Attention Kperogi

[Yusuf Adamu]

THE BIG BIGOT IN KPEROGI’S MIRROR

@farooqkperogi is among the too few Nigerians who elegantly sandwiched scholarship, media, and English language expertise. On the contrary, I am neither a linguistic expert nor a political analyst. Here, I am just trying to figure out the naughtiness of @farooqkperogi’s thinking machinery. How @farooqkperogi thinks substantially determines his writings and opinions. No doubt, Kperogi’s articles are a cynosure of eyes of many Nigerians across political, cultural and social divides. Some of his Nigerian readers pluck his linguistically well-crafted and yet asymmetric views and dye them in the colours of their sentiments or ignorance. It is normal to manipulate any text on this planet. Interestingly, it is not unusual for bohemians and intellectuals to dress and feast on controversies. I see @farooqkperogi as a sort of a roller coaster dripping joyful and sorrowful moments on public sentiments and obsessions. Indeed, considering Nigeria’s contested socio-political landscapes, @farooqkperogi personifies Hankaka (a pied crow in Hausa) which they say, who sees its black must see its white too. 

I am indifferent with @farooqkperogi’s criticisms of the powers that be. I don’t care about his tirades and vituperations directed at the political class who sold their moral rights at the market of failures and misgovernance. So, what’s my headache with @farooqkperogi? Well, I am deeply touched by his overriding superficiality, unidirectional views, bigotry, extremism and spider mannerisms. To be fair to Kperogi, no elites of the social and political divides of this country are immune from his pen. Nevertheless, his seamless and borderless forays are in many instances unconscionable and peddling post-truth constructs. My labelling of @farooqkperogi is based on my readings and analysis of his recent blog stuffs:

• Presidents Who'll Make Me Renounce Nigeria (https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2022/03/presidents-wholl-make-me-renounce.html) 

• Osinbajo’s RCCGification Part of Plot for Theocratic State Capture (https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2022/04/osinbajos-rccgification-part-of-plot.html)

• 10 Reasons Osinbajo Will Ignite a Religious Civil War (https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2022/03/10-reasons-osinbajo-will-ignite.html)

As a transdisciplinary environmental researcher, I always prefer wider views, co-produced, and inclusive opinions. I am diametrically opposed to ‘single story’ constructions - as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would say. My readings of the above articles has convinced me of Kperogi’s single story driven narrowed conclusions on crucial and critical national issues. Before I explain my points, I have tried further analysis on Kperogi’s knowledge production mannerisms to see how that fits my labelling of him. For instance, I conducted a rapid assessment of his authorship of academic works on leading research archives namely Researchgate and Google Scholar. Both repositories reveal in him a professor with a very limited network and co-authorship. By implication, any scholar with limited networking and co-authorship will have little room for alternative view, tolerance, and thorough analysis.  This evidence convinces me as to why @farooqkperogi writes less holistically and cares less to get into deep layers of issues. Kperogi is a good reflection of Dubarudu- a character in one of the Hausa riddles. Dubarudu owns a mirror in a town where no one owns any. He alone uses it and no one can use it including his wife. Nigeria is a mirror that we need to share to see our faces and appreciate our different outlooks. 

My reading of the three blog articles by @farooqkperogi leads me to carry further analysis on how this versatile writer thinks. Scholars make use of Low-Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and Higher-Order Thinking Skills to determine thinking capacity of scholars and students. I always assume that Nobel Prize winners and other high ranking scholars utilise HOTS. Without prejudice, blog articles produced by @farooqkperogi appear to belong to low-order thinking skills. Then, how is @farooqkperogi a low thinker at least in the three articles under consideration? The answer is discernible to all his readers that care. He uses interrogatives such as ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘which’, ‘how many’ and ‘who’ inn driving his opinions in the tree articles. We could see mentions of places, names of persons, number of persons, places, when and where in his labelling of religious bigotry by VP Osinbajo. Healthy and informed minds would care only about the HOTS interrogatives such as ‘why’, ‘how’; ‘what evidence is there?’, ‘cause and consequences’ etc. Unfortunately, less informed and sentimental Nigerian readers can easily be misled by the lots of LOTS amplified by @farooqkperogi.

