Fwd: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: ADAMU'S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST WOLE SOYINKA
OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU
From: ozodiosuji <ozodi...@yahoo.ca>
Date: Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 7:04 PM
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: ADAMU'S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST WOLE SOYINKA
To: NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com
I must confess that this is an intriguing subject. However, I must walk carefully before I get into trouble. Why carefully? It is because I admire Wole Soyinka a great deal (in 1987, after he obtained his Nobel I and some colleagues invited him to Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, to give a lecture; he did a superb job of literary appreciation of African literature). I admire the man but do not necessarily have respect for his field, literature!
I only consider the physical sciences worthwhile education. I was not trained in the physical sciences. I have PhD in organizational Psychology (Business Psychology, administration matters etc.) from the University of California. I have been a professor of business administration etc. Nevertheless, I believe that my education was a mistake and a waste of time. I have sent myself back to School and at present believe that I have enough understanding of physics and chemistry that I can teach them at college level (especially physics which I find myself very good at).
I believe that our secondary school system misled us. My secondary school did not really have good science laboratory. Thus, I gravitated to just reading (and was good at it, actually). But I consider that a mistake. Our schools should have been equipped for education in the sciences for they are really what matters in the contemporary world. Unless you understand physics, chemistry, biology and earth science (and their language, mathematics) you really do not understand how the world is put together and works.
By the time I was through with form six I could discuss Chaucer, Pope, Milton, Hardy, Jane Austin, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, George Elliot, Oliver Goldsmith, Sheridan, Swift, Stevenson, George Orwell, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Pushkin, Mark Twain (and of course our African writers, such as Soyinka…probably the best African writer… Achebe, Ngugi etc.). But what good are those to me if I do not understand how the physical universe is put together?
We live in the world of matter, space and time. We must understand the physical universe instead of tell fairy tale stories about it (as literature does). Given the choice, I would redirect our school system to emphasizing the sciences and paying less attention to literature and social science.
Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Japan etc. emphasize the sciences (30% of Korea's college graduates are in engineering, that is, applied science…so can you now understand why they are building cars, ships, computers etc…what is the percent of Nigerian college graduates in the sciences and applied sciences, and if small can you now understand why we are unable to build anything in Nigeria).
Soyinka is a great mind. I enjoy reading his books. But at the back of my mind is always: what a waste, I wish that that guy had studied classical and new physics; given his obvious great mind he would have made significant contributions to science ( our top scientists are Democritus, Archimedes, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Huygens, Tyco Brahe, Newton, Harvey, Boyle, Dalton, Thomson, Faraday, James Clark Maxwell, Boltzmann (last night I was reading up on his theory of gas and statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, heat), Max Planck, Einstein, Rutherford, Bohr, Broglie, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Dirac, Pauli, Born, Eddington, Lemaitre, Hubble, Chadwick, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, Fermi, Gamow, Oppenheimer, Fred Hoyle, Lavoisier, Mendel, Fleming, Watson, Crick, John Bell, Hugh Everett,(I just wrote an article on his many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics), Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, John Wheeler, Weinberg, Alan Aspect, Alan Guth etc….if you cannot explain what each of these folks contributed to science you are simply scientifically illiterate and living in the dark ages.
I am saying that I admire Soyinka but tend to think that his brain, like most of our African brains, was misdirected by the British…they gave us liberal arts education; useless education in the extant world…but we should not waste our time blaming them; what we can do is correct the situation and train ourselves in the physical sciences (Economics is somewhat useful although if you remove the statistics it is shrouded in, it is simple to grasp and in my opinion does not deserve a Nobel Prize).
So, what am I saying? I am saying that we should respect Soyinka but redirect our attention to what matters in the contemporary world we live in: science and applied sciences.
Cheers,
Ozodi Osuji
PS: Nafata Bamaguje, as usual yours is a good write up. The question is not whether literary writers do a good job at what they do or not, obviously, they do, but that what is needed in the contemporary world is science. You can sing the praises of our writers all you want but the fact is that unless we can build cars, ships, airplanes, computers, send men into space, build nuclear factories (do you understand the process of bombarding the nucleus with neutrons to cause chain reaction hence split the nucleus and release energy…if not a twenty year old Caltech Student who does will have access to nuclear weapons and rule you despite your excellent writing). I thank you for your excellent writing and your obvious African nationalism but the fact is that what Africa now needs are men of science, not men of letters. See, on this forum anyone with any kind of training in the writing arts knows that Fubara David West is an excellent writer, but what good is he to the improvement of Nigeria? Nigeria needs engineers and scientists: builders' not mere eloquent writers. God bless,
--- In NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com, aauwnycpres@... wrote:
>
> Thank you sister Tosin for asking the crucial question
>
> - what are we each contributing as scholars to facilitate the literacy and scholarship our children and youth?
