USA Africa Dialogue Series - THE AFRICA VOICE?—Re: HUGE GIFT‹Re: IMG-20161203-WA0022.jpg

OM, Ayo and all, 

What a celebration of Fidel—the way he might NOT like it; the bad as well and the good/ the negative as well as the positive. And it seems mainly to have extended into America and current events. This all is wonderfully informative, and hopefully useful. 

But I am listening for the Africa Voice. 

My hearing is not so good these days. 

But then my wife berates me it ALWAYS has been selective. 

Be that as it may, I still have not heard an AFRICA voice. 

A voice that carries the force of Africa, 

Indeed where it may be applicable, 

The Voices of Individual Africa countries. 

Please, I am Elder, 

And my wits, I am sometimes told, are gradually departing me. 

My hearing too. 

If this is true, 

And my hearing has indeed lost its grip 

On this matter of 

Hearing Africa voices, 

Please do inform me

—Richard perhaps might do this 

For he has very good hearing, 

And a most discriminating ear. 

Time for dinner. 

I am being summoned. 

I am chef. 

Freezing in my office. 

In haste,  Baba m

From: Obadiah Mailafia <obmailafia@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, 4 December 2016 17:58
To: Prof Richard JOSEPH <r-joseph@northwestern.edu>
Cc: Femi Falana <falanafemi15@gmail.com>, Prof Ayo OLUKOTUN <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>, Michael VICKERS <mvickers@mvickers.plus.com>, Prof Toyin FALOLA <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>, USA-AFRICA dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>, "Dr O.A. DOSUMU" <toksx@yahoo.com>, Odia OFEIMUN <odia55@yahoo.com>, Prof Oladipupo ADAMOLEKUN <dipo7k@yahoo.com>, Dr Olajumoke YACOB-HALISO <jumoyin@yahoo.co.uk>, Pa Uoma <pauoma@gmail.com>, Prof Pius ADESANMI <piusadesanmi@gmail.com>, "Prof. Lere Amusan" <lereamusan@gmail.com>, Prof Bayo ADEKANYE <profbayo_adekanye@yahoo.com>, Prof Alli <alliwo@yahoo.co.uk>, Tade Aina <tadeakinaina@yahoo.com>, Prof Taiwo OWOEYE <sistertees@hotmail.com>, TaleOmole <taleomole@yahoo.com>, Tiwa <tiwaolugbade@yahoo.com>, tola sunday <sonyto1@yahoo.com>, Toks Olaoluwa <olaoluwatokunboh@gmail.com>, Adebayo <adebayow@hotmail.com>, Adebayo Olukoshi <olukoshi@gmail.com>, Adigun Agbaje <adigunagbaje@yahoo.com>, Admin <babaidanre@gmail.com>, Ajibabi Omotoso <bankomotoso77@gmail.com>, adele jinadu <lajinadu@yahoo.com>, "aiolayinka@yahoo.com" <aiolayinka@yahoo.com>, Dr Banji OYEYINKA <boyeyinka@hotmail.com>, Bolaji Akinyemi <rotaben@gmail.com>, Bolaji Ogunseye <erinje@yahoo.com>, bukky dada <bukkydada@hotmail.com>, Bunmi Makinwa <bunmimakinwa@hotmail.com>, "jadesany@yahoo.co.uk" <jadesany@yahoo.co.uk>, Jibo <jibo72@yahoo.com>, "Haastrup, Deji Olaolu" <deji@chevron.com>, Hafsat Abiola <hafsatabiola@hotmail.com>, Ibrahim Gambari <Ibrahim.gambari@gmail.com>, Innocent Chukwuma <I.Chukwuma@fordfoundation.org>, Prof I Olawole ALBERT <ioalbert2004@yahoo.com>, Chibuzo NWOKE <chibuzonwoke@yahoo.com>, Oluwayomi D ATTE <david_atte@yahoo.com>, Dele Layiwola <delelayiwola@yahoo.com>, Francis Irele <abiolairele@gmail.com>, Okey Ibeanu <oibeanu@yahoo.co.uk>, "fadesola@oauife.edu.ng" <fadesola@oauife.edu.ng>, Femi Osofisan <okinbalaunko@yahoo.com>, friday Okonofua <feokonofua@yahoo.co.uk>, Gabriel Ogunmola <gbogunmola@yahoo.com>, "Gbenga Dr. Owojaiye" <gbenjaiye@hotmail.com>, "ggdarah@yahoo.com" <ggdarah@yahoo.com>, Alex Gboyega <alexgboyega@yahoo.com>, Attahiru Jega <attahirujega@yahoo.com>, Tunji Olaopa <tolaopa2003@gmail.com>, Wale Adebanwi <waleadebanwi@gmail.com>, William Fawole <fawolew@yahoo.com>, SEGUN GBADEGESIN <gbadeg2002@yahoo.com>, Segun Awonusi <segunawo@yahoo.com>, Ebunoluwa Oduwole <ebunoduwole2k2@yahoo.com>, Francis Egbokhare <foegbokhare@yahoo.com>, Emmanuel Remi Aiyede <eaiyede@yahoo.com>, Kayode Soremekun <paddykay2002@yahoo.com>, "olu_okotoni@yahoo.co.uk" <olu_okotoni@yahoo.co.uk>, OLAYODE OLUSOLA <kennyode@yahoo.com>, "Ugbabe, Padma" <P.Ugbabe@fordfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: HUGE GIFT‹Re: IMG-20161203-WA0022.jpg

