Moderator's Gratitude: Samuel Zalanga
Toyin Falola
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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kenneth harrow
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-- 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
Assensoh, Akwasi B.
SIR Toyin:
Many thanks for your usual candor in re-echoing the obvious about our brilliant and indomitable colleague (Professor Samuel Zalanga of Bethel University in Minnesota). I thought that my spouse (University of Oregon VP Alex-Assensoh) and I were the only USA-AFRICA DIALOGUE beneficiaries, who admire Dr. Zalanga and his erudite and dynamic postings. in fact, for the manuscript of my intellectual memoirs that Pan-African University Publishers will publish, I sought Dr. Zalanga's permission to quote effusively from a most-touching and brilliant posting he shared with all of us upon the brutal murder of his younger brother back in Nigeria. He was obviously writing about a most gruesome ritual murder, which left his dear brother to be buried with his head missing! Yet, Dr. Zalanga wrote that posting with dignity and his usual brilliance!
Using the words INDOMITABLE and EURIDITE to describe Dr. Zalanga today for his timely and much-needed postings did remind me very much of Dr. Tai Solarin of Ikenne Mayflower College fame and his 1960s' weekly THINKING WITH YOU column in DAILY TIMES of the old Kakawa Street, Lagos, Nigeria. Dr. Solarin's cherished name today honors the Nigeria-based Tai Solarin University of Education, which honored you (SIR Toyin) with one of your much-deserved, several university degrees, bestowed on you honorary causa!
In fact, whenever my spouse and I reflect on the brilliant and wholesome postings of a very select number of our Nigerian brothers and sisters (including Dr. Zalanga; Vice-Chancellor Aluko; Sister Obioma of Indiana as well as Akinola of Oxford; Sister Nwando; Brothers Folu of Michigan, Udogu of the Carolinas; Aka of Illinois; Femi of Maine; and , of course, you, SIR Toyin), we quietly wonder in unison and, in the process, ask ourselves: Can't the great nation of Nigeria -- with the green eagle as her national symbol – use her “eagle might” to tap some of these truly brilliant sons and daughters for national leadership, instead of the usual light-timber personalities and caricatures we often see on the leadership scene of Nigeria?
Brother Samuel Zalanga, always know that your brilliance and indomitable spirit place you in special company, hence many of us will not be surprised one day, if you are referred to as: His Excellency Professor Samuel Zalanga of Nigeria and Africa! Keep up the brilliant intellectual job because you make all of us PROUD, no matter where we come from and irrespective of our diverse intellectual disciplines! After all, on Africa’s political scene, we need new Mandelas, Nkrumahs, Nyereres, Azikiwes, Kenyattas, Nassers, Sankaras, and Tajudeens, among others!
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Saturday, November 7, 2015 6:46 AM
To: dialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Gratitude: Samuel Zalanga
Bode
Emmanuel Udogu
This submission is very, very refreshing. Equally impressive are Professor Aluko’s submissions on Nigerian politics that I have been secretly cataloguing out here in the beautiful blue ridge mountains of North Carolina.
Ike Udogu
dAme jOo
--
Toyin Falola
Sent from my iPhone
Assensoh, Akwasi B.
Chidi Anthony Opara
I least expected this type of statement from the moderator.
CAO.
Cornelius Hamelberg
If I may add all the two kobos' that I'm worth to our moderator's gratitude.
Why should anyone, even the most misguided apostles of parochialism be alarmed or offended by what our own Alagba Baba, Professor Toyin Falola says about Dr. Samuel Zalanga's always edifying contributions, that, "Hopefully, the standard that he has established will be retained, and the misguided warriors of parochialism among us will learn from him."
If the Almighty were to ask me to identify just one person in this forum who should represent me, represent the voice of the poor, the marginalised, the wretched, I would suggest Samuel...
Is it good? Is it fair? With Samuel, the moral and the ethical is important. What constantly impresses me (and I have read all of his postings on this forum) is the politeness, sincerity, humility and consideration of others that often shines through the honesty of personal experience and serious reflection that is at the root of his lucid contributions, as he illuminates a subject - from the vantage point of his specialisations ( unlike some of the pseudo-holy men who consistently manipulate even mythological evidence to bolster their cherished, sometimes untenable, evanescent, myopic points of view...
I found myself wishing that he had been included in the panel that discussed Contemporary African Immigrants in the United States
Chidi Anthony Opara
CAO.
