Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Agatu Massacre by Fulani Herdsmen Terrorists : Post Massacre Eye Witness Report

Lord Obadiah Mailafia,

My brother John  Patrick Johnson is with me right now as I am writing this.

And now I'm impressed.  Again,  you  surprise and inspire me : the Baal Shem Tov

After my grandmother,  greatest storyteller, Isaac Bashevis Singer

You would have bowled me over completely if you had included my overall favourite  from Poland  Bruno Schulz. And in the dimension  heaven above Schulz , Chopin – on the earth sphere still, these guys

And by the way,  I heard, live and direct the greatest living Talmudist Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz say at the Great Synagogue of Stockholm: "We all came from Africa!" Those were his opening remarks. I pinched the Polish guy who was sitting next to me and he whispered in my ear "There's always a Black Sheep in the family."  On that occasion it was the celebration of x number of years of Jewish presence in Sweden and  Rabbi  Steinsaltz was the guest speaker.  I don't know what Chinweizu would say about this and of course I don't care but I wonder about it  since he was very critical of Wole Soyinka's poem "To my first white hairs", anyway,  I'll just say this, that when I saw the whiteness of Rabbi Steinsaltz's long white  beard , I trembled , was literally sitting on the edge of my seat and mentally prepared to absorb his every indelible word  - but after the he said "We all came from Africa" – and I misquote him not,  he was brief  and  he more or less wrapped it up in two sentences : that we the people had been yapping  much and now it was time to do!

And that was all. That was it. No long, profound  philosophical drasha. OK boys and girls you can now go home….

You hit a nerve here, when you say :" I lived and worked in Brussels for many years. Even in the innermost sanctums of the EU Commission, I sensed a barely concealed hatred for Israel and the Holy People" and add Pour moi, jamais!

It's the same thing here in many strata of Swedish society and among some of the otherwise most extraordinarily generous people  you say one word  Israel  - and it brings out the worst in them.

N. B. when you factor in ahimsa and the general reverence for life,  then you understand that for Hindus , not only the cow is sacred. This knowledge came in handy for the divide and rule people who wanted to create and manipulate sectarian tensions prior to the partition of India – a simple formula for  the ritual cycle of provocation:  slaughter a cow outside a Hindu temple and all you saw was a turbaned head  in full flight, disappearing around the next corner – that evening  hundreds dead in the violent Hindu- Musulman clashes  that would follow…

 "A mercy to the world" is one of the epithets that adorns the Prophet of Islam ( s.a.w) and "The religion of peace" is the other epithet that's meant to describe the religion of Islam of which Muslims   and indeed the Quran itself says  3: 85 "And whoever desires other than Islam as religion - never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers"

As you just said, "you never can tell with destiny" and so  I can tell that you were not at the Brussels Airport when some apostles of terror struck , claiming 31 innocent lives.

Concerning what you said in your earlier post, "In the Laws of War as taught my one of my esteemed teachers Sir Adam Roberts, enemy combatants can be executed for war crimes. When enemies cross into your side of the border bearing arms, they are enemy combatants and you have a right to kill them before they kill you " – this tallies wholly with the Judaic teaching about the terrorist that's  on his way to kill you and the moral obligation to kill him first : "If a man comes to kill you, rise early and kill him first"

Lord Mailafia, on the Shabbat that we observed on the 4-5th of this month Shabbat Shekalim, Shabbat Mervachim  (Torah Portion Vayakhel ) after the service I got to talking with one of the security men (I had not met him before) and he told me that he used to be just like you Lord Mailafia, "believer in Yeshua ha Mashiach" and all that jazz – but he says that he saw the light and converted to Orthodox Judaism about two years ago. Of course when he met me he wanted to know if my mother was Jewish  and it was on the tip of my tongue to remind him WHO  my Heavenly and our Heavenly Father is, Avinu Malkeinu

Lord Mailafia , I should like to share something precious with you, it's  what I read very pensively this afternoon and it's all here except for the last eight lines pages 357-361  : The Ethical Dimension of Jewish Prayer

Here are the last eight lines  : "( before saying the blessing) for each of the four cups of wine. It starts out with Hineni mukhan umezuma ( " I am hereby ready and prepared to fulfil the mitzvah of….")

