Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: NYTimes: Death Has Many Names

Ken, It is always more than a question of attitudes or mindsets. It is also about institutionalized racism of the sort that encourages NYT to frame Africana discourse in ways supportive of white supremacy. A German asked Soyinka a similar question more pointedly: Admit it, he said, white people are superior to Africans even though you are an exceptional African, can you show me any area where Africans are exemplary compared to Europeans? Soyinka said that he was dumbfounded and could not give an immediate response but eventually, he identified religion as the example where Africans are models of best practices because African religions have never led to religious wars. See his book, Of Africa, Yale UP, 2012, based on his lectures at Harvard.

On the Obedient Babes and Boys of the Empire, OBE, it is also more than attitudes for there are vested interests in the defense of settler colonialism and imperialism. The old lady is still handing out those knighthoods in the name of the empire, maybe, because she did not get the memo about decolonization even in her backyard where Raymond Williams wondered, Who Speaks for Wales if the Prince of Wales remains an English man?

Azikiwe also challenged Africans to go beyond superstitions and adopt the scientific methods in 1937. Awolowo opposed him and said that juju is an African scientific method for killing enemies by invoking their names remotely in 1939. Zik was saying that Africans should go beyond, not completely reject superstitions that could be comforting to the bereaved - the soul of a soulless condition, the heart of heartless situations. Yes, Europeans still cross their fingers, knock on wood, cross themselves when a black cat crosses the road, and wish that people they love should break a leg to attract fame, but they are also sending space ships to Mars with the help of a kid who was born in Africa in 1974 and they are busily seeking a vaccine to stop COVID-19 while Africans wait and point fingers at ghosts that appeared in dreams. Fanon said that we are more scared of juju than of the police and the army and so, if you dream of sleeping with your neighbors wife, you had better go and apologize and pay a fine when you wake up or the spirits will ride you. 

Obasanjo dictated that Africans should use juju to fight against apartheid and the SA freedom fighters were probably blessed by both Desmond Tutu and Sangoma priests before they went into battle just like Zimbabwe Chimurenga warriors who also matched to the gospel of Rastafari according to the great Bob Marley. Azikiwe admitted the Association of Traditional Healers as a group member of his political party and he was annointed as a Saint of the National Church of Nigeria as an alternative to the Anglican congregation just as Awolowo formed his Action Group party in collaboration with Ogboni confraternity and went on to recommend scientific ways of breathing to his followers. Soyinka launched the Pirates Fraternity on campus just as there are fraternities in American Univeresities but the Nigerian students borrowed a leaf from blood-thirsty dictators and started massacring fellow students on campus to see which secret cult get power pass others. The call of Azikiwe in Renascent Africa is to move beyond attitudes and mindsets of old and adopt testable scientific approaches that may include spiritual balance, economic determinism, social regeneration, mental emancipation, and political resurgimento.

Biko

On Tuesday, 16 February 2021, 12:47:42 GMT-5, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

biko, if we are talking strategies to respond to european (or asian) condescending attitudes toward africa, i would probably respond  without being defensive, i.e., by saying you have your own backwardnesses, or we did this first or whatever. no matter how truthful the response, the issue for me is one of attitude. mostly i quietly respond you don't really know anything about this.

at one point a friend, australian of english extraction, blew up when i criticized british colonialism, esp in kenya. i quietly said this was really my own field of specialization and i knew what i was talking about; but it turned ugly, and i just gave up on her.

it isn't about communicating facts to the person, but rather addressing the larger mindset, the way they frame the world, see the world, construct the world.

as mudimbe said, how they invent africa.

like talking about truth to a trump supporter. is there really any point in it?

k

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2021 12:06 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: NYTimes: Death Has Many Names

 

Anytime anyone asks you condescendingly if Africans still believe in superstitions, remind them that the word is a European one that has no equivalent in African languages and no European would walk under a ladder today if it can be helped. 

If Yoruba religion has elements of monotheism and polytheism, remind the inquisitor that it was Africans who introduced the idea of monotheism to Europeans and that Europeans still maintain beliefs in saints, witches, and gods of war. 

In a country where the life expectancy is less than 50 years from birth, the rumor that an enemy died after being chased by the ghost of the dead victim is no proof of spirituality but a consolation to the bereaved. 

Abiku or Ogbanje is not the only one who goes and comes given that Africans and Asians believe that everyone has the ability to reincarnate multiple times to fulfill unfulfilled destinies.

Biko

On Tuesday, 16 February 2021, 10:40:03 GMT-5, Abidogun, Jamaine M <jamaineabidogun@missouristate.edu> wrote:

I agree with you observations, Ken.  Much of my research is grounded in tracing these encounters/interactions and the resulting levels or incidents of resistance, adaptation, and transformation.  Even more of a concern to me is the need to recognize Traditional belief systems' and traditional African epistemologies' continued roles in knowledge production and its disbursement across African societies. The issue of recognizing and supporting African indigenous knowledge systems is of critical importance to find ways to create syncretic education systems that place African epistemologies' on equal footing within national and local areas.  While the article is about Yoruba religion, the ties between Traditional religious knowledge  and knowledge production in most fields is often a direct one, similar to Islamic knowledge systems. 

 

Cheers,

Jamaine

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Harrow, Kenneth
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2021 11:42 AM
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: NYTimes: Death Has Many Names

 

CAUTION: External Sender

 

thanks for this posting of the conversation between yancy and olupona.

on the one hand, it gives informed answers to questionns about yoruba beliefs, without the trivializing tendencies a newspaper publications usually includes. it avoid apologetics or whatever.

however, it is marred in one respect, a respect that often appears when the word or concept of tradition or traditional is applied to african thought or practice. it is described as frozen, as if it never changed, as if its adherents learn and repeat and obey, and don't change rethink revise etc.

one might imagine nothing happened ever since it was created. that the influence of outside encounters never occuered.

ken

 

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Abidogun, Jamaine M <JamaineAbidogun@MissouriState.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2021 8:17 AM
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NYTimes: Death Has Many Names

 

Death Has Many Names https://nyti.ms/3rSxx0j

 

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