At this point I am bringing out my real problems with this language scholar. I really find it very nauseating and irritating when @farooqkperogi declared in his blog of March 28, 2022 that he would renounce his citizenship of Nigeria if any of the four individuals he listed in the blog would become Nigeria’s next president. The four Nigerians he condemned are Osinbajo, Tinubu, Bello and Wike. How on earth? What depth of hatred is this? What if God has decided one of them to be? To me this is an exotic bigotry, branded intolerance and egregious extremism. Where is his knowledge of the language of contestations, resistance and resilience that characterize works of Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, and Karl Marx? Maybe, I should remind him of the struggles of the Irish activists captured in Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh’s Language, Resistance and Revival. Such a Kperogian declaration amounts to cowardice, hopelessness, and disillusionment. How can I give up my citizenship on account of a tenured president that could be at the mercy of the judiciary, parliament, media and civil society? I never expected @farooqkperogi to easily forget how spirited men and women stood against the caudillos (strongmen of Latin America) seen in Pinochet of Chile, Stroessner of Paraguay, Somoza in Nicaragua, and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. I wish good luck to the listed four and to Kperogi when you forsake Nigeria for America where black lives matter. The people brutalized by the Nigerian junta yesterday are princes of the Aso Rock Villa of today. That is how time works.

No little thanks to @farooqkperogi for giving us a neologism -RCCGification through his April 14th 2022 blog opinion. I was distraught reading that as I saw in it that article tight shortness of sight and breath considering it is coming from a scholar. Saying that one church denomination will overrun Nigeria is a devilish statement. Even Satan might call that the last post-truth reality. Nevertheless, I find solace in Mehdi Hassan’s response to Anne-Marie Waters during Oxford Union Debate On Islam held at the Oxford University in the UK sometime in 2015.  Putting your article in the context of that debate and Mehdi’s response means @farooqkperogi is a big fanatic and bigot. Why? Because RCCGification is the same thing as Islamisation. Every time a Muslim rules Nigeria some Christian bigots use the thread of Islamisation to weave clothes of suspicion and division. So what’s the difference between the advocates of Islamisation and RCCGification? Is it not flipping sides of the same coin? I would be happier to have as leader a just Christian than unjust Muslim. RCCGification of Islam, Catholicism, Protestants, and traditional religions is a mirage. RCCGification of Nigeria is a charade since this church has not even seen intergenerational transition of itself let alone overrun others. Let us be frank to ourselves, it has been a standing tradition of Nigerian political, religious and business leaders to bring close to them the people that they know. Hence, I am unruffled by any list of political appointees associated with RCCGification agenda. I am always amused by fears of Islamisation and I always see Christians as its drivers and authors. When you insist on going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem as Muslims do in Mecca, you are just Islamising Nigeria Christianity. When you say let us block the Muslims or deny them their rights what is your name? Islamaphobe, unjust, conspirator or still a Christian? What I like most about religion is sweet taste of spirituality. Those forwarding RCCGification agenda are either mischief makers or ignorant of Nigeria’s social, historical and political institutions.  When I saw the casket of Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu draped in Nigeria’s flag and carried by the Nigerian military officers, that is the day I realised that Nigeria is bigger than all its citizens. Nigeria overwhelms anybody with any hidden agenda. A critic must learn how not be like a spider. Its knowledge of design is superb and its nest is outstandingly beautiful. However, the skinny guy builds its nest on the common pathways not minding trapping everybody.

Aliyu Barau, PhD 

Kano, Sunday, 11.44 AM

Twitter: @aliyubarau

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

I’m looking forward to every phoneme from Kperogi’s pen in the runup to the February 23, 2023 Elections in Nigeria. How else am I going to be positioned to form a balanced opinion, if I don’t try to examine critically, everything on the smorgåsbord of opinions ranging from the extreme West to the extreme East,  from the extreme left to the extreme right, from the fundamentally extreme North ( and Borno in the North-East) to the extreme South down to my favourite Buguma,  Bonny Island, Bakana peoples and every other opinion that can be found in between the extremes? 

And if I don’t form a balanced opinion how do I report back to base? That would be like teaching my own personal opinions as “ the truth” 

I honestly hope  - before God and man, that there’s nothing like lashon hara, that I myself am committing in the following, that could possibly be deemed insulting, I’m sure not by even His Majesty the Inspector-General of the sanitary language department in the ministry of human rights & equal rights in this free speech realm where all men are supposed to be equal, even if some men are said to be more equal than others, where some cows are supposed to be more sacred than other members of their species and where men ought not to be given the right to insult others and be granted some special immunity from being insulted in return - protected from reciprocity….

When it comes to Kperogi one has to be as brief as possible, the less said the better if one is to at all costs avoid committing an unnecessary sin…

From personal experience, I know that by nature, the narcissistic personality with its own exalted sense of self-esteem, an inflated estimation of its intelligence and an exaggerated notion of its own so-called  “ intellectiúal prowess”, loves adulation and is very sensitive to criticism. The narcissistic personality likes to denigrate others and especially loves to denigrate those that he or she knows are not and cannot be beholden to him or her, in any way whatsoever. 

