kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 7:21 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poetic Thought
Dear Ken
Shalom, and many thanks.
I now know where to begin, it will be with your man Tunde Kelani, who you have been praise-singing so much, so, although it sounds a little serious and very depressing (like some Greek tragedy) I'll finally begin with Thunderbolt: Magun. The outline as you present it promises to be a therapeutic way for that particular culture to come to grips with that HIV Pandemic and for dealing with e.g the tragic death of Fela Kuti, said to have been carried away that way...
I'm sure that like Susan Sontag ( AIDS and Its Metaphors)our more scientifically minded Baba Kadiri won't take kindly to the idea of regarding the HIV-Aids pandemic that was raging through Africa as punishment from either African or foreign gods and goddesses. Closer to the foundations of Western Civilisation (the much-vaunted " Judeo-Christian" aspects) we can not say that such ideas were completely foreign to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef with his special ideas about Divine Punishment and retributive justice.
Nollywood, obviously, there's the good, the bad and the chaff
cornelius, one of the earliest nigerian film i remember seeing is thunderbolt: magun. (kelani's film)the whole film turns on magun presumably as a metaphor for aids. if you went into the film a bit, it became clear that the word magun was used for a disease that seemed like aids, and the film came out during the aids epidemic. kelani gives it his own representation.
anyway, with wikipedia, digging up info on magun became easy enough, and no doubt lots of people wrote about the film...and the disease for which it was named.the film came out in 2001, and was distributed here by california newsreel...ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2022 2:46 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poetic ThoughtMany thanks, Chidi!
These days I have been travelling by Stockholm's inner city taxi services quite a lot and one of the advantages of this kind of locomotion is that I'm getting some kind of panoramic education, slowly, a new worldview orientation from the various taxi drivers that drive us around, to the cinema, to the theatre, to family members and friends, and other official visitations such as to renew our passports and ID cards now valid for another five years. Stockholm taxis and the whole bus, train and underground subway system is manned by your worthy immigrants, and everything would grind to a standstill if such noble, stalwart workers were to decide to go on strike, en masse (ditto in London): the authorities would have to wheedle and deal, get down on their knees to beg and pray for mercy. So, in the past six weeks of taxiing it's been opinions and orientations about local and internationaö matters from a total of two taxi drivers from Sweden, the rest from Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, Ethiopia, Senegal, Iran, Serbia, Kazakhstan, and lastly Ghana ( the Ghanaian - we speak the same language, I congratulated him on Ghana going to the World Cup - he told me, "Yes, we beat Nigeria, we beat their ass!". I corrected him that in Accra it was a draw 0 - 0 and for the return match in Abuja it was 1- 1. In reply to that, he told me that these days many Nigerian miscreants are travelling on Ghanaian passports because Ghaianans are not tainted by that kalabule 419 reputation…
I say many thanks to Chidi - and it's still about furthering my education and getting new perspectives and orientations, that's why I'm thanking Chidi more and Ojogbon TF & some of the other alagbas less, in this thread, Chidi of the famous Owerri Motor Park, Chidi the people's poet, Chidi the always down-to-earth, Chidi who tells the truth and shames the devil, unlike the Great overblown Professororate of biggest grammar whose academic titles no one is ever going to glean or be able to wade or wobble through. or have the patience to slobber through, not even with the latest Nigerian- English Dictionary….
And, that's one of the ways in which this forum as a classroom also serves to educate even the most indocile of ignoramuses such as yours truly, so with all the yahoo being made about " Magun", I finally got around to investigating what in the name of tarnation it could be that's getting even Okey Iheduru so worked up. I had of course taken it as for granted that in this rather cryptic poem, "magun" was one of Chidi's poetic witticism for " My gun" or Magnum, the Noble Biafran phallus usually used to stir the pot - as in this reggae riddim " stir it up", but as the thread got a little longer I took recourse to Pa Google and got this much by way of explanation: Magun ( Yoruba) - and there could be some truth in the whole matter when I reconsider what my wife divulged my mother had instructed her about related matters….
And how on earth does one even begin to appreciate Nollywood without an understanding of such fundamental background information?
--On Monday, 25 April 2022 at 17:49:32 UTC+2 sam...@yahoo.com wrote:
Not only have I read all the treads, I have witnessed incidents that can be termed results of magun. If a senior citizen, and I'm a proud one, refuses to be discerning by throwing caution to the winds and flagrantly try to dispel a people's belief and moral checkmate, he deserves what he gets if he engages in experimental novelty. I'm still staying send us your findings from wherever you end up.
Samawo
Sent from my Galaxy
-------- Original message --------From: Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>Date: 4/25/22 1:06 AM (GMT+01:00)To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poetic Thought
I'm afraid, I don't know who you are, "samawo." I hope you're not trying to sucker a senior citizen to start gloating over some youthful indiscretions. That wouldn't be nice, you know. Just believe me; there's nothing like magun as you've been socialized to believe. Read Bro. Femi Kolapo's post again, Sir/Madam.Peace be with you.✌
On Sun, Apr 24, 2022 at 2:36 AM 'samawo' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--Okey:Go and try; send us your findings from wherever you end up: heaven or hell
Sent from my Galaxy
-------- Original message --------From: Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>Date: 4/23/22 9:40 PM (GMT+01:00)To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poetic Thought
Superstitious lot, you all.Magun is fiction.Socially constructed power or potency.That's all there is to it.
On Sat, Apr 23, 2022 at 9:48 AM Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
--To consolidate your argument add Chidi's use of magun, and it becomes more complicated. He combines two dangerous forces—kingship and juju—converted to the instrumentality of control and violence to cage the innocents. The king uses masculinity, reinforced by juju, to kill those who want to gain access to willing vaginas, and send the women on the path of shame and suicide.
TF
From: 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 11:36 AM
To: Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>, usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poetic ThoughtI have mixed feelings about this poem.
Women are not hyperactive nymphomaniacs, as the poem implies,
and polygamy is not just about sex. It is about lineage expansion,
power, class consolidation , identity, hierarchy, economy, cultural proliferation,
historical continuity, and a lot more.
Thank you, though, for your concern for the fate of women before and after their
loved ones and partners pass away.
GE
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: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2022 7:58 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poetic Thought
EXTERNAL EMAIL: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.
Great
On Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 12:53 Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Yes…
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 6:50 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poetic ThoughtWill they be allowed to remarry?
On Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 11:46 Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:
The king has journeyed
To join his ancestors.
They are liberated,
Those horny queens.
Those beautiful young ladies
Whose libidoes
Were put under lock
By the mighty magun.
They are liberated,
Those horny queens are liberated.
(C) Chidi Anthony Opara
#2022Poeticthought
--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, IIM Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Founder/Publisher of, www.publicinformationprojects.org)--
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