RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Do you know if there is any institute of Enemy Studies

Thanks Prof.,  There are over one thousand studies on friendship and friends. If you read my preamble and the cover I took under Esiaba, you may well understand why I chose Enemies and not friends. Since you pulled my lips; I better serve you one of the Irobi delicacies. While talking about theories and possible options for African scholars he told his interviewer about an essay he wrote...now steady yourself with his title: "Taking the Bull by the Balls: The oriki Theory of African and African Diasporic Orature." Why did he not take the Bull by the horns as others have done? As to the study of friends, I agree with you that it will be positive to frame it that way but it may not yield as much juice as the study of enemies. To understand communication, it is said that we should look at episodes when communication break down just like the reductionist principle of pulling apart a car to understand how it functions as a whole. Are there Internet Enemies? What will a study of how they become enemies tell us? Have you gone to any Church lately? The study of how to avoid the enemy takes 90% of the sermons than how to be a friend of the creator. Nigeria as a nation needs to study and plan against political,moral, economic, and environmental enemies in the country. We have learned to manage our friends but not our enemies. Are the colonialists our enemies? Were they friends? Should we not categorize them so as to know how to deal with them better? In my humble opinion, I think we have made a mess of the management of colonialism. Let me re-echo Sam Ukala's words and a part of what he stands for in terms of cultural replacement. "What western education replaced were his [African's] self-esteem and psychological independence." I ask can you recognize what is replaced if you did not know what was in place? There are too many enemies in place in Nigeria, let us work with them or work against them........ Kole --- On Fri, 7/30/10, Okey Ukaga <ukaga001@umn.edu> wrote: From: Okey Ukaga <ukaga001@umn.edu> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Do you know if there is any institute of Enemy Studies To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> Date: Friday, July 30, 2010, 4:30 PM Kole:   Interesting ideas and questions. May I also submit that another (more positive) way to look at the issues you raised is to focus on "friends" instead of "enemies". As a professional colleague of my (Chris Maser) likes to remind us, we need to do a better job of consciously framing in the positive some of the most important, human-related aspects of sustainable development. This he submits is critical because we humans (some world say especially in western cultures) are trained from infancy to think in the negative. Maser and others suggest that, if we want a better world, we need to start thinking more in the positive and thus framing our scholarship, action plans, etc accordingly. However, I also recognize some of the limitations to this thesis. Hope to see you at the International Association of Nigerian Studies and Development for the 22nd Annual Conference in New York , September 16-20, 2010. Regards, Okey   From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Ade-Odutola Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 1:26 PM To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Do you know if there is any institute of Enemy Studies   Is there anyone reading this who encountered the works of Esiaba Irobi? Are you interested in African ideas and how Western ideas "tried" to displace them? We need an Esiaba Irobi Virtual Institution of African Intellection. OR Esiaba Irobi summer school, where his ideas will be thoroughly discussed. This brother left behind a trove.   In the last few days I have been reading snippets of Esiaba Irobi's writings. I must confess that he was profound, prophetic, and was never afraid to look into other areas of scholarship others would be afraid venturing into. At the same time, I chanced on Commander Obey's song on the inevitability of enemies in the life of an individual. Whatever one doe, he seems to say, there will be enemies. I want to assume that as it is for individuals so it must be for nations. Can you imagine a nation actually studying all the moves of a potential enemy? I do not mean the type of studies that go on in War Colleges around the world.  It is on this basis that it occurred to me to search the Internet for any institution that makes the study of Enemies its main business. I have not found any yet; but I want to believe there must be a professor /researcher whose main scholarship is built on or around the study of enemies. He may not yet be the expert on Enemology but I am sure the world needs to focus on the study of enemies. Who in fact is an Enemy; how do they present? What theory can be used to understand enemies? I hope there can be fields such as: The sociology of enemies The spirituality of enemies The economics of enemy-making Cultural dimensions of enemy studies Representation of Enemies in the media How to make enemies and how to read enemies I want to believe that with a course such as this our world will be a better place. Enemies I have come to accept are not as bad as we think. IF IBB is an enemy of academicians can we analyze the un-intended consequences of his in-actions?  I cannot over-emphasize this enough; we need a National Institute for the Study of Enemies....... Kole Odutola

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