 I’m responding to this post which only mentions Kperogi’s  “three recent blogs” but not his latest piece which I couldn’t access on my laptop because I got this warning and be ye therefore also forewarned. 

“Website blocked due to trojan

Website blocked: www.thenicheng.com

Malwarebytes Browser Guard blocked this website because it may contain malware activity. We strongly recommend you do not continue.”

Kperogi ought to do something about this so that his opinion can be more widely disseminated. 

Since I’m following the Nigerian elections with vested interests, I’ve got to check out what the Nigerian media and even opinionated self-righteous busybodies have to say, from day to day.  I managed to get hold of his latest piece at peoples gazette and wasn’t disappointed to be served some vintage Kperogi at his disdainful best, please have the patience to go through the whole thing and judge for yourself. 

Here’s a little sample 

“If you want to measure the depth and breadth of any society’s depravity, moral decay, and hopelessness”,

 How's this for starters :

“Nigeria detests, despises, and mistreats the majority of its youth who have the misfortune of being born by poor parents”  -

 “born by poor parents”  is a good instance of the preposition  “by  ”according to Big Nigerian English, where  “to poor parents”  is probably too British …

Dr Chris Ngige is not spared:

 “Dr Chris Ngige, the cantankerous, militantly ignorant, loudmouthed Minister of Labor and Employment…

Oh, I guess that it’s cultural and this is what colonialism has done to us.  I’ll just pick out some of the plums, the rest is not even cream: 

“scions of the gilded, roistering elite class of the society…

“no better, starker, more glaring evidence of this than the cold indifference that the Nigerian government has shown…

“feting their wives while students writhe in agony and lecturers squirm in distress

“ Nigerian universities are no longer the ivory towers that used to exist in privileged isolation from the realities of quotidian life, they now self-consciously mimic the dysfunctions of the political class. That’s why vice chancellors are now indistinguishable from larcenous, airheaded politicians."

“the strike are lost in silly politicking."

“Education minister Malam Adamu Adamu, whose fan I used to be, has given up even the littlest pretense to the most basic scintilla of competence and decency."

“The political leaders don’t care because, being the self-interested narcissists that they are, they are only obsessed with the here and now."

You’ve got to forgive me, I’m just coming from the latest episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored 

There’s this overemphasis on someone’s “ English language expertise” which is not clear for me to see. Again,  perhaps it’s what colonialism has done to us. Speak a little English and Lakunle the village bumkin talks about “ expertise”. What’s the English don supposed to say, “ Please marinate me in my mother tongue which is not Chinese”?  I’m grateful to the powers of omission which do not condescend to say ditto about e.g. Ayo Olukotun or Baba M as from my point of view, that would be deemed insulting, not even sarcastic or ironic…

How to get this off my chest? I keep on returning to the opening of Coetzee’s  Nobel Lecture:

He and His Man

But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spoke; and he was the aptest scholar there ever was.

— Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

On the other hand, it’s “ steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you king “

This judgement of yours is arresting: “A critic must learn how not (to) be like a spider. “

For some people that’s a tough order; to begin with, the spiderweb is the symbol of the United  Nations.  Yusuf Hamza points out in one of his lectures ( some 30 years ago)  that the spider’s web that has been adopted as the United Nations symbol is a horrendous idea because the spider encircles its prey and then strangles it - just as  Colin Powell said they would do Saddam  - if you remember - - and just as it would seem  NATO would like to do to Russia - encircle Russia and then, God forbid, say “ Hands up  -  You’re completely surrounded”

 I guess there are all kinds of advice that all sorts of people could give to other people about all kinds of matters. There is Polonius giving his scholasticism advice to Hamlet, there’s Jesus Christ delivering his Sermon on Mount Zion, there’s Moses tete-a-tete with the Almighty somewhere up in a cloud at Mt. Sinai…

Above all.  serious and committed Muslims take solace and derive benefits from al-Ankabut //  The Spider 

Now is always the moment for introspection for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Since I got this message from a Nigerian Muslim Bro in Oshogbo it has been troubling me no end, especially with regard to our being judgmental about others and not ourselves: 

"When Umar bn Al-Khattāb رضي الله عنه was stabbed while leading Salāt by Abū Lu'lu'the Zoroastrian, he was quickly evacuated to his house and a doctor was brought in to attend to him. It is said that a bowl of milk was brought to him and he took a few gulps from it. Sadly, his injury was so deep that the milk gushed out of his loins almost immediately. 

However, while his lieutenants were busy trying to revive and cure him, Umar رضي الله عنه had ONLY one thing that matters most to him: Udhayfa bn Al-Yamān. 