Dear All,

Well done to Ayo for his insightful ruminations on Old Fidel. Richard has spoken with exceptional wisdom. We must not, in acnknowledging the undboubted achievements, remain blind to the drawbacks. I have spoken to and interacted with, Cubans both high and low. I came with the impression that something is profoundly wrong somewhere. We were at the home of a mutual Ghanaian friend in Addis over launch. He had served previously as Ambassador to Cuba. A senior Cuban minister took umbrage at the fact that the man's family had the habit of saying grace during meals. He went on loftily advocating atheism as the only path for rational scientific intellectuals. Our Ghanaian friend also worshipped Fidel, by the way! I got to know that the Cubans suffer from all sorts of awful complexes about everything. If they want to help a country improve their health service as they tried to do in Nasarawa State, they would insist the private sector have nothing to do with it, even if government is poor on delivery. I have tested them many times. If you mention the name of Fidel before them -- invariably in good, positive terms -- they still freak out. I realised something is profoundly wrong. People who claim to be atheists are deeply obsessed with Ifa and Condomble -- even Fidel, I was told. Remember General Ochoa who was tried and executed for high treason? I saw the clips. It was the worst kangaroo court I had ever seen. It transpires that Ochoa became the hero of the Battle of Canavale that defeated and humiliated the Apartheid forces in Angola. The poor man became a threat to Fidel and they slammed a drug trafficking charge on him. A hero and general, at his trial he behaved worse than a boy scout: Bashfully, and fondling his shirt like a buffoon, he said, "Yes, what they said about me is true... in fact, I can't explain it... even if I am killed, I deserve it... for betraying Fidel, for betraying the revolution...."

Yes, Fidel did some good for Cuba and for Africa and the Third World. But he turned himself into God. The German moral theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that evil has its roots when an ideology and a Leader places itself/himself in the position of the Almighty Himself -- whereby no one is allowed to think for himself or herself and no one dares to think outside them. It is pure evil.

Obadiah Mailafia

On Sun, Dec 4, 2016 at 3:59 PM, Richard A Joseph <r-joseph@northwestern.edu> wrote:

Colleagues:

It is heartening to see the debate that Prof. Ayo has provoked with his analytical essay on Castro and the Cuban experience.

In keeping with his scholarly approach, I think polarities should be avoided. Our brother Femi Falana does an excellent job highlighting the socio-economic and other outstanding achievements of Cuba. But, in our paeans to its socialist experience, we should not minimize the blemishes and shortcomings. For example, contrary to Falana's assertion, prostitution has been endemic.

Cubans know where they have advanced, and where they've gotten stuck, and the difficulty of addressing the latter in the context of the death-lock between their six-decades-old regime and American institutional hostility.

On Trump, we have to apply considerable intellectual and political efforts. An amalgam of caudillo-personalist rule, Republican orthodoxy, militarism, and ultra extremism (long kept on the fringe) is being forged. Responding to this great national and global challenge will require skillful action and perseverance.

Regards,

Richard

On Dec 4, 2016, at 2:36 AM, Femi Falana <falanafemi15@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Prof,

I am not suggesting that a socialist regime must be despotic. Far from it. I was only reacting to our uncritical acceptance of the definition of human rights by bourgeois scholars and western governments. 

Hence, we have failed to realise that while the enormous  wealth of the US has been cornered by a few, Cuba, a tiny country without resources embargoed by a powerful neighbour for over 50 years has been able to provide basic necessities of life to its citizens and has extended thousands  of scholarships to citizens of other endowed nations including Nigeria.For me that is the huge difference between the morality of capitalism and socialism.

