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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Sep 18, 2021, 4:08:12 PM9/18/21
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When the paper and pen was invented, (creative)writers leveraged on the new invention to diseminate their written ideas.

Now that the internet applications (Apps)(including e-books) have been invented, (creative) writers should also leverage more on the new better invention to diseminate their written ideas rather than still emphasing on (traditional) books.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)


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Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet and Founder/Publisher of; PublicInformationProjects (www.publicinformationprojects.org)

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Sep 19, 2021, 6:49:06 AM9/19/21
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If the two major political parties field Retired Colonel Abubakar Umar and Orji Uzor Kalu in 2023 for example, I will vote for Umar, but Kalu remains my brother.

I vote according to my ideology. Umar is a progressive like me.

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Sep 20, 2021, 10:42:20 AM9/20/21
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We use the word "great" recklessly in Nigeria (nay, Africa). All our friends, loved ones, relations, who we like are all "great", especially, when they die.

Public Information Projects

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Sep 23, 2021, 9:08:33 AM9/23/21
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If the Nigerian government does not want to bring Kanu to Court for trial, they should release him.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)


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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Sep 23, 2021, 8:25:33 PM9/23/21
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Dear Chidi,

That's why the correct translation of Allahu Akbar is God is most great!

Professor Toyin Falola's generosity of spirit, especially in his eulogies which sometimes move the heart; and I may have read hundred of secular eulogies but still know of no better eulogist than him when it comes to expressing love and appreciation for other lives well-lived and a few true ideals taking a lifetime in fulfilling and up to the die-time still embracing - that sensibility is in accord with Ubuntu philosophy.

My album of the week Human is also man-made 

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Sep 24, 2021, 9:57:37 AM9/24/21
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All brutes, whether on uniform or not should know that there are recording devices on almost every hand.

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Sep 28, 2021, 1:17:21 PM9/28/21
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Today's Quote:

If rotating the Presidency between the North and South is unconstitutional as Northern governors would want everyone to believe, then the constitution has become unconstitutional by failing to promote peaceful coexistence in Nigeria.

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Sep 30, 2021, 7:28:30 PM9/30/21
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".......you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free"-The Bible.

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 3, 2021, 7:47:47 PM10/3/21
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The worst perpetrators of injustice are not the ones that do the deeds, but the ones that deny or justify the deeds and the ones that kept silent.

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 4, 2021, 7:21:53 AM10/4/21
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Salimonu Kadiri

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Oct 5, 2021, 5:44:19 PM10/5/21
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​The greatest evil doers in Nigeria of which Nigerians are never silent but hero-worship instead, is that of petti-traders who sell the economic prosperity of Nigeria to Europe and America in exchange for pittance to become local millionaires/billionaires. In the entire political and economic structure operating in Nigeria, government officials, the law enforcing agencies, lawyers, the judiciary and criminals are inseparable partners. This is because one cannot be a millionaire or a billionaire in Nigeria without stealing public funds or engaging in internet fraud. The bigger the theft of a public fund or an internet fraud is, the bigger would the cola, as bribery is euphemistically called in Nigeria, to be given to the Police, the lawyer and the Judge. If the Court registrar is given his/her portion, the case will never be listed for hearing and if by accident the case gets to the court, the Judge will grant bail to the public fund thief/fraudster and get the case adjourned sine die. Thereafter, the thief/fraudster is free to preen like peacock in the streets of Nigeria and be hero-worshiped. Am I exaggerating or over-generalising? 

One day in early July 2021, at Oba, in Anambra State of Nigeria, a reputed billionaire, Obinna Iyiegbu a.k.a. Obi Cubana, celebrated the death of his 78 years old mother. When the you tube video pictures of the death ceremony emerged, it turned out that many money bags were in attendance and bundles of naira of unknown denominations were flung to the crowd of crump eaters and crawlers around the wealthy celebrants of a dead mother. Oba is majorly said to contain mud houses with thatched roofs, where open defecation is still mostly practised and where animals and humans still struggle to drink water from the same open stream. The road (street) in Oba where naira was being 'sprayed' in bundles to celebrate Obinna's mother death was dusty and untarred. In the recorded video of the celebration of the death of Mrs. Iyiegbu, there appeared the Deputy Commissioner of Police and leader of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence response team, Abba Kyari. Following public outcry against Abba Kyari presence at the extravagant death celebration, he responded through his Facebook page that he attended the occasion because he had known Obinna for a long time and as a hard-working man. The problem here is that Abba Kyari the supper cop, as he was known, was not only a Deputy Commissioner of Police, but a leader of detective police unit charged with the responsibility of detecting and prosecuting criminals. Yet, he was present where the Nigerian naira was being abused, without doing anything, contrary to the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007, Sections 5 and 21 (4-5) which forbid the sale, purchase and spraying of naira note and which on violation prescribe penalties of six months imprisonment, or a fine of N50, 000 or both to the violator.

In Chidi Anthony Opara's post on this forum, 22 July 2021,  featuring Obinna Iyiegbu, readers were regaled thus, " Alright folks, agreed, this photo was taken during a signing of a business agreement with a whiskey distillery. Some (harmless?) questions however : (1) Who are the owners of the whiskey company? (2) What is that that Obinna Iyiegbu (Obi Cubana) (centre) is holding with much reverence? (3) Why did they have to wear skirts? (4) What are those things (fraternity insignias?) hanging from the upper parts of the skirts? (5) Why is it that the photo background is not looking like the premises of a whiskey distillery that can attract the attention of a big buyer from a foreign country?