Udhayfah bn Al-Yamān is renowned as Sāhib sirr an-Nabiyy صاحب سرّ النبي (custodian of the secrets of the Prophet ﷺ). It is said that the Prophet ﷺ said many things to him in confidence, chief among which were the names of the hypocrites in Madīnah.

Despite nursing a life-threatening injury, Umar رضي الله عنه who was given an automatic ticket to Jannah by the Prophet ﷺ for his steadfastness and invaluable contributions to the cause of Islām, was worried that his name could be on the list with Udhayfah bn Al-Yamān.

This, he requested that Udhayfah be brought to him so he can ask him in confidence. When Udhayfah arrived, Umar رضي الله عنه asked him:

Umar: I ask you if the name of Allāh, did the Prophet ﷺ mentioned my name to you as a hypocrite?

Hudhayfah: You do not expect me to answer that question, do you?

Umar: Actually, I do.

Udhayfah: You and I know that I can't disclose the Prophet's secret 

Umar: (sobbing) Again, I beg you in Allāh's name to tell me, just this once. I promise to never ask you further

Udhayfah: O Umar! You were NOT mentioned to me by the Prophet ﷺ as a hypocrite.

Umar: (exclaims) Alhamdulillāh!!!!

No conscious Muslim will read the tales and characteristics of the hypocrites as told in the Qur'ān and Sunnah and will NOT entertain fear over his conduct. 

Sometimes, one experiences physical weakness and laziness to observe Salāt and the next verse that comes to mind is وإذا قاموا إلى الصلاة قاموا كسالى "And when they (the hypocrites) approach Salāt, they do so lazily."

Sometimes one feels lazy to perform adhkār and the next verse that rings in one's head is ولا يذكرون الله إلا قليلا "they remember Allāh not but a little."

It's important to always do a reality check on ourselves to see if we have not slipped into hypocrisy through our words or actions. Never be too sure of yourself. Umar رضي الله عنه  is miles ahead of us all combined, yet, he was scared of his reality until Udhayfah cleared his doubt."

Sanusi Lafiagi

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be Chinese, to be one of 1.7 billion people, and to be told constantly that I speak, read, think, sing  ( and write? ) great Chinese. I suppose that if I were English  - or British to the bootstraps, that would be something else, that a Chinaman would be constantly, condescendingly giving me a paternalistic pat on the pakoh,  the back of the head and telling me, “You speak good Chinese! ”

Like Mo Yan  in his masterly Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out

Now, when you’re Chinese, and as everyone knows Chinese people all look alike, just as African people all look alike ( black and dark blue) what distinguishes one beautiful one from the other if not character? 

( BTW, I once asked the parents of my Chinese sister  - the parents were visiting here over here in Stockholm - her mother had studied journalism in Russia and surprise surprise at just about sunset they went down to do some Tai Chi for about twenty minutes, and when they returned their daughter ( named “ Flower of the Revolution”) presented me as someone well-acquainted with the writings of Mao. The parents wanted to know if I had any questions and I said yes. What? They wanted to know. To my utter consternation this is the question that popped out of my mouth: “With all the bicycles parked at the parking lots of the University and the shopping malls, and with all the bicycles looking so uniformly alike ( Made in China) how do you know which bike is yours or doesn't it matter, since they're all the same?" 

Inevitably the answer led to a further discussion.

The question was tied to the idea of individualism - of the kind we witnessed in Nigerian football this year. Many individual talents playing “ my way”  - and it’s many individual talents that can be forged into doing what a team does. Like the Nigerian President's cabinet… 

In a country of 200 million, some individuals stand out - and that should not be unusual either - ChiIna also has their Falola: one in 1.7 million. And their Ma Long, their Fan Zhendong and their Wang Manyu…

As you may not know, the Nigerian scholars are many, and so are the Nigerian experts in the English Language,  some of them still putting on their phony American accents, many of the real ones marinated in pure English studies ( 30, 40, 50 years of nothing else ) some of them born and bred in English speaking cultures, some of whom are distinguished writers such as Teju Cole, of his many essays  I read one on photography and it took my breath away 

About people moving from Left to Right, there’s the spectacular example of David Horowitz who moved from the left in the days when I read Ramparts (simultaneously with Black Orpheus, some core Gore Vidal and for good measure William F Buckley and some of the most relevant great Black Writers that someone can think of) to today when he’s the commander-in-chief of Frontpage Magazine and Director-General of his Freedom Centre; I haven’t had time to check, that’s why I’m still wondering what he would be saying these days, about Russia, Nato and Ukraine. I’m wondering ditto about Ted Belman @ Israpundit and the other folks at The Freeman Centre for Strategic Studies 

Weighing in on scales from left to write, homegrown Nigerian journalists defy definition, are they to the left or to the right, or are they staying home tonight? 

