The River Cannot Go Back ? Yes, The River Knows…
Cornelius Hamelberg
“Please believe me
If you don't need me
I'm going, but I need a little time
I promised I would drown myself
in mystic heated wine”
(The Doors : Yes, The River Knows)
Of course, we’re living in different worlds.
The question can be posed to the generality of those suffering or shuffering and writhing in sporadic spasms of what could be spiritual poverty, the antidote to which is “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven “: Would you prefer to relocate to e.g. USA ? UK? Makkah ? Jerusalem? Sweden? Australia? Germany ? Canada? China?
Once such a decision is made and followed through , it’s sometimes irreversible, like the suicide jump from a high cliff - like Jesus’s second temptation - except for the fact that you are not Jesus and once you jump there might be a few brief seconds within which to change you mind, if your mind can be changed to regret and repent but even then , sadly, not enough power to reverse the forces of gravity that immediately take over and a little later it’s all over as rigor mortis begins to set in…
Ture : in one sense, you can always return, it’s known as living in the past, sometimes or often, recalling the past ,”the good old days”, it’s known as nostalgia ; but what about when it’s only the bad old days that can be recalled, especially for those who have never known anything else, because they were born into slavery and have only lived that way with maybe some sporadic encounters with some missionary scriptures that describe Sugarcandy Mountain and Heaven or about Knockin' on Heaven's Door
It would seem that The River Cannot Go Back is the default position of some of the Nigeriana and other proud Africana academic emigres and soldiers of fortune who are perpetually in search of greener pastures, some of them referring disdainfully to their former homelands as “jungle”, confirming President Trump’s 2018 “shit-hole” remarks. There are those who say that they would “even fight to defend that fundamental right “ of President Trump “to hold even a different opinion”, indeed, and that they “will never see Trump or any other with a divergent opinion as an enemy” as if Trump needs any permission from them or anyone else to say what he thinks of them (pretentious monkeys, primates, primitives ) as if those of us who live in democracies where no books are banned and, all our lives we have have been exercising our freedom to think and to speak freely, as if we are not aware of Article 19 and Article 10, but Johnny come lately trying his hand at po-e-try wants to tell us that we are free , as if we need permission from him or his niece to say what we want to say. Of course, Johnny who would much prefer to be smoking his big cigar in America, probably does not want Trump to exceed any unimaginable, passable or trespass-able limitations of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
“In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach” ( Mister D : My Back Pages)
But let's turn our attention to the one that was targeted here, by his fellow Nigeria : Moses Ochonu who is a handsome guy not like the drinkard, our pigeon-brained, ogogoro-drinking gorilla, and let me hasten to add that I envy him not , nor do I covet his house, his wife, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, his children, his grandchildren, his accomplishments, his money and other Elon Musk assets in the bank, his future, his past, his music, his poetry, his philosophy, his rub-a dub style or bonhomie
I wanna be president of Nigeria? Are you serious? What a responsibility !
As for e.g. the pidgin-dreaming jungle gorilla and his illusions of grandeur, God forbid, of course, I wouldn’t like to be him or to change places with him , and May the Almighty save us all from contempt.
When it comes to Moses Ochonu, you may treat it in part as some kind of argumentum ad verecundiam, because my primary orientation is directed by Ojogbon Falola who more than a decade ago announced Moses Ochonu as his crown prince - I assume in some to-do about African History, and I take his word / high regard , as real.
I would like to reiterate some of what Edward Kissi has said, and if dear Kenneth Harrow was with us today, if the Harrow-Ochonu exchanges in this forum are anything to go by, then for a surety, in addition to seconding Edward Kissi’s sentiments and adulation, Kenneth - like a good English man, not one for hyperboles where understatements are much more effective, he would nevertheless only come out with superlatives in defence and in exoneration of his friend Moses, coincidentally the namesake of Israel's greatest prophet about whom it is written “ And there was no other prophet who arose in Israel like Moses” - for brevity's sake the rest is here in this thread which begins with "And in your anger, remember your mercy. ... O LORD"
Blow by blow , ideally, I’d like to comment on some of what in my view are very unsavoury comments by a very hostile Nuraddeen Danjuma Maiwada who for all the reasons he has stated, has an axe to grind - although, in my opinion with Moses Ochonu in his sights, he’s wholly off target: the generality of his grievances, understandably animated by his sense of betrayal, and feeling the resentment as he does, that some of the diaspora academics are more or less deserters, luxuriating in prosperity whilst the sufferation generation back home continues to be mired in austerity, even if, much closer to the truth is the vibe that The Creator Has A Master Plan ( peace and happiness for every man
Like an omniscient author, Nuraddeen Danjuma Maiwada starts with a long-distance character analysis of Ochonu and having read through the entirety of his diatribe, paradoxically, I can safely say that my first objection to this kind of approach , especially for the less than omniscient , is that the Ochonu of Bayero is not the Ochonu of Vanderbilt, and my objection is based on the Heraclitus idea / perception that “No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it's not the same river and he's not the same man” with the emphasis on “he’s not the same man” - in other words, Nuraddeen Danjuma Maiwada is barking up the wrong tree : the Moses that Nuraddeen Danjuma Maiwada has in mind as some kind of fixed and immovable target is not the same Bayero or Idoma man,; that particular Ochonu as it were, frozen time is currently not at home and this means that you could be knocking on the wrong door ,which is not to say that he ( Moses Ochonu) doesn’t still enjoy his moin moin ; to begin with our Moses has become much more cosmopolitan in outlook and if in doubt check out the meaning of cosmopolitanism
True, there’s a difference in conceiving a snow you have never experienced or in writing about snow, even with all of your imaginative faculties and powers of expression intact and fully loaded, all the words for snow in the Eskimo’s languages at your command, may still fall short of the Bayero understanding and appreciation - but hopefully, not the appreciation of the universal Tomas Tranströmer that Teju Cole told me about, in response to my telling him that all the Swedes in the audience (my Better Half included) fell in love with him when he talked about Tomas Tranströmer (we could have talked some more, but our taxi was waiting)
In this regard lest we throw out the baby with the bathwater, I’d like to point out and emphasise the many positives in Nuraddeen Danjuma Maiwada’s tirade, beginning with his recommendations to Nigeria’s diaspora academics such as Moses Ochonu : “to empower”, “ to engage in dialogue” and some of his other key words : “solidarity and mentorship”, “contribute positively, return to your roots and make a step toward reconciliation with your cultural heritage”, ” to create blended meaningful educational programmes that bridge the gap between theory and practice, fostering a robust intellectual tradition that honours both local and global narratives.”, “ to aspire to be conduits for change”...
