Professor(s) Nnaemeka, Ikhide and Jendele:
All of you make a lot of sense in your discourses below. However, we seem to miss a point when we do not look at why or how intellectuals in exiles, in the majority, still remain in exile. In jest, Professor Soyinka (Wole) often refers to me as "A.B., ancient exile". By that he realistically means that most of us escaped from military dictatorships or brutalities: his was Abacha's in Nigeria, and mine was Acheampong's illiterate rule in Ghana (which almost destroyed a major Ghanaian writer-turned-dilomat like Ambassador Kofi Awoonor). Professors Soyinka, Awoonor and many others have returned home, actions which may one day merit an entire memoir on its own, maybe to be titled, "Homecoming of the Exiles".
Professor Nnaemeka, in all seriousness and fairness, refers to making it "difficult to excuse the inaction of African intellectuals in exile." Her assertion (with reference to "inaction") reminds me of when I made the error -- during discussions over lunch in Stockholm -- in telling then University of Stockholm Distinguished Professor Gunnar Myrdal that after my postgraduate studies, "I won't add my name to the brain drain".
Myrdal (of An American Dilemma fame) was so incensed by my reference to brain drain that he asked me for my definition of "brain drain". I tersely explained: "When we come from Africa to the West to study and fail to return home to help build African nations". To Myrdal, African intellectuals (in imposed or self-inflicted exiles) still contribute to African economies with regular monetary remittances (today through Western Union and other companies) as well as during occasional lecture tours and publishing for our works to reach readers on the continent. Therefore, for Myrdal, the true brain drain occurred when despots and dictators prevent(ed) trained African minds (or intellectuals) from returning home. Myrdal cited examples in Malawi and some East as well as West African nations at the time, whereby trained intellectuals returned home and ended in prisons and detention centers because of some leaders, who made their rules into dictatorships or called themselves presidents for life (including Kamuzu Banda). Therefore, is there "the inaction of African intellectuals in exile", or maybe there are forced exiles, often beyond the control of the exiled? With all due respect, I will be happy to know!
A.B. Assensoh.
_________________________________________
Ikhide:
You are very right about the context of our lives in this technological age. The digital divide still exists between "The West and the Rest of Us" but the opportunities that technology provides make it more difficult to excuse the inaction of African intellectuals in exile. Case in point, your brilliant Papalolo piece (telephone, remittances, guguru etc.) to which I am yet to respond after I am done with laughing!
Obioma Nnaemeka, PhD
Chancellor's Distinguished Professor
President, Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS)
Dept. of World Languages & Cultures Phone: 317-278-2038; 317-274-0062 (messages)
Cavanaugh Hall 543A Fax: 317-278-7375
Indiana University E-mail: nnaemeka@iupui.edu<mailto:nnaemeka@iupui.edu>
425 University Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46202 USA
________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Ikhide [xokigbo@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 7:24 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Jendele Hungbo: Exile and the African Intellectual
Professor Nnaemeka,
I enjoyed your feedback as much as I enjoyed Jendele Hungbo's essay, many thanks. I think that traditional notions of exile may have been flogged to death by thinkers. Nothing has changed our world and culture more than the Internet. For example, Wole Soyinka's exile was in the 90's when the Internet, as a medium of communication, AND community was still relatively inchoate. It has been a huge digital bridge. A side concern for me is that narratives that do not factor that into the notion of exile as we know it might unwittingly continue to feed into the habit of looking at Africa always from a deficit model or perspective. The Internet has allowed flow of intellectual capital from Africa to the West. I am not talking about physical bright flight, I am talking about intellectual capital and robust engagement. No one talks about that. Because the notion of Africa ever engaged in a symbiotic relationship with the rest of the world has been trashed forever by the orthodoxy of Western liberal thought - aided by many African scholars. We should change that narrative, beginning with the definition of what constitutes exile in the 21st century. Yes, the 21st century.
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com<http://www.xokigbo.com/>
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide<http://www.facebook.com/ikhide>
________________________________
From: "Nnaemeka, Obioma G" <nnaemeka@iupui.edu>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 6:37 AM
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Jendele Hungbo: Exile and the African Intellectual
Jendele Hungbo:
Thank you for your perceptive reading of Soyinka. As far as African intellectuals and exile go, I suggest we go beyond the much bandied-about "exilic imagination" (with the usual doses of alienation, ambiguity and anguish) in postcolonial studies to bring into the conversation what I call the "exilic engagement" ('engagement' in the Sartrean sense of the word). Alienation is not and should not be an inevitable outcome of exile. We CHOOSE our exile in the sense that we choose how to live in or with exile. Often, for African intellectuals in exile, exile becomes an excuse for inaction; for alienation from our homeland. And that should not be the case. We can and should live our exile with commitment to our homeland. We can choose to live our exile without alienation. We should live our exile as if we never left. A serious engagement with our homeland gives meaning to our exile. What is important is not our BEING in exile but our ACTING in exile. A crucial question each African intellectual in exile should ask is this: "Am I engaged in/with Africa?"
Examples abound of public intellectuals who are fully engaged in making the world a better place. Wole Soyinka's The Man Died is the outcome of an engagement; it is a result of what Soyinka did. He was incarcerated by the Nigerian government for a greater part of the Nigerian civil war years. What was his "crime?" He crossed into Biafra in search of peace. For decades since the war, Soyinka remains relentless in his commitment to his homeland—giving hundreds of lectures, speaking truth to power through various media (radio, television and print), and hitting the pavement with fellow citizens in protest against the abuse of human rights and denial of democracy.