Kperogi is fulfilling a vital function. Somebody has to do it - indeed, somebody has to be the scapegoat/  professor/ full professor/ best academic title/ titles etc,

 Kperogi will probably plead not guilty to pooh-poohing Presidential Brother Buhari, the late great Abba Kyari and a host of other Nigerian dignitaries, movers and shakers, relegating some of them to footnotes in specially created dustbins of Nigerian history. If he pleads guilty to all of the charges, he’ll probably want to justify ill-conceived ill-will and at the same time hope to be vindicated both here and in the heavenly court on the grounds that he was acting in good conscience on his own behalf and on behalf of his country…

I view “The Big Bigot in Kperogi’s Mirror” as provocative, in some respects below the belt, vulgar, and wonder how Ojogbon Falola could have allowed himself to let through such a disparaging view of one of his most beloved, sacred calves? 

In trying to answer why Ojogbon Falola dispenses such leniency when one of his lovely holy cows is being scrutinised, so rather viciously, we could start by factoring in the reality/ high probability that to some degree our Nigerian folks currently in exile, domiciled and earning their daily breadcrumbs etc in the United States of America have been or have become Americanized, the oldies who arrived in the country @ over the age of 24, not necessarily that much acculturated to the Great African Music called “Jazz” or to  Ebonics, Hard Bop, Hip-hop, Big Booty, and Rap  - and also to some extent (and some of them could be well pleased to hear this) some of them could have become more democratised but not necessarily divested of their primordial tribal instincts, food preferences, and, of course, we can take it as for granted, others among them have gradually got acclimatised to some of the woke culture that animates   “Black Lives Matter”, as they themselves could finally  begin to identify as ethnic minorities living as tethered and tenured species at home, or not so much at home, abroad.

I got to thinking about all of the above this evening after reading a short DN editorial entitled “ If we import the American idiocy, we should only have ourselves to blame”. The author references “ The Constitution of Knowledge” by American journalist Jonathan Rauch. The editorial’s opening question is, 

“ What is the secret behind the Western World’s successes?”... 

well here’s a translation of the first few paragraphs of that editorial and it provides much food for thought about our own digital media dilemmas, especially in our literate and half literate and literati societies: 

“What is the secret behind the success of the western world? In the book "The Constitution of Knowledge", the American journalist Jonathan Rauch gives an important answer: the ability to think, speak and write freely created over time an unbeatable system for knowledge production by constantly testing different perspectives against each other.

It is a sensitive order that rests on a kind of paradox, still best formulated by the DN legend Herbert Tingsten: the functioning free society requires a balance between division and community.

In the journal Atlantic, another important American, the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, warns that social media is eroding this order and, in practice, American democracy.

A decisive shift took place in 2013 when Facebook and Twitter made it possible to share and spread posts at about the same time as smartphones had their wide impact. The idea was that ideas would be broken like never before - instead, the system was hijacked by fanatical hooligan gangs that scare deviants into silence from each other's outer edges. The perspectives become fewer and less nuanced. "Structural idiocy" occurs. The United States over the past decade is clearly putting this to the test.

One must be careful not to draw too far-reaching parallels between countries. Sweden is not the United States. The population is smaller, confidence higher, the gaps not as deep and the debate more reasonable.”

 To be continued.

 I wrote most of this between 1800-18.25, whilst waiting in the lobby for the theatre improvisation piece to begin, this evening... missed going to the theatre last week because I had terrible flu ( lost $20 as a  result but went ta special Art exhibition at the Sven-Harry Art Museum on Friday, heard Hitler's men justifying their book burning in Berlin in 1933 

 I wonder if the Holy Quran was among the books that Hitler burned? 

On Sunday, 8 May 2022 at 16:30:47 UTC+2 yusuf...@gmail.com wrote:

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Beautifully unusual writing in Cornelius innimitable,  elliptical style on May 9

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

O silver-tongued Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

On Today, the 10th of May 2022

My idols are three

In Order of seniority

Bruno Schulz

Dally Kimoko

Aoiri Obaigbo ( His language is alive, personal, spicy, and dynamic. I have checked many of his Facebook entries.

I got to him on Facebook through this link and like his attitude as per his comments there about traditional African religion: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1176307366202373&set=a.190593838107069

So I checked this much of his “The Wretched Billionaire”

 t.ly/m9yY

Should like to read his “ The Virgin Widow”

He's a genuine product

[Harrow, Kenneth]

cornelius,

i looked up bruno schulz.

he looks quite wonderful; and his fate was somehow part of what is continuing today, more tragedy for that poor part of the world where my grandparents came from.

