The following is inspired by this discussion but is not central to it:
My Journey with the Encyclopedia Britannica
I was initiated into the world of high level scholarship by reading the Encyclopedia Britannica 1971 edition in our family library.
Wonderful writing.
Essays by Sigmund Freud on the field he founded, Psychoanalysis, marvellous essays on a very broad range of knowledge as understood from the perspective of Western scholarship of the time, including a memorable one on African literature with some oral poetry that has remained with me decades later plus an article on "primitive dance" which included a pic of a woman dancing in "the Valley of a Thousand Hills, Natal" (South Africa), an article which initiated me into the biased perspectival difference represented by the contrast of it's title with that of the other article simply named "dance" and which had such "civilised" dances as ballet.
That Britannica, in it's difference from other editions, also introduced me to the idea of growth in scholarship.
The essay on Isaac Newton deeply regrets his spending so much time on the self deluding practice of alchemy, wondering why such a great mind invested his time so unwisely.
The current Britannica, however, from at least the editions of the past few decades, tells a different story, with the current one having an essay by Richard Westfall carefully describing how Newton's alchemical work was central to his conventional science.
The Britannica also introduced me to great examples of how to write a scholarly essay in a manner that is both deeply informative and stylistically memorable with lines from some of it's essays, particularly in superbly resonant opening and closing paragraphs which remain indelible in my memory and which I chant to myself from time to time, savouring the sheer pleasure of sentential rhythm carrying rich ideas to a profound destination, adapting in that sense of textual destination, an expression from another master of the essay, Abiola Irele.
Examples;
"Aurelius Augustinus...Bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa...His mind was the crucible in which the religion of the New Testament was most completely fused with the Platonic tradition of late antiquity.
.....
The Vandal armies were besieging Hippo when Augustine died there in AD 430.
...
His influence has spanned and may one day reconcile the divisions of Western Christendom.
Bernard of Clairvaux, Anselm of Canterbury, Pascal, Sales, Bosseaut, the makers of the English Prayer Book, Reinhold Niehbur and Paul Tillich ( theologians and Christian writers, both Catholic and Protestant, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century- my explanation), all these have, in their different ways drawn inspiration from one in whom they have been compelled to acknowledge " the heart of the matter."
"Verus philosophus est amatore Dei", "the true philosopher is the lover of God".
In these words from the De Civitate ( City of God), Augustine has left us at once the truest portrait of himself and the fullest justification of his life's work".
The Rev John Burnaby on Augustine in Britannica 1971.
"He demonstrated how our divided culture might be reunited in a new ideal of wholeness."
Elizabeth Mary Wilkinson perhaps on German writer Johann Wolfgsng von Goethe in Britannica 1971.
"... waiting, working and hoping for the miracle of Duino to recur" ( Inspiration that led to great poetry).
Which it did with the inspiration for the Duino Elegies(?) in which "the angels of the Elegies address the poet as he hurtles irrevocably deathwards, urging him to justify his existence by transforming the visible world into visible art".
Britannica 1971 on German writer Rainer Marie Rilke.
"What shall it be today
sickness or health
death or life?
Ha! The flood cannot flow uphill.
What is this evil spirit that throws his shade between me and truth?
I hold my sacred staff against it!
Here is the East.
There is the West.
Here the sun rises.
See truth come riding on the rays of the sun."
"Igbo diviner invokes truth before consulting his bones( divination instruments".
Translation by Romanus Egudu in Black Orpheus in article on African literature by Ulli Beier and Gerald Moore in Britannica 1971.
Thanks
Toyin
id activists who were famous, we all know of them. the afrikaners? dunno of them.the afrikaners were at the heart of the racism; the brits more typical colonial racist. that's my impression of their cultural difference.
i once argued with an austalian woman of british descent about this reality in kenya; she was convinced the brits were good, etc. nonsense. they were monsters in kenya, for reasons i won't bother enumerating...just read a little ngugi to get a nice feel for the harshness and destructiveness to kikuyus. as for the brits in nigeria, i would love to hear from the nigerian historians on this listserv who can expatiate better than i on how they imposed their race restrictions and economic rules on the colonized people. how was lagos island organized? here's what a cursory look gave: "The historical core of the town, Lagos Island, developed from the main sub-communities who lived in relatively distinct districts. The European community represented a small group (300 people by 1901). This community established the physical foundations of the city, which consisted of warehouses and government buildings built along the Marina and around the racecourse."the wealth of all colonial states was similarly organized in apartheid fashion. everywhere. south africa was no different.ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
From: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2021 10:39 PM
To: Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu>; usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Israel and Palestine: Peace for all or peace for none
Please be cautious: **External Email**
"apartheid, that is separation by practice and eventually law, was there in south africa for centuries, long before the british came, and when they did, it was over the opposition of the afrikaners who believed in enslaving africans, and fought a war against the british."
