Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Cultural Tragedy in Nigeria as Ilorin Muslims Forcefully Reject Public Performance of Yoruba Religious Activities

Great thanks for the offer. I'll send you my address.

Are you aware of any impact of Usman Dan Fodio beyond Nigeria?

I would like to know about it.

As for people identifying with him or his ideas  within Nigeria, it seems to be limited to Muslims.

Interfaith communication in Nigeria does not seem to be high, as far as I can see.

I'm sorry to say that Usman Dan Fodio's influence on the character of Northern Nigerian Islam is not likely to be inspiring to many non-Muslims and may be problematic for those Muslims who believe in a humanism embracing all, non-Muslims and the vulnerable in Islam.

The logic and style of Usman Dan Fodio's Islam, in it's conquest of the Hausa states, of Ilorin and seeking to move further into Yorubaland until it was stopped at the famous Battle of Oshogbo, if I got the name right, seems to be an ethos of conquest, of Fulani and Islamic  supremacist orientations forever projecting Islamic ascendancy even as it resists creative change within itself, thereby breeding a culture often defined by inhumanity, reverberating in massacres,   recurring incidence of Islamic terrorist groups and refusal to fully  accommodate other faith orientations as in the demonization and attacks on Christians and Yoruba traditional worshippers in Ilorin.

I expect there is much more to Northern Nigerian Islam but I understand those features I described as the most prominent from outside the regional expression of that the faith.

I am interested, though, in Dan Fodio's written statements of vision, which one could compare with the reality of his style of govt and his legacy, to understand the intersection of religious and political vision in theory and practice.

Thanks

Toyin

On Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 5:16 PM Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

You have pissed me off again and I too "can't describe the sadness I am feeling."

You are " not aware of any Nigerian writer or artist who has achieved prominence beyond Nigeria through work inspired largely by Islam or Christianity..."

 Really? 

Have you ever heard of the intellectual giant of a scholar known as Usman Dan Fodio ?

If you give me your postal address I will send you some of his books ( works) that have been translated into English. I esteem his most succinct "Handbook On Islam Iman Ihsan: Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio" -not a word wasted, not a wasted word. For me, and hopefully, for many others too, it is a sourcebook of Maliki Fiqh, second only to al-Muwatta and it has a place of pride among my library of Holy Books…

Discuss further.

Who told you that I want to discuss the matter any further? With whom? The Emir of Ilorin? The Nigerian Religion Police?

It's not my problem, it's yours, or as a Nigerian would put it, speaking Big Nigerian English, " You ( Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju) have a problem"

Just as Joe Biden has a problem, in fact, m more than just one big problem: snubbed by Saudi Arabia, reviled by Iran, ridiculed and disdained by Israel, China, Russia, North Korea, and things could go horribly wrong on all those fronts guaranteeing that he doesn't get re-elected 

Something for your imagination

On Monday, 10 July 2023 at 15:13:12 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

Cornelius

When you have looked into the subject and provided answers to those qs  we can discuss further.

Thanks

Toyin

On Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 1:49 PM Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

It's understandable that the Emir could have refused to allow certain Yoruba cultural or religious festivals to be celebrated within the precincts of his palace, or the area that his religious title confers on him as his dominion which he may perhaps regard as wholly or partly under his jurisdiction to administer as he please and we are to suppose that would entail some prominent sign boards, some signs of warning declaring e.g "Trespassers will be prosecuted: No Egugun dancing allowed beyond this point" 

So, please let's be clear about this: When you say that "the public celebration of a festival of classical Yoruba spirituality was banned by the Emir of Ilorin", do you mean that out of the blue he just said " It's banned" and it was " banned" in Ilorin?

Does he have that authority over the God of the Yoruba religion and if so, who gave him that kind of authority? The Nigerian Government? 

What happened last year? Did such celebrations take place, or is it not an annual/ seasonal event?

Shouldn't the would-be celebrants give advance notice of their intentions? I don't think that in India the Hindus go around drumming and dancing with statues of  Lord Krishna and singing devotional songs to him outside the Mosque in Delhi, or that the Muslims or some other religionists would slaughter or sacrifice a cow right outside a Hindu Temple. That would be a provocation that would set in motion another cycle of retaliatory violence …

You can imagine similar tensions being fomented in the Middle East should Jews invade/ trespass( violate Muslims' sense of holy space….

Let's be reasonable and live peaceably, please…

With regard to that you have to say in the paragraph beginning with "In a world in which the African faces such huge challenges" etc which was really not helpful, I would like to kindly remind you of the Prophet of Islam,Sallallahu alaihi wa salaam's LAST KHUTBAH ( sermon) which  was delivered on the Ninth Day of Dhul-Hijjah, 10 A.H. (632 CE) and in which  he so emphatically addressed the issue of racism : 

"There is no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab, nor for a non-Arab over an Arab. Neither is the white superior over the black nor is the black superior over the white -- except by piety."

On Monday, 10 July 2023 at 02:54:19 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

"Idol worship","paganism" were terms used by Muslims on Facebook in describing classical Yoruba religion in connection with the ongoing religious crisis in the Yoruba city of Ilorin as the public celebration of a festival of classical Yoruba spirituality was banned by the Emir of Ilorin as the Yoruba religion  devotee at the centre of the festival plans described herself as facing  threats from irate Muslims.

Why must so many Muslims, individuals and communities,  be recurrently associated by their adherents with determined ignorance, with refusal to recognize the spiritual impulse as central to humanity and Islam as only one of many such expressions?

Why? 

Why?

Why?

In a world in which the African faces such huge challenges, in a world in which, in the language of the Arab founders of Islam, the word for "Black person" is the same as the word for "slave", if what an Arab woman once told me is factual, Black Muslims in an African country are struggling to denigrate their own ancestors' achievements in spiritual quest in a city in which Islam was implanted through conquest spearheading Fulani imperialism, the Fulani themselves being Africans who could have been victims of the trans -Saharan slave trade run by the Arabs.

In a world in which various cultures are struggling to define their own contributions to civilization in the face of the dominance of Western civilization even as Asia rises in prominence by building on the Western example while sustaining it's own cultural achievements, vocal Muslims in and in connection with Ilorin are referring to classical Yoruba spirituality, and therefore classical African religions,  as "idol worship", denigrating it as paganism, the very spirituality that is the only one from Nigeria that has created any global impact, as represented by the work of writers and artists, from writer Woke Soyinka to Chinua Achebe, Sylvester Okigbo, Ben Okri and Nnedi Okoroafor and artists Victor Ekpuk, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Olowe of Ise and Lamidi Fakeye who have drawn on those cultures.

I am not aware of any Nigerian writer or artist who has achieved prominence beyond Nigeria through work inspired largely by Islam or Christianity, although I know of such figures from other African countries.

I can't describe the sadness I am feeling.

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