Ìkà, By Toyin Falola
Olusegun Olopade
Ìkà, By Toyin Falola
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Biko Agozino
cornelius...@gmail.com
Dear Alagba Biko Agozino,
Re - “There is a level of cruelty that wicked people show that one would never disagree if their mental status at that moment of their anger is categorized as some form of psychological sickness." ( Professor Toyin Falola)
Supposedly the kind of evil that even YAHWEH the bloodthirsty God of The Old Testament would not forgive, speak less of Him ordering or condoning e.g. the annihilation of Amalek or the Nazis. And that’s precisely the trouble with Netanyahu (one of his many troubles) - playing the part of the God of Old Testament wrath, he doesn’t want to merely defeat HAMAS, in his unholy wrath he wants to annihilate Hamas; Genocide writ large. Genocide by intention. In New Testament parlance, as Jesus said to Peter, “Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword. Don't you realise that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?”
But believing that might is right, Netanyahu literally prays to Sleepy Joe Biden for money, arms, ammunition, protection and for diplomatic cover at the United Nations. Well, it’s already written on the dollar:” In God we trust.“
Bitachon = Trust in God, not in the Golden Calf.
Of course, Ojogbon’s disputation is more in line with Yoruba ethics cum a universal humanistic, spiritual psychology and perhaps less so with the latest state-of-the-art modern psychiatry, post-Thomas Szasz: The Myth of Mental Illness - lock, stock and barrel, of course, the later myth would not apply to the unadulterated evil of one Mister Adolf Hitler, the Prince of Darkness Incarnate - a mortal incarnation of the idol Lucifer.
My first reaction to Ojogbon’s stellar essay on wickedness takes me unmistakably to Jacob’s various blessings to his children shortly before his departure to the Hereafter, as recounted in Torah: Genesis Chapter 49 with particular reference to
5. “Simeon and Levi are brothers; stolen instruments are their weapons.
6. Let my soul not enter their counsel; my honour, you shall not join their assembly, for in their wrath they killed a man, and with their will, they hamstrung a bull.
7. Cursed be their wrath for it is mighty, and their anger because it is harsh. I will separate them throughout Jacob, and I will scatter them throughout Israel…”
27.” Benjamin is a wolf, he will prey; in the morning he will devour plunder, and in the evening he will divide the spoil." ( takes us to The REAL Reason Israel Wants Palestine's Land)
Secondly, took me unmistakably to the four types of sons described each year on the occasion of the Passover Seder
“There are four types among men:
He who says, "What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours" – this is the common type, though some say that this is the type of Sodom.
He who says, "What is mine is yours and what is yours is mine" – he is an ignorant man.
He who says, "What is mine is yours and what is yours is thine own" – he is a saintly man.
And he who says, "What is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine" – he is a wicked man. (Pirkei Avot 5:13)
There are four temperaments among men:
Easy to provoke and easy to appease – his loss is cancelled by his gain.
Hard to provoke and hard to appease – his gain is cancelled by his loss.
Hard to provoke and easy to appease – he is a saintly man.
Easy to provoke and hard to appease – he is a wicked man. (Pirkei Avot 5:14)
There are four types of charity-givers:
He who wants to give but does not wish that others should give – he begrudges what belongs to others.
He who wants that others should give but not that he should give – he begrudges what belongs to himself.
He who wants to give and also that others should give – he is a saintly man.
He who does not want to give and does not wish others to give – he is a wicked man. (Pirkei Avot 5:16)
https://www.haggadot.com/clip/bob-haggadah-four-children
And so we’re back to The Banality of Evil
Methinks that the excerpt that you’ve quoted of Ojogbon’s diagnosis could be applied wholesale to some of the psychopaths of contemporary Middle Eastern Warfare, man’s inhumanity to his fellow human beings, more specifically those aspects of Israeli military doctrine, especially in this case in which Israel is incontrovertibly the Goliath of the piece, the militarily speaking much stronger IDF with their tanks, their airforce, their weapons of mass destruction, their demolition bombs, their massive, merciless bombardment of what would have normally been safe havens such as Gaza’s mosques, Gaza’s schools, Gaza’s churches, Gaza’s peoples’ private homes, residences, playgrounds, non-military civilian infrastructure, Gaza’s hospitals, Israeli bombardment of Gaza’s refugee camps ( the only equivalent that I can think of - and in that respect the Nazis were better than Netanyahu and his crew because at least the Nazis did not bomb the concentration camps/ extermination camps with the lame excuse that Jews were supposed to be found hiding there - and indeed, if the Nazis had bombed the concentration camps then history wouldn’t have recorded that Russian forces liberated Auschwitz on On 27 January 1945 - and futuristically speaking, there could come a retaliatory day vengence -payback time when Israeli synagogues, temples, yeshivas hospitals, schools, playgrounds, civilian infrastructure, airports, even Dimona and several underground silos and bunkers could be mercilessly bombed - there are many enemy nations that have both the capacity and the capability to do so. That said, still futuristically or prophetically thinking, who/ which forces are going to liberate Palestine, and when?
Fascism is another form of idolatry - when people start worshipping their flag or praying to Sleepy Joe Biden for military sustenance ( they should bless Barack Obama for financing their Iron Dome - although Iron Dome cannot forever and always protect their postage stamp from the avalanche of wicked missiles, rockets, bombs, and the tsunami of nuclear-tipped antisemitic missiles that are going to be fired from cruiser submarines ...
Indeed, “ There is a level of cruelty that wicked people show that one would never disagree if their mental status at that moment of their anger is categorized as some form of psychological sickness."
In other words, just like Mister Benjamin Netanyahu the fallible, inscrutable, fallen leader of “God’s Children” / “God’s Chosen Earthlings”, the nation Israel is made up of Israelis who are also mere sinful mortals and not divine beings…
Beauty; El Perla
Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2023 9:57 AM
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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ìkà, By Toyin Falola
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cornelius...@gmail.com
Gloria in Excelsis Etc,
Are you aware of this?
It’s not evil, “It's coming through a hole in the air” (just joking)
Please give the Ojogbon a break! Although there are so many truths therein, his Sabbath homily to alert you to awareness of evil people - “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain” - was never intended to be a philosophical treatise for the not-yet defunct MIND magazine, but with relativism in mind, could deserve a place in the comparative philosophy of evil, cross-cultural ethics and hermeneutics, all culture-based, of course, where one man’s meat is another man’s poison, where one man’s freedom-fighter is another man’s terrorist and ”human animal”, where Christendom’s Messiah is Jewry’s false prophet and where one man’s beloved last Prophet of al-Islam, Sallallahu alaihi wa salaam, is the Islamohobe’s imagined enemy
Ojogbon’s treatise on evil people is from the same place and deserves a place in it or beside it, the place where Etches on Fresh Waters, that beautiful and beautifully illustrated, masterly compendium of Yourba lore, my treasured cornucopia of Yoruba customs, culture, ethics, wisdom and folk poetry comes from. On that trajectory, The X is Black - is also that place - and if it was not Yoruba, Amiri Baraka would have said, “It is that place where we live, the Afro American nation”
It’s usually culture-dependent of course, and Ojogbon makes no bones about that. The very title of the subject matter “Ìkà” and the Yoruba symbols and essential vocabulary that sustain it are the strong indications that it is at once culture-specific and how ( in what spirit) it is to be read - and - ( to me) the yardstick is at the same time universal, for, n.b. pure, unadulterated evil, is just that: pure unadulterated evil, for example, what’s historically referred to as man’s inhumanity to man, war, crimes, the Nuremberg Laws, Nazi Germany, the Holocaust. Even the revisionists, shuffering according to one of Biko Agozino’s favourite English words “denialism” don’t refute the evil of it, thereof.
Is Joe Biden aware of all this?
I read Ojogbon’s discourse as a tribute to where poetry and philosophy converge; like Shakespeare ( and Soyinka) he’s a keen observer of the subtleties of human nature ( I’m thinking of Shakespeare's Malvolio) in this human world of mind over matter, one has the impressions that Ojogbon is writing from a wealth of personal experience and personal observation sensitising the readers ( hopefully, all good guys) and if not all good guys then there must be a lot of self-recognition through Ojogbon’s unique blend in which he employs his own coinage, the language of morals :
“obnoxious, outrageous, and even sadistic…diabolical…narcissistic…evil…anger and hatred…killer…wicked…ill-intentioned… cruel…harmful…cold heart...the actualization of their terror on others…envy of others…blackmailing others… spiteful…enemies…” etc etc etc
Playing for Gloria with another type of grammar: https://www.flamencoguitarsforsale.net/en/jesus-guerrero/
Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
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
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2023 5:40 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Biko Agozino
cornelius...@gmail.com
Psalm 28 : 3 probably inspired The O’Jays’ Back Stabbers
Nowadays, everybody is raving, “King David ! “ singing his Tehillim
Today, there’s a famous hotel, and so many people are named after him
The Eternal Quran is very emphatic about this: David did not sin
Ditto the wisest Solomon who had so many wives, he too, did not sin
In the good old days when men were real men, there was a youth-man named David.
How many foreskins did David get?
Yes, “Had we but world enough and time” etc, but, could Alagba Biko Agozino have been man enough and brave enough, could or would he have had the presence of mind, the weapons, and the test-i-cular fortitude to accomplish such a feat: 100 foreskins of the enemy tribe as dowry ( down payment) to win the hand of Michal, his dearly intended?
Sometimes, the Ìkà desires to be like role model David…and he ( sour grapes) would, if he could
Lord Biko, I know that you would like to either criminalise or decriminalise some of the holy laws of this and that religion, but about David, let’s face the facts, this is exactly what Ojogbon was moaning about: “The Ìkà desires to be like you, and the more impossible this becomes, the more his anger and hatred.”
“Niggaz try to act like Malcolm
And when the white man doesn't react toward them like he did Malcolm
Niggaz want to act violently” (The Last Poets)
Torgny Lindgren’s Bathsheba is a down-to-earth portrayal of David, without all the religious fluff and the holy auras that decorate the legendary David in Israel’s national epic, Tanakh
Last word: I Roy: Straight to the heart
Cornelius Hamelberg
I understand that deep down, your employing terms such as “genocidal bloodshed” concerning the era of the legendary King David must be coming from the subterranean cellars of your subconscious which is currently being subliminally bombarded with all the bad news from Gaza and that’s why right now, “genocidal bloodshed” is at the tip of your lips.
I accidentally ran into one of the Jewish elders at a supermarket this evening, a really special guy, from one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, and the first thing that he told me was that “The Arabs want to wipe us out” I told him that I was sorry about what’s happening in Gaza and that a ceasefire was long overdue; he replied that fat lot of good my feeling sorry was going to do and referred to Khyber, asking me if I knew, after the ten years truce, how many men were slaughtered and how many women were raped and added,”that’s Islam for you, that’s what they do”
I told him that rape was very unIslamic…
N.B. Quran: David was not a sinner
We have to be very careful about lashon hara when pronouncing our judgments on great personages, bearing in mind that according to the New Testament, Jesus comes from the Davidic line, i.e. David is one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ
So, as Mulla Nasrudin asked his neighbour who he didn’t like,” Who are you going to believe, me or the donkey?”
You could be interested in this piece of iconoclasm :
Why Mary? What Made the Mother of Jesus so Special? The Proto-Gospel of James
https://www.pennpress.org/9780812249507/jesus-mary-and-joseph/
Holier than thou brags that crazy people want to be like him by abstaining from sleep and by turning ogogoro into water instead of turning water into wine. No be craze be that? Remember that among the so-called enemies of sheep herder Dave, were his Oga Saul and his beloved son Absolutem whose foreskins could not quench his homoerotic desires for genocidal bloodshed. Brother Malcolm explained the flaws of holy men by saying that they are admired for the things they got right despite all the blemish on their faces. All have sinned and come short, but all can put an ashy sack cloth and ask for forgiveness rather than attack the straw man for holding up a mirror to their wicked faces.Biko
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/490c468e-4ab6-40ad-ad4f-ccd41dad381fn%40googlegroups.com.
cornelius...@gmail.com
Gloria in Excelsis Emeagwali,
Because of Gaza, even if he’s still around, Biden is not going to be re-elected even if he’s bankrolled by big business, the Military Industrial Complex etc, and supported by Israel, AIPAC, the Israeli Lobby and their prayers. Since he knows this, why doesn’t he just quit, and give the chance to a younger, more capable and less tainted person as advocated here ?
