Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

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Michael Afolayan

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Dec 4, 2022, 3:38:10 AM12/4/22
to Usaafricadialogue, Yoruba Affairs, Kenneth Harrow, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, Cornelius Hamelberg, Farooq Kperogi, Moses Ochonu

Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

I wonder where the  agents provocateur of our USA-Africa Dialogue group are when I truly need them the most. I know Oluwatoyin is too busy, fully preoccupied with the intellectual excavation of our heritages – the dilapidated states of our ivory towers, the desecration of our palaces’ celebrations of entry, and the endangerment of the historical landscapes of our cultural relics. I can forgive Oluwatoyin. But how come we have not seen Ken Harrow express his usually objective and deep analyses, on this particular issue? I have not read something coming from Cornelius whose humorous interjections often kept me thinking and rethinking the realities of issues that we had thought we could walk by and ignore. Farooq has not spoken for some time; neither have I heard much from Moses from Vanderbilt. I miss those voices. Could it be that one or more of these people have not heard of the brouhaha coming from the Buckingham Palace concerning the alleged racist interrogation of Ngozi Fulani, the CEO of the domestic violence charity against black women, called Sister Space? Here is the synopsis: It so happened that Lady Susan Hussey the godmother of Prince William insistently asked Ms Fulani where exactly she came from. The latter felt offended and walked away from her role as one of the advisors for the Palace. I forgot the cartoon character that used to ask the question, shaking, “Am I missing something?”

I know racism when I see it. In fact, if you are a black man, and you lived in America for more than four decades, as I have, and you still don't recognize racism, then you have a serious problem, which might be psychological, if not psychiatric. And, trust me, when I see one that is a mere mirage of objective reality, I also almost always recognize it.

Some thirty-something years ago, in my past American life, I directed a Title VI center, where one of my primary responsibilities was to travel or send folks around the country correcting biases, myths and stereotypes relating to Africa and the peoples of African descent. This was the peak of the Ethiopian crisis, and insults and assaults were being thrown left, right and center about Africa and Africans. I can’t count how many times my office was called as expert witnesses in court cases relating to asylums, race matters and other ethnic imbroglios. In all reality, this case of Ms Fulani would certainly not fall within the paradigm of biases and stereotypes. For years, all I wore were Nigerian attires, even if I had to wear winter coats over them in the frozen tundras of the Upper Midwest winters. I expected folks to ask me where I came from. I looked (still look) very African/Nigerian/Yoruba. My accent never changed (I know this could not be the case with Ms Fulani given that she was born in the UK). She would be like one of my children (all four of who are now adults, born and raised in the US). One of my daughters takes pride in introducing herself as a Nigerian American. In my humble opinion, Ms Fulani overstretched the racist implication of her dialog with Lady Hussey. It almost reminds me of a "big" case in which my office was called upon when an African American woman sued a fellow worker to court because the colleague, a white woman, came to work one day wearing an African attire. I did not go as an expert witness but sent a note, for which the litigant called me an "Oriole" a euphemism for a black man whose soul has been sold to the white establishment (black outside, white in the inside- just like the oriole cookies). For crying out loud, if Ms Fulani had answered the octogenarian the very first time she asked for where she came from, and stated that she was Briton but of African or Nigerian extraction, her parents being Nigerians, she would have there and then nipped the matter in the bud. Honestly, I sympathize with Lady Hussey and if I were a counselor to Buckingham Palace, I would request that she be restored with apologies, but just made to undergo training in cultural sensitivity, knowing full well that there would always be some folks out there waiting to make a big deal out of issues of this nature. Whatever you say could and would always be misconstrued as offensive. She would learn to stay away from such folks in verbal exchanges - a sile and/or a handshake would truncate explosive altercations of this magnitude. As my father would always say, “The most difficult person for you to wake up is someone who is pretending to sleep.”  Even in Nigeria, Ngozi Fulani’s name would invoke curiosity. I don't know how to ask for her ethnicity without becoming a lightning rod for thunder and brimstone.

Mind you, I am not minimizing Ms Fulani’s experience. She probably might have seen enough of verbal exchanges that brought back memories of unpleasant human hate. But, I am sorry, in my judgment, this one does not fit in that category. It is a classical case of making a mountain out of a proverbial molehill.

I stand corrected.

Yep, feel free to call me anything and ask where the heck I came from - I'm African/Nigerian/Yoruba (and, lest I forget, a naturalized American). I won't be offended. But, in the words of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (1972), please "Don't Gag Me!"

Michael O. Afolayan
(Transitioning in London, UK)

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Dec 4, 2022, 3:38:10 AM12/4/22
to Michael Afolayan, Usaafricadialogue, Yoruba Affairs, Kenneth Harrow, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, Farooq Kperogi, Moses Ochonu

I agree with Lord Michael Afolayan to a great extent, but the Lady Interrogator was pushing it (her curiosity) a little too far, by her insistence. Fifty-something years earlier and equally curious, she could have well been the English Landlady interlocutor in Soyinka's " Telephone Conversation "


Of course, Ngozi Fulani could have risen to the occasion, taken it all in her stride by being cool - a big plus and genteel.


In Lady Susan Hussey’s garters or under her hat I too would have been a little curious ( but not yellow as in I am Curious Yellow) ) at such a stunning juxtaposition of names: Ngozi ( 100% Igbo) and Fulani ( like a bonafide herdswoman) as it were, a fusion of opposites and a good conversation starter.


And her Ladyship too,  “ Hussy”? What a name!


On many a social occasion  in her earlier days (at those garden party social introductions where the thoroughbred race horses and the thoroughbred mares  meet and clink glasses, Hussy or Hussey must have been the butt-end of much ribaldry and a worthwhile conversation starter for Mr Horny  - bottoms up - up yours - wanting to get to first base without more pointless political tittle-tattle  of exactly where did you come from followed by more unnecessary big grammar self-introduction “ I am Professor So & So from Boston Massachusetts”, or any further delay when the horse from Epsom is roaring to go and singing,  


When that steamboat whistle blows

I'm going to give you all I got to give

And I do hope you receive it well

Depending on the way you feel that you live


( Dear Landlord 


Michael Afolayan

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Dec 4, 2022, 3:38:10 AM12/4/22
to Usaafricadialogue, Yoruba Affairs, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, Cornelius Hamelberg, Farooq Kperogi, Moses Ochonu, Harrow, Kenneth
Thanks a great deal, Ken. I predicted right that you would add pleasant spices to the conversation, and you did not prove me wrong. Needless to say, I appreciate your perspectives. So as not to reinvent the wheel, let me quote a significant portion of my response to a friend on FaceBook, who looked at my position from different lenses. She wrote:

===
FB Friend: I understand where Ms Fulani is coming from. 1st of all the woman came into her personal space and move her hair out of the way so she could read her name tag. I wonder if she felt free to wander around the room moving white women’s hair to read their name tags or if she simply introduced herself and asked them their name. I see that has an example of a micro aggression. Secondly was she as aggressively insistent in asking any of the white people where they came from in order to ‘prove’ that they were neither English nor British?
===

Me: . . . Thanks a bunch, my good friend. I think it is the context of this matter that matters (sorry for sounding tautological). Honestly, if someone came to me, and removed my hanging hair to read my name tag, if I were a woman, I would see it as a form of affection. Remember one of the instructions that our dean gave us during orientation in those days was to wear our name tags where someone would see it at a glance? Look, the Yoruba often say, Ìjà ló dé l'orin d'òwe, meaning, literally, when there is an inner discord, an ordinary humming of a song could be misconceived as a scornful parody. The translation is poor but what it means is that small things don't have to blow up into a cataclysmic outburst - shooting the darts of emotion at each other. And, by the way, I have been reliably informed that Ms Fulani is actually from the Caribbean. My assumption of a Nigerian extraction was wrong. I just hope she makes up with Lady Hussey and we can all get along, in the prayerful appeal of the late Rodney King (of 1991). And we can look at each other in the face again and repeat those sacred words of Maya Angelou's 1993 poem, On the Purse of Morning, and say, GOOD MORNING!