Here’s an interesting definition of Idiot
the ball is now in your court,
let the fruitful dialogue begin to proceed…
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
A powerful, idiosincractically potent essay in Cornelius characteristic allusive style
--
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 http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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 visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/a75afc18-c78d-43cf-8758-483b7558aa84n%40googlegroups.com.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Well, Dear Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, in this free language zone, a poetic imagination that has travelled and is to a great extent liberated from the trammels of parochialism and ethnic jingoism has a sense of humour, tolerance for religious differences within the human family, has great respect for the well-being of all, and that includes all that Buddhists refer to as “sentient beings”, is all for human rights and a life lived in dignity, such a one would write this kind of letter in response to this enquiry
Dear Enquirer,
In this our civilised world, respect begets respect
There’s Lashon Hara
There’s Netiquette
“one's next line of action” could be (a) to send a special commando unit to take out whatever miscreant is causing you to be offended (b) sue him for deformation of your personality ( c) Write a cruel, satirical poem about the miscreant (d) Pray that God will have mercy on him
It appears that you think that the USA-Africa Dialogue Series is a province of the Islamic Republic of Nigeria, and that your Owerri Motor Park is the federal capital. That’s alright with me. Since nobody, not even you, are exempt from the judgement. In this free speech zone, kindly permit me to add to your query:
As you know, nobody is above the law and that includes the law of reciprocity, so, for example, Netanyahu 's testimony in his corruption trials will start on Tuesday. Soon after that he will probably be deposed; the same fate awaits Zelensky who I believe will be deposed by his own military, shortly. Neither of these outcomes are really earth-shaking events. To quote one of your idols, “You never mentioned one time the Man who came and died a criminal's death.” ( Precious Angel)
Trump says of Kamala, “ low IQ” and self-appointed senior information management officers like yourself giggle and don't have a problem with posting that on various media outlets , but if yours truly in all honesty said “low iq” “ low vocabulary”, laughable pidgin about you, Nigeria’s wannabe Pablo Neruda / William Shakespeare etc is suddenly feeling like the title of a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky : The Insulted or The Idiot . Sitting in your ivory tower, library, office, study, Owerri Motor Park, wherever, why can’t you be as thick skinned as the main character in Mo Yan’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out” describes in the first couple of pages?
You can’t take the little heat in the kitchen and like a cry-baby you are now appealing to Ojogbon, but you don’t ask him “ What the hell is going on? “
Personality? Which personality? Your Personality? You have been wronged. Your tender, beautiful, loving and beautiful personality is now shuffering from a bruised ego. You are now Shuffering and not shmilimg. You seek redress.
What about other people's personalities?
Let me kindly refer you to the riches to be found in Norman O Brown’s Love’s Body - of absolute relevance, Chapter 5 : Person
True or false, "Enemies are fantasies" but especially on a spiritual level and on any other level, you've got to be stronger than your enemy
For those who think too highly of themselves and too lowly of others, there's this simple rule of thumb: those who live in glass houses ( and that includes fragile personalities) shouldn't throw stones. Just look at the IDF's reaction to what happened on the 7th of October last year, an over-reaction which some miscreants are still justifying...
And as for the woman caught in adultery, as the crowd of accusers were still murmuring and gathering the rocks with which to stone her to death, Jesus was busy writing on the ground with his finger, words we are to assume identified the sinners, words like " vermin"
I was appalled by what was posted on this forum about the alleged sex predator at a Nigerian University, defying laws of libel and slander, and I was thinking that at any moment we should be expecting from the accused, not " see you later alligator " but " see you in court, gorilla", since that’s one of the sort of things that gorillas do: prey on vulnerable females, don’t woo them with some personality and love poetry , his love is burning hot and he prefers to impale them with his big old ten cent cigar. Gorillas recognise one another Same tribe, could be from different tribes but the same nationality
“his love is a burning hot as a big old ten cent cigar”
James Taylor : Gorilla
Gorilla ( lyrics