Recognizing African Humanity

36 views
Skip to first unread message

Moses Ochonu

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 10:17:10 AM8/10/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Recognizing the humanity and agency of Africans means seeing them as complex moral entities and agents who are capable of rationally doing good and doing bad.

It means acknowledging their right, as we do with other human populations, to be human in their imperfections.

It does not mean infantalizing Africans as simple, blameless, unconditionallly happy, and innocent people who should be paternalistically protected.

It means granting them the latitude to be fully human, that is, complex, enigmatic, fraught with contradictions, virtuous, and imperfect.

It means recognizing that, like other people, Africans rationally pursue their self-interests, and that in the process of doing so, they may do unpalatable things that hurt themselves or other people, and that undermine their own aspirations.

It is to recognize that Africans are not passive victims but in many cases are proactive actors and sometimes culpable protagonists.

It is to recognize that their collective and individual deficits do not take away from their humanity but are precisely the affirmation of that humanity.

It is to recognize that Africa's marginality is not coextensive with Africans' moral imperfection, nor would the pursuit of moral perfection erase that marginality.

Moral perfection, moreover, is not a precondition for development. If that were the case, no nation on earth would be developed. The narrative of moral perfection and even moral regeneration as a prerequisite for development is thus problematic, a part of the problem.

I told my podcast interviewer some of this. He read my recent piece on failed states and Western commentary and wanted to interview me for his podcast. I should have told him the rest of this stuff but the time went by so fast and his questions led me away from some of this.

Nice conversation overall. He posed some tough questions and threw some thought-provoking scenarios my way. I think I held my own a bit.

Sent from my iPhone

Harrow, Kenneth

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 12:14:37 PM8/10/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
dear moses,
everything you wrote seems quite true, i'd say obviously true. but it leaves open the question, why is there any need to have to assert it? if the word "african" were replaced by "american" or some other identity, you notice the shift that implies the very thing you want to ward off, a defensiveness against the biases of others. and yet, under certain circumstances, it still must be said.

so it poses a question i had to address not too many years after i started to teach african humanities and african literature. it had been the convention in the 1970s and 80s on that we would begin introductory courses on africa by evoking the false images, stereotypes, etc., to which the students would have been exposed all their lives, the purpose being eventually to construct the truth in our courses so as to debunk the tarzania, the eurocentric lies and distortions, as we'd say nowadays.

but eventually i decided i had only so many weeks to devote to my topics, and i'd rather not waste the time on the eurocentric garbage (including the perfunctory Heart of Darkness or Out of Africa) and use the time more profitably by including more african material. the debunking should naturally be implied the more the students learned what africans actually wrote, filmed, painted, constructed etc.

perhaps the most difficult was to achieve what you state when you wrote, "it meant acknowledging their right, as we do with other populations, to be human in their imperfections." that meant dealing with students made uncomfortable by the reading that suggested that Okonkwo (of TFA) was flawed, was not simply a victim of colonialism, that africans might have had a problem with patriarchy, that the children might have had their reasons for conversion to christianity,e tc etc.
in short, human. the most difficult place to acknowledge when it is so easy, instead, to see others as objects and not subjects.
you put the argument forward very forcefully.... if i were still teaching, i'd certainly put it on my syllabus at the top of the page for the students to read at the outset.
and then move on...
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, August 9, 2021 9:18 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Recognizing African Humanity
 
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com 
Current archives at https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue__;!!HXCxUKc!no0KLz2xYdP2MmwzTZ3LuFoWvQXq5Bnllb5j_HIc85X1AoZ2YVwro1ti7IyKJQ$
Early archives at https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html__;!!HXCxUKc!no0KLz2xYdP2MmwzTZ3LuFoWvQXq5Bnllb5j_HIc85X1AoZ2YVwro1tTpaWj4Q$
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/5C457177-83CC-4FC3-9627-42D32C90AFF8*40gmail.com__;JQ!!HXCxUKc!no0KLz2xYdP2MmwzTZ3LuFoWvQXq5Bnllb5j_HIc85X1AoZ2YVwro1vD4e5wMw$ .

Toyin Falola

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 12:30:53 PM8/10/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Ken:

I have been to all the states in the US except Alaska. And I have been to all African countries except one. When it comes to how human beings live their lives, we tend to exaggerate the differences. Centuries ago, Jesus made the most profound statement over, in some ways ending the Moses’ conception of an eye-for-an-eye.

Matthew 22:36-40

King James Version

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

This is humanity.


---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

Harrow, Kenneth

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 12:36:34 PM8/10/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
another example of the same. when aidoo wrote her short story on hair, on the politicalized woman teacher who returned home--"Everything Counts" in No Sweetness Here--it was totally in line with the black power age that dictated that black people should be proud of their hair, their skin and bodies, etc.. the teacher returned to "home" only to find there, in africa itself, the girls were wearing wigs, using skin lightening creams etc.
the story ends with the teacher broken hearted.

the girls themselves were viewed implicitly as betraying their race....
and would have been told, essentially, that they had no agency to make decisions about how they might want to look
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2021 12:06 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Recognizing African Humanity
 
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

Harrow, Kenneth

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 12:36:57 PM8/10/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
true, true, toyin.
when i grew up, in new york, i was told about those "new jersey drivers," whom we naturally learned to laugh it....

there is a shorthand phrase for what you're saying. it is "you people...."
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 12:37:04 PM8/10/21
to usaafricadialogue
Jesus was a great philosopher and spiritual teacher.