===
I know I did not address the concerns of my former colleague (BTW, she and I we were good friends and fellow professors years back), and I think I have not addressed yours either. I was not at the event and could not read the mind of the parties involved. But I need to point something out: I did not suggest that the palace should do nothing. I suggested the octogenarian should have some form of orientation in cultural sensitivity. This was a cosmopolitan jamboree and it was expected that people would come from all over the place in the planet earth. Honestly, I would be delighted to know where everyone at that gathering came from. Of course, I would not go as far as moving a woman hair out of the way only because it could be misinterpreted as a form of sexual overture. If English were my first language, I would probably have a way of saying this is an ÌHÀLẸ̀ - the shooting of a squirrel with a battle cannon! I would rather witness the arrest, trial and imprisonment of a First Lady who had the audacity to subject a citizen to extrajudicial humiliation - kidnapping, arrest, torture and detention than support Ms Fulani's case. 

Thank you very much, Ken.

Michael O. Afolayan





On Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 05:40:08 PM EST, Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:


dear michael
i read about this event, indeed, like you.
my thoughts were weirdly conflicted, as you so well indicate.
the older woman asked a question of an "african" woman, i.e. a black woman who probably looked foreign to her, that many non-university people probably do all the time.
most people do not realize the impact on a black person when asked repeatedly, where are you from. or an asian person too, i suspect. the question implies, you don't look like us, so where are you really from. you can't be one of us.

the older people have a more grounded sense of "us," but you who have lived in the states know that outside university circles, it is very very commonplace, and those who pose the question are often thinking of themselves as kindly, not mean or oppressive.
it is hard for people to put themselves in the shoes of Others. for the black woman here who felt, particularly in this eminent social event, to be singled out as different and in need of being labeled, i.e., othered. for the white woman to understand that her intentions nonwithstanding, her words were offensive. if she repeated them she couldn't have been too bright, or discerning, or even caring i suppose.

what to do in those circumstances?
your point: the hammer went too far. agreed. but do nothing, when the "royals" were implicated? at that point, i have to withdraw. those brits have their own set of principles, actions, possibilities of what to do under these circumstances, that i suspect, as  in france, are rapidly changing. and i haven't a clue what is now the right thing to do there. events like this are apt to change the climate?? dunno.
you tell me!
your response struck me as very humane. but the older woman's age shouldn't be an excuse. was the punishment too extreme, i just don't really know any more. once we might have said, just correct her, teach her a lesson; now we are teaching a whole society a lesson, and teaching lessons can get to be old very quickly.... as you make so clear.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


From: Michael Afolayan <mafo...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2022 2:53 PM
To: Usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>; Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu>; Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>; Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>; Farooq Kperogi <farooq...@gmail.com>; Moses Ochonu <moses....@vanderbilt.edu>
Subject: Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?
 

Toyin Falola

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Dec 4, 2022, 7:49:00 AM12/4/22
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Cornelius Hamelberg, Farooq Kperogi, Kenneth Harrow, Moses Ochonu, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, Yoruba Affairs

I have come across Africans who see not being greeted, as in saying “good morning,” as racist. And I tell them, do they greet one another?

Achebe once interpreted “gazing” as racism. If a white man gazes at me, is he a racist?

I travel a lot, and sometimes, the person who sits next to me does not extend the courtesy. So, if the person is white, is he a racist?

TF

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chambi Chachage <chachag...@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 6:24 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>, Farooq Kperogi <farooq...@gmail.com>, Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>, Moses Ochonu <moses....@vanderbilt.edu>, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>, Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

Michael,

 

Racism is sometimes — if not quite often — experienced differently across the Atlantic Divides. My own experience of racism as a student in the UK, RSA, and the US are not the same. So why not defer to Ngozi Fulani et al.?