One should think that such a declaration, said before one begins to pray, should address itself to" the mitzvah of worshipping God". And so it does, but the passage surprisingly  goes on to include still another mitzvah, this one meant to be the outcome of engaging in prayer. That mitzvah, from Leviticus 19 is " Love thy neighbour as thyself"

To your " Let us all aspire to be counted among the secret holy ones who will redeem Africa!" I say  Amen!

Sincerely,

Cornelius

We Sweden

 



On Tuesday, 22 March 2016 18:03:45 UTC+1, Obadiah Mailafia wrote:
Duke of Stockholm Cornelius,

You have assuaged a bit of my pain. People sit in their comfy little corners in America, Europe or God-knows-where and pontificate in abstracted terms. Human lives presumably -- and as you also infer the lives of the cattle -- mean nothing to them. I was in India -- to the mountains of Rajasthan to attend the wedding of the daughter of my friend Suresh Chellaram and his wife. Udaipur was a marvellous hideout. But I was a bit perplexed when the traffic ground to a hushed halt when a silly cow was crossing the road! I'm all for decent treatment of animals, but for worshipping cows??

As an African growing up in the ancestral savannah of the Middle Belt, I have no business being interested in Jewish things. But you never can tell with destiny. As a teenager I devoured all the novels of Isaac Bashevis Singer, with tears drenching the pages as he recounted haunting tales in the ghettoes of Warsaw.  And then someone introduced me to the philosopher Martin Buber. That interest detoured into Hassidism and the Baalshem Tov. I met the greatest living Hassidim, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz when I was a student at Oxford. He was then rumoured to be the greatest living genius on this side of God's universe. He certainly did not quite look like a human at all. And I have followed all the great sages from the Rambam Moses Maimonides, to Abaraham Ben Samuel Abulafia, Gershon Scholem , The Zohar and all. The Kabbala remains a closed book to me, though! Asa believer in Yeshua ha Mashiach and Shoshana Kodesh (the Holy Spirit), I do not need any other vehicle to walk with the Great Lord. I admired Rabbi Yosef Kadduri who left behind his revelation.

I lived and worked in Brussels for many years. Even in the innermost sanctums of the EU Commission, I sensed a barely concealed hatred for Israel and the Holy People. Pour moi, jamais!

I believe the time will come when Jews and Christians will unite into One New Man. That will be the end of all prophecy and then Mashiach will come again.

And then my interests diverged into the Jewish poets, one of the greatest in my view being the Russian Jewish poet Osip Mandelstam. Others include Anna Akhmatova, Anton Gumilev -- the lot.

As for the great war poets, Roger Owen is glorious. He was Jewish wasn't he? But for some reason, the one that does it for me is Rupert Brooke. He was the most English of Englishmen, as handsome as a cherub -- a genius to boot. His poem Forever England is one of the most haunting in the English language.

I taught a summer course in International Finance and Banking to some 250 students from Israel during the late nineties. Those 2 and half months were a great eye-opener. A great Rabbi once said that the world has not been redeemed because of the sins of the Jewish people. But it has also been said that the world has been prevented from utter destruction because of the existence of the 36 secret holy ones who are also presumably Jewish -- the Tzadikim Nistarim. Let us all aspire to be counted among the secret holy ones who will redeem Africa!

OM

On Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 2:13 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lord Obadiah Mailafia,

Believe it or not, you have such an uplifting effect on me: Every time I see your name in print, I think of this great teacher :  Abraham Abulafia and his prophetic mysticism

I agree with you:  Sometimes, Ogbeni Kadiri must be lightly rebuked for his Gradgrindian QED type logic although it is never his intention to be a heartless kind of fellow  but  sometimes falling over all kinds of clues,  he may get lost in the fog when like super sleuth Inspector Clouseau  he trips and falls over his own logic.