However, I  find it highly hypocritical on the part of African neoliberal ideologues who have joined their colleagues in the West  in glorifying  political and civil rights for a privileged few while the majority of our people are forced  to wallow in abject poverty. In order to free funds for development in the Third World countries, Fidel Castro made it clear to  IMF/WB and London/Paris club that they  had  collected their debts over and over again through payment and servicing of the principal sums, capital flight and money laundering. Years later, the debts were cancelled or rescheduled. 

By celebrating  the positive contributions of Fidel Castro we are exposing the dubious standards of the West which has chosen to demonise him for ideological reasons. 

As Nig

Femi

On Sunday, 4 December 2016, <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Mr Falana SAN. Thanks for this brillant intervention .Iam grateful for the animated conversation around my take on Casto. The photo on Castro's achievements was furnished by our revered senior colleague, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, whose earlier intervention kickstarted the illuminating discussion. One or two points. Trotsky and other socialist humanists did not predict the totalitarian excesses of the former Soviet Union, North Korea , Cuba China and others. Nor did they justify them. Stalin is not Lenin , and certainly not Trotsky. 2 Can we have socialism without regimentation and state terror? An old question ressurected in Latin America with the emergence of socialism through the ballot box two decades ago. Recall 'No Capitalism'? 3 Going forward. How can we recreate Caxtro's landmark social and economic democracy ,without the escapades of terror that defaced it. 4 in the US context, as Joseph observedm alternatives to neolibralism, excitingly flashed by Bernie Sanders, are for the moment foreclosed by the upset election of Donald Trump. I thank all, in particular our Emeritus Professors for robust contributions. Ayo Olukotun

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.

---

From: Femi Falana <falanafemi15@gmail.com>

Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2016 03:36:47 +0000

To: Michael Vickers<mvickers@mvickers.plus.com>

Cc: Prof Ayo OLUKOTUN<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>; Toyin Falola<toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>; Usa dialogue<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>; Richard Joseph<r-joseph@northwestern.edu>; Dr. Awolowo Dosunmu<toksx@yahoo.com>; Obadiah Mailafia<obmailafia@gmail.com>; Odia Ofeimun<odia55@yahoo.com>; Oladipupo Adamolekun<dipo7k@yahoo.com>; Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso<jumoyin@yahoo.co.uk>; Pa Uoma<pauoma@gmail.com>; Pius Adesanmi<piusadesanmi@gmail.com>; Prof. Lere Amusan<lereamusan@gmail.com>; Prof Bayo Adekanye<profbayo_adekanye@yahoo.com>; Prof Alli<alliwo@yahoo.co.uk>; Tade Aina<tadeakinaina@yahoo.com>; Taiwo Owoeye<sistertees@hotmail.com>; TaleOmole<taleomole@yahoo.com>; Tiwa<tiwaolugbade@yahoo.com>; tola sunday<sonyto1@yahoo.com>; Toks Olaoluwa<olaoluwatokunboh@gmail.com>; Adebayo<adebayow@hotmail.com>; Adebayo Olukoshi<olukoshi@gmail.com>; Adigun Agbaje<adigunagbaje@yahoo.com>; Admin<babaidanre@gmail.com>; Ajibabi Omotoso<bankomotoso77@gmail.com>; adele jinadu<lajinadu@yahoo.com>; aiolayinka@yahoo.com<aiolayinka@yahoo.com>; Banji Oyeyinka<boyeyinka@hotmail.com>; Bolaji Akinyemi<rotaben@gmail.com>; Bolaji Ogunseye<erinje@yahoo.com>; bukky dada<bukkydada@hotmail.com>; Bunmi Makinwa<bunmimakinwa@hotmail.com>; Nimi Wariboko<nimiwari@msn.com>; Nwulu, Paul<p.nwulu@fordfoundation.org>; chibuzo nwoke<chibuzonwoke@yahoo.com>; cyril obi<cyrilobi@hotmail.com>; edwarddickson2009@yahoo.com<edwarddickson2009@yahoo.com>; Dele Layiwola<delelayiwola@yahoo.com>; david atte<david_atte@yahoo.com>; Gbenga Dr. Owojaiye<gbenjaiye@hotmail.com>; Ebunoluwa Oduwole<ebunoduwole2k2@yahoo.com>; Egbokhare Francis<foegbokhare@yahoo.com>; Osaghae Eghosa<osaghaeeghosa@yahoo.co.uk>; Femi Osofisan<okinbalaunko@yahoo.com>; Francis Irele<abiolairele@gmail.com>; friday Okonofua<feokonofua@yahoo.co.uk>; Gabriel Ogunmola<gbogunmola@yahoo.com>; Haastrup, Deji Olaolu<deji@chevron.com>; Hafsat Abiola<hafsatabiola@hotmail.com>; Mohammed Haruna<ndajika01@gmail.com>; Hassan Saliu<hassansaliu2003@gmail.com>; Ibrahim Gambari<Ibrahim.gambari@gmail.com>; Innocent Chukwuma<I.Chukwuma@fordfoundation.org>; Isaac Albert<ioalbert2004@yahoo.com>; Lanre Idowu<lanreidowu@gmail.com>; Noel Ihebuzor<naihebuzor@live.com>; Kayode Soremekun<paddykay2002@yahoo.com>; jadesany@yahoo.co.uk<jadesany@yahoo.co.uk>; Jibo<jibo72@yahoo.com>; Jide Owoeye<babsowoeye@gmail.com>; Attahiru Jega<attahirujega@yahoo.com>; Mamora<senatormamora@yahoo.com>; Meda<medaton@yahoo.com>; Michael Faborode<michaelfaborode@gmail.com>; Remi Sonaiya<remisonaiya@yahoo.com>; Ronke Ako-nai<riakonai@yahoo.com>; Royal Gardens<royalgardensnet@gmail.com>; rsuberu@bennington.edu<rsuberu@bennington.edu>; Vice-Chancellor, Redeemer's University<vc@run.edu.ng>; sat obiyan<satobiyan@yahoo.com>; SEGUN GBADEGESIN<gbadeg2002@yahoo.com>; segunawo<segunawo@yahoo.com>; shirleygreta@yahoo.com<shirleygreta@yahoo.com>; Ayanfe Ayeni<bolaayeni2@gmail.com>; Ayobami Salami<ayobasalami@yahoo.com>; ayodunmoye<ayodunmoye@yahoo.com>; S.O. UWAIFO<so_uwaifo@yahoo.co.uk>; BISHOP CROWN<bishopisaaccrown@gmail.com>

