Dialogues: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series

hi salimonu,

i am not an historian. but like any elderly person who has lived through this period and can read, the events you describe are more or less known to me--to us.

you make some leaps i disagree with. some minor points i would somewhat challenge, which i will do for fun. it is fine with me to disagree with others when it doesn't turn into personal attacks, which i find something i can't tolerate. you offer disagreements in a manner that enables us to continue.

i would not agree that the u.s. is nato. if you will let me say that, then your whole email turns on the question, what was the u.s. position vis a vis africa, and there we are relatively close.

some areas i don't know at all

some i feel i've read about , which maybe you haven;t.

the account of how eisenhauer forced the british to abandon their seizure of the suez canal after nassar took it is fascinating. it wasn't a matter of convincing, but of shutting off all economic, monetary flows to britain. britain was forced immediately to back down.

as for the u.s. or whoever financing portugal, to continue its wars, i've not seen anything about that, and would want a convincing source. it'd find it strange.

it is true the u.s. position after world war 2 was to end colonialism. although the french resisted mightily in algeria, and committed atrocities there and madagascar, it is still my impression that britain and france had lost the heart to stymy african independence movements by the 1950s. they actually worked with africans to open the path to independence, were not routed and thrown out. their population was not anxious to keep the empire by then. how that happened exactly i do not know. but salimonu, more importantly, i would be more convinced in a discussion about this that acknowledged that there were pro-empire and anti-empire parties in european capitals that played a real role in the outcomes.

the u.s. took a public position against colonialism continuing after the war. i believed it represented u.s. policy, from fdr on, until i read about ike's actual support for the european colonial enterprise, despite the public rhetoric. they said one thing, did another.

the american economic investment in africa was negligible and i believe french and british interests were dominant.

but there was another side to it, which is where you and i might be in perfect agreement. after wwii, the americans and the colonialists were anti-communist, ultimately to the point of fanatically anticommunist. that meant, for instance, that the pro-indepedence nationalist parties, like the unc in cameroon, were especial targets of repression. it was really brutal in cameroon, with the french and ahidjo committed crimes against humanity in the west of the country, and creating a climate of fear that persisted down till the time i first came to yaounde 1977-79. the prisons, torture, and repression were notorious, and it all stemmed from the repression of ruben um nyoye and his comrades.

the only place i know where the communists or leftists managed to continue in a liberation coalition was south africa, though other countries had been western and switched, obviously, like ethiopia. mostly leftist regimes like lumumba or cabral or sankora were ended with assassinations. some involved the u.s, or belgium, or france. britain did its bit in using torture and killing in kenya.... all had dirty hands.

the west remained in that mode of anticommunism which =ed antiliberation, until it became irrelevant, which is the case now. consider the difference between china, say, in its initial investments in africa as supporting liberation regimes, and now, buying up the continent.

oh, we started with nato. frankly, i don't see the point, once we turn our attention to the u.s. and its role.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com>
Sent: Monday, March 7, 2022 8:06 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

Hello Kenneth, after World War II, the European colonialists wanted to continue their total control of their colonial possessions despite the US demand for influence that was proportional to her military might after the war. While World War II was still raging in Europe in 1941, and France had completely been occupied by Germany, the Prime Minister of Britain, Winston S. Churchill, complained against the U.S. attitude towards British possession of colonies at the Atlantic Charter meeting with the U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The son of Franklin D. Roosevelt recorded the complaint thus, "Mr. President, I believe you are trying to do away with the British Empire. Every idea you entertain about the structure of the post-war world demonstrates it. But in spite of that, we know that you constitute our only hope. And you know that we know it. You know that we know that without America the (British) Empire won't stand." (Elliot Roosevelt, in his book Titled, As I Saw It). In the same book President Roosevelt had asked his son if the U.S. should allow the short-sighted greed of the French, British and the Dutch to continue. Elliott quoted his father saying, "When we've won the war I will work with all my might and main to see to it that the United States is not wheedled into the position of accepting any plan that will further France's imperialistic ambitions or that will aid or abet the British Empire in its imperial ambition." In October 1942, the American magazine, Life, published an article that suggested that Great Britain should better decide to part with her colonies because the United States was not prepared to fight to make her keep it. Responding on November 10, 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, "I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire." Three months after the trial of the Nazis had begun in Nuremberg, the British Foreign Minister in the labour government, Ernest Bevin, declared in the House of Commons on February 1946, "I am not prepared to sacrifice the British Empire because I know that if the British Empire fell .... it would mean the standard of life of our constituents (Britain) would fall considerably.