According to that Chinese curse, both Republicans and Democrats (crazy demo) are sure living in interesting times over there in the US of A and with Sleepy Joe Biden doing so badly at the polls, I’m sure that at this very moment, the old rogue is singing Gloria in Excelsis Deo and Oh Happy Day at the unexpected windfall, actually a bombshell from the Colorado Supreme Court that dear Trump is “not eligible to run”, perhaps a precursor to the 2nd Civil War?
Re - “ the Nuremberg reference may be taking it too far.”
Indeed, Nuremberg Laws culminated in the Holocaust and that was taking it far too far.
I usually explain the Holocaust to the people of colour who may be antisemitic, as follows: Imagine if tomorrow the Neonazis ( the Ìkà people) drew up a plan to exterminate all the Black People in the world - as their The Final Solution …
The way I see it: According to St. Paul, for the unbelievers “Satan is the god of this world” which means that the evil which is present at an individual level has been known to grow in force and intensity, sometimes disguised as mass movements with ideologies under innocuous or not so innocuous names such as Apartheid, Aryanism, Barbarism, Colonialism, “Exceptionalism”, Fascism, the Supremacist ideology/theology of “God’s Chosen People” currently being expressed as “Zionism” with all its institutionalised militaristic and colonialistic features, as if the omnipotent God is not capable of protecting His own Temple or protecting six million of His Chosen people from the ravages of Nazism and the Holocaust, or in the Messianic age, returning the His God-fearing chosen people or His secular people to the land that “He” allegedly promised them, without more bloodshed and dispossession of the unchosen people who He also made “ In His own image and likeness”...
As the bard croons in that raspy voice of his “ Sometimes Satan comes as a “Man of Peace” - a good recipe for war, when you start doubting the man of peace as the one who might - without warning - morph into “the man of lawlessness” - a criminal without any regard for God’s Law or the International Law that has been agreed upon by the comity of nations and
the United Nations which approved the partition of Palestine
the United Nations which approved the creation of the State of Israel
and also approved the admission of Israel as a member of the United Nations in 1949
and now Israel doesn’t give a damn about abiding by UN Security Council Resolutions 242, and 338…
We (the bigger we) have to be careful, that we are not deceived by appearances, resulting in some people winding up pledging and giving unconditional support to Benjamin Netanyahu & his crew that includes Bezalel Smotrich who happens to be a settler) and Itamar Ben-Gvir a 21st century / 5784 zealot acting in the spirit of Meir Kahane’s “Our Challenge”;
We have to be careful, that we are not deceived by appearances, resulting in some people winding up worshipping the AntiChrist who according to Christian eschatology will be identified as one of “God’s Chosen People” - hence the gullible will be easily deceived
This could be a good example of taking it too far, this quote by Krishnamurti ( who rejected the role of being groomed to be the Messiah)
The full quote: “When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”
The probable inspiration for John Lennon’s Imagine
Harrow, Kenneth
Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
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
cornelius...@gmail.com
Gloria in Excelsis, Kenneth, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju et al,
https://www.facebook.com/reel/7379609462052122
The reality: Al Jazeera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyAp0R_gh24
Ramadan begins on 9th of March,2024…imagine…
It was so disheartening to witness Lloyd Austin, USA’s chief military gorilla, his face full of smiles giving the high five to his Israeli counterpart, a high five, grinning from ear to ear, several handshakes and several pats on the back to Israel’s own chief gorilla, Austin’s body language saying clearly, “we're with ya“ - the “we” of course excluding fuqara like me, the “we” meaning him (seasoned house negro) and Biden, together as the one known the world over as Uncle Sam. Lloyd Austin doesn’t want to be charged with antisemitism, clearly too (and this is an honest opinion) house negro doesn’t want to meet the same fate as Claudine Gay
As the Holy quran puts it ( Surat Al-Baqarah : 14 - 20
“And when they fall in with those who believe, they say: “We believe”; but when they go apart to their devils they declare: “Lo! we are with you; verily we did but mock.”
