USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: lemonde article

Ken

This article that I am 

commenting on, is about the

 responses of students of Burkina

 Faso, to the recent coup,  and 

your misrepresentation 

of it, but you are on and on

about the French, and their 

(unsanitary) baguettes (that they 

walk down the street 

with fully exposed ) and so on. 

Today is military coup assessment 

day, for me.

I guess the best way for me to 

contribute right now is silence, 

since you are responding 

robotically 🤖.

 By the way I responded 

to that earlier article that you are 

repeating.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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From: Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2022 12:30 PM
To: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu>
Subject: Re: lemonde article

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

i wonder, gloria, how we could make our discussionn/debate? more fruitful. i remember once posting my position on france, of today, of yesterday. i remarked on the aspects of french involvement, and colonialism, that i found bad, and those i found good.

there was a lot in my head: lived in francophone africa for a good number of years, loved my time in cameroon and then especially senegal that was so important to my life.,

i was much more critical of the french during those years, than positive. theirs was a dominant presence that faded with time, so that by now their influence may be seen in some ways, but has been supplanted in myriad ways by other forces. i mean simple things like shops and cars and the like, that had been french own and were no longer.

yet there are other things that are very central to people's lives, that i would not criticize, or even praise. i think of the vibrant newspaper tradition in senegal, it is pretty amazing; and in is in french. the bakeries are pretty spectacular, the bread like baguettes are fresh and wonderful; the pastries are wonderful.

so is the literature and film, much of it influenced by the french. the ties of people's lives often show the intertwining of french and senegalese.

at the university it is an undue influence, at least from the vantage p[oint of someone in the english dept, where, when i was there, ph d's in anglophone literature had to be written and defended in french. when i asked why, challenged it, i was told two things: the people who would read it were francophone, and to change it, you had to have the minister of education change it. and the french influence in the govt was too strong.

i can't judge how that undue influence still works. i know the wonderful things the french cultural center did, much of it for senegalese artists. i also know their disregard for the collection of african films they had, and apparently dumped when they no longer wanted to keep it.

at least in the post-independence period i would say there were good and bad sides, and i wouldn't want to judge without hearing both.

that goes for all these foreign incursions, british, chinese, american. i believe some were much worse than others. but without the concrete facts/details, it would be hard to make an easy claim.

i do have a bottom line on this. i think i would call it an irele point of view versus a boris diop point of view. boris would favor those engagements that enhance the indigenous language and culture over any foreign ones, and is a champion of supporting african language writing. irele held that the alienations from oneself and one's culture were to be used productively for self refashioning.

given a choice, i would favor boris's engagement.

but one isn't usually given a choice.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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From: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2022 10:27 AM
To: Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Subject: Re: lemonde article

 

Linking my criticism 

to  previous debates on French

 colonialism and African

agency is a fudge, at this point 

in time. That is not to say that

I repudiate my previous views,

but they simply do not correlate

 with the ongoing narrative.

This is another red herring.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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From: Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2022 8:51 AM
To: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu>
Subject: Re: lemonde article

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

i don't see where i implied anything different from what it says. the political elite in question is not the french. they go on to doubt the policies of kabore's govt and the failure to end the violence w the french.

you want to put the french in the center of the story, in all cases. i've written before about the ambivalence. we aren't in the midst of yesterday's colonial world, though some want to place all the blame for problems in africa on the old colonialists.

i've written before that excludes african agency. sorry if i am repeating my old arguments. need to move on to new ways to see this.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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From: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2022 8:09 AM
To: Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>; USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: lemonde article

 

"the arguments turn on the people's 

disappointment--not with western or 

french interventions per se 

………"

Ken, your reading and translation does not

 correlate with mine.

The title of the article summarizes

 the content accurately, namely,

that the students," betrayed "by the political 

elite, put their trust in the military junta.

That is the literal translation.

No embellishments, ifs and buts as

you imply. 

My favorite economist  Joan Robinson once

quipped that:

"The purpose of studying

 economics is not to acquire a set 

of ready-made answers to economic

 questions, but to learn how to 

avoid being deceived by 

economists."

We can say the same thing about

French, no doubt.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2022 4:54 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - lemonde article

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2022/01/28/au-burkina-faso-les-etudiants-trahis-par-les-elites-politiques-placent-leurs-espoirs-dans-la-junte_6111439_3212.html

Au Burkina Faso, les étudiants, « trahis » par les élites politiques, placent leurs espoirs dans la junte Au Burkina Faso, les étudiants, « trahis » par les élites politiques, placent leurs espoirs dans la junte Par Sophie Douce (Ouagadougou, correspondance). Publié hier à 19h00, mis à jour à ... www.lemonde.fr

i'm afraid many won't see this, or all of it. it is very interesting re our recent discussion. moses's point about african people wanting to find their own way without subservience to received western democracies is echoed somewhat here in students' statements. however, it is not in the mode of let's try new military dictatorships or autocracies, but new ways to frame our own democracy.

the arguments turn on the people's disappointment--not with western or french interventions per se, but with their failures to end the fighting and dangers up north that have destroyed the lives of vast numbers of burkinabe people. the govt failed to deliver security. if this new army group can do it, all the better. that's the bottom line.

if you all want me to copy and paste this piece, i can do so. but it is in french, so the value lies in what french readers might get from it.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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