>
> Best
> Nkechi
>
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
> From: Tosin Mustapha <tosinmustapha40@...>
> Sender: NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:15:37
> Reply-To: NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com
> Cc: <Omo...@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: ADAMU'S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST WOLE SOYINKA
>
> Â
> I know both of you know that it is not only scientists and economists who are regarded as intelligent in a real world so Nobel prize in science is not the only prize that should matter to both of you. I have my background in Microbiology, won awards in science, economics and I can teach all subjects including Fine Arts and Music
> Â Tosin
> Â
> Â
> Â
> --- On Tue, 2/21/12, Yeye Rolling <yeyerolling@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: Yeye Rolling <yeyerolling@...>
> Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: ADAMU'S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST WOLE SOYINKA
> To: "NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com" <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 3:50 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> What does it mean to Nigeria? Â Â
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: "babasope@..." <babasope@...>
> To: NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 10:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: ADAMU'S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST WOLE SOYINKA
>
>
>
> Folks,
>
> When Professor Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize in 1986 a certain Sheikh Abubakar Gumi said the prize "does not mean anything to us". A quarter of a century down the line it is clear that his followers are yet to be reconciled to the fact that the Nobel Prize does indeed mean something. Do you still wonder from where the philosophy of Boko Haram draws its life-blood? And is there any use engaging these characters in a debate?
>
> KS
>
>
> From: "Adisa" <oluwayomi2008@...>
> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:26:36 -0000
> To: <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com>
> ReplyTo: NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: ADAMU'S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST WOLE SOYINKA
>
> Abba,
> If you think it is cheap to be awarded the Nobel peace..try and get one as quick as you can.Professor Wole Soyinka defended many many that
> are not yorubas, possibly one from your tribe.
> All your arguments are without foundation.
>
> Adisa Oluwayomi
>
> >
> > Professional tribalist Abba Babandi Gumel calling Wole Soyinka a tribalist!
> > Wonders shall never cease.
> >
> > Kunle Adegboye
> > www.a-speedwireless.com
> > The Wireless Superstore
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Abba <abba2007@>
> > Sent: Tue, February 21, 2012 8:39:28 AM
> > Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] ADAMU'S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST WOLE SOYINKA
> >
> >
> > Thomas Jing,
> >
> > We live in a democracy. Everyone has the right to opine on any topic, and you
> > have every right to disagree with me. I did not win, and can never ``win" one
> > (not because my discipline is not among the categories considered by the Nobel
> > Committee, but because I am of the intellectual calibre of GEJ and Biya
> > combined-:))).
> >
> > Abba
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > >A Nobel prize is a Nobel prize and until you win one, you cannot make
> > >disparaging remarks against any winner. I am Cameroonian and a lover of Yoruba
> > >culture.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > ________________________________
> > To: NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com
> > >salihumustafa@; olakassimmd@; waleojolanre@;
> > >udeamauche@; yakubu.usman@; adamuadamu@;
> > >ozodiosuji@; TalkN...@yahoogroups.com;
> > >naijap...@yahoogroups.com; naijao...@yahoogroups.com;
> > >niger...@yahoogroups.com; niger...@yahoogroups.com; piusadesanmi@;
> > >meochonu@; nwadike2@; lawcareer2002@;
> > >yagazhie@; segundogunro@
> > >From: abba2007@
> > >Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:08:10 -0600rere
> > >Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] ADAMU'S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST WOLE SOYINKA
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >Nafata,
> > >
> > >With all due respect to Wole Soyinka, but his Nobel Prize (in literature) isn't
> > >exactly anything to brag about in the grand scheme of things. If he had won on
> > >subjects that truly matter...such as Chemistry, Physics or Medicine, then
> > >yes...we will all shout hooray (the Nobel in Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, and
> > >to some extent, Economics are the ones most celebrated...I cannot recall anyone
> > >who pays much attention to awards in Literature; and if you press me, I cannot
> > >name two winners in the literature category). What Africa needs is real
> > >advances in science and technology...and not the art of story telling (with all
> > >due respect to those whose job/hobby it is to tell stories or to entertain us
> > >with their prowess in the language of Shakespeare). Besides, there are many
> > >others in Africa who are probably as, or even more, deserving of the literature
> > >prize (Achebe is surely one).
> > >
> > >Disclaimer: I consider Soyinka to be a tribalist of the highest order. So, you
> > >may wish to read the above bearing this in mind. I strongly doubt, though, if
> > >my view about the importance of the literature prize (vis-a-vis Africa's
> > >development) will change regardless who the recipient is. I like and respect
> > >the art...greatly; but I also know that what we do need, and need
> > >desperately, at the present time in Africa is excellence in science and
> > >technology...Nobel prizes in those areas are the ones that truly matter to us
> > >(and dare I say everyone else).
> > >
> > >Netters, I do not intend to offend anyone...I just felt we should place things
> > >in proper context.
> > >
> > >Abba
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>ADAMU’S IDIOTIC TIRADE AGAINST SOYINKA
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Adamu Adamu’s recent virulent attack on Black Africa’s only intellectual Nobel
> > >>It revealed a disturbing shallowness of mind unbecoming of even the pretentious
> > >>pseudo-intellectual that he is.
> > >>I am not privy to the full comments by our esteemed Nobel laureate on the
> > >>diatribe - Soyinka: Still in Bo-ro-no state (whatever that means) â€" published in
> > >>the Northern Islamist rag â€" Daily Trust.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>But going by the thrust of his article, it appears Adamu has been nursing a
> > >>grudge against Professor Soyinka and spoiling for a fight.