 

The article by Mandu Reid who was there sums up their experience with racism — she writes:

 

At a reception on Tuesday to honour those working to end violence against women and girls, I witnessed racist remarks from a member of the royal household directed at my friend and fellow activist, Ngozi Fulani. Lady Hussey’s prolonged interrogation about where Ngozi was really from, what her nationality was and where her people were from, was not – as many people have insisted to me over the past 24 hours – the kind of well-meaning curiosity that all of us experience from time to time (though it’s possible that Hussey believed that it was).… I see that ‘She’s 83’ is now trending on Twitter, imploring us to leave this nice old lady alone, a stance that adds a dash of ageism to the racism that has pervaded much of the commentary” — 

 

 

May you not be gagged, but “stand corrected”.

 

Best Regards,

 

Chambi

 

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Michael Afolayan

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Dec 5, 2022, 9:35:32 PM12/5/22
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Dear Cornelius,

Thanks for your intervention on this matter. But how you write prose like poetry is a skill I need to learn, maybe acquire, someday. And, on the other issue, you nailed it when you wrote . . .

Quote

. . .One thing that we can be sure of is that it’s not the sort of mishap that’s ever likely to take happen at e.g. the Nobel Banquet, always a very international gathering, the seating so well pre-arranged, a festive occasion followed by some ballroom dancing,  cheek- to-cheek ,  till the wee hours of the morning…

Unquote

What I am hearing you say is what my father would have said differently, "Epe po j'ohun to nu lo; abere sonu, a gbe seere" (The drama is more than the act; when a needle is lost, you don't have to call down the gods for intervention), right?

My case is closed. I'm glad I made folks speak to the matter.

MOA












On Monday, December 5, 2022 at 02:46:39 PM EST, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:


"In my humble opinion, Ms Ngozi Fulani overstretched the racist implication of her dialog with Lady Hussey," Michael Afolayan wrote. How did Ms Ngozi Fulani overstretch the racist implication of her dialog with Lady Hussey? Michael Afolayan explained thus, "For crying out loud, if Ms Fulani had answered the octogenarian the first time she asked for where she came from and stated that she was Briton but of an African or Nigerian extraction, her parents being Nigerians, she would have nipped the matter in the bud." Employees at Buckingham Palace are life-employed, if not Lady Susan Hussey, an octogenarian, would have gone on pension, at least, a decade ago. It is noteworthy, that she is godmother to Prince Williams and as such she would have met a lot of people from different parts of the world in the course of her service in Buckingham Palace. Ms Ngozi Fulani, was not at Buckingham Palace to seek employment but for a social event to which she was duly invited. Therefore, Lady Susan Hussey had no right to interrogate her about where she came from. In a respective manner, Lady Hussy should have introduced herself to Ms Ngozi Fulani stating part of UK she hails from and Ms Fulani would courteously have reciprocated in like manner by introducing herself to the baroness.

The racist behaviour of Lady Hussey to Ms Fulani is being belittled by Michael Afolayan by suggesting that she should have answered the racist query of the baroness without hesitation. If the tone of Lady Hussey's enquiry had been friendly to Ms Fulani, she would have responded friendly too. What Ms Ngozi understood from the tone of Lady Hussey's query to her was: you are not supposed to be here; and why are you here? The octogenarian, Lady Hussey, was in the Buckingham Palace when Prince Harry and her wife, Megan, alleged that the Royal Palace wondered loudly to their hearings what colour their impending child would bear because Megan is bi-racial. Counsellor Michael Afolayan honestly want Buckingham Palace to re-employ octogenarian Hussey but before then to send her to undergo training in cultural sensitivity. And I laugh because one cannot bend a dry fish just as one cannot convert an octogenarian racist.
S. Kadiri 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: 04 December 2022 11:25
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?
 