The fact of history is that after the Scottish part of the British colonialist conquered Nigeria they discovered that the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta as well as Isheri people in Èpé area of the then Western Region, now in Lagos State, were already distilling gins named Kai-Kain and Ògógóró respectively. The British colonialist adopted from Nigeria the technical production of the alcohol to develop Scottish whiskey and declared later the production and sale of Kain-kain/Ògógóró in Nigeria illegal, as they branded the Nigerian alcohol illicit. However, it is surprising that Chidi never knew that Kilt i.e. skirt is a national dress of the Scottish males and whiskey production is associated with Scottland. When Obinna Iyiegbu, a.k.a. Obi Cubana, wore a kilt to sign agreement with a Scottish whiskey exporter, it was not for distillation of whiskey but for its import into Nigeria. Neither the people of Oba nor of Nigeria are thirsty for whiskey, rather our people are in acute need of potable water to drink and for everyday sanitation.  

By 7 August 2021, the FBI in the US demanded the extradition of the Nigerian Super Cop, Abba Kyari for his role in money laundry case involving a Nigerian, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka Hushpuppi. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58079504 
Nigerians have since known that the crime detective super cop, and the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari is a friend of Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, alias Hushpuppi, who in turn is a friend to Kelly Vincent Chibuzor. Abba Kyari is also a good friend of Obinna Iyiegbu, alias Obi Cubana. Show me your friend and I will tell you the kind of person you are. All the aforementioned hero-worshiped celebrities are millionaires from the major Nigerian ethnic groups regardless of the evils they have perpetrated on Nigeria and her people. Whenever you meet a Nigerian millionaire, you can be rest assured of seeing bandits', kidnappers', armed robbers', and cattle rustlers' breeder. But we hero-worship our millionaires.
S. Kadiri   




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Ibrahim Abdullah

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Oct 5, 2021, 10:04:51 PM10/5/21
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You hero-worship your millionaires/billionaires because they are the real social bandits--they steal/rob and they give to the poor. That is the social in social banditry--an angle that is missing in all the extant accounts. And that is the original Hobsbawm formulation. 

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 7, 2021, 5:12:34 PM10/7/21
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Abdulrasak Gurnah, the 2021 Nobel Prize In Literature winner is not obscure, he is known in the circles that matter in his chosen endeavour.

Harrow, Kenneth

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Oct 7, 2021, 5:18:43 PM10/7/21
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i agree he is certainly not obscure, but i wouldn't have thought major. i fear asking what drives the stockholm syndrome... maybe he is really great. i will certainly read more to find out,
and like all of us wonder what drove them to choose him over the most obvious of choices, ngugi.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Oct 8, 2021, 1:22:58 AM10/8/21
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Maybe they pulled an Ali Mazrui 
in the complex world of East African 
Politics. I can’t say that they were funded
by Qatar, since Nobel has a lot of its
own  weaponized money . And I can’t 
conclude that he is a sophisticated 
Naipaul because I haven’t read his work
as yet. So your guess is better than mine, Ken.

GE








Professor Gloria Emeagwali
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

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 8, 2021, 2:18:44 PM10/8/21
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We ought not lose sight of the fact that so far (1901 -2021) a grand total of seven African writers have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature :

1957 : Albert Camus (Algeria)

1986: Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)

1988: Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)

1991: Nadine Gordimer (South Africa)

2003: J.M. Coetzee (South Africa)

2007: Doris Lessing (UK-Zimbabwe)

2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah ( Zanzibar)

Yesterday, my dear Brother Biko Agozino wrote to my equally dear Lord Olayinka Agbetuyi: “There is no comparison of Africans with African Americans, we are one people”- and since we are One People, United by Blood and History, albeit separated by the Atlantic Ocean, I'd like to squeeze in

1992; Derek Walcott ( Great Poet) – Saint Lucia

1993: Toni Morison ( United States)

And if it's by country, and a bit of colour added to the mixture, what about the one who so many people on this list-serve love to hate, Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul ( Trinidad and Tobago ) ?

We've got to admit that this year's Nobel Laureate for Literature was something of a dark horse. He wasn't even featured at Ladbrokes and that's why Professor Harrow is asking the question that must be burning in many minds, including Wa Thiongo's :

what drove them to choose him over the most obvious of choices, ngugi.”?

By “ them” Professor Harrow means The Swedish Academy selection committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature

In my opinion, the Swedish Academy snubbed my dear friend Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ( we became friends, shared a few beers, whilst, as James Ngugi he was a writer-in-residence at the University of Ghana where I was a postgraduate student in African Literature in 1970). They ( the Swedish Academy) took their revenge on him, not inadvertently but deliberately they were going to teach him a lesson .that you don't preach to the Oyibo who are supposed to be awarding you their prize that it's time to stop using the Oyibo's Language and to start going places with your own God-given Mother Tongue) and this lesson should be driven home ( so they think – perhaps, not unanimously) by making the choice that they made - a so called radical departure from some former norm - and this new “breath of fresh air” is being vastly celebrated in the Swedish Media and at the same time it looks like their well calculated intention was to counter Wa Thiongo's advocacy of African Literature being written/ created in indigenous African languages by pointedly awarding the prize to Abdulrazak Gurnah whose first language /mother-tongue is Swahili but has wisely, nevertheless adopted Her Majesty's English as his chosen weapon/ vehicle of communication and as the surest means of delivering his literary skills to the world at large and bagging the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2021. The award took him by surprise, he says. Ditto – took Bob Dylan by surprise since the Ladbrokes odds on him winning the prize that year was 500 to 1