Subject: HUGE GIFT‹Re: IMG-20161203-WA0022.jpg

I join others in commending Prof Olukotun for his balanced views on Fidel Castro's legacy. Although it is a seeming departure from the jaundiced analysis of western media it nevertheless placed undue premium on bourgeois conception of human rights. As far as Prof Olukotun  is concerned the biased commentaries of western media "which focus obsessively on the excesses and human suffering of the despotic rule are not altogether wrong..." and that Cuba became an anachronism "in an age where democratisation and respect for human rights have become normative."

The "despotic rule" of Fidel Castro is not worse than that of any of the democratic regimes in the United States with respect to the observance of political and civil rights. With billions of dollars spent on elections,  liberal democracy cannot be said to be a government of the people, for the people and by the people. With racism and extrajudicial killings it is incorrect to say  that "human rights have become normative" in the US.  With torture routinely  inflicted on criminal suspects by US security forces  in the Guatanamo Bay prison in Cuba the US has contempt for human rights to dignity and fair hearing including the presumption of innocence of accused persons. 

While the US sends soldiers to effect "regime change" and kill millions of people around the world  Cuba has sent doctors and nurses to no fewer than 150 countries to save lives. For instance, while the US and other western countries were stigmatising West Africans during the ebola crisis Cuba dispatched a team of medical personnel to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to combat the disease. The New York Times  was forced to write an editorial which called on the Obama administration to lift embargo on a nation that is ahead of the West in providing  humanitarian services to the needy and vulnerable segment of humanity.

Throughout the tenure of Castro there were 276 executions including that of the General who engaged in drug trafficking in Angola. In the US, the bastion of liberal democracy, 875 people, mostly blacks, have been extrajudicially killed by the police in 2016 alone. A country which claims to respect human right to life has continued to justify the execution of hundreds of convicts. 

Unlike in the very rich western countries, there is no prostitution, no homelessness, no child nourishment and no street  beggars in the poverty stricken Cuba. With literacy rate of 98.7 percent Cuba is ahead of the many western  countries in the area of education. With a  life span of 75 and the lowest infant and maternal rates, Cuba is ahead of the US  in the provision of health services. 

While I  agree that Cuba should respect the civil and political rights of dissidents it is indisputable that Cuba is ahead of western countries in the observance and provision of socioeconomic rights for the majority of her citizens.

In the words of the late Fela Anikulapo-kuti this is an occasion we should  tell the West, "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense."