God dae !
Ogbeni Kadiri and I will have to take care some of the islamophobes  and  Sergeant  Adepoju,  at some other time

For some of us the first introduction was  John Pepper Clark's Fulani Cattle

Another famous line of poetry by Wilfred Owen – the anti-War poet,  the first line of his Anthem for Doomed Youth : What passing bells for those who die as cattle ?

As human beings, our sympathy should reach out  - and not only to "the victims of the Fulani herdsmen"

I thought of them when I read this news item a few days ago. For the vegetarian Hindus the sympathy also reaches out to the innocent cows too .

Benjamin Zephaniah's vegan poems – especially  his Mother Cow Speaks could as well have been addressed to the Nestle people :

"Leave my milk

For my baby

That is our

And you are crazy.

Go and drink your own.

My baby needs this milk

And maybe

Your mind is messed up and hazy

All that milk is ours

Leave it be

Leave our milk alone.

We all make milk

For our

Own kind

That is nature's plan

You'll find,

So leave that milk

For my baby

If you would be

So kind."

Donald Trump  wasn't being a hypocrites when he spoke out strongly against what is common knowledge : the heinous crimes of  Muslim Jihadists slaughtering  Christians. It would be in place for Muslim leaders to be speaking out forcibly against this in Nigeria too.

Your words certainly strikes a chord in the hearts of all but the heatless: "The suffering and pain the peoples of the Middle Belt and their Church -- and our Holy People -- have experienced has reached the ears of the Almighty God. He will confound our enemies. And those who have risen against us with the sword are under the curse and judgement of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob"

Somebody should write to President Buhari about this. The kind of letter that would move him…

Tell him, the word is mightier than the sword

Cornelius

We Sweden



On Saturday, 19 March 2016 13:17:38 UTC+1, Obadiah Mailafia wrote:
Okey Ukaga, well said, thank you.

There is a lot of nauseating confusion all over the place. I have decided that Kadiri's comments are not worth responding to any longer. I thought this forum was for enlightened intellectuals. His infuriating unreasonableness is an insult to all the victims of the Fulani herdsmen. There are some people who feel totally indifferent to the victims -- even sympathetic to the Fulani herdsmen. I am sure of this thing had happened on their home turf they would not be talking with such abstract indifference. It is a judgement on the conscience and collective ethics of our generation.

Let me put it on record: I have absolutely no iota of hatred towards Muslims or Fulanis as a people. My grandfather, whom I loved with all my soul, was a Muslim. He had the fine features of the Fulanis and I suspect that there is a bit of Fulani in my bloodline. I can't afford to hate  Muslims and Fulanis. But I swear an eternal hatred for killers, murderers and all fascists. There is a new form of fascism in the world, says the young French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy. It cloaks itself in the garbs of religion -- relentless, evil, murderous, hateful, diabolical and totalitarian. "Come and worship us and our god, or we would kill you and your God". This is the spirit that inspires Boko Haram and the so-called 'Fulani herdsmen'. They are part of the avant-garde of Global Jihad in its worldwide bid for conquest and subjugation.

Has anyone ever heard of any Boko Haram or Fulani herdsman being sentenced to death for murder?  Recently we heard that the Government of Cameroon is to sentence 89 BH war criminals to death: http://www.360nobs.com/2016/03/death-verdict-passed-89-boko-haram-fighters-will-spark-reprisal-attacks/.

This would never happen in Nigeria. Each time  they are caught they are soon released again, with no so much as a smack on the knuckles. In the Laws of War as taught my one of my esteemed teachers Sir Adam Roberts, enemy combatants can be executed for war crimes. When enemies cross into your side of the border bearing arms, they are enemy combatants and you have a right to kill them before they kill you. There is no debate about that. I am convinced that 70 percent of the Boko Haramites are not even Nigerians. Whenever we Hausa speakers meet anyone we know from his accent where he comes from. The Hausa that the Boko Haram people speak is rather alien to some of us. It's only in Nigeria that a foreigner can come and kill your citizens and you treat them with kid gloves. Same goes for the Fulani herdsmen. To the best of my knowledge, no single Fulani herdsman has ever been prosecuted for any atrocities in Nigeria. In a civilised country, before you even hear them out, the suspects ought to have been rounded up and locked up, pending the due course of law. They are still there as an occupying army in Agatu. Nigerian soldiers have not gone there to arrest them. They are there with their heavy arms daring anyone to come and approach them.

I humbly submit that a country that cannot enforce the civic peace has failed in its most elementary deontology. And I speak on the authority of all my venerable teachers at the IIAP-Ecole National d'Administration (ENA) of France. It is the first duty of government as we know it since Aristotle and Athenian Greece.

Methinks there is a conspiracy to send the Fulani herdsmen as an advanced guard to conquer and subjugate my people. Nigeria may or may not survive as a single corporate entity. What we are seeing is a jostling for territorial space. But they are grossly mistaken. The Middle Belt will be independent of the core North in the event of the unthinkable happening. Make no mistake whatsoever about it. The suffering and pain the peoples of the Middle Belt and their Church -- and our Holy People -- have experienced has reached the ears of the Almighty God. He will confound our enemies. And those who have risen against us with the sword are under the curse and judgement of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are labouring under a curse.

Please let me refer anyone who cares to listen to the talk by Pastor Bosum Emmanuel on the spiritual foundations of what is happening in the Middle Belt and its Global Jihaidst roots:





On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 3:28 PM, Okechukwu Ukaga <ukag...@umn.edu> wrote:
EDITED.

President Buhari once described Boko Haram as a good example of a small fire not quenched quickly and decisively becoming great fire with devastating consequences. I am afraid that we are watching another small fire get increasing bigger and bolder with potentially more devastating consequences than Boko Haram. And those who are still denying  this problem and/ or defending the perpetrators remind me of the saying that a mind is like a parachute - it only works when it is open. If those of us who supported Buhari during the recent presidential election want him to succeed in the interest of the country, we must avoid the temptation to downplay problems evident under his watch and leadership. Nigerians voted for change (and rightly so in my mind). These senseless killings that are approaching genocide must stop for a change.
Okey Ukaga


On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Okechukwu Ukaga <ukag...@umn.edu> wrote:

President Buhari once described Boko Haram as a good example of a small fire not quenched quickly and decisively becoming great fire with devastating consequences. I am afraid that we are watching another small fire get increasing bigger and bolder with potentially more devastating consequences than Boko Haram. And those who are still denying  this problem and/ or defending the perpetrators remind me of the saying that a mind is like a parachute - it only works when it is open. If those of us who supported Buhari during the recent presidential election wants him to succeed in the interest of the country, we must avoid the temptation to downplay problems evident under his watch and leadership. Nigerians voted for change (and rightly so in my mind). These senseless killings that is approaching genocide must stop for a change.
Okey Ukaga

On Mar 16, 2016 6:39 AM, "Oluwatoyin Adepoju" <oluwas...@gmail.com> wrote:



Agatu Massacre by Fulani Herdsmen Terrorists

Post Massacre Eye Witness Report

Mgbeke Obi
10 March at 00:41 ·



                                                                                                                                                          FULANI MASSACRE (Final Report)



                                                                                                                                                                       Victor Oladokun



I'm posting the final report from a dear friend who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Benue State, following the recent Fulani massacre. This is not the first time atrocities will be committed by Fulani militants, but hopefully, the last.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Our convoy doubled to 10 cars plus soldiers, police and bikers. We had two-three minute stops. At one, I ventured ahead of the security perimeter and discovered our first decomposing body. A first even for me. I usually count tombstones.