What the U.S. had demanded was to replace colonial rulers with indigenous people that would continue to adminiter the economic exploitation of the colonies by the capitalist West under the leadership of the United States. Britain and France refused to accept the U.S. plan. In Vietnam France tasted defeat in 1954 and in 1956, Britain and France tasted defeat when the U.S. abstained from joining their war to seize Suez canal in Egypt. Thereafter, Britain and France accepted the leadership of the U.S. in world affairs, while Portugal held colonies in Africa in trust for the U.S. In practice and realty, the U.S. is NATO and NATO is U.S. Without the U.S. there is no NATO. Portugal, a member of NATO, could not have been able to fight against Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau without the support of NATO. NATO mudered Patrice Lumuba of the Congo and Qadhafi of Libya. Finally, I want to konow from you the difference between the Monroe Doctrine promulgated by the American fifth President, James Monroe in 1823, which is still in operation and the sphere of influnce Putin is trying to creat around Russia now. Do you think NATO military alliance was justified to exist and expand after Gorbatjov and Jelsin dissolution of WASAW military alliance?

S. Kadiri

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: 06 March 2022 14:36
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

hi salimonu, i never heard of nato involved in the anti-independence struggles in africa.

france, yes; portugal yes; u.k. yes, they were to big powers, but nato?

as for the communist parties, generally i agree with you, but not always. stalin shifted position; and in the end left or right proved pretty similar. it was power that matter. consider guinea bissau for instance.

my own proclivities were and are to lean left, to support leftist parties, but i don't want to shut my eyes to their abuses.

even the anc, which was sacred in the struggle, turned to torture at one point, which sorely hurt to hear. we shouldn't expect perfection. and solidarity means accepting imperfectionin one's partners in stuggle

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 5, 2022 2:11 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

Kenneth, we cannot close our eyes to past history if we honestly want to understand current crisis in Ukraine. After the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, U.S.A. and European powers decided to hammer the final nails into the coffin of Nazism. Thus, on August 8, 1945, an agreement instituting an international military tribunal to try German Nazis was signed in London. Signatories to that agreement were, A. N. Traini and I. T. Nikitenko (Soviet Union); Lord Jowitt (Great Britain); Robert Jackson (USA) and Robert Falco (France). The trial that began on 20 November 1945 was presided over by the following judges : I. T. Nikitenko and A. F. Volchko (Soviet Union), Lord Justice William Norman Birkett and Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence (Great Britain); Francis Biddle and John J. Parker (USA); and Donndieu de Vabres and Robert Falco (France). The four-power prosecutors were Roman Rudenko (Soviet Union), Robert Jackson, a member of Supreme Court (USA), Sir Hartly Shawcross, Attorney General of Great Britain, and Francois de Menthon, member of the French Government who was replaced in January 1946 by Auguste Champetier de Ribes. On pronouncing death and life imprisonment sentences on the Nazis, on October 1, 1946, it was believed that the racist world divided into the colonizers and colonized, masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited as well as the rich and the impoverished had become history. Power would thenceforth would arise from mutual approval and not from the barrels of the gun. The majority colonized world got it wrong.

