Don Agozino :
As the Scandinavians say, “A thousand thanks !”
A dystopian Sankofa Futurism indeed,
and I'm getting down to really enjoy it
Ditto the beginning of The Last Poets’ “Bird’s Word” 👍
“Everything was silent” (In the beginning)
If only I had the energy
and enough of the wherewithal
I’d like to write a parody
of one Farooq Kperogi
on the uses
misuses
& abuses
of Big English
The very next time one of Strindberg’s disciples
starts singing the glories of the Swedish Language,
quoting you, Black, Proud and Loud
I'll put it to him or her, straight :
“In the beginning there was no word until Africans invented language !”
Indeed, “if it was up to some, words would be owned only by the rich and the rest of us will need copyright permissions to use the alphabets that have already been patented.”
In the same vein,
“If religion were a thing that money could buy
The rich would live and the poor would die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over” ( Peter, Paul and Mary)
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BoqiKbtjM/?mibextid=wwXIfr
In the beginning there was no word until Africans invented language and shared it with the rest of the world. But if it was up to some, words would be owned only by the rich and the rest of us will need copyright permissions to use the alphabets that have already been patented. Years to come children will be laughing at us and wondering how we were made to buy words, save words, invest words, and struggle over words. It is a dystopian Sankofa Futurism. Enjoy.
A new novel published is not always the first written. There is more where that came from.
Biko
On Tuesday, 22 September 2026 at 21:17:27 GMT-4, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:
Don Agozino:
Great Big & Mighty Congratulations !
It’s entirely wonderful news
“My new fiction” implied two things to Yours Truly:
It’s not some lousy old fiction ( like some uniquely 21st century born-again Africans writing as if Ralph Elllison had never existed) on the contrary, it’s an entirely new direction
You have an earlier publication - an earlier novel - perhaps less revolutionary and therefore merely (old fiction) - in tune with “ What good can come out of Galilee?”
At first my eyes deceived me, because, perhaps out of anticipation, the title that I read was
“THE WORLD BANK” which - spontaneous combustion - got me to react OMG - well, I’ll be darned - - daggers drawn, what to expect but some dire revolutionary brimstone & fire polemic in the name of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Biafra, Walter Rodeny, REPARATIONS, and all the passionate advocates for reparations ( “reparative justice” ) Biko has certainly taken aloof us by surprise, is now going all the way, has now taken off his gloves and with cudgel in hand is going directly for the jugular : THE WORLD BANK (for the reparations & reparative justice cheques)
The sample read is certainly encouraging even if somewhat didactic ( I have never read anything quite like that before) and let this truth be said : The first novel from a professor of sociology and criminology, should always be something to look forward to -
if it’s your very first novel , can we safely assume that there are certain elements of a fictional autobiography in the telling of your story?
BTW - Back then , I hanged my pan after reading Wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood…
On Monday, 21 September 2026 at 13:28:42 UTC+2 Biko Agozino wrote:
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