I sympathise with both Wa Thiongo'o and Gurnah, neither of whom is an uncle tom. Recently, I had to explain to a Swedish relative ( Karin Fant) that my Creole - my idiomatic/colloquial/conversational Creole / Krio Language skills are not great enough for me to write poetry in that language – but in global English, I find another kind of range as a world citizen

I followed the discussion on Swedish TV just before the winner was announced. The TV pundits all had their favourites - nothing wrong with that - on the way to seeing Wole Soyinka off to the airport bus after the PEN Conference in Stockholm in 1979, I had told him that he was then at the top of my list for the Nobel Prize. He had smiled and told me, “ I also have my favourites” and I'm sure that Philip Roth also had his favourites, most probably, so did Graham Greene. That's why there's nothing wrong with the Besserwisser Swedish pundits and some of the ignoramuses too pontificating about African Literature and telling us that e.g. Nigerians write in a peculiar English known as Nigerian English and that there are several kinds of Englishes, true ( we even have a recently appointed “full professor” of that kind of rubbish, writing in his own ridiculous, pompous, inflated way that he writes because he thinks that's how a very intelligent, half, or a great, big, highly educated, full professor should sound.

All I wanted to say before I got slightly carried away is that none of the TV pundits had even mentioned the name Abdulrazak Gurnah.

One last little thing: You know, there are the sort of writers that are discerned as purposefully working for a Nobel Prize in Literature award - whereas e.g. Jamaica Kincaid said explicitly in an interview with her that I read about a year ago that she does not want the Nobel Prize!

You also know that if, e-g. You are a homophobe, there's no way you're going to be awarded a Nobel Prize in anything.

Here's another quality that the Nobel Committee must have found particularly endearing about this year's Noble laureate reminiscent of Lakunle lecturing Sidi :

“A savage custom, barbaric, out-dated,

Rejected, denounced, accursed,

Excommunicated, archaic, degrading,

Humiliating, unspeakable, redundant.

Retrogressive, remarkable, unpalatable...

An ignoble custom, infamous, ignominious

Shaming our heritage before the world.”

Well, here is Abdulrazak on the attack ( against FGM) 

Gloria Emeagwali

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Oct 8, 2021, 3:40:49 PM10/8/21
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Thanks for this list. Now I see the light.

 The Noble Prize givers seem to have a soft spot for settler colonists and their
descendants. Reminds me of the
Brits during the colonial era.

But of course I may be wrong.

GE



On Oct 8, 2021, at 14:18, Cornelius Hamelberg <Cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:



OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Oct 8, 2021, 8:06:54 PM10/8/21
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Oga Cornelius

So you were a postgraduate student of African Literature in 1970!

You are trying to let us know that you attended graduate school when Toyin Adepoju was not yet born even though he creates the impression the way he communicates like you two were classmates in elementary school.


OAA


Minority rule is the tail that wags the dog.  Vote for majority rule at the centre in Nigeria come 2023



Sent from my Galaxy



-------- Original message --------
From: Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.e...@gmail.com>
Date: 08/10/2021 20:43 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

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Thanks for this list. Now I see the light.

 The Noble Prize givers seem to have a soft spot for settler colonists and their
descendants. Reminds me of the
Brits during the colonial era.

But of course I may be wrong.

GE



On Oct 8, 2021, at 14:18, Cornelius Hamelberg <Cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:



We ought not lose sight of the fact that so far (1901 -2021) a grand total of seven African writers have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature :

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 8, 2021, 8:35:28 PM10/8/21
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Lord Agbetuyi,

Indeed, in 1970 my Better Half and I were  students of Abiola Irele, one of Tony Adepoju's idols.

I was keeping mature company long before that.

One of the peculiar characteristics of some people is that even when they are over twenty-one years old, or older than Alexander the Great , at the age when he was great, they think they are still babies and want to be treated as such...

On the other hand, circa 1970, I used to consider 40-year-olds  as very old, especially when they'd start talking about "the war" ( WW2), the Korea  War etc...

Robert Graves said that the best poetry a man writes is done and over with before you are thirty years old.

My 80-something -year- old Californian friend likes to tell the young ladies that " it's the old violins that make the sweetest music..."

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 8, 2021, 10:03:51 PM10/8/21
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Lord Agbetuyi,

Of course, I don't know where and when Adepoju was born. For all I care, he could have been a contemporary of Hume, or have been rubbing noses with his other idol, Kant, in real-time or moralising with Aristotle, discussing the ethics of a good life with him or dancing the Egungun and entering the Agemo phase cheek to cheek with Susan Wenger in Oshogbo, but the impression he wants to giver that he and I “ were classmates in elementary school” in Fulham and of course that he was the brighter star, all that is as a result of what colonialism and a sound or not so sound colonial education has done to some of us, that some of us are forever so hung up on all that. As the Last Poets put it,

Niggaz talk about the mind
Talk about: “My mind is stronger than yours!”
"I got that bitch's mind uptight!"
Niggaz don't know a damn thing about the mind
Or they'd be right “

When higher education becomes a democratic right and everyone has free access to it, then the village elitism mentality will disappear quickly; for now, even the elementary science teacher believes himself to be Einstein, everybody wants to be a professor of Big English ( big deal) sound real English and talk down to the rest of us plebs who are doing our best to sound or act Nigerian, want to be Professor of music, to be a professor of piano, Saxo - “ full professor “ to teach it at Berkley - and they think that only the efulefu are fit to be real musicians, poets, actors, painters, dancers, footballers, surfers, basketball stars, racing car champions,,,

In 1970 my Better Half already had a Masters in Modern Languages (Spanish, Italian, and English) but was more interested in I.T.A . Wallace- Johnson, Zik, Kwame Nkrumah and the West African Youth League.

It's 3.30 a.m. over here in Stockholm and I hope that Adepoju has read and thoroughly digested what Wale Ghazal posted today...




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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Oct 9, 2021, 5:52:46 AM10/9/21
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Oga Cornelius.

Ill let you off to catch a couple of winks.. In 1970 yours truly hasnt even bagged his G.C.E O'Levels yet ( doubt if the Moderator has either)

Well, such is the world today, when the new genius of the brave new dawn sits in his garden in Ikeja ( Wariboko- like) have himself being fought over by two eminent scholars about who discovered whom and the mutual praise of geniuses reverberates along forum corridors in a tale of mutual praises of a dog chasing its tail.

Dont even let me wax lyrical on geniuses or the tail wagging the ( top) dog...

Aside:   The last Commandment:

Thou shalt not eavesdrop on geniuses!

Good night and sweet dreams! (No nightmares or wayward stallions)


OAA


Minority rule is the tail that wags the dog.

Vote for majority rule at the centre in Nigeria come 2023.



Sent from my Galaxy

-------- Original message --------
From: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Date: 09/10/2021 03:18 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

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Lord Agbetuyi,

Of course, I don't know where and when Adepoju was born. For all I care, he could have been a contemporary of Hume, or have been rubbing noses with his other idol, Kant, in real-time or moralising with Aristotle, discussing the ethics of a good life with him or dancing the Egungun and entering the Agemo phase cheek to cheek with Susan Wenger in Oshogbo, but the impression he wants to giver that he and I “ were classmates in elementary school” in Fulham and of course that he was the brighter star, all that is as a result of what colonialism and a sound or not so sound colonial education has done to some of us, that some of us are forever so hung up on all that. As the Last Poets put it,

Niggaz talk about the mind
Talk about: “My mind is stronger than yours!”
"I got that bitch's mind uptight!"
Niggaz don't know a damn thing about the mind
Or they'd be right “

When higher education becomes a democratic right and everyone has free access to it, then the village elitism mentality will disappear quickly; for now, even the elementary science teacher believes himself to be Einstein, everybody wants to be a professor of Big English ( big deal) sound real English and talk down to the rest of us plebs who are doing our best to sound or act Nigerian, want to be Professor of music, to be a professor of piano, Saxo - “ full professor “ to teach it at Berkley - and they think that only the efulefu are fit to be real musicians, poets, actors, painters, dancers, footballers, surfers, basketball stars, racing car champions,,,

In 1970 my Better Half already had a Masters in Modern Languages (Spanish, Italian, and English) but was more interested in I.T.A . Wallace- Johnson, Zik, Kwame Nkrumah and the West African Youth League.

It's 3.30 a.m. over here in Stockholm and I hope that Adepoju has read and thoroughly digested what Wale Ghazal posted today...




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Chambi Chachage

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Oct 9, 2021, 8:37:33 AM10/9/21
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His interviews in the links below from way back gives a glimpse of what kind of writer Gurnah is and, in as much as I wish Ngugi whom Gurnah taught about got the prize, I am convinced Gurnah deserves it in his own right, not least because of the politics addressed in his novels.


AC62-20 8.10.2021 oct 2021[97].pdf

Harrow, Kenneth

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Oct 9, 2021, 9:10:26 AM10/9/21
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thanks for this work. i think, fundamentally, we are all happy to see an african author win,
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Oct 9, 2021, 11:10:11 AM10/9/21
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Chambi,
You, of all people, are one of the persons
I trust most to make a good judgement 
on this. Thanks for the links. Now I have
to read at least one of his books.




Professor Gloria Emeagwali
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


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thanks for this work. i think, fundamentally, we are all happy to see an african author win,

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Oct 9, 2021, 12:39:16 PM10/9/21
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Oga Cornelius:

Are you talking of the same Abiola Irele whom the Great Toyin Adepoju said was one of his fans?

A fan is different from an idol;  stop putting a cart before a horse, sir!


OAA


Democracy and majority rule: both sides of the same coin.
Take heed Nigeria



Sent from my Galaxy



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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

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Lord Agbetuyi,

Indeed, in 1970 my Better Half and I were  students of Abiola Irele, one of Tony Adepoju's idols.

I was keeping mature company long before that.

One of the peculiar characteristics of some people is that even when they are over twenty-one years old, or older than Alexander the Great , at the age when he was great, they think they are still babies and want to be treated as such...

On the other hand, circa 1970, I used to consider 40-year-olds  as very old, especially when they'd start talking about "the war" ( WW2), the Korea  War etc...

Robert Graves said that the best poetry a man writes is done and over with before you are thirty years old.

My 80-something -year- old Californian friend likes to tell the young ladies that " it's the old violins that make the sweetest music..."

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Chambi Chachage

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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 9, 2021, 3:37:15 PM10/9/21
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"But I don't just record a dry history of events and facts, I am writing a history of human feelings"-Svetlana Alexievich(winner of 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature)

Alinah Segobye

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Oct 9, 2021, 3:37:15 PM10/9/21
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Apt observation...

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 10, 2021, 9:08:47 AM10/10/21
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"I was told by a foreign correspondent in Cairo that the moment my name was mentioned in connection with the prize silence fell, and many wondered who I was"-Naguib Mahfouz(1988 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature at "Nobel Lecture")

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 10, 2021, 4:51:54 PM10/10/21
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Lord Agbetuyi,

First of all. please forgive me for being such an Anglophile, to the extent that I mistakenly said that my Better Half's Masters in Modern Languages ( Stockholm University), was in Italian, Spanish, and English, when in fact it's in Italian, French and Spanish. She studied English at the University of Washington in Seattle ( the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix) and returned to Stockholm speaking her mother-tongue Swedish with a deliberately cultivated American American accent, she tells me, until her parents put a stop to that by imitating her. She's a good English to Swedish translator. Generally, Swedish publishers only employ competent mother-tongue speakers to translate, so she translated e.g. Bruno Bettelheim's The Empty Fortress into Swedish whilst we were in Nigeria. I wish she would be given the honour to translate Professor Falola's A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt; it deserves to be translated. I also wish that she was sitting in the Swedish Academy and having a little say-so about who is going to bag the next Nobel Prize in Literature.

Yes, indeed Abiola Irele.

Sad to say that by the 10th of October ( my blessed mother's birthday – also the day that my dear Pir, Dr Javad Nurbakhsh passed away in 2008) I am more acquainted with Abiola Irele's The African Experience in Literature and Ideology, than with the man himself, after circa twenty hours of seminars with him - at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, At one such fruitful seminar at which visiting Professor Gerald Moore ( full professor) was in attendance it emerged that Tchicaya U Tam'si was his ( Moore's) favourite Congolese poet, which doesn't say much, since the then Zaire didn't have that many poets...

We have to forgive Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju's occasional affliction, his general delusions of grandeur ( Oga Farooqi too, more often deluded ) and in this specific case, improbable as it sounds we have to forgive Adepoju for believing that Abiola Irele was one of his ( Adepoju's) great fans. What on earth gave him that idea?

I Like the irrepressible Mark Steyn ( no fool, not full,  not half, no p, no h, no d and no big grrrr


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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 11, 2021, 2:54:15 PM10/11/21
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The Nobel Prize Committee does not like to be dictated to by self appointed gatekeepers of literature. The Committee likes to always showcase the fact that it has its own mind.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO).

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 14, 2021, 5:47:25 PM10/14/21
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The fact that Abdulrasak Gurnah, a name not well known to most Professors of Literature and History, won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature means that the Nobel Prize Committee digs deeper than those we depend on for knowledge.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 15, 2021, 4:02:41 PM10/15/21
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Femi Fani-Kayode's reference to Governor Wike's father is actually a compliment. For Wike to have come this far in Nigeria without a famous father is something to be proud of.

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 16, 2021, 5:07:20 AM10/16/21
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The person who "discovered" is the person who recorded and documented what was seen.

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 20, 2021, 7:46:43 AM10/20/21
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Not all dogmas should be questioned, some dogmas that appear unreasonable can be questioned.

The existence of God is a dogma that it will be foolish to question, considering all the inexplicable creations that must have been put into existence by a powerful creative force.

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Oct 20, 2021, 11:44:08 AM10/20/21
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Kant seems to have held a similar view only to debunk it later-

''The existence of God is a dogma that it will be foolish to question, considering all the inexplicable creations that must have been put into existence by a powerful creative force.''

Is this view no better than speculation? 

its plausible but does that make it factual?

is it possible to find out for a fact that  this force exists, as different from one's expectation that it does?

do human beings possess the capacities for gaining such definitive knowledge?

some claim to have gained such knowledge, but are their exploratory methods readily validatable by everyone?

''enquiry about God is fundamental to human nature but is the definitive answer to the question not beyond the scope of experience of most people?", Kant's opening lines in Critique of Pure Reason may be ;paraphrased.








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Harrow, Kenneth

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Oct 20, 2021, 5:35:03 PM10/20/21
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toyin,
more and more scientists can talk about the big bang and the nature of matter and energy. the argument for god is that god is the cause for matter and energy to exist.
but that is pointless speculation. why not simply accept what we know about the forces of nature inherent in matter as we can observe them? their origins are not only unknown, but we might as well say were always there.
the rest of it, all the religions of the world, consist of nice stories that comfort people.
that's my view.
i practice the religious services of my religion because they give me pleasure and community, but i have no illusions that they provide any more than what i wrote above, and in fact they rehearse the same mythological stories as other religions.
if you or others feel a divine presence, i am not saying anyone should tell you that your experiences are wrong. but the argument about causality is nonsensical. to say everything has a cause is to say human logic somehow explains a cause which is not known, observed, present in our lives.
in my humble opinion
i'd say we all should have, in everyone's curriculum, hawking's Brief history of time to get the basic grasp of the nature of our world. it is fabulous. not as in fables, but as in human thought.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 20, 2021, 5:43:55 PM10/20/21
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

The fool said in his heart, "There is no God"; they have dealt corruptly; they have committed abominable deeds; no one does good.” ( Tehillim 14:1 )

But away from feeble abstractions and inanities to the nightmare realities:

Today is the anniversary of the Lekki Massacre which according to the BBC's Focus on Africa, Major-General Buhari & the Nigerian Powers that be are still vigorously dismissing as a “phantom“ – that it never happened as if they are not fully aware of the contents of Surah al Alaq

As to the existence of your adversary, the tempter, as we continue to observe much of the worldly world's political behaviour all you have to do is to read the below for the beginning of a glimmering of understanding : (Jesus tempted by the devil)

Again, the devil took Him ( Jesus) up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him”




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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 22, 2021, 10:43:37 AM10/22/21
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On one hand, we have Stephen Hawking and God and on the other hand, we have Gerald L. Schroeder and The Science of God


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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 22, 2021, 11:40:58 AM10/22/21
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Re - God and Stephen Hawking

Unfortunately, Hawking's view of God could affect some religious doubting Thomases in mainstream Christianity. We don't have to worry about the House of Israel  because, as the Torah records in Shemot / Exodus 19: 9

“And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I am coming to you in the thickness of the cloud, in order that the people hear when I speak to you, and they will also believe in you forever." And Moses relayed the words of the people to the Lord.”

For some faint-hearted Christians it could be different, but here is Bishop Robert Barron answering the question: Is Stephen Hawking Right About God?

There's also The Veritas Forum which sheds light on some of these questions

As far as Muslims are concerned the atheists (kuffar) will soon meet their Creator and get to know if God exists or not and if hell according to Christianity and if the hell, according to Islam has any real fire or if it's merely metaphorical 

A Muslim by definition believes in God. 

The Quran is explicit about those who are led astray

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 22, 2021, 11:40:59 AM10/22/21
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Gerald L. Schroeder : God

Did Hawking and Schroeder ever discuss the matter, I wonder 


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Gloria Emeagwali

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Oct 22, 2021, 12:48:56 PM10/22/21
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From the look of things,  we would 
need the Bible, the Torah, the Quran, the Vedas, Ifa, the Sutras and more,  to cope with the fallout from Biden’s new militaristic agenda. China will be
protected by Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War, apparently.

Seriously, Biden is undergoing 
a speedy  transformation from dove to hawk. His poll numbers are dropping,
and he probably thinks that war mongering will  boost his numbers. It worked for Reagan and Bush 1&2. 
Will it work for Biden in the era of Covid19?


Prof. Gloria Emeagwali 



On Oct 22, 2021, at 10:43, Cornelius Hamelberg <Cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:



K. Gozie Ifesinachukwu

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Oct 22, 2021, 4:04:01 PM10/22/21
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Gloria,

My sense is that every POTUS would have answered the question about hypersonic weapons and Taiwan just about the same way that Biden did. What else would he have said, “oh yeah, China can have Taiwan” or US will not develop hypersonic weapons and counters to such weapons.

 

Biden is POTUS and will first and foremost protect and defend strategic interests of US. China off course will do the same. That is what serious responsible countries do. No permanent enemies, no permanent friends, only permanent interests. The world should hope that none of this will lead to actual military conflict in that region either deliberately or by some miscalculation.

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Oct 22, 2021, 6:30:31 PM10/22/21
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Successive Presidents have conceded that Taiwan is a part of 
China.  President Clinton publicly stated that the US does not support the
notion of an independent Taiwan,  in discussions with President Zemin.

President Bush 02 did the same and opposed Taiwan's unilateral action.
His father, Bush 01, said in 1982: "We have one policy. There is one China."
When he became President,  he shifted at one point, but seemed 
to get back to the earlier position. 

Recall that Nixon's "ping pong" diplomacy effectively initiated
support for the mainland. The Taiwan question has been a thorn in the flesh 
for US Presidents but until Trump landed in the White House, the general 
tendency since Nixon, was to recognize Taiwan as a province or part of China.

Biden's attempt to follow Trump could lead to the disaster that we thought we
had avoided by kicking Trump out of the White House.  The transactional 
President probably struck some kind of deal.

That often quoted line about no permanent friends or enemies is often a
declaration of opportunism that feeds into the military industrial complex, 
more often than not.

I hope   as you do, that China does not get the opportunity to use its
 hypersonic missiles.





Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries
2014 Distinguished Research Excellence Award in African Studies
 University of Texas at Austin
2019   Distinguished Africanist Award                   
New York African Studies Association
 



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To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
 

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Gloria,

Sabella Abidde

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Oct 22, 2021, 8:22:30 PM10/22/21
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There must be a resolution to the Taiwan issue -- just as there must be a resolution to the Palestinian and Western Sahara question. The status quo is not sustainable, and neither should we accept a situation where people are forced to remain or be part of a country they do not want to belong to. Since 1949 Taiwan has met all the requirements of Statehood…what’s the problem, what’s the wahala?

Sabella




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Sabella Abidde

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Oct 23, 2021, 3:39:47 AM10/23/21
to Emeagwali, Gloria (History), USA Africa Dialogue Series

This is implausible and thinking about it may not make sense. But let’s try: Say the people and the government of Taiwan move to an island in the Caribbean or somewhere in Africa or Latin America, would China have the right to claim the new land as one of its provinces?

Sabella


On Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 9:35 PM Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu> wrote:
Recall that Taiwan started off with
 the exiled leaders of the Kuomintang (KMT)
fleeing  to Taiwan after the victory of the PRC
on the mainland.

The Taiwanese government has not 
always sought statehood.  Many  Taiwanese 
preferred to  be  part of Mainland China.
I don’t know what the figures are right now
and the upcoming December referendum does
 not include a question on independence.


It is true to say, though,  that the KMT has often
supported  unification with  the mainland while 
the  DPP tends to call for independence.
The matter is not straightforward.  

Trump and Biden decided to jump into the 
pro- independence camp and support the
DPP’s current position.


So  I would say that the wahala dates to 1949 
at the birth of Communist China and the 
evolution of the cold War when the Cold War
belligerents used the Taiwan - Mainland
China  situation for their own political gains.
The wahala started when the UN refused 
to recognize mainland China,   and instead 
recognized Taiwan. This went on for about 
two decades and is now resurfacing 
somewhat.








Professor Gloria Emeagwali
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


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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Oct 23, 2021, 3:39:47 AM10/23/21
to Sabella Abidde, USA Africa Dialogue Series
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;

2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Sabella Abidde <sab...@gmail.com>
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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 23, 2021, 3:39:47 AM10/23/21
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What Nigeria's Minister of Justice said recently about Kanu and Adeyemo (Igboho) are allegations and since the onus of proof lies solely on the one making the allegations, we should wait for the Minister to supply proofs of his allegations.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO).

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Oct 23, 2021, 9:50:49 AM10/23/21
to Sabella Abidde, USA Africa Dialogue Series
Historical and geopolitical contexts are
key.

France claims Guadeloupe and  Martinique in the Caribbean, and  New  Caledonia islands
 in the  South Pacificright now as we speak.
 The US  claims Guam  and Hawaii, too, also
in the Pacific. Queen Liliuokalani
of Hawaii is still rolling in the grave. 

China’s geopolitical claims are relatively  more 
justified, given that Taiwan is a stone’s throw 
away from the mainland, and given the historical 
context - linked to its 1949 revolution and the 
divide -and - rule politics that ensued between
East and West.

But at the end of the day a referendum in Taiwan 
may be a decisive factor in influencing
opinion.


Professor Gloria Emeagwali
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 Associational context is key

From: Sabella Abidde <sab...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2021 12:10 AM
To: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Cc: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Assensoh, Akwasi B.

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Oct 23, 2021, 9:50:56 AM10/23/21
to Emeagwali, Gloria (History), usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Sabella Abidde, Godwin Ohiwerei, rig...@yahoo.com, Damien Ejigiri, afaug...@yahoo.com, doy...@gmail.com, noahk...@gmail.com, Philip Aka, Nana AB, Toyin Falola

A very useful query, Professor Abidde (Sabella)! Well, with nimble knowledge from my Legal Negotiations and International Law courses, I may add the following: probably Mainland China can still claim the new place out of intransigence (or arrogance?), especially if the island in the Caribbean or Africa is re-named "Nationalist China"! To be safe, the nomad Taiwanese can cleverly rename the new island either Republic of Formosa or Republic of Taiwan. How about that? 


A.B. Assensoh.




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John Edward Philips (Yahaya Danjuma)

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Oct 24, 2021, 7:09:40 AM10/24/21
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The island of Taiwan was part of China until Japan took it after the Sino-Japanese war in 1895. It was Japanese for 50 years during which time baseball and other aspects of Japanese culture were imposed. It reverted to China after World War II, filling up with refugees from the mainland in the wake of the Communist revolution a few years later. It has maintained an older form of the Chinese written script, and legally calls itself “The Republic of China”, the name of the Chinese government that fought World War II. There is agitation for independence on Taiwan, and the situation is very complicated, but both governments recognize that Taiwan is a province in China, and both have the same border disputes with Japan, Russia, and India. Basically what you have there is a civil war and/or revolution that was frozen in place, and has been for over 70 years now. Personally I’d prefer it if they would solve the problem equitably through negotiation and compromise, but I don’t know how likely that would be. I suppose about as likely as free elections on the mainland. 

Harrow, Kenneth

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Oct 24, 2021, 10:28:14 AM10/24/21
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if taiwan were to be taken into china, it would no doubt become another hong kong situation, or tibet situation, i.e., unhappily dominated by an authoritarian govt.
maybe after 100 years or 50 years that wouldn't matter. but i'd prefer all the questions be settled by the people themselves in each instance. we privilege the nation-state reflexively as if it were a natural normal entity instead of the dominating order that imposes sameness on others
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


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Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
 

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 25, 2021, 2:08:08 AM10/25/21
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Chidi,

Exactly as you say: “ The onus of proof lies solely on the one making the allegations”

Absolutely! He who feels it knows.

I ran into the same unfortunate situation on the 20th of October this year at our local ICA Supermarket at Enskede, where I live. I had bought some groceries at Willys at Fridhemsplan half an hour earlier ( tomatoes, paprika, ecological cucumbers) and some toast bread at COOP, and now a single item at ICA, a jar of pasta sauce, a tomato and garlic mix, stood patiently in the queue, and when it was my turn, the blond, blue-eyed urchin serving as a cashier at the checkout demanded that he wanted to see what was in my shopping basket.

Did you purchase these other things here?, he gaped at me

No, I told him

Do you have a receipt?

Yes, it's in the basket.

He takes a look and comes up with a receipt from the library - in a triumphant gotcha mode he then

exclaims for everybody in the Supermarket to wake up and take notice:

But this is a receipt from the library!

Just rummage a little further in the basket, I instruct him.

Reluctantly, he comes up with the receipt from Willys.

Can you prove that these tomatoes in your basket are from Willys and not from us ? asks the slow-brain, low-intelligence, cheeky blond & blue-eyed bugger.

IDIOT! - I reply in full battle Naija mode

NO! You can't tell him that - cackled a young lady further down in the queue behind me in protest-support of the urchin.

DOUBLE IDIOT! ( I'm now referring to both of them) I must prove to you ( s.o.b.) that I didn't steal some of your miserable ICA tomatoes? The proof is in your hands, the receipt from Willys! You could if you want please call the police!

( Does he think that I have no respect for the eighth commandment: Do Not Steal -

and to date, I have never stolen anything or kidnapped anybody. But how is he supposed to know that? As far as the urchin is concerned, I probably look like a criminal who goes around stealing some miserable-looking tomatoes from ICA. I felt constrained to show him my bank balance which at that moment stood at Swkr. 121, 000, enough to buy a pyramid of tomatoes currently rotting in Gaza without a harbour from which the poor Palestinians can export their tomatoes. I mention this because I remember empathizing with the former Mayor of Gaza, Rashad al-Shawwa when I saw real tears rolling down his cheek as he addressed us at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in 1986, as he pleaded with the then Swedish Government to please help them build a harbour for them so that they could export their tomatoes. And also to help with building playgrounds for the Gaza kids. That was of course long before Ariel Sharon unilaterally vacated Gaza, lock, stock and barrel between August and September 2005

Last night I asked Samuel my spiritual guide and adviser about the inadvisability of my losing my cool and saying “ idiot” to that miscreant with reference to Matthew 5: 22 ( Revised Standard Version) which says ( Jesus, speaking) :

“ But I say to you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment: whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, “ You fool” shall be liable to the hell fire”

According to Samuel,  the caveat is “everyone who is angry with his brother WITHOUT CAUSE ….

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Oct 25, 2021, 11:16:42 AM10/25/21
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Supery writing from Cornelius.

Fit to be anthologized.

Perhaps in The Best of Social Media published by Compcros.

Thanks

Toyin

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Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Oct 25, 2021, 11:17:29 AM10/25/21
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Edited


Superb writing from Cornelius.

Fit to be anthologized.

Perhaps in The Best of Social Media published by Compcros.

Thanks

Toyin


Harrow, Kenneth

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Oct 25, 2021, 12:26:38 PM10/25/21
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i really also enjoyed cornelius's account.
cornelius, in the states we'd attribute this to racism. is sweden any different?
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


Sent: Monday, October 25, 2021 10:52 AM
To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Today's Quote
 

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 25, 2021, 7:40:32 PM10/25/21
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Dear Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

Your silver tongue is not going to get us anywhere.

I was merely recording that incident as a diary entry.

I pray constantly that the Almighty will help me to be humble ( The Prophet Moses was the most humble human being that ever trod this earth.) If only I had been humble instead of egotistical - thinking that damn right I'm also “somebody”, I would have reacted differently. And if only I could have opted to adopt this strategy from Sun-Tzu's The Art of War - from the section on Initial Estimations which recommends, “ If they are angry, perturb them; be deferential to foster their arrogance” - to foster their arrogance” their arrogance which already knows no bounds because it is so overconfident in its assumption - that's how and why you get the enemy exactly where you want him and then deliver the coup de grâce.

In my own very limited experience, some people are so extremely confident in their self-esteem/conceit, delusions etc., that they don't know or even realise when they are standing very close to danger until it's too late...

By the way, I thought of you directly when the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III intimated us last night with the thrilling news that there is an older form of Ifa that precedes the Ifa that you Adepoju have been researching.



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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 25, 2021, 7:40:38 PM10/25/21
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in the states we'd attribute this to racism “, says Kenneth Harrow, the Oyibo...

Sweden is different. Different breed. The Oyibo in Sweden is not the same as the Oyibo in the United States. The Swedish Oyibo does not have the plantation overseer mentality in his veins or in his DNA. In Sweden, race biology is no more

Because I'm old enough to be his grandfather I give the Swedish urchin the benefit of the doubt, after all, I have been buying my groceries at that ICA Supermarket since 2008 and this is the very first time that anyone has asked to “see” what's in my bag. He's new at the job, and, if anything maybe, he was being a little overzealous...

After the incident, I went home ( a five minutes walk) and returned to the scene of the crime hoping that this time he would make a very fundamental mistake in which case he would get to know that he was messing with the wrong nigger. I went with another bag ( some books from the library) hoping that he was going to ask, “ and what's in the bag ? ” - but this time he didn't say anything. Somehow, he must have correctly figured out that this time at the very least I would drop the bomb on him. All he said was if I would like to take advantage of the 5% special reduction on my purchase ( Tuesdays to Thursday). I told him no. I started feeling sorry for him since it was getting close to closing time, didn't want him to start feeling worried or insecure about how he was going to get home safely, and if that was the reception committee waiting for him outside, all dressed in black...

This evening I went to the store to get some chewing gum - changed my mind, also told him that we still have some unfinished business to settle and that I'll be talking to him when he's not sitting behind the till. Let him go figure out what I want to “talk” about. I want to show him the receipts and the time on the receipts from Wills and COOP.

There's The Passion Translation of Psalm 23 which I heard for the first time just before midnight

I want to talk about Psalm 91 and The Passion Translation of Psalm 91



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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM

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Oct 30, 2021, 2:26:28 PM10/30/21
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If "something serious" that would warrant a "search" can be said to be going on in the residence of a Supreme Court Judge, then the rest of us in Nigeria are not safe from "search".

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)
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