Bruno Schulz (July 12, 1892 – November 19, 1942) was a Polish Jewish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher.^[1] He is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. In 1938, he was awarded the Polish Academy of Literature's prestigious Golden Laurel award. Several of Schulz's works were lost in the Holocaust, including short stories from the early 1940s and his final, unfinished novel The Messiah. Schulz was shot and killed by a German Nazi, a Gestapo officer, in 1942 while walking back home toward Drohobycz Ghetto with a loaf of bread. 

k

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 4:55 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Attention Kperogi

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/59386deb-c2d8-4899-9b41-9eae1c718eabn%40googlegroups.com.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Wow. Aoiri is my friend. He'll be pleased to know you have such high regard for him.

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/59386deb-c2d8-4899-9b41-9eae1c718eabn%40googlegroups.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Shalom, Dear Kenneth. 

Wherever there are Jews on this earth, there you will find antisemites and other members of the opposition. Wherever. It’s axiomatic. The very existence of God's Chosen People attracts their antagonists led by the devil and his disciples, the Nazis

Too bad that another good human being named Bruno Schulz was killed by the Nazis in Ukraine. Also too bad that neonazis are still in Ukraine not in Gestapo uniform and German-made boots, although many of them decorate themselves with Nazi paraphernalia some of them still foaming at the mouth and waving their swastikas and flags, all under the benign gaze of their current commander-in-chief, former comedian Zelensky. He apologises that they are not so “many” (a relative term) which means that he believes that better some help from the devil, than no help at all, from him, Joe Biden, and NATO.

It’s not a case of Faustus calls for God and the devil comes instead //Faustus calls for God and the devil comes instead. Assuming that he has called on God at all, in Zelensky’s case, himself a lawyer and a former comedian but not a military man, in calling on Joe Biden & NATO, he probably believes himself to be making a military and not a calculated theological decision. Adding insult to injury : Moscow: Israeli 'Mercenaries' Fighting Alongside Ukrainian neo-Nazis. What does Ken Harrow have to say about this? 

“ Better the devil that you know, than the devil you don’t know”?

Russia’s president has apologised for his foreign minister's unsavoury remarks about Jewish participation in the Holocaust.

See what a good man he is! Some people feel that they are too great to apologise…

Sadly, after over 200 years of peaceful alliance-free neutrality, it looks like, as a  tail ( Finland’s tail)  Sweden is about to follow Finland into joining NATO. 

I shudder to think of nuclear weapons being placed on holy Swedish territory

You know the saying that those who live by the bomb will die by the bomb?
Here's Rolf Ekeus’ strongly worded opposition to Sweden joining NATO 

A NATO membership can be a historic tragedy for Sweden

[Harrow, Kenneth]

dear cornelius

i get it, there are far-right azov fighters. the article you sent indicated 900. of those 900, maybe 10% is neo-nazi, although neo-nazi might mean just embracing the nazi ensignia. i get this from the links you included below.

of course it is disgusting; of course neo-nazi right wing monsters exist in the u.s., marching under the same ensignia in places like charlottesville, and tacitly accepted by trump and no doubt most of his ardent supporters, who are racist and probably anti-semitic.

the inference that russia is attempting to conquer ukraine, or parts of ukraine including the east and crimea, so as to get rid of neo-nazis seems incorrect to me. russian propaganda for this war is worse than bush's was for iraq. it is impossible for me to believe that we should look at russian spokespeople as providing credible information. for instance, from your links again, that israeli mercenaries are fighting alongside neonazis is almost as obscene as the russian claim that hitler was part jewish (which part? probably the foreskin), and that therefore jews were responsible for the holocaust.

following your link, it seems israeli mercenaries went to fight in ukraine. the side by side w azov was apparently the propaganda side.

where do you want to go with this?

in favor of nuclear disarmament? sure

against nato enlargement? no, i'd let individual states decide which hegemonical force to join

against western expansion? no, i'd let individual states decide to join the e.u.

against superpowers imposing their will, economically or militarily, on non-superpowers? of course.

against the monroe doctrine? of course
for liberationist ideologies? of course.

thus

against the russian invasion. in favor of ukrainian autonomy.

realistically?

give the russians donatsk and crimea, draw a line, gripe, but settle for peace. in the long term, the lines will not matter, the states will fade andnew political alignments will arise. all these deaths for nationalist reasons will not be worth it, in the long run.

but yield to russian aggression without resistance? no. if we did, which would be next? latvia? moldova? transnistria?

what would you say to further russian expansion?