Ademola Dasylva
Let all opinions be! That of course is, provided such opinions or views are expressed with civility and directed at issues, not persons! All ideas should be allowed on this forum. I believe it has always been so on this forum. One does not have to agree with all the views or opinions expressed here, or anywhere for that matter. My advice is that we tame intolerance, accommodate and learn from other views, or tolerate, or simply ignore divergent opinions.
Ademola O. Dasylva
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
Original Message
From: Chidi Anthony Opara
Sent: Sunday, 28 May 2017 18:40
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Reply To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Moderator's Gratitude: Samuel Zalanga
Let the moderator then stop allowing posts by those "misguided warriors of parochialism among us"!
CAO.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
Chidi Anthony Opara
It is not about Samuel Zalanga.It is about negative labeling of divergent methods of expressing opinions.
We can appreciate Zalanga without negatively labelling those who may have choosen different methods of expression.
Negative labelings are often used to shoot down viewpoints that do not conform to ours.
Finally,I least expected that statement from the moderator because I believe that he bears some responsibilities to all viewpoints expressed here.
CAO.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Brother Chidi,
It's "the month of mercy"
As the bard opined, "how like the serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child".
Today being mother's day, I'm praying and thinking about mine.
I'm sure that you too endorse our dear moderator's gratitude, but it's the phrase, "the misguided warriors of parochialism among us" that bothers you. If just for one second we step back from our usual parochialism we could expand the province of "among us" to beyond the confines of this forum.
We understand that Nigerian nationalism - the feeling of belonging is still strong and as per definition, parochialism is what some unsympathetic Nigerian people might identify with Biafra-ism or Biafra-warrior-ism - but consider the broader picture ! We can still benefit from Brother Samuel's generosity of spirit, which I am absolutely certain cannot be against any people seeking self-determination, if need be, even outside of Nigeria....
Several reports are warning that within the next eight years, oil will be less important, the era of the electric car will be upon us - and those oil-dependent countries that don't begin to diversify their economies, even as they pay rapt attention to the Almighty's "be fruitful and multiply", will be in trouble...
We are learning, non-stop and not necessarily, only from people we agree with. (Thinking of Balaam and his ass - the only place in the Bible where an ass/ donkey speaks - and the donkey's master learns from his donkey. The donkey's master could not even see what his donkey could see - an angel with sword drawn, blocking their way...
the fry chronicles was immensely entertaining.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Chidi,
Here we go again.
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth" indeed. It's known as freedom of speech and freedom to interpret and to misinterpret, even purposefully.
Just see how we can twist words around. That dreaded word, censorship! Thanks to you, "the misguided warriors of parochialism among us" now sticks out like a sore thumb.
In some fora, the moderator is always there, as invisible as a god from one of the local pantheons/ planets, until you you step out of line; maybe you can sense his /her presence and watch your step, especially if he/she does not share your political, tribal or religious affiliation. In some other fora, the moderator is supposed to act like the whip in the House of Commons: "Order!" - and you may not call another Hon. Gentleman "a liar" as the late Rev. Ian Paisley once did, and not be rewarded with some disciplinary measure or other.
Fortunately for us all, Professor Falola is a moderator and participant . As to your recommendation that he should disallow postings from "the misguided warriors of parochialism among us" - so far, our moderator has not taken the role of censuring other people's rights to opinions (although when based on ignorance the correction could be forthcoming, usually not from the moderator.
There have been many heated discussions, debates, without the moderator's divine intervention. Admit it Chidi: It's great that in cyberspace the disagreements about e.g. Biafra , Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen, Her Majesty's Grammar or diction, do not get physical. In which case some bozo gets outmanoeuvred, out gunned, defeated...
These are like memorable lines of poetry : "Question for Obi to advance this robust argument which I am enjoying until someone takes us back to a primitive moment by useless name calling:" ( TF)
B
In some other fora , the moderator intervenes to save his pal's ass (the pal being some serial high degree thief, pal wants to be king of his duckpond, believes the whole world of ignoramuses is spellbound by his genius. In the first Saro forum which I joined in 2003, I was "suspended" more than a dozen times for periods ranging from two weeks to a couple of months and a few months before Brother Obama was elected, literally back to a primitive moment , a picture of Sarah Palin in the arms of King Kong was too much for them - and so I was banished - forever. (I'm sure that if there was a hell below cyberspace, that moderator & his pal would have sent me to solitary confinement down there, below the below. Some folks who are foreign to science fiction think that the world of words is a kindergarten or a university as if word and world are fiction...
Cross The Green Mountain
Malami Buba
As for Sam, he’s a model beyond his postings on this forum. He’s been known to offer to teach courses in universities in Nigeria free of charge! Sannu da aiki, Sam!
Malami