same state/city as a musician who was such a big part of my childhood.

Gradually, however, I came to learn about her multifaceted charitable works and my admiration for her grew even more and began to transcend her music.

I took my family to Dollywood, an amazing theme park she built and which bears her name and oozes her aesthetic proclivities.

Every now and then, there would be a story on her on the local news and the occasional interview about her charitable works.

Then when our younger daughter was born, I experienced firsthand one aspect of her philanthropic generosity. Literally a few months after the birth, we started receiving children's books from a Dolly Parton charity. The books kept coming and were the first books we read to our daughter and in which she first encountered educational pictures of various kinds. The books came monthly until the age of 5 I think.

Dolly does this for every child born in the state of Tennessee and pays for the books from her personal fortune.

She is a major donor to several children's causes and supports children's hospitals across the state.

She makes appearances to cheer up children in distress.

She has made many donations to a variety of medical and health charities. She also supports many social justice and equality causes, not caring what people in her conservative natal Tennessee might think of those gestures.

As I learned of her charitable works, my fondness for her swelled. What's more, in a state and industry dominated by an avowedly conservative political tendency, Dolly Parton chooses to remain doggedly apolitical, helping humanity without reference to its political fault lines.

My admiration for Dolly Parton reached stratospheric heights this week when it was reported that the $1 million she donated to Vanderbilt University Hospital was to aid the development of a COVID-19 vaccine and that she was one of the biggest funders of the Moderna COVID vaccine, which just reported a success rate of 94 percent and will be rolled out next month after approval is obtained.

Dolly Parton is putting her money and attention where her passion and empathy are. She is still rich and it seems that the more she helps humanity the richer she gets.

I could not be prouder to live in the same world, country, state, and city as this iconic musician and humanitarian.

This is my way of thanking Dolly Parton for her timeless music and her enduring humanitarian impact on the world. When the story of the battle against COVID is written, she will feature prominently.

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