This holiday season, yours truly wishes Peace on earth and Goodwill to all men, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance.
If only it were and could be so, but the fact is that no one can chant O, little town in Bethlehem without shedding a tear or two. This is so because the lyrics only ring true of the past; today, how ironic that first stanza sounds:
“O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight”
Tonight and tomorrow night and the nights after that, the conditions in Bethlehem which is situated on the West Bank , the conditions there are far from angelic. There are no three wise men such as Ojogbon Falola, Claude Kayat and Mikael W. Gejel on the horizon, far from all the peace and quiet - far from baby Jesus’s little manger in the cowshed, as Adepoju would put it, far from that idyllic picture ”in time and space”, there is all that disquiet - the climate of fear - that Wole Soyinka was once lecturing about, Palestinians in the West Bank are being cowed into submission to the dragon settlers and their enablers, when submission should be to Allah only. There is some quiet but not so much peace or tranquillity in the West Bank or in Bethlehem, speak less of peace and love, goodwill and tranquillity in Gaza, the eye of the devil's storm, the devil’s agenda
“ And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy on the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said: "Surely I know that which ye know not.”
Gloria says, ” so there is no
need to “imagine” such an atrocity” (The Black Holocaust )
Kenneth Harrow - country specialist in Rwanda and Burundi for Amnesty International, says, “ i heard exactly the same fears of jews being targeted for genocide by the arabs ” and adds, “ I remember the same fears and rhetoric from tutsis and hutus from rwanda and burundi, back in 1994.” (God forbid, Holocaust No2 for the Jews, not in Poland & Germany & the rest of the EU this time, but in their ancient homeland, including ( ah nostalgia) Judea & Samaria
Stoking the fire, one no less than the late Ovadia Yosef, former Chief Rabbi of Israel sounding off here and wanting to be taken seriously and not being helpful about goyim (non-Jews)
“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel.”
“In Israel, death has no dominion over them… With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money.
“This is his servant… That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew.”
“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat… That is why gentiles were created.”
He could have wrapped all the above in the beautiful wording of chapter four of the venerable Chaim Moshe Luzzatto’s magnum opus Derekh Hashem // The Way of God , the chapter entitled On Israel and the nations
In passing, I’d just like to observe how unsatisfactory this Krishnamurti quote is, bearing in mind what Kenenth here: “I am jewish, as you know,”- just about not the right time to introduce himself to his next-door neighbour in Southern Lebanon (he would be taken into custody, as a hostage, peremptory - as a bargaining chip -in exchange for at least 1, 000 Palestinian prisoners being unlawfully imprisoned )
Krishnamurti: “When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”
So, if we could imagine with Johnny Lennon, that there was no heaven, no hell, no countries ( no Uncle Sam, no Israel) no religion ( no rabbis, no popes, no accusations and counter accusations) no possessions, no greed, no hunger, then how would we define ourselves?
The fact is, Krishnamurti doesn’t go far enough.
“ The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate beliefs. Of these, the idea that you are the body is the worst. With the body comes the world, with the world - God, who is supposed to have created the world and thus it starts - fears, religions, prayers, sacrifices, all sorts of systems - all to protect and support the child-man, frightened out of his wits by monsters of his own making. Realize that what you are cannot be born nor die and with the fear gone, all suffering ends.
So, first of all, abandon all self-identification, and stop thinking of yourself as such-and-such or so-and-so, this or that. Abandon all self-concern, worry not about your welfare, material or spiritual, abandon every desire, gross or subtle, and stop thinking of achievement of any kind. You are complete here and now, you need absolutely nothing.” ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
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
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ìkà, By Toyin Falola
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.
Gloria in Excelsis, Kenneth, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju et al,
https://www.facebook.com/reel/7379609462052122
The reality: Al Jazeera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyAp0R_gh24
Ramadan begins on 9th of March,2024…imagine…
Ihandshakes and several pats on the back to Israel’s own chief gorilla, Austin’s body language saying clearly, “we're with ya“ - the “we” of course excluding fuqara like me, the “we” meaning him (seasoned house negro) and Biden, together as the one known the world over as Uncle Sam. Lloyd Austin doesn’t want to be charged with antisemitism, clearly too (and this is an honest opinion) house negro doesn’t want to meet the same fate as Claudine Gay
“And when they fall in with those who believe, they say: “We believe”; but when they go apart to their devils they declare: “Lo! we are with you; verily we did he but mock.”