Thanks

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN7PR06MB72471A07401B22D37B2A0B24F8F79%40SN7PR06MB7247.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 12:46:55 PM8/10/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com



Well,  Chief,  

except that some people dont believe in  A God!

At least not in the anthropomorphic sense of my friend the Nazarene.

OAA



Sent from my Galaxy

Moses Ebe Ochonu

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 12:51:33 PM8/10/21
to USAAfricaDialogue
Ken, thanks. There are, unfortunately, many people (Westerners and Africans) who are invested in notions of African alterity or African exceptionalism. In some cases, their livelihoods depend on these notions. In some cases, it is the product of intense socialization and a deluge of images. It is difficult sometimes to get people to disentangle African moral imperfections from African marginality, which is a function of factors both structural and agentive. It is also difficult at times to get them to see African deficits beyond pathology and to situate these deficits in contingent, historical, and individuated frames. Which unfortunately necessitates the occasional restating of the obvious, as you saw in my posted reflections. And yes, Oga Falola, we are more alike than we care to admit, but for some strange reason when it comes to Africans, there are people who want to either construct them as terminally flawed of character or as blameless angelic victims. There are people who want to frame Africans as unique and irredeemably, irreconcilably different either in positive or negative terms. They do this by magnifying and exceptionalizing their flaws and their virtues, depending on their purpose. These tropes are of course grounded in multiple agendas.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN7PR06MB72471A07401B22D37B2A0B24F8F79%40SN7PR06MB7247.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 12:51:43 PM8/10/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Well, about agency..
Remember what Whitney Houston the Great, et all sang is the greatest love of all ( singularly and collectively.)


OAA



Sent from my Galaxy



-------- Original message --------
From: "Harrow, Kenneth" <har...@msu.edu>
Date: 10/08/2021 17:44 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Recognizing African Humanity

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (har...@msu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info
another example of the same. when aidoo wrote her short story on hair, on the politicalized woman teacher who returned home--"Everything Counts" in No Sweetness Here--it was totally in line with the black power age that dictated that black people should be proud of their hair, their skin and bodies, etc.. the teacher returned to "home" only to find there, in africa itself, the girls were wearing wigs, using skin lightening creams etc.
the story ends with the teacher broken hearted.

the girls themselves were viewed implicitly as betraying their race....
and would have been told, essentially, that they had no agency to make decisions about how they might want to look
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2021 12:06 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Recognizing African Humanity
 
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

Harrow, Kenneth

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 2:37:27 PM8/10/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
well put, moses. especially "it is also difficult at times to get them to see African deficits beyond pathology and to situate these deficits in contingent, historical, and individuated frames."
another (last?) thought on this point. where does one stand, where is one standing, when learning about, or speaking about, the contingent, historical, and individuated frames"?

in feminism it has become standard to acknowledge the point of view--be it masculinist or phallocentric or patriarchal or feminist--with which to "see" the world.
there is no place above these standpoints. the most we can hope for is some measure of self-awareness, which can be difficult. which of us can hear our own accent?
ken


kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2021 12:47 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Cornelius Hamelberg

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 9:06:58 PM8/10/21
to USA Africa Dialogue Series

I was looking for something when I found this reminder...remembering , it's like giving oxygen to the dead, Schalom said.

There are at least two aspects worthy of mention and that perennial, forever recurring, that one outstanding matter always arising.

(1) With regard to the colonial and post-colonial projections of “The Noble Savage” - an image that some people who think so highly of themselves are desperately trying to live up to at the same time and at the expense of despising the their so-called “vermin” Africans like yours truly who they believe to be below their dignity and not worthy of their kind and compassionate consideration, all because they believe that they themselves cut some kind of dashing, super pretty figures of approval by “Massa” – like Robinson Crusoe's mimic man “ Man Friday” and a caricature figure like Joyce Cary's “Mister Johnson “ - great speakers and writers of the wonderful English that due to inexperience they believe they write - unlike their President Buhari, who they hold in great contempt, thereby causing someone like Malcolm Little ( Malcolm X) to have said, to the likes of them, “ They taught you little”

(2) The apology about “Human Nature” which really needs no apology – even if you subscribe to the notion of “ original sin”. With regard to the all too Human African as defined by Professor Ochonu, somewhat reminiscent of Shylock's heartfelt and exasperated pleading, “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer...

How do we deal with the issue of post-colonial tribalism, disunity, and the cut-throat politics of the-winner-takes-all elections through which African nations say that at least statistically speaking they are living up to their own notions/ standards of democracy which is threatening the peace, quiet and stability of most of our nations, threatening to take whole countries back to the stone age, and the age when some say when it comes to man's inhumanity to man and man's potential for destruction, chaos, anarchy, what Chidi refers to as “ mayhem”, we were better off with our bows and arrows.

On Thursday, it's Elections in Zambia

On February 23, 2023, it's Elections in Nigeria on the agenda.

What to expect?

Cornelius Hamelberg

unread,
Aug 10, 2021, 9:07:27 PM8/10/21
to USA Africa Dialogue Series

Of course, we should not maid the exceptions, the rule.,

We have had Pieter Willem Botha , Idi Amin, Emperor Bokassa .

Wolke Soyinka would add, " We've had Sani Abacha" 

Some playwright could make an unholy drama out of them and then you would not be quoted out of context saying, “ Recognizing the humanity and agency of Africans means seeing them as complex moral entities and agents who are capable of rationally doing good and doing bad.” - the very stuff of drama...

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages