"Lavonda, when you get the time, do google Gideon Akaluka, Grace Ushang, and Christiana Oluwasesin and read up on them. Trust me, you won't return here talking theory and Spivak if you read up on those names." That says it all. There is a difference between those acrid and lame duck theories and the realities. Living in Jos in the Mid-1990s, when the religious environment began to become acidic, and residing in a seminary, where the microphone was blarring the idioms of hate, and urging the killing of those in the factor where they produce Christian ministers, these things are not about theory. I vividly remember one night in 1991, when we became real ready to meet our fate in the hands of callous fellow human beings, who would be celebrating the decimating of the Kafirs and Ar'ne, saying our goodbyes to one another, hoping with the best case scenario to meet again in that "heavenly homeland" free from the stain of blood and the burden of the flesh! Our rector having called the police who refused to cooperate, then the military who blunt faced told him they would only mobilize when the governor gave approval, calledan urgent late night conference to literarily inform us that after these efforts we were on our own, left to our devices. Such moments are not time for abstract Spivakish theories! That night, I slept in jeans and gym shoes, thinking if the worst comes I shall at least make the human best efforts to try to escape. But in hindsight, that was a mirage, because should we be surrounded from all four angles, the possibility of escape was slim. Even with the possibility of escape, the probability of been mauled before reaching the Bauchi road motorpark, the only source of outlet from Jos to my further inland middle belt homeland was slim. It was just a matter of time before one was likely to be beheaded with a sickle (knife) in cold blood. Afterall, the route to Bauchi road, where the motorpark to home was, was always a hotspot and hotbed of religious fanaticism and riotous orgies. In reality, our escape routes where limited, we probably would have been hecked in and smoothered with gasoline and smoke, possibly transpassing from this side to the other side with smoke fumes even still staining the soul. Some of those bold enough, which even in the face of attacks would quickly have melted like ice with saline sprinkling, together with the Man O' War tried to be vigilantes, acting macho-like. Now that I revisit those moments almost two decades ago, these bold face seminarians and their Man O' War efforts could never have withheld the first stokes from a bunch of Almajiris well trained and targetting them, given the way these things happen during those moments. They would have simply become granuated into mince meats; a shadow of their ebullient human selves. The only difference is that those Almajiris would have been well schooled in sickling necks and arsonist skills, unlike those Madrassa trained peers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I was glad to leave Jos at the earliest opportunity before things got bad. Yet, that was a very beautiful city now defaced and defamed by religious bigotry and fanaticism. Theories don't solve this. Only the one who lives can relate and build theories, the Akalukas and others can build a theory of "elsewhere" no more about Kano or Nigeria.
--- On Wed, 5/4/11, Pius Adesanmi <piusadesanmi@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Pius Adesanmi <piusadesanmi@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Conflation Of The Concepts Arab And Muslim
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2011, 10:02 PM
La Vonda:
The answer is quite simple and self evident. It is no one's fault that Christian terrorists do not always self-advertise as Christians at the exact moment of sword's contact with the neck. Do you have any evidence that those Christian terrorists in the antebellum south screamed "in Jesus name!" "in Jesus name!" as they lynched their black victims? I thought they screamed their superior race and not their religion?
Today, do you hear screams of "in Jesus name" when two or three racist dunderheads gather in the tea party or the birther movement to denigrate Obama? Do you hear: Obama, you're a monkey or a macaca in the mighty name of Jesus? America's contemporary racist terrorists won't even own up to their racism let alone scream that they do those things in the name of Jesus Christ and their religion. The best you'll get is the loaded we are defending "our values".
Well, go to northern Nigeria. Shouts of "Allahu akbar" is often the last thing the infidel hears from the Almajiri mob before the sword kisses the neck in broad daylight.
Some of us lived in Nigeria's core north. Some of us have our entire extended families there even as we write - perpetually marked as the non-believer, permanent potential targets of the sword of Allahu Akbar-screaming mobs. You will understand why this is reality beyond the poco-pomo diction of Gayatri Spivak for us.
Blame the terrorists for the association of Islam with terrorism in the global subconscious. They are the ones who damage their religion and identity. That is where the problem you are talking about starts. Don't blame the victims. The victims aren't responsible for the imagery of the Talibanic-bearded, Allahu-Akbar-screaming, sword-swinging mob. Lavonda, when you get the time, do google Gideon Akaluka, Grace Ushang, and Christiana Oluwasesin and read up on them. Trust me, you won't return here talking theory and Spivak if you read up on those names.
Blame Moslem intellectuals like Bangura and too many of his counterparts from northern Nigeria who articulate meretricious discourses and praxes of attenuation - comforted by the American nonsense that is political correctness - rather than face the problem head-on. One is no longer in the mood to comfort attenuators like Bangura by feeding them Spivakian abstractions intravenously to make them feel-good.
I find it also annoying that the bad rap they believe Islam is getting is even more important to these attenuators than the lives of victims.
Pius
--- On Thu, 5/5/11, Lavonda Staples <lrstaples@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Lavonda Staples <lrstaples@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Conflation Of The Concepts Arab And Muslim
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Thursday, 5 May, 2011, 3:12
In the abstract, the work of Spivak, "Can The Subaltern Speak" is also helpful in theorizing this topic. I'm constantly amazed at how we have formed opinions of people we don't see, hear, or even truly know. We don't say, "the Christian terrorists who lynched Black men in post World War II south." We don't say, "the Christian doctors who practiced involuntary sterilization on women such as Fannie Lou Hamer in 1950's Mississippi." We don't do that at all. But we ALWAYS identify the word 'terrorist' with the West's neo-contemporary Untouchables - Muslims. While they remain, in definitive terms only, as an exemplar of Spivak's subaltern; a multitudinous unspoken minority indeed. La Vonda R. Staples On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 8:59 PM, Abdul Bangura <theai@earthlink.net> wrote: The following essays are quite informative in understanding the conflation of the concepts Islam and Muslim: Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz. 2000. "The Representation of Islam, Arabs and Muslims...." International Journal of Communication 12, 2:103-117. "Is the Life of the Muslim Arab and/or Muslim?" Nadine Nober. 2008. "'Look, Mohammed the Terrorist Is Coming!' Cultural Racism, Nation-Based Racism, and Intersectionality of Oppressions after 9/11." The Scholar and Feminist Online 6, 3. "Arab at ASU: Building Bridges." M. Lo and Aman Nadhiri. 2010. "Contextualizing 'Muridiyyah' within the American Muslim Community." African Journal of Political Science and International Relations 4, 6:231-40. G. C. David. "Studying the xotic Other in the Classroom: The Portrayal of Arab..." --
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unsubscribe@googlegroups.com -- La Vonda R. Staples Adjunct Professor, Department of Social Sciences Community College of the District of Columbia 314-570-6483 "It is the duty of all who have been fortunate to receive an education to assist others in the same pursuit." -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin. For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogueFor previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.htmlTo post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue- unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
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