Femi

On Sunday, 4 December 2016, Michael Vickers <mvickers@mvickers.plus.com> wrote:

Ayo,  This is wonderful stuff. Brilliant observation. In death Castro has given us a huge gift. He has opened doors to imaginative and inspiring thought. …

Africa of course holds the key to the future. It has the fast-rising presence, the resources, the folk of fresh and innovative genius/ the great hunger for achievements/ explorations of every kind. It is carrying us forward. It is the force of now and of the future. It has much to abstract from the Castro/ Cuba Presence. And then to place it in Africa Life Experience; and duly to open it to a world that has long been failing and falling under IMF/ World Bank/ Global Corporate Models, which no one who knows bothers/ dares to tell us are long obsolete. 

And the Africa Message? It is rooted in an Ethic and Attitude to life that incorporates a good deal of what Castro held close. But then, if you care to think on't it, how much of Castro's Value base had its roots in Africa Life Values going back at least 3000 years? America Values, with nothing but a surface Fantasy Engagement—one which spurned/ treated with contempt, values of those whose land they stole; values with Pedigrees of Evolved presence reaching back 7000 years—is a wondrous high-wire exercise. Its whiz-bang rocketry and fabulous material wonders, have given our life much; and its  heritage will persist; and will gain ever further heights. But Fantasy Engagement, with no root, no flow-up of steady nourishment, can have but a limited life. As we all know, but are never permitted to say, the Fantasy High-Wire Engagement of America and the West has broken/ snapped. We in the West are in free-fall. And have been for some time.

My point?  I am waiting to hear an Africa voice. A confident voice from Africa that has turned in, has drawn up, has selected and shaped its basic and extended messages, and then put them forward to a world in disarray—nothing new in that—a world that may hear, see and most of all sense, that powerful and exotic force; that Humane and Inclusive Root from which ALL human life proceeds; the root of Energy Release and Actuation that for many decades, behind/ beneath the blankets of meedja and political posturing, has been extending its messages in lives of individual folk in communities world-wide. 

There are some, women and men, in Africa and indeed Nigeria who know perfectly the reality of what I say. I look forward to the sound of their voices, to the long with-held release of their advocacy, to the sweet, warm and up-lift of their sense and sensitivity in common sense policy projection. 

Africa, such folk, such policies, such uplift, such humane instruments of communal Energy Release worldwide are with us. Let us hear their voices. We need to hear their voices. Now. …

Fidel is nodding his head, laughing, lighting another monster Havana Cigar. …He knows/ he knew from the start that guidance can no longer hope to come from West or East. Their day is long done. Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" brought home this message to Leading Folk and 98ers worldwide. Where man is set loose on the "money-making path," with Guaranteed Rights, and no Required Responsibilities, he sets the seeds for his own demise and that of his fellow folk who inhabit it. …Castro recognised and understood this. …He worked hard for the presence he and his helpers created. …And that was nearly sixty years ago.

Africa's time has long arrived. It has and indeed has long-extended the Ethic and Message from which this modern world as it moves on, needs to and will absorb. Put another way, Africa has arrived at an harmonic/ a lyric moment. When the material/ the mechanistic met its fabulous apogee; Africa was already making its timely entry. All part of the Creator's/ Dame Fortuna's Plan? All we know is that it is slipping the cushion of a humane humanity, between the accelerating descent of the modern Developed/ Western/ Eastern World, and the hard earth of a cruel and savage reality. A reality already experienced by far too many billions—Nigeria's 98ers high-ranking amongst the victims.

Again Ayo. Great stuff on Castro.  And an engaging debate. It is so good to "hear" great minds let loose. Such minds, such folk of great intellectual/ creative force, are the very precious fruit of their communities; in larger and smaller Africa contexts. We treasure and celebrate them. All of them. 

Pardon my intrusion. And if I got a little carried away. There is a reason. England's Ruggie Team not only has completed an Unbeaten Season (with an unbeaten string of 16 matches). But today they socked the Aussies. Wonderful. 

Dear friend; all goes to show. Yes, we are all savage infants at heart. Does Ruggie do more harm than good? Does it merely encourage/ validate/ elevate just the attitudes and behaviours I've indicted by implication in the above? Is not  Ruggie merely a substitute for war? Preparation for us to be ordered by our oligarchs, yet again, to kill each other by the millions? …Mmmm. 

No snow yet on these Sussex hills. But very chill in my office. 

Time for beddies. 

Baba m

On 03/12/2016 17:57, "ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com" <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com> wrote:

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.