What happened next was the formation of NATO military alliance, in 1949, comprising of major countries in western Europe under the leadership of USA. The main purpose of NATO was to supress all agitations for independence in the colonies. It was not until six years later, 1955, that the Soviet Union founded the Communist Warsaw military alliance comprising of countries from eastern Europe. From then on, every agitation for sovereignty and better living condition in the colonies was branded communist or socialist and was brutally crushed by NATO alliance. Then in 1990, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbatjov became President of the Soviet Union and he introduced what the Russians called, GLASNOST, meaning openness, as well as economic reform called, PERESTROJKA, which was to give market mechanism increased roll to play within the framework of socialism. On foreign policy, Gorbatjov advocated for peaceful coexistence among nations and on the basis of that, he collaborated with the USA on disarmament agreements which in practice meant giving up Soviet claim to hegemony in Eastern Europe. He caused the unification of Eastern and Western Germany in 1990, and the dissolution of Wasaw military alliance in 1991. Michail Sergeevich Gorbatjov was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 but the US and NATO regarded his disarmament and peaceful co-existence policy as the defeat of Communism and WASAW military alliance. If NATO military alliance had been dissolved simultaneously with WASAW, instead of expanding to encircle Russia, the present leaders in Russia would not have felt that Gorbatjov's peaceful coexistence policy was betrayed by the US and Western Europe. Any country bordering Russia that permits NATO and the US to place nuclear missiles in her territory and directed at Russia must regard Russia as her enemy. Since there is United Nations, there is no need for NATO. I disbelieve lions when they claim to be protecting the freedom of gazzels against leopards. And to borrow your expression, I can't understand why a nose picker should complain about another nose picker. By the way, why can't Biden invite Russia to join NATO for peaceful economic, and not military development of the world?

S. Kadiri

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: 04 March 2022 22:08
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

salimonu, i am more and more convinced the issue of weapons and nato was an excuse for putin to retake ukraine--not to pacify the region or the world. just the opposite.

if i lived in latvia and lithuania, i would be scared.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2022 4:31 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

There is no end to the bad things the U.S. did, but because I picked my nose yesterday doesn't mean I can't get mad at your doing still worse today -Kenneth Harrow.

Kenneth, if you picked your nose yesterday and today you are still picking your nose, it will be hypocritical of you to get mad at another nose picker because you consider the person's nose picking worse than yours. Until you have stopped your own nose picking, you have neither moral nor legal right to get mad at any person even if the degree of nose picking of the person in question is relatively worse than yours.

The purpose of reading history, either as a hobby or profession, is not to forget its lessons when it is time for its practical application. As Henry Kissinger put it, "One of the most dificult challenges a nation confronts is to interpret correctly the lessons of its past. For the lessons of history, as of all experience, are contigent : they teach the consequences of certain actions, but they leave to each generation the task of determining which situations are comparable (p.16, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy)." Cuba is a Sovereign State that permitted the then Soviet Union to erect a missile base in her territory, in 1962. When the U.S., through satelite photographs detected the missiles base, she ordered a naval blockade of the Island nation, Cuba, which does not even share land border with the U.S. The crisis was resolved when the Soviet Union agreed to dismantle the missiles base which the U.S. considered a threat to her existence. Now in 2022, the U.S. and her NATO allies intend to recruit Ukraine that shares land border with Russia into NATO and thereafter install missiles base there.

Yet, after the dissolution of Soviet Union, the Communist WASAW millitary alliance which was a counterforce to the Capitalist NATO military alliance was dissolved and the end of the cold war was not only proclaimed but also the beginning of peaceful coexistence amongst all mankind. Naturally, NATO military alliance should also have been dissolved just like WASAW military alliance too. A military alliance must predetermine its enemies and who are the enemies of NATO members? However, NATO military alliance did not only continue to exist but expanded to include former Communist countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovania, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. It is an open fact that NATO missile base is in Poland, 107 kilometres to the Russian border.

On December 16, the United Nations tabled a resolution that called for "combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary racism." The resolution was carried by 130 votes to 2. The two countries that voted against the resolution were the U.S., and Ukraine. In his address to the Russian people on why he was sending expeditionary forces into Ukraine, Valdamir Putin said, "I am referring to the expansion of the NATO to the East, moving its military infrastructure closer to the Russian borders. It is well-known that for 30 years we have persistently tried to reach agreement with leading NATO countries on the principles of equal and inviolable security in Europe. ......, despite all our protests and concerns, NATO continued steadily to expand. The war machine is moving and, I repeat, it is coming close to our borders. .... Despite of all this, in December 2021, we once again made an attempt to agree with the United States and its allies on the principles of ensuring security in Europe and on the non-expansion of NATO. Everything was in vain." (excerpts culled from Aljazeera translation posted by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju on this forum)