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>

Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 7:14 AM

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

A fine dialogue of perspectives on this struggle

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BL1PR12MB5191B2497C2F26F3C2EB88B8DAC89%40BL1PR12MB5191.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

All of us waiting for the gruesome forensic report on 

Mister Hitlers’ philistine foreskin

if it was really his and if so 

if it was genuine 

genetic transmission 

 You in Michigan sitting safely in your cosy armchair,  preaching shalom, Ojogbon Falola in the cowboys’ citadel of higher learning in Austin, Texas wondering aloud, about the New York Times opinion piece that you posted, “What is in this essay that I have not said?”,  cosmology’s adroit adept Adepoju, eyes closed and in the full lotus position, sitting in darkness in downtown Lagos telepathically communing with Newton, Kant & Wittgenstein still in orbit,  a few zillion light years away, in transit to eternity, what you three have in common is that you are far, far away from the theatre of war when it expandeth and most probably would like to keep it that way, far, away.

Your double-edged question like the sword of Damocles hanging over me and Baba Kadiri in Stockholm, Sweden: “ what would you say to further russian expansion?”, which I interpret to mean

1. What would you want to say in order to further Russian expansion?

2. What would you have to say, in order to further Russian expansion?

3. What would be your objections to further Russian expansion?

Well, I’ll tell you this, not only the older youths ( me & Baba Kadiri) are worried  - if you the aforementioned were over here in Sweden, you would be worried too  - I’m waiting anxiously for Professor Porter to update his Porter’s Pensées, since he’s temporarily over there in  Boris Johnson’s Merry England and fortunately / unfortunately not over here to witness the full Monty of Dear Boris’ state visit to Sweden - and I must admit that he succeeded in getting me a little riled, talking as if Sweden was the UK’s latest colony / colonial acquisition - won without blows, telling us  Swedes that he would defend us if we are attacked. -  and who would defend him if he is attacked?  BY Saint George and the dragon, May the Almighty help us all! 

Concerning “ Russian expansion” I would be very worried if I were Finland since Finland is a very close neighbour of Russia’s and they share a 1,340 km /830 miles long border with Russia which means that at worst “good fences make good neighbours”  - and worse than worst would be Finland joining NATO  - and Russia has warned Finland most severely that they should NOT join NATO,  but Finland ( they have their own historical experiences) refuse to listen. Finland to join NATO?

About Sweden joining NATO, I keep on having this recurring nightmare, stimulated by a febrile imagination which kicks into gear every time I read Anton Johansson's prophecies about the third World War, especially this paragraph : 

“The further course of the war: “Russians will invade North Sweden partly through Tornea, partly over Kvarken. Heavy fighting will take place north of Stockholm, with great bravery on the Swedish side. The Russians will lose men in great numbers, but it will be of no avail since they will come on in ever new masses. They will conquer all northern Sweden, and as one of the most afflicted and plundered cities, I heard Gävle mentioned. Boden will have surrendered without having offered resistance. South of Stockholm the Russians will first take the islands Gotland and Öland. Then they will disembark on Sweden’s soil near Västervik and will proceed partly towards Stockholm, partly in the direction of Göteborg, to aid the Frenchmen. But they will not get far, before the Swedes in Göteborg will have capitulated.” 

[Harrow, Kenneth]

we are all at threat, aren't we, if we talk about a nuclear war?

what would be the targets of russian missiles?

after the military targets, in the u.s. it would be New York. my oldest son and family are 20 miles from manhattan

perhaps the second largest city in the u.s. would be next: my youngest and his family live in chicago

perhaps along with those, the computer intelligence capital of the world: boston. my next to youngest son and his family live there.

perhaps philly, my daughter lives far from there, outside harrisburg, but still, the winds from washington and philly would converge there.

my safety in east lansing would have dissipated, and if for some godforsaken reason other large cities were to go, we live 90 miles from detroit, and are on the route to chicago.

and even if my family were not directly threatened, we are all, all of us, directly at threat from the winds that circle the world, so that when chernobyl went, the air carried its poison across europe and all the way to california and across america.

would a real nuclear war spare africa? not possible.

are humans so dumb as to destroy themselves? why would we even be able to ask that question?

cornelius, toyin a., explain this to me since i have been perplexed, and now even more than ever, why we embrace violence in response to each other, as if what we share is so much less than where we differ.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>

Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 5:39 PM

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[Toyin Falola]

Baba Hamelberg:

 

One of my favorite slangs from Sierra Leone is “I am embalmed,” to discuss a situation where an older guy or someone with resources is beyond fear or worry.

I am in the cowboy country, but I am not yet embalmed!

And we can cross to Nigeria where the slang “he is deleted” means the man don die.

Are you deleting us or embalming us?

 

TF

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Sir,

If only Baba Harrow were sincere, he would prevail on his hero Zelensky to abandon his mantra " Weapons! Weapons!! Weapons!!!"