Here comes the sun king

Sonny Rollins (Earl Coleman) : Two Different Worlds 

One thing that we can be sure of is that it’s not the sort of mishap that’s ever likely to take happen at e.g. the Nobel Banquet , always a very international gathering, the seating so well pre-arranged, a festive occasion followed by some ballroom dancing,  cheek- to-cheek ,  till the wee hours of the morning…

Methinks that we’ve got to be equally fair to both the oversensitive Ngozi Fulani and Baroness Hussey. The context , place and time, not  the Isle  of Man, Yaounde, Dakar or the Republic of the USA  but early in December 2022, the stars shining at a Buckingham Palace reception in Merry England, and if we're lucky  we could possibly view the whole event from surveillance cameras or on Sky TV, to note exactly what happened. I think that we’ve got to give the Baroness a break: Here comes the high-stepper Ngozi in style, hair piled up a mile high and looking like a thing that the cat brought in from outer space,  the poor Baroness still in grief and not too good at remembering new faces and names must still have other odd memories of e.g Meghan - another one from somewhere or other ,  and Ngozi is an honoured guest in the palace  and under royal protection no less than King Charles III saying to President Buhari ( as reported by Mr. President himself) you have a home in the UK, please feel at home: you’re most welcome.

But be generous, let’s make some allowance for  the Baroness’ pedigree, her upbringing, and age,  curiosity, an inevitable part of her human nature, who does she want to get to know  better?

 Ngozi! 

What could be so wrong with her persistence? According to the transcript 

Lady SH: “Where are you from?”

Ms Fulani: “Sistah Space.”

SH: “No where do you come from?

Ms Fulani: “We’re based in Hackney.”

SH: “No, what part of Africa are YOU from?”

Ms Fulani: “I don’t know, they didn’t leave any records.”

SH: “Well, you must know where you’re from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?”

Ms Fulani: “Here, UK”

SH: “No, but what Nationality are you?”

Ms Fulani: “I am born here and am British.”

SH: “No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?”

Ms Fulani: “‘My people’, lady, what is this?”

SH: “Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you’re from. When did you first come here?”

Ms Fulani: “Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the 50’s when…”

SH: “Oh, I knew we’d get there in the end, you’re Caribbean!”

Ms Fulani: “No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.”

If Ngozi had lost her cool and opted for a tit-for-tat, the  dialogue could have gone something like this:

Lady SH: “Where are you from?”

Ms Fulani: “I was born in England , like our Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Where are you from? “

Lady SH: “I beg your pardon? “

Ms Fulani: “  I asked, “Where are you from ?”

At which point Baroness Hussey would have probably shrieked or hissed under her breath, “ For goodness sake, can’t you tell  I’m British?” 

Ms Fulani  : " Cheers! So , we're sisters!” 

 



On Sunday, 4 December 2022 at 09:37:24 UTC+1 toyinfalola wrote:

Farooq left the site because of Cornelius!

Cornelius also, for some time, left the site because of Farooq.

It is by God’s intervention that Ken and Gloria are still with us.

One day, I will receive a medal for keeping together a million voices!!!!!!!

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Michael Afolayan

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Dec 5, 2022, 9:35:32 PM12/5/22
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"I have come across Africans who see not being greeted, as in saying “good morning” as racist. . ." TF

Humorous would be an understatement. As we say in my village, "Two people must always be guilty of "s/he did not great me." The question is if she did not greet you, did you greet her/him?" And when you accuse someone of looking (gazing/starring) at you, villagers would ask, "How did you know they were looking at you if you were not yourself looking at them?"

There we go!

I think the ways of our elders are the ways of wisdom.

MOA









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Michael Afolayan

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Dec 5, 2022, 9:35:32 PM12/5/22
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Dear Chambi:

Sorry, I almost missed your intervention here. But I cannot agree more with your position that, "Racism is sometimes — if not quite often — experienced differently across the Atlantic Divides. My own experience of racism as a student in the UK, RSA, and the US are not the same. . ."

You are right on the money, my friend. Thanks to the link that Gloria sent to me yesterday, where I learned that in "America, racism is in the water." Elsewhere, it is in the way you greet or fail to greet the folks on the other race isle. I was at a Board meeting one day when the Chairman introduced my friend, an African American, to make his presentation. My friend stood at the podium and looked at the chairman straight in the eye, and in his soft but firm voice said, and I paraphrase him, "Dr. X, thanks for introducing me; please feel free to call me by my first name at any time, but I insist on you addressing me by my title of Dr. Y today because that was how you have introduced everyone else except me. I just don't appreciate it . . ." It was on that day that I realized that title recognition could also be an attribute of racism. I learned a big lesson from my friend. And I recall this story to agree with you. Even racism (and its expression) has its eclectic character.

In all honesty, I would still love to hear from the Baroness. I think the story has been from Ms. Ngozi Fulani and her enthusiasts. Hearing from the former would shield us from being victims of the danger of a single story or even worse still, victims of what the Yoruba call "Ìròhìn Òkèèrè" (News Told From a Distance), which, they as say, often adds one thing, or takes away one thing.

Thankfully,

MOA

===


On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 07:24:33 AM EST, Chambi Chachage <chachag...@gmail.com> wrote:


Michael,

Racism is sometimes — if not quite often — experienced differently across the Atlantic Divides. My own experience of racism as a student in the UK, RSA, and the US are not the same. So why not defer to Ngozi Fulani et al.?

The article by Mandu Reid who was there sums up their experience with racism — she writes:

At a reception on Tuesday to honour those working to end violence against women and girls, I witnessed racist remarks from a member of the royal household directed at my friend and fellow activist, Ngozi Fulani. Lady Hussey’s prolonged interrogation about where Ngozi was really from, what her nationality was and where her people were from, was not – as many people have insisted to me over the past 24 hours – the kind of well-meaning curiosity that all of us experience from time to time (though it’s possible that Hussey believed that it was).… I see that ‘She’s 83’ is now trending on Twitter, imploring us to leave this nice old lady alone, a stance that adds a dash of ageism to the racism that has pervaded much of the commentary” — 


May you not be gagged, but “stand corrected”.

Best Regards,

Chambi
On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 3:14 AM 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Michael Afolayan

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Dec 5, 2022, 9:35:32 PM12/5/22
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Yoruba Affairs
Salimonu Kadiri:

You made your case. I particularly love your last paragraph, where you stated clearly that . . .

Quote
The racist behaviour of Lady Hussey to Ms Fulani is being belittled by Michael Afolayan by suggesting that she should have answered the racist query of the baroness without hesitation. If the tone of Lady Hussey's enquiry had been friendly to Ms Fulani, she would have responded friendly too. What Ms Ngozi understood from the tone of Lady Hussey's query to her was: you are not supposed to be here; and why are you here? The octogenarian, Lady Hussey, was in the Buckingham Palace when Prince Harry and her wife, Megan, alleged that the Royal Palace wondered loudly to their hearings what colour their impending child would bear because Megan is bi-racial. Counsellor Michael Afolayan honestly want Buckingham Palace to re-employ octogenarian Hussey but before then to send her to undergo training in cultural sensitivity. And I laugh because one cannot bend a dry fish just as one cannot convert an octogenarian racist.
Unquote

What else do I have to add? Beloved Cornelius has handled it well on my behalf when he wrote . . .

Quote
I think that we’ve got to give the Baroness a break: Here comes the high-stepper Ngozi in style, hair piled up a mile high and looking like a thing that the cat brought in from outer space,  the poor Baroness still in grief and not too good at remembering new faces and names must still have other odd memories of e.g Meghan - another one from somewhere or other ,  and Ngozi is an honoured guest in the palace  and under royal protection no less than King Charles III saying to President Buhari ( as reported by Mr. President himself) you have a home in the UK, please feel at home: you’re most welcome. But be generous, let’s make some allowance for  the Baroness’ pedigree, her upbringing, and age,  curiosity, an inevitable part of her human nature . . .
Unquote

I don't have the high class language to make a case, no discipline to authenticate sources, and my sense of humor is close to the base on the food chain of communication. Cornelius has it all, and has with them rescued me from myself. I thank you, Alagba Salimonu Kadiri. I appreciate your counsel and embrace your corrections. I am an ardent reader of the Book of Proverbs. The opening statement of its 12th chapter says, "Whoso loves instruction loves knowledge. But one who hates reproof is Brutish (i.e., a beast).

Be well,

Michael O. Afolayan



 

 

From: 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

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