In order to know the contents of the agreement Russia tried to reach with the United States and her allies in December 2021, let us refer to the Green Left publication posted on this forum, 24 February 2022, by Cornelius Hamelberg. The requests of Russia are as follows : NATO guarantees that it will not deploy missiles in nations bordering Russia; NATO to stop military and naval exercises in nations and seas bordering Russia; Ukraine will not become a member of NATO; the West and Rusia to sign a binding East-West security pact; the landmark treaty between the U.S. and Russia covering itermediate-range nuclear weapons, which the US abandoned in 2019, to be restored. The U.S. and her NATO allies rejected the Russian requests on the ground that each sovereign state has the right to determine over her security and to enter into military alliance with any chosen country. This is where the lesson of history comes in. Cuba was a sovereign state that decided to allow Soviet Union to build missiles base in her territory, but the U.S. unilaterally ordered naval blockade of Cuba because U.S. considered the missiles in Cuba as a threat to the security of the U.S.A. Why is the U.S. led NATO countries granting Ukraine the same right they denied Cuba in 1962? Up till now the U.S. is still illegally occupying Guantánamo in Cuba against the wish of its government and the people. If the right of each nation to determine over its security is sacrosant, why is there so much noise about North Korea and Iran acquiring nuclear weapon?

What Kenneth Harrow failed to recognise in this Ukraine war is that from our experience the freedom and democratic rights proclaimed by the leading carnivores in the jungle have always ended in their prey on the vegetarian mammals on which carnivores feed. All appeals by the vegetarian mammals to the carnivores to stop killing and eating fellow animals have always been rebuffed as communism, socialism and autocracy by the carnivores. If the U.S. and her NATO military allies had agreed not to admit Ukraine as a member and not to place missiles in that country or if the leadership in Ukraine had signed an agreement with Russia never to become a member of NATO and never to allow NATO military alliance to place missiles in Ukraine, war would have been averted. If NATO military alliance does not consider Russia as an enemy why do they need to place nuclear missiles in a neighbouring country, directed at her?

S. Kadiri

From: 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: 25 February 2022 00:12
To: Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

"if i were to look for a parallel,

it would be germany marching

into czechoslovakia and poland,

with the rhetoric of saving

germans. the same fascist ruler who

used "power past power,"

as saro-wiwa saw it."

This is a better approach. Give your

examples. Don't speak for others.

Most of us on this list are

experienced researchers.

Let scholars collect a thousand

insights from various perspectives

on the subject.Those who feel it

know it, too. We would like

to hear from commentators

on South America and Southeast

Asia, too.

It is arrogant and presumptuous to

assume that any reference to another

historical incident of invasion has to

fit into your mode of thinking. It is

insensitive of you to dismiss the

pain of all regions, but your chosen

areas of focus. To conclude that

reference to this or that historical

incident is automatically intended

to relativize, is an unproven,

unfounded assumption.

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

From: Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2022 4:52 PM
To: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

Please be cautious: **External Email**

gloria, i shouldn't speak unless i welcome being criticized. a "paternalist" is a funny term to use for me, but if you know me well enough, you can use it. i think you need to talk to my grandkids first, however.

this issue of raising comparisons now interests me doubly. first, the invasion of ukraine by its powerful neighbor is an abomination. for me the parallels are more colonial and imperial. did other countries, or the u.s., not act this way in one or another point in history? of course. raising that point is a diversion from the question of ukraine, and it is being done today over and over on the web. i am sorry to see that. if i were to look for a parallel, it would be germany marching into czechoslovakia and poland, with the rhetoric of saving germans. the same fascist ruler who used "power past power," as saro-wiwa saw it.

let the ills of other countries be enumerated whenever you want, but not to "relativize" and thus diminish the critique of russia, which in the end diminishes the critique of colonial expansionism anywhere and anytime.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2022 4:31 PM
To: Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

There you go again, Ken, trying

to muzzle voices and suppress

historical information. Assensoh's

reference to Grenada was quite

in order, and I thank him for that.

I also reflected on the Hawaiian

Kingdom, having just come

across a few well documented

discussions on the subject.

In fact I am embarrassed to

realize how long this case was

unknown by me, and just

learnt a few new facts about

the human rights violation

of its last queen. You are

a real authentic non- partisan

specialist and advocate of

human rights, aren't you?

We can even add Libya, Iraq and

dozens more, to Grenada

and Hawaii- each relevant to

some aspect of super power

conflict and conflict resolution.

I am actually wrapping my head

around the interconnections

with Serbia, 1914, as well.

I teach World History in addition

to African History, so my

thinking is multidimensional

over time and space, and

comparative, in methodology.

As a historian I take pride in

creating awareness and

criticizing all sides, at my own

pace. Grenada was wrong and so

too Hawaii and Ukraine,

Iraq, Libya etc.They each have

unique circumstances, and

can be categorized according

to a long list of variables.

What's the purpose of airing them?

For the same reason that we study

history and politics, Ken - to

promote knowledge production

and knowledge sharing,

understanding and historical

awareness, in a local, regional

and global context.

I suppose that as a diehard

paternalist, you have the urge

to speak on behalf of your

mentees, juniors and subordinates.

I am not one of them, and

never will be.

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2022 12:09 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

Please be cautious: **External Email**

these are weak or false equivalencies. what's the purpose of airing them? there is no end to the bad things the u.s. did, but because i picked my nose yesterday doesn't mean i can't get mad at your doing still worse today.

what is the logic of this for a progressive? we need to feel free, as intellectuals, to criticize the bad things we see, to lend our voices to cry out against them. if my country's past, or even present, were bad, if it acted in the wrong, what does that have to do with us crying out? failing to do so legitimizes historical evils, over and over, anywhere

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2022 8:58 AM
To: Victor Okafor <vokafor@emich.edu>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>; Serges Alain Djoyou Kamga <sergesalaindk@gmail.com>; Damien Ejigiri <dejigiri@yahoo.com>; Onyumbe Lukongo <onyumbe_lukongo@subr.edu>; kesedo@yahoo.com <kesedo@yahoo.com>; afaugustine@yahoo.com <afaugustine@yahoo.com>; Ucheoma Nwagbara <unwagbara@yahoo.com>; Teaway Collins <teaway2001@yahoo.com>; doyinck@gmail.com <doyinck@gmail.com>; noahkankam@gmail.com <noahkankam@gmail.com>; Thomas Ford <tmfordme@yahoo.com>; Godwin Ohiwerei <drohiwerei@gmail.com>; rigodan@yahoo.com <rigodan@yahoo.com>; Afoaku, Osita <osafoaku@indiana.edu>; Nana AB <abenad43@gmail.com>; dsmith@dillard.edu <dsmith@dillard.edu>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

Grenada is a great reference.I

remember, too, what the US did

to the Kingdom of Hawaii, start

of the 20th century.

https://www.ksbe.edu/article/

the-truth-behind-the-illegal-overthrow-

of-the-hawaiian-kingdom/

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Victor Okafor <vokafor@emich.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2022 4:50 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>; Serges Alain Djoyou Kamga <sergesalaindk@gmail.com>; Damien Ejigiri <dejigiri@yahoo.com>; Onyumbe Lukongo <onyumbe_lukongo@subr.edu>; kesedo@yahoo.com <kesedo@yahoo.com>; afaugustine@yahoo.com <afaugustine@yahoo.com>; Ucheoma Nwagbara <unwagbara@yahoo.com>; Teaway Collins <teaway2001@yahoo.com>; doyinck@gmail.com <doyinck@gmail.com>; noahkankam@gmail.com <noahkankam@gmail.com>; Thomas Ford <tmfordme@yahoo.com>; Godwin Ohiwerei <drohiwerei@gmail.com>; rigodan@yahoo.com <rigodan@yahoo.com>; Afoaku, Osita <osafoaku@indiana.edu>; Nana AB <abenad43@gmail.com>; dsmith@dillard.edu <dsmith@dillard.edu>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

Please be cautious: **External Email**

Brother Assensoh:

What specifically ignited my response was TF's clarion call: "Develop your theories—don't let others impose their theories upon you."

On Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 2:59 PM Assensoh, Akwasi B. <aassenso@indiana.edu> wrote:

Brother Victor:

You are correct that when the Igbo abuse the Yoruba, and vice versa, it is all in the family. Therefore, the scenario falls under "Afrocentric articulation"!