It is always good to have input from you, Ken, but here is the historical reality.
The British made their appearance at the end of the 18th century in the 1790s about a century and a half after the 1652 arrival/invasion of the Dutch. Was apartheid in place during that initial era of Dutch domination?Technically no. Military conquest was the major preoccupation of theDutch, who fought four major wars against the Khoisan.They also engaged in large scale kidnapping of Khoisan women but the institutionalization of the system through a series of laws and regulations such as the Prohibition of Mixed Marriage Act - Act no. 55 of 1949 and the Population Regulation Act of 1950 was not a factor.
If we use your loose definition of apartheid we would have to call all the colonial regimes, apartheid states - whether British, French, Belgium, German, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian- or American, Canadian or Australian, for that matter. I am good with that.
The opposition between the British and theDutch Afrikaners was primarily over the imposition of British rule in the early 19th century. That was what triggered the Infamous Great Trek northwards. The issue over who would control the diamond and gold fields in the North in the Johannesburg area and environs, was also a major cause of opposition between the two.
The war fought in 1899 was also aboutsecessionist tendencies and power and was certainly not aimed at protecting Africans. In fact the British invaded and fought wars against the Xhosa, the Zulu and any African nation or kingdom that tried to defend its territorial integrity and retake control of land and resources.That is the significance of the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879, for example.
Why didn't the British include the Zulu or Xhosa or Pedi or Ndebele nation in the 1910 union if they were the good guys?
Why did they give Cecil Rhodes and others a free hand to seize gold fields and bar Africans from controlling the world's greatest diamond fields of the era?
Why did the British encourage Jan Smuts to rule in the first place. He was a defeated general but the British facilitatedhis emergence as the first PM of the Union of South Africa 1919-24.
"if you wanted to say this state was formed like s africa, that's not true"
I said what I meant, namely, that the year 1948 saw the emergence of two major violators of human rights.
GE
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.e...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2021 11:17 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Israel and Palestine: Peace for all or peace for noneThe thing to note is that the apartheid state of South Africa was established in 1948, the same year as the establishment of the state of Israel - and the British were involved in both.
The British created the foundation of South African apartheid separatism, in 1910, by excluding Black nations from the Union of South Africa, and elevating the Dutch Afrikaners to positions of leadership and hegemony, after this period.
In the case of Israel, the same British establishment created the Balfour Agreement of 1917 that offered a homeland for the Jewish minority in Palestine, then a component of the Ottoman Empire. Fast forward to 1948 and after, and the exclusion and expulsion of millions of Palestinians from the newly created homeland of Israel, would continue.
The two siblings, South Africa and Israel, committed atrocities and violated human rights for decades, but the apartheid regime of South Africa, conceded defeat in 1990, and turned over a new leaf - somewhat.
Israel, the twin, continued with its atrocities, opportunistically citing holy passages of divine intervention and promise for its land grab.
Interestingly enough, Reverend Francois Malan, a founder of South African apartheid, would take a slightly different path for his own toxic territorial expansionist venture. He would build on the 1912 Natives Act, that initially allocated seven percent of South African land to the Black population, about five times in size, and create his Bantustan separatist policy for his own "Palestinians" in the 1951 Bantu Authorities Act.
As for Israel, well this site shedslight on the ongoing issue of land grab:
Gloria Emeagwali
On Thu, May 20, 2021 at 23:48 Sabella <sab...@gmail.com> wrote:
The
State of Israel has been in existence since 1948/1949. Rightfully so! They
deserve to live in peace and security. However, they cannot and should not deny
the Palestinians their inalienable right to statehood; they cannot and should
not deny the Palestinians the right to live in peace and security. Until the US
and the rest of the United Nations Security Council members acquiesces to the
wishes of the Palestinians to become a sovereign state – recognized and a fully
functioning member of the UN and other international organizations – the world
will continue to witness these one-sided carnages. Unless Palestine becomes a sovereign state,
there will never be peace and serenity in that neighborhood. Never! Military
might or not -- unless there is peace for all -- there will be peace for none.
Something else: we pretend not to know that much of the hostility and resentment
in the Middle is traceable to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. The world, and
indeed, the Middle East will be a much better place if we inject justice and
fairness into the equation.
Sabella
O. Abidde
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfNKNQcPu-qf3NvaT0cigEnA91C2Oi-d4gpx_00m7e4Vgw%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment