MODERATOR'S CONCERN AND QUESTIONS
Toyin Falola
A nationalist and Pan-Africanist voice
When this site was created, it was to be a Pan-Africanist voice, projecting visions of a transformative diaspora network that will be part of the changes in Africa and its diaspora. It was not to be a racial or ethnic site. Indeed, it was created to bring together voices that are not framed as “ethnic” but as nationalist, panAfricanist and continentalist. We were to be a collection of individuals who seek the best in our people, and who take the tools to unite.
Over time, LGBTS voices were drowned, and voices from other African countries began to disappear. More recently, it became an avenue for some to express ethnic sentiments, to defend causes and words that are not defensible, to rate the performance of one “tribal” leader over another “tribal” rival. The poor and the powerless become betrayed and subverted. Scholarship becomes an agency of narrow ideological pursuits in the cause of divisive ethnic politics.
Identities are important, but as different scholars defend those causes, they should ponder in their minds whether this is the role for contemporary intellectuals to do. To those who are not cynical and self-appointed ethnic warriors, I would like to pose some questions.
Where should the diaspora scholars stand on divisive issues, and whom should they represent?
Should the views of ethnic warriors and those of scholars be the same?
Is there no way to frame analysis other than through the prism of the ethnic?
Whether it is in the Nigerian civil war or the Rwanda genocide, why do scholars become involved as central figures?
If a Yoruba politician steals money, is this the reason why the Igbo politician should steal money? And if the Igbo politician does the same, is this a justification for the Yoruba scholar to defend the Yoruba thief? Is a thief not a thief irrespective of where he comes from?
If the diasporan scholars of this generation fall short of the remarkable contributions of Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. Du Bois, can we not dismiss them as a collective failure? What is the worth of their degrees if their views are far worse than those of peasants with consciousness to the poor?
Is Ebola, poverty, prostitution, destitution (etc.) ethnic issues? Can the collective intellectual might of scholars not be focused on issues of great concerns? Is being Igbo or Yoruba a qualification to advance democracy and sustainable development?
Africa’s population will eventually reach a staggering figure of 5 billion by 2050, according to current projection, what is the role of African scholars in coming up with discussions that will address the various issues around this?
K. Gozie Ifesinachukwu
Prof. Falola,
Thank you, thank you, thank you yet again.
Knowledge and education supposed to make us better than what I sometimes see in this forum. I am typically in what CAO calls read only mode (ROM), but even I, have had to contribute due to what I see as “excesses” in our pronouncements and writings. Our intellectuals (I am not one) should be above this. What will those with much less exposure to the world do? Whatever you write, will your progenies be proud of your contributions to this forum 30, 50 or 100 years hence. If they will not be, then don’t post it. Please let’s be civil and think on how we can transform Africa and build a thousand Singapore in Africa and not how one person is greater than another or how one tribe is greater than another or how one very poor African country is greater than another poorer African country. The rest of the world is looking at Africa as a collective failure, and what we want to write about are trivialities and not ways to transform and catch up with the rest of the world. Common; we can do better. Back to ROM.
Regards,
Gozie
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Nuru Akinyemi
Have a great weekend everyone.
Nuru Akinyemi.
To: "dialogue" <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 10:56:33 AM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MODERATOR'S CONCERN AND QUESTIONS
Bode
Kissi, Edward
Where should the diaspora scholars stand on divisive issues, and whom should they represent?
I met the Moderator for the first time at the Africa conference in Austin, last week. The first question I asked him was: How do you manage the USAAfricaDialogue forum? His brief response was: It is hard-work.
I saw him several times, at the conference site, with his large laptop. I suppose he was rendering that pan-African service that we have become used to in this Forum. But beyond my witness of the Moderator at-work, I also attended Paul Tiyambe Zeleza’s inspiring lecture, at the conference, on “The Role of the Diaspora in Africa’s Economic and Political Transformations.” There, I learnt that we are witnessing, in this Century, an intellectual revolution that has transformed the old phenomenon of Africa’s “Brain Drain” problem to a new reality of Africa’s “Brain Circulation” resource.
Perhaps, nowhere else has this new reality of “brain circulation” gained concrete expression than in this Forum. We gather here, thanks to a diaspora scholar, to inform and be informed; to inspire and be inspired through our exchange of ideas and the means by which we express them. Some express theirs well. Some don’t. My answer to the Moderator’s question above is that divisive issues that lead to violent expressions of human temper such as racism, ethnocentrism, religious bigotry, and conflicting views on national history, impose a special burden on those who claim the privilege of interpretation.
By their volatile nature, divisive issues should make the scholar, at the heritage site, or in the diaspora, a responsible representative of his or her society’s best ethical values of tolerance, compromise and accommodation, and not a promoter of spite and ideas that aggravate the open wounds of society.
The diaspora scholar, in particular, should have a broader universe of obligation to be a merchant of moral goods in a dual society: to stand in firm opposition to divisive issues that tear people and neighborhoods apart, in the nation of residence and the nation of descent, but present that opposition in ways that bridge differences and not accentuate them.
The diaspora scholar should be a defender of the vulnerable, speak for and write to advance causes and positions that make tomorrow better than today.
Edward Kissi
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com]
On Behalf Of Toyin Falola
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 10:57 AM
To: dialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MODERATOR'S CONCERN AND QUESTIONS
A nationalist and Pan-Africanist voice
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Chika Onyeani
We must continually thank you for having established this listserv and for also continually reminding us of the essence for establishing it. I find your concerns about 'tribal' and 'ethnic' jingoism valid, but then I noticed that you devolved your criticism to the so-called "Igbo-Yoruba" rivalry. I believe your criticism should be about ethnicity and tribalism in general without resorting to these two groups, as you rightly said that the concept of this group is meant to be continental.
I was grateful in the early days of this group when I accidentally lumped onto it and found the discussions refreshing. They were about ideas, though polarizing especially concerning people like me and George Ayittey who were accused of "promoting themselves" or George for announcing every place he had been invited to speak. You remember when members of the forum had to sue for peace between George Ayittey and others or between Chika Onyeani and others. I was accused of too much promotion of my book, "Capitalist Nigger," especially as the book had excoriated the so-called African elite class of being lazy, self-serving, and downright being the cause for Africa's abject poverty, underdevelopment and stagnation. Of course, I still stand by my observations. The articles were posted with numbers. But those things are not happening here now as you have, in order not to antagonize anybody, let homophobic, xenophobic and ethnic supremacists run riot here. I believe that you have the right to eschew anybody's postings that don't meet the standards for which you set up the forum.
The African immigrant has been acclaimed as the most educated in the U.S., but we appear uneducated in our actions when compared to other immigrant groups. No doubt, there are individual accomplishments, but what is it that the African Diaspora can point to as its collective achievement in America? We are more interested in our ethnic and village groups, as you rightly pointed out, not even our countries as we observe attempts at national organizations always devolve back to ethnic bickering. Hence our failure to organize ourselves in the mode of the Jewish, Asian or Latino groups, who have used their collective power to bring pressure to bear on those who make decisions concerning their areas and concerns.
Last year, for example, when President Obama invited African Heads of State for a Summit in Washington, DC, some of us believed that it was an opportune time for these Presidents/Prime Ministers to meet with their most important constituency. In fact, I fired an open letter to them that they should not disappoint their most important constituency, the African Diaspora, for after all we contribute about $80 billion annually to the African economy, resulting in the resilience of the continent's incredible impressive economic growth rate. But what ended up happening: they not only disappointed the African Diaspora but they met as usual organizations such as the Corporate Council on Africa, an organization run by Caucasians. But were the Presidents to blame - well not really. And why, because the African community was not and still not organized. We have all kinds of ineffective African organizations headed by individuals who are more treated in promoting themselves.
Of course, that is one of my diatribes which will be for another article.
So really, dear Toyin, you established this forum with a standard in mind. Stop lamenting about people writing this and that. There are other forums for that. You possess the big stick. If people don't want to meet the standards you believe are expected of the forum, don't post their contributions. Even me as one of the greatest offenders. Period.
Again, thanks.
Chika Onyeani
Ibukunolu A Babajide
Oga,
As always your vigour is persuasive but the way you formulate this topic is binary. Ethnic is bad and Africanist is good. I see many bad ethnic personalities evolving into evil demons of Africa whereas if we groom good ethnic personalities they will evolve into great pan Africanists.
Dividing the ethnic from the panAfrican will not genuinely advance the cause of Africa and this may be the bane of those great men Marcus Garvey and du Bois. I am also intrigued by the ethnicities you used as example. Yoruba and Igbo, Hutu and Tutsi. Are these conflicts not the same all over Africa. Luo Nuer (Riek Machar) and Dinka (Salva Kiir) or Kikuyu (Jomo Kenyata & son Uhuru) and Luo (Garamogi Odinga Odinga & son Raila) and so on and so forth replicated all over Africa.
It is the failure of the African scholar in focusing on these micro conflicts that form the bedrock and building blocks of Africa but instead building a romantic macro panAfrican illogic and counter reality that causes discourse to fissure along natural fault lines.
Until we tackle the basic fundamental relations or we engineer disruptive technologies like music or Nollywood that can force convergence without aggression and war or we engage in mass social engineering forcing mass migrations and intermarriages rosy panAfricanism will remain a subject of perpetual ivory tower debates that will not resonate with the poor peasants of Africa.
In a broad church of scholarship there is room for the ethnic and room for the panAfricanism discourse.
Cheers.
IBK
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Ugo Nwokeji
University of California, Berkeley
686 Barrows Hall #2572
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel. (510) 542-8140
Fax (510) 642-0318
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Kwabena Akurang-Parry
Greetings from Cape Coast. Yours is a timely intervention, but paradoxically somewhat belated. Some intersecting constituencies have either been chased out or have decided to quit this great forum. Time was when we had great "pan-Africanist" and globalist debates and perspectives. Your intervention should help us to reclaim such. We should also note that very often vigorous and forceful academic disagreements, with charitable and inclusive roots, are cast in hierarchies of wrong-doing. This stifles debates and otherwise healthy academic exchanges. Some are obviously opinionated and write forcefully in ways that turn words into cuddled weapons and ideas into syringes of "tribalizing." Of course, I recognize the difference between this and your take. Thanks oh Oga.
Kwabena Akurang-Parry
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MODERATOR'S CONCERN AND QUESTIONS
Pablo Idahosa
Sent from my grandfather's typewriter
Chief Oga Falola:
Greetings from Cape Coast. Yours is a timely intervention, but paradoxically somewhat belated. Some intersecting constituencies have either been chased out or have decided to quit this great forum. Time was when we had great "pan-Africanist" and globalist debates and perspectives. Your intervention should help us to reclaim such. We should also note that very often vigorous and forceful academic disagreements, with charitable and inclusive roots, are cast in hierarchies of wrong-doing. This stifles debates and otherwise healthy academic exchanges. Some are obviously opinionated and write forcefully in ways that turn words into cuddled weapons and ideas into syringes of "tribalizing." Of course, I recognize the difference between this and your take. Thanks oh Oga.
Kwabena Akurang-Parry
From: u...@berkeley.ed
kenneth harrow
-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 har...@msu.edu
Nnaemeka, Obioma G
Toyin:
Let me begin by thanking you from the bottom of my heart for setting up and moderating this discussion list. The invaluable service you render to us requires monumental time and energy investment. You have given of yourself to make this happen. Thank you.
I have learned a great deal from the posts and discussions on the list. This was particularly true at the initial stages. Voices from many parts of the world (including many African countries) were heard on the list. I recall sending you my article on Hurricane Katrina after it was published in a journal. I thanked you because most of the articles I used for the paper were posted on the USA-Africa Dialogue. Subscribers from countries around the globe—Africa, Europe, the America, Australia, etc—posted articles published in their respective countries. It was a wonderful opportunity to participate in a truly global discussion about race, class and different configurations of difference. There have been similar exhilarating discussions on the list in the past.
Recently, I have had to delete messages from the list without reading them. I only had to read the subject heading to identify the threads of mudslinging. Postings on the list became painful to read the moment the list was hijacked by Nigerians and turned into “USA-Nigeria Dialogue.” The problem is two-fold. First, the Nigerian discussions are exclusionary and can alienate subscribers who do not understand the details of the issues, thus leaving the entire space for Nigerians to bloviate as much as they want. Second, the unseemly, abusive language is off-putting. I recall that the one time we suffered the abuse on this list, it was also in the hands of a Nigerian who either withdrew or was kicked out.
Recently, you posted a plea for civility. I urge all of us to take that plea seriously.
Obi
President, Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS)
Dept. of World Languages & Cultures Phone: 317-278-2038; 317-274-0062 (messages)
Cavanaugh Hall 543A Fax: 317-278-7375
425 University Boulevard
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 10:56 AM
To: dialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MODERATOR'S CONCERN AND QUESTIONS