SIR Toyin wrote that his coffee almost fell when "one person said the US intervention was for good." Well, my cup of tea fell when I opened a parcel yesterday, which contained another tome, Decolonizing African Studies: Knowledge Production, Agency, And Voice by Toyin Falola: published by Rochester University Press, at i-xii; 6678 pages! I remembered his recent Cambridge University tome on Nigeria, which had a cover showing a poor Nigerian (a "Hausa man"?) carrying the heavy map of Nigeria on his shoulder, all by himself!!

Well, what is happening to Ukraine, like a soccer ball being kicked from left and right, is sad! I remember what Mr. Ronald Reagan's armed forces did in 1983 to Grenada; and what happened to the lawful Prime Minister Maurice Bishop (1944-1983)? Is that a replay in Ukraine? When i think of it, my cup of tea will fall again, again, and again!!!

A.B. Assensoh.

------

Rev. A.B. Assensoh, LL.M., PH.D.,

Co-Book Review Editor, African & Asian Studies Journal,
Professor Emeritus (Indiana University),
Courtesy Professor Emeritus (University of Oregon),
Department of History,
McKenzie Hall (2nd Floor), University of Oregon,
Eugene, OR 97403, U.S.A.

Telephone: (541) 953-7710
Fax: (541) 346-6576

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Victor Okafor <vokafor@emich.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2022 7:02 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Serges Alain Djoyou Kamga <sergesalaindk@gmail.com>
Subject: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

This message was sent from a non-IU address. Please exercise caution when clicking links or opening attachments from external sources.

TF:

That's an Afrocentric articulation. Nice job!

On Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 8:18 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

The most disturbing to me in the Ukraine matter is not the US media and their scholars who are embedded in the empire project. They are all in one room, one brain, CNN, the professors, and the White House.

The most disturbing to me are African commentators on Ukraine.

So your continent was conquered, but they don't understand how imperialism works.

You are ethnically divided, but you only understand Biafra and don't see Biafra in other places. You clap for Biya when he destroys Western Cameroon, and praises the West when he undermines the projects of minorities.

You suffered from the Cold War but you don't understand it when it unfolds in other places. You don't see Ukraine as a proxy project.

You were pawns by superpowers but you don't understand it when you see it in others.

You complain about ethnicity but you don't apply it to other places.

You insult Lagos, but you don't see dirty Peckham in London and slums in North of Paris

When Israel acts, you see them as the "Chosen People" but when Ethiopia acts, they are devils.

You see secessionist movements in your continent but you cannot relate it to other places.

You understand the Fulani herdsmen, but you cannot convert it to a global theory.

The French occupied your continent, but today you can clap for Macron in Ukraine over Putin. You don't see that Putin and Macron are the same!

Illicit flow of wealth from Africa is now $85 billion a year, but you cannot relate it to your conditions and destructions.

US and Belgium destroyed Lumumba and Congo, but you cannot apply this to other issues.

They abused Muslims as the greatest terrorists in the world but you don't see Europeans as terrorists, etc.

One person told me yesterday that US intervention is for good. My cup of coffee almost fell. US does not allow regional solutions to crises, including in the current one. You cannot go to El-Paso on the Mexican border and locate your missiles there directed at the US. Nuclear submarine near China you see it as the protection of global capitalism.

They are asking you not to teach critical theory but every day in private, the Igbo abuse the Yoruba, the Yoruba abuse the Igbo, and they all abuse the Fulani. You see racism in the US, but you don't see it in Morocco.

Develop your theories—don't let others impose their theories upon you.

TF

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Sincerely,

Victor O. Okafor, Ph.D.
Professor and Head

Department of Africology and African American Studies

Eastern Michigan University

Email: vokafor@emich.edu

https://www.emich.edu/aaas/

https://www.facebook.com/DAAASEMU/

Tel: 734.487.9594

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Sincerely,

Victor O. Okafor, Ph.D.

Professor and Head

Department of Africology and African American Studies

Eastern Michigan University

Email: vokafor@emich.edu

https://www.emich.edu/aaas/

https://www.facebook.com/DAAASEMU/

Tel: 734.487.9594

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Monday, March 7, 2022

Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African scholars!

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