If only Baba Harrow were sincere, he would write a letter to his congressman and congresswoman to prevail on the profiteers of the Military Industrial Complex to stop supplying weapons to former comedian Zelensky...

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Not so far away :

Shireen Abu Akleh - May her soul rest in perfect peace

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

zelensky isn't my hero.

but he is of the ukrainians.

as i see it, you use sincere to mean, sincere about wanting peace.

let's say i am; i feel i am.

if i accept your phrasing cornelius, it means you want me to acknowledge that this whole mess is zelensky's. but i see it as putin who invaded, not zelensky who forced him to invade. i sincerely think putin is a menace to all of us on earth.

yet i would accept a compromise for peace, if i were in charge. but i am not. zelensky has seen his people resist bravely, with many dying. now he is supposed to say, well, let's surrender? or let's yield? your brothers died for little, for nothing?

does he have the power to say that now?

in a war, feelings change, thinking changes, when people die.

"he died for....etc, patria, freedom, etc" and now it is not simply a question of peace any more, but truth justice revenge.

how did the biafrans feel in 66, 67, 68?

i've heard lots of blame placed on ojukwu, and don't feel capable of judging how foolish he was, or not?

but at least that was a case of a breakaway region.

to call ukraine a breakaway region is to enter in the insane thinking of putin about russia, like hitler going into poland and czechoslovakia for the germans there.

how can i be sincere about this reasoning? do you expect the ukrainians now are willing to surrender? it isn't simply crimea any more.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>

Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 8:26 PM

To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Cornelius: I am Embalmed!

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/80044cd9-6628-4670-b4de-d2df0f27f907n%40googlegroups.com.

[Toyin Falola]

And will Putin and his army leave Ukraine and let them rebuild?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/80044cd9-6628-4670-b4de-d2df0f27f907n%40googlegroups.com.

[Harrow, Kenneth]

i'll bet they will fight until the russians settle for most or all of donbas and what they can conquer between it and odessa.

what a loss, odessa.

the ukrainians will settle when the losses to keep it all become too great.

how long will that take? how many will die.

i keep thinking of vietnam, where 2 million? died.

for not a damn thing. their lives now, their economy, their existence wouldn't have been any different if the americans won or lost, that's my conviction.

wait long enough, none of any wars and their goals will have meaning. but we don't have that kind of patience and longterm vision, and set too low a price on the "sacrificed."  too low a price on the deaths.

k

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 8:33 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Cornelius: I am Embalmed!

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN7PR06MB724776549C5F9401E6408F42F8CB9%40SN7PR06MB7247.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[Toyin Falola]

Ken:

Remove truth from your catalog as there is limited truth in most wars.

There can be peace without justice: South Africa.

There can be peace without revenge: the Anglos in the Americas who killed the Indians and enslaved millions of Africans.

Justice is a series of battles. With retreats. Until you hold the sword better don’t ask about the person who killed your dad!

Revenge can be stored in minds.

What I see is that people are confusing the causes of this war with the courses of war, and they don’t want to disentangle both from the outcome.

Should I say because I have a headache I should behead myself? Yes, I should, as the headache will disappear.

TF

Sent from my iPhone

On May 11, 2022, at 9:28 PM, Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:



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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

We need a global military alliance, all for one and one for all, in case of attack from outside human beings.

No more attacking each other.

Thanks

Toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

If Zelensky does not get weapons, will those who invaded his country stop attacking?

Thanks

Toyin

On Thu, May 12, 2022, 01:31 Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/80044cd9-6628-4670-b4de-d2df0f27f907n%40googlegroups.com.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The particularly fine piece from Cornelius:

"cosmology’s adroit adept Adepoju, eyes closed and in the full lotus position, sitting in darkness in downtown Lagos telepathically communing with Newton, Kant & Wittgenstein still in orbit"

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/76f18860-c83c-4a67-a1e3-26a71337ed93n%40googlegroups.com.

[Ibrahim Abdullah]

TF:

Ah don “emblam” comes from below and it references the existential reality of the lumpen proletariat and the marginalised. It actually means—we are deadened—nothing borders us anymore because we do not expect anything good anywhere. It has nothing to do with age or resources. For more than fifty years now, roughly from the 70s, the creole language and its ever expanding vocabulary is being shaped and contoured by the rich lumpe/marginal culture from below. More than 70% of the expanding vocabulary references their rogue and touch life along  the lines of debrouiller.

IB

====

On May 12, 2022, at 1:26 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote

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[Toyin Falola]

Thanks IB.

And please don’t delete!

Millions of Nigerians are already emblam and the deleted ones cannot embalm!!

TF

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