2. Our convoy ran into the Fulani herdsmen and droves of cattle on multiple occasions. Sometimes we stopped to let them cross not knowing if it was an ambush. They were right outside our windows. No one wanted to engage because the outcome was unpredictable. I have never seen free range killers walking free before.

However our security escort did engage when they saw several armed Fulanis on a bike trying to flee. They abandoned one man who was injured and he was taken into our custody. Our captured killer didn't survive the rough terrain drive.

3. In the only village where we saw human survivors, we were told these people had just been attacked and were alerted we were coming so they bolted and ran into us.

(Fulani militants claim local residents killed 10,000 of their cattle).

It is simply inconceivable and logistically improbable to kill 10,000 cows without a major military operation utilizing rocked propelled grenades, attack helicopters etc. such a mass slaughter would take weeks and the skeletal remains of the cows would completely dot the landscape of Agatu and the stench would permeate the air.

What I saw in Agatu:

1. Dead human bodies still on the ground and in homes - decomposed.

2. Cows roaming through empty villages and in one case walking up to a dead human body. We left before the sacrilege of them desecrating the poor dead boy.

3. Thousands and thousands of cattle grazing on people's farms - well over 10,000 live cattle. Several times we had to stop our cars to let the cattle pass. I have never seen that many cattle in my entire life.
4. Burnt crops farmers had harvested and set aside for replanting. They were in charred heaps on the farms.

5. Fulani herdsmen accompanying the cattle. Some ran when they saw us but some just continued as if we didn't exist.

6. Grains of farmers, peppers etc scattered on the ground in the towns and also along the way between the villages. The likely belonged to people on their way back from farms or markets or people fleeing with some food who were ambushed as they ran.
7. Motor bikes and bicycles destroyed in the villages and on the road side in between. Again it appears people who were fleeing on bikes were ambushed as well.

8. Rows and rows of houses destroyed in at least 8 villages visited. It was complete and utter destruction.

9. Freshly lit fires still burning in a couple of villages indicating the arsonist had just left. We saw jerrycans along the way indicating fuel may have been utilized to fuel the fires.

10. Only in one out of 8 towns did we see any live humans - about 4 men.

What we didn't see in Agatu this week:

1. Not a single dead cow

2. Not a single soldier or policeman in the affected communities.

3. Not a single burnt mosque where everything else was razed.

4. Not a single living Agatu person in 7 out of 8 villages.

Conclusion: even if it were true that cattle were killed by the Agatu (there was no supporting evidence of this) the farms, homes and people of Agatu were massacred as well-evidenced by our team.

1.If the claimed casualties of the Fulani are cows and the claimed casualties of the Agatu are humans, then this could not be rightly called an Ethnic conflict.

Cows are not people or an ethnic group.

2. If the loss claimed by the Fulani is livestock i.e. animals, this would be a criminal case of theft or destruction of property and not the basis for a massacre.

3. The Fulani are not indigenes of Benue and are not an ethnic group in Benue state. Their incursion from outside into Benue is more an invasion than an ethnic clash.

Finally, the statement attributed to the Fulani is an admission of guilt and a defense of provocation. The authorities should act accordingly and take the confessed perpetrators into custody for immediate prosecution.

Finally, I recall the State governor telling us the Fulani attacks are worse than Boko Haram - "BH occupies a town, kills some people and recruits some. The Fulanis destroy everything."

This seems not to be an exaggeration. Last year, the Catholic Church reported 70 churches destroyed. This is happening in my home state - the most Christian State in Northern Nigeria!



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Okechukwu Ukaga, MBA, PhD
Executive Director, Northeast Minnesota Sustainable Development Partnership
Extension Professor, University of Minnesota Extension 
Adjunct Professor, Geography Department, University of Minnesota - Duluth
114 Chester Park, 31 W. College Street, Duluth, MN 55812
Website: www.rsdp.umn.edu  Phone: 218-341-6029  
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"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - Richard Buckminster Fuller

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