Despite his physical challenges for the past two decades or so, Chinua Achebe remains unflinching in his commitment to his homeland—engaging in crucial national debates and turning down the offer of national honors by two Nigerian presidents. In forceful and moving letters to the presidents, Achebe gave reasons for rejecting the honors. For many years, Nigerian presidents enact each year the spectacle of "award night" when hundreds of Nigerians (some of them crooks, criminals, touts and roguish politicians) are handed national honors (from OON to GCFR) like candies. The trivialization of national honors was taken to a new low at President Jonathan's first "award night" when he dished out over three hundred national honors. I don't blame Achebe, an honorable man, for refusing to be dishonored. I was informed that at the time Jonathan proposed giving his award to Achebe, an international conference on Chinua Achebe was being planned to be held at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Jonathan's government promised to support the conference but as soon as Achebe rejected Jonathan's offer of a national honor, the government reneged on its promise to support the conference. This is what Nigeria gets when it is ruled by Lilliputians. This man (Jonathan) whose anti-intellectualism cry to high heavens is the same one that established TWELVE "universities" in less than two years of his presidency (I learnt a few days ago that he has recently added three more universities to the nine he established in his first year). Laughable!
Edward Said's engagement goes beyond his profound commitment to the Palestinian struggle to include various struggles for human freedoms across the globe. His famous July 2002 stone-throwing (as he was caught up in the euphoria of the moment), from southern Lebanon toward the Israeli watchtower on the other side of the fence at the Lebanon-Israeli border, was a symbol of resistance (not terrorism, as Said had always advocated non violence) and marks the celebration of liberation. Said's tribute to Pierre Bourdieu who died the year before Said passed on read in part: "It is Pierre Bourdieu's magnificently critical and oppositional spirit that we must hold on to and try, unceasingly, to perpetuate."
African intellectuals in exile need to "hold on to and try, unceasingly, to perpetuate" a "magnificently critical and oppositional spirit" in their engagement with Africa. They should collaborate significantly with the intelligentsia and civil society formations in Africa. The highfalutin (and sometimes empty) theorizing about Africa on this side of the Atlantic notwithstanding, I know that much of the ORIGINAL work on Africa is done INSIDE Africa. My invitation to speak at the African Leadership Center (ALC www.africanleadershipcentre.org<http://www.africanleadershipcentre.org/>) in Nairobi a couple of years ago reinforced my view in this regard. Structured as a Bellagio, ALC provided the space and support for selected fellows-in-residence from the continent. The amount of intellectual and civil society work that goes on at ALC is impressive. The few days I was there, I witnessed the launch of two books and the rigorous selection process for a new batch of fellows. Many other intellectual contexts for hardworking, committed researchers, scholars and teachers can be found all over Africa. My encounter with these committed individuals over the years has informed my work and enriched it in significant ways. African intellectuals in exile who organize international conferences on Africa/African studies should make an effort to take those conferences to Africa periodically. It will make a difference. After organizing three of such conferences in Africa, I am aware of the logistical issues but these are not insurmountable and should not be a deterrent. For the half century history of the premier organization for the study of Africa in the US (African Studies Association—ASA), ASA has hopped from one US city to the other (some cities hopped into multiple times) for its annual meetings without holding not even one of its meetings in Africa, the continent on which these "Africanists" have built their illustrious careers. The exiled African intellectuals on ASA's Executive Board have not seen the need for a "magnificently critical oppositional spirit" in the face of this snub.
Our collaboration with constituencies in Africa is not about altruism; it is about self-preservation and mutual growth. As we infuse new energy in this encounter, we will enrich our work immeasurably.
Obioma Nnaemeka, PhD
Chancellor's Distinguished Professor
President, Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS)
Dept. of World Languages & Cultures Phone: 317-278-2038; 317-274-0062 (messages)
Cavanaugh Hall 543A Fax: 317-278-7375
Indiana University E-mail: nnaemeka@iupui.edu<mailto:nnaemeka@iupui.edu>
425 University Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46202 USA
________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Ikhide [xokigbo@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2013 11:35 AM
To: Toyin Falola
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Jendele Hungbo: Exile and the African Intellectual
"The loss which the exile encounters is indeed great as Soyinka shows in his experience of exile in You Must Set Forth at Dawn. He devotes two parts out of the eight-part text to the issue of exile as it affects him as in individual as well as a member of a society held under the excruciating impact of successive dictatorships. The two sections, 'Nation and exile' and 'Homecoming' detail the kind of horrendous dangers which often motivate intellectuals like the author to opt for flight as well as how much desirous of return such intellectuals could be even in the face of potential danger. Though Soyinka has experienced exile in varying forms and at different times of his life, his latest experience of relocation during the regime of Sani Abacha engages his attention in this text."
Thoughtful, if wonky essay on exile by Jendele Hungbo. I enjoyed reading the essay immensely. It is useful to read the essay with Soyinka's You Must Set Forth at Dawn as context. I would love a follow-up that examines the notion of exile in the 21st century, in the age of the Internet and social media and, let us agree, increasing democratization of government institutions in much of Black Africa. What does exile mean today? And why does it matter? It is complicated.
http://www.mtls.ca/issue14/writings/scholarship/jendele-hungbo/
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com<http://www.xokigbo.com/>
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide<http://www.facebook.com/ikhide>
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