When I took the course and received an A- because I REFUSED to write the "right" answer to that question I was disgusted that the only materials which went along with the text were geographical scenes from Nigeria. This is the nascent point of the discussion on diversity. A face teaching means nothing if the mind behind the face is closed or ignorant of culture. These books are selected as addendums, add-ons in anthropology, sociology, African studies, etc. and far too often students are subjected to instructors who seem to have read Cliff notes, the book, and nothing else.
I argued with that woman on two occasions, public and private, that suicide is the ultimate sin in the culture of the writer and therefore, Okonkwo's self-selected time of departure is the climax. Hadn't there been death and beatings aplenty in the story and yet the novel moved onward? There was no movement after the death of Okonkwo, the story was over. And this fits with all definitions of climactic conclusions.
This is why I nicely jumped on my good electronic buddy Ikhide. Hochschild is a historian and as such he reports. Why he set his hand to this irreverent critique of Soyinka's work I will never know. It was probably a western thing for him, iconoclasm for the sake of destruction and not for instruction.
This past week, as a matter of fact, Thursday night, I watched the sister of Soyinka dance like a young girl on the dance floor of my alma mater, the University of Missouri at St. Louis. While the madame danced with a very beautiful young girl I sat there wishing I knew the steps (and also that I was not wearing a strong foundation garment and five inch heels as well as my eight foot sash of heavy metallic thread). In more ways than one I was earth bound. I had their face but I had not danced in their shoes.
While they danced the daughter of Frantz Fanon filmed the entire exchange on her i pad. It was a great moment. I never wanted it to end and I wanted to watch forever. Finally, I kicked off my shoes and danced with an Igbo professor lady and she was patient as she tried to teach the steps. I ended up holding her hand and leading her around me in a circle while I did the only African dance I know. The pata pata. And the only reason I know that one is because I watched Miriam Makeba on a youtube video. The band stopped and we all sat down.
How would Hochschild or someone of his ilk describe that scene? Four Black women dancing, that's all. We were that, yes. But so much more. So much more than those hips and feet and eyes staring into each other's eyes. So much more than one sister holding another sister's hand as she struggled through the counting of the beat. So much more.
And that is why, Brother Ikhide, you are absolutely wrong for concurring with that man. Absolutely positively wrong. He can read the words but he can't seem to put them into place.
You know better. And in the words of my people, "brother, act like you know."
Vonda
--
-- On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 10:43 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
Ikhide, Pius:Jumping into your literati fray, Prof. Achebe, on age 228 of his Heinemann-published hardcover TWAC book, confesses:QUOTEI will begin by stating that I am not a sociologist, a political scientist, a human rights lawyer, or a government official. My aim is not to provide all of the answers but to raise questions and perhaps to cause a few headaches......"UNQUOTEAnd that he has done.... and without reading that sentence before now, I knew that Prof. Achebe has been sitting back amused about all the swirling controversy emanating from his book. There can be no more torture for an essay writer, not to talk of book writer, being confronted by silent "reviewers."Now, Prof. Soyinka causes me a headache of a different kind, not all literary....but that will be in my own memoirs.Is Pro. Achebe a historian? He never confesses - or un-confesses - to that one.Continuing, Prof. Achebe writes:QUOTEAs a writer I believe that it is fundamentally important, indeed essential to our humanity, to ask the hard questions, in order to better understand ourselves and our neighbors. where there is justification for further investigations, then I believe justice should be served."UNQUOTEBut who is a writer? Any one who writes, or one who makes a living by writing? Am I one, for example, or a pretender? Or Ikhide? Does one novel qualify as a writer, or a body of writings?Too many questions, and migraine, not just headache, ensues.And there you have it.Bolaji AlukoShaking his head
On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 10:46 PM, Pius Adesanmi <piusadesanmi@yahoo.com> wrote:
"First of all, he is not a historian..."Deopka Ikhide, let me get you into some trouble here with my devil's advocate basket mouth. Virtually every point you made in the Achebe brouhaha devolved from your granting the writer-memoirist the validity of the historian. So, why is obo's (the monkey's) head different from inaki's (the gorilla's) head? I have both books by the two friends on my desk. One is a memoir, the other is largely testimonio. So both genres are acts of witnessing and remembering (and reflecting on what is remembered and experienced from one's perspective). So, what makes the memorist an historian and the testimonist a non-historian in your book? The bad, alienating, bombastic prose of the latter?Pius
From: Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "lrstaples@gmail.com" <lrstaples@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, 2 November 2012, 19:13
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Adam Hochschild od the NYT Reviews of "Of Africa," by Wole Soyinka
--Vonda,Stop playing, you'll always love me! Listen, I was given an advance copy of Soyinka's book, "Of Africa." The book was awful, there is no sugar-coating it. He basically stapled together a bunch of stream-of-consciousness brain dumps and called the result a book. First of all, he is not a historian (he proves it eloquently through the book), second, Africa is a continent, you are not going to get away with generalizations about an entire continent. What does "African spirituality" mean for God's sake? We are a continent of a multitude of nations, of different people. Soyinka should have focused on perhaps some essays on a people, say, the Yoruba. He was in over his head with this book. Finally, it is a sloppy book, not a single cited reference in my advance copy, not one. And the prose was awful, it should have been heavily edited. As for me being an "establishment" guy, I leave assessments of me to the astute observer. I cannot legislate that successfully! I still love you, no shaking!- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
From: La Vonda R. Staples <lrstaples@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, November 2, 2012 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Adam Hochschild od the NYT Reviews of "Of Africa," by Wole Soyinka
Ikhide,One day I love you and the next day or even moment, I wonder what tree you fell out of. I haven't read the book or the review. So maybe you'll end up thinking that I'm a nut today as well.Here's what I have to say: Old people can say whatever they want to say however they want to say it. They are libraries. Soyinka is no different than any other near-octogenarian. You just listen to his stream an inevitably there will be something you can use. You won't be able to use all of it now. Some parts, you use now. Some things won't come to you as "right" until much later in life. Sadly, there are some who never have the mind or the time to get it.I don't think the man sat down and wrote a stream of crap. I believe that his ego may prohibit such a futile exercise.Sometimes I think you jump on the "establishment" band wagon with far too much rapidity.Some things are meant to simmer, cher.Vonda--On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 4:01 PM, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
--"With the venerable Soyinka now 78, I wish I could report that his new volume of sweeping reflections is of the same stature as his best work, but sadly it is not. The book is vague, ponderous and awkward. Soyinka never says "house" when he can say "habitation," "native" when he can say "autochthon," "dominant" when he can say "hegemonic." Phrases in quotation marks float free of any source. When he makes broad generalizations and criticisms he sometimes expects the reader to mentally provide specific examples. (Do you remember exactly what President Obama said in Cairo in 2009? I had to look it up.) The book abounds in passages full of 10-dollar words that have to be read two or three times to figure out what they mean. About contentions in Christian theology, for example, he says:
"These all-consuming debates and formal encyclicals are constructed on what we may term a proliferating autogeny within a hermetic realm — what is at the core of arguments need not be true; it is sufficient that the layers upon layers of dialectical constructs fit snugly on top of one another."When a fine writer and a good man writes of "proliferating autogeny," it is probably not just because he is having a bad day."- Adam HochschildI do agree with this review 100 percent. I read the book and I thought it was awful. It was not his best outing. Surprised someone would publish it...
- IkhideStalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/Follow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
--
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--La Vonda R. Staples, WriterBA Psychology 2005 and MA European History 2009"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great; Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.
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La Vonda R. Staples, Writer
BA Psychology 2005 and MA European History 2009
"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great; Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.
--
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