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2023 5:24 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
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Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Professional Fellow of Institute Of Information Management Africa, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador, Registered Freight Forwarder and Editorial Adviser at News Updates.
More about him here: https://independent.academia.edu/ChidiAnthonyOpara
Toyin Falola
Sent: Monday, December 25, 2023 5:03:23 AM
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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
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
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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Mensah, Edward K
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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA
In response to your description of the October 7th event as unprovoked, I beg to tell a short story. During the apartheid years in South Africa a Zulu grandfather was asked to lead the naming ceremony of his first grandson. The grandfather took one look at the hands of the week old grandson and said, "May these hands grow strong enough to pick up a stone and throw it at a white man"Would Chidi call that attack, when it happens, an unprovoked attack?I guess one would do anything for freedom. That's why the moto of New Hampshire is "give me liberty or give me death"; and why slaves on a ship from West Africa would jump into the sea at any opportunity they get.
What happened on October 7th resulting in the deaths of Israeli civilians must be condemned by all. But within the larger cindition under which Palestinians have been living the event can also be described by reasonable people as not really unprovoked.
I certainly hope and pray that the two groups find a way to live in peace.
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2023 10:03 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ìkà, By Toyin Falola
Gloria,
In the aftermath of the Hamas unprovoked attack on Israel on 7th October, 2023 that saw many Israelis killed, some maimed, while others were taken as hostages, the "supreme leader" of the Islamic Republic of Iran said, "we kiss the foreheads of Hamas fighters". We all know what this means in Islamic societies.
There is also need to highlight and record that Iran "supreme leader" endorsement of terrorism.
Surprising, that vile endorsement have not been highlighted and maybe recorded.
-CAO.
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cornelius...@gmail.com
Dear Chidi :
The reality: Al Jazeera
George Galloway: So this is Christmas
Pope Francis demands an immediate ceasefire in Gaza…
In the person of Bob Dylan ( like Dylan Thomas?) our Robert Allen Zimmerman had already explained himself in advance, quoting Samuel Johnson :
"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
How true of Benjamin Netanyahu :
“Steal a little and they throw you in jail: Steal a lot and they make you king”
The bard in his usually allusive poetry was more or less quoting James ( the brother of Jesus) - and just like Claudine Gay, bard Dylan was also accused of plagiarism - hopefully, not sufficient cause to request that post haste he please return to The Swedish Academy the Nobel Prize that he was awarded.
“While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the Rat Race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers”
(From his “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding”)
Right now, over 20, 000 Palestinians slaughtered by Israel, in Gaza, two-thirds of them children and women plus the uncountable still bleeding under the rubble, after a few days, the blood from their unburied bodies dried up or drying up in the dust, as in dust to dust, ashes to ashes...
Let’s take two rights don't make a wrong as a starting point. I know that indeed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” - so, Chidi the poet of human rights abuses, here too you can’t afford to be “neutral”; so Chidi the human being, where is your conscience, where is your heart and where is your sympathy? Where?
An abstruse, hypothetical example coming up: BokoHaram or some Fulani herdsmen of yesteryears intently slaughter 1, 200 brethren at the Onitsha marketplace in Anambra or the Aba Marketplace in your beloved neck of the woods in Abia State, you think that General Buratai or Nnamdi Kanu should wipeout 30,000 of the inhabitants of Borno or Katsina, and put to flight 2 million fellow citizens ( human beings) or IDF style something like their unspeakable massacres in Gaza?
Yes, I know that you probably think that’s not a good example.
With Gaza on the brink of starvation, I’m surprised at this kind of thing coming from Chidi, here acting as heavy-handed Netanyahu’s apologist and boy-boy, Chidi, who we are to view as someone familiar with the enclave that was once known as Biafra which was also once on the brink of starvation, just as we should be surprised about the same kind of excrement coming from some kind of Jewish fella who is still chirping “Never again” whilst fully busy doing it to Gaza, as if completely forgetful of what happened at Masada
What happened before may happen again: World War One, followed by World War Two, Three, Four, even as you keep on chirping “God forbid” and “Never again”: more pogroms, ironically like the ongoing one being perpetrated by Israel's so-called “ Defence Forces” on the poor besieged, defenceless people of Gaza. As cyclical history progresses in this world of cause and effect, in the name of retributive justice it shouldn’t be too far-fetched to expect some more of the aforementioned from the nations’ 21st-century Hitlers & the devil on the horizon. It’s no laughing matter, the devil of devious, serious & insidious intent, sleeves rolled up, javelins, rocks, rockets, missiles and bombs on the ready for The Final Solution to the problem once posed by Abram Leon as The Jewish Question, generally referred to as “The Jewish Question” which existed and was already raising its ugly head long before the birth of Hamas in 1987
“The Jewish Problem”: when the most motivated try and don't succeed with Holocaust one, then the devil hopes that they will be lucky with the completion of his mission with Holocaust number two, three and four.
Maybe
because of all that poetry bubbling within
Chidi’s monkey
is merely
playing the part of the agent provocateur
Maybe
because of all that poetry bubbling within
again
even before he gets to his assured place in heaven
he (Chidi, not the monkey)
probably wants to be appointed leader / supreme commander of Israel’s counter-revolutionary forces
Re - Chidi’s words “Hamas unprovoked attack on Israel on 7th October, 2023 “
- by “unprovoked” he probably means like the opening of Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan” where the word “sudden” is most appropriately defined by the Devil's Dictionary meaning of the word “abrupt”
Dude, it would appear that you have been spending too much time with MEMRI
Unprovoked?
Do you mean like the opening lines of the Birmingham Brothers composition
Ku Klux Klan ( minding your own business) and all of Handsworth Revolution
Dude, as you know, there’s no smoke or even shmoke without fire
Dude, you’ve gotta give the venerable Supreme Leader of Iran a break.
Please.
After more than seven decades of oppression, it’s way past the time of uprising. I suppose that if you were a Palestinian who had been forcibly ejected from the place of your birth - forcibly ejected by the colonialists ( settler colonialism) like a true Igbo house negro you would have humbly turned the other cheek?
You've gotta start listening to “Forces of Victory”
and some other revolutionary vibes such as
Mi Revalueshanary Fren and Time Come - Selected Prose
To be continued in which I promise to go a little deeper
Below and beyond the surface layers over yonder
Deeper than Hamas’ subterranean tunnels,
A w-hole New York subway system
Deeper than The London underground but not
“going down so deep
The river's going to weep
And the mountain's going to shout, "Amen"
I’ll be touching a little on Adam Weishaupt and the fact that in tandem with John Lennon’s I Have a Dream: “Imagine” - perhaps the reason why he was assassinated,
“virtually every single proponent of a completely new world order repeats Weispaut’s concepts, virtually word for word . Here are his revolutionary goals:
Abolition of monarchies and all ordered governments
Abolition of private property and inheritances
Abolition of patriotism and nationalism
Abolition of family life and the institution of marriage, and the establishment of communal education for children.
Abolition of all religion
In 1921, English historian Nesta Webster, author of World Revolution, wrote, this is the precise language of internationalists today, and it is, of course, easy to point out the evils of exaggerated patriotism.”
To be continued.
Indeed, as Larry King used to say, “ Don’t go away!
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of cornelius...@gmail.com <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2023 5:24 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
cornelius...@gmail.com
If he really wants to go to heaven and not to the other place
All Chidi needs for his salvation is to be found in this dossier:
Amnesty International Israel and the Occupied Territories
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of cornelius...@gmail.com <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2023 5:24 PM
cornelius...@gmail.com
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of cornelius...@gmail.com <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2023 5:24 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
cornelius...@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/faridhassan.abou/videos/916869500055867
Chidi, could you do this :
https://www.facebook.com/100000448718958/videos/2024508764557953
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of cornelius...@gmail.com <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2023 5:24 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Harrow, Kenneth
Sent: Monday, December 25, 2023 3:36:44 PM
To: Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi...@gmail.com>; usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>