> > >>and discomfort with the fact that in a nation in which over 99% of the people
> > >>identify themselves as Christian or Muslim, a pagan African traditionalist
> > >>intellectual pursuits.
> > >>
> > >>Hence instead of specifically refuting whatever he disagreed about Soyinka’s
> > >>decorum and launched into an unprovoked malicious tirade against traditional
> > >>African spirituality, Yoruba culture and Soyinka, with slanderous personal
> > >>and other such balderdash.
> > >>
> > >>The closest Adamu came to rebuttal of Soyinka’s stance on Boko Haram in his
> > >>hogwash, was an off-hand remark that â€Å"Boko Haram... is opposed to all
> > >>
> > >>As if that would be the first time politicians in this country created a monster
> > >>started out as thugs for local politicians hell bent on ‘winning’ elections, and
> > >>
> > >>this country apart a decade ago at the peak of the invidious Sharia agitation.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Fact two: The late Alhaji Buji Fai, former Borno state Sharia commissioner
> > >>appointed by then governor Ali Modu Sheriff, was a known sponsor of Boko Haram.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Fact three: The late Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf was reportedly killed in
> > >>custody after a jail visit by the former Borno governor Ali Modu Sheriff, which
> > >>suggests a cover-up to avoid Yusuf spilling the beans during any court trial.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>in Abuja.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Fact five: In the months preceding last year’s election, several northern
> > >>Hence the subsequent post-election violence and present escalation of Boko Haram
> > >>insurgency.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Fact six: By persistently refusing to embrace secularism which compels
> > >>moderation for religious harmony in our multi-religious nation, northern leaders
> > >>wittingly & unwittingly encourage the religious extremism that has erupted in
> > >>incessant orgies of religious violence over the last 3 decades, now culminating
> > >>in Boko Haram.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Fact seven: By condoning the culture of institutionalized child abuse (Almajiri)
> > >>that deprives our children of proper education required to function in a modern
> > >>society, the northern ruling class has unwittingly provided a powder keg of
> > >>disgruntled recruits for Boko Haram.
> > >>
> > >>pseudo-intellectual nitwit misconstrues Soyinka exemplary exposition of Yoruba
> > >>culture in his literary works as Yoruba supremacy:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>is the greatest and the most cultured.�
> > >>
> > >>By the same token Chinua Achebe’s brilliant exposition of Igbo culture in Things
> > >>Igbo author who has severally extolled pre-Christian Igbo culture, openly
> > >>declares for traditional African spirituality, Adamu would be compelled to go
> > >>after him.
> > >>
> > >>As a Muslim and clueless victim of Arab cultural imperialism, Adamu has no
> > >>problem with worshipping an Arab god, bearing Arab names, facing Arabia when he
> > >>promote their vicious hate cult around the world, but it’s wrong for Soyinka to
> > >>It takes mindboggling stupidity unbecoming of even a pretend intellectual like
> > >>Africa bad.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>By the way Soyinka isn’t the only Yoruba traditionalist to have received notable
> > >>another such icon. It is unfortunate that de-Africanized Arab wannabes like
> > >>
> > >>While Hausas whose indigenous culture has been virtually wiped out by the
> > >>institutionalized child abuse (Almajiri) that has rendered over 10 million
> > >>they stupidly embrace â€" Islam.
> > >> Given this appalling baggage of Islam in Arewa and the ongoing global Islamist
> > >>menace, Adamu has the impudence to deride African spirituality as primitive
> > >>paganism:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>What the chic!!
> > >>Someone who subscribes to a false religion that is defined today by violent
> > >>intolerance, terrorism, honor killing, rape, paedophilia has the temerity to
> > >>call we African Traditionalists who never degenerated to such barbarism,
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Nations like Japan, China, Korea, India which have retained the essence of their
> > >>pagan heritage are far more scientifically & technologically advanced than any
> > >>Muslim or African nation. If we Africans had done the same and stuck to our rich
> > >>indigenous traditions rather than mindlessly ape Arabs, Jews & Europeans; we
> > >>would have been much better off.
> > >>
> > >>Even the nominally Christian West has a healthy relationship with its
> > >>pre-Christian pagan past that is sometimes celebrated in modern pop culture. The
> > >>annual Halloween festival, movies like the Harry Potter and Thor, as well as
> > >>several TV series are all rooted in their pre-Christian pagan heritage.
> > >>It is only here in culturally disoriented Black Africa where we have been
> > >>brainwashed to despise our ancestral heritage that a blithering idiot like Adamu
> > >>masquerading as an intellectual would publicly on the pages of a major newspaper
> > >>shamelessly blurt out this inanity:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Since Adamu has no Hausa culture to be proud of - as it has all been obliterated
> > >>to appreciate that for those of us whose African heritage have been lost to the
> > >>systematic onslaught and cultural genocide by intolerant alien creeds (Islam &
> > >>Christianity), scholarly works like those of Soyinka and Achebe provide valuable
> > >>insight to our collective African heritage.
> > >>
> > >>Yorubas after all can be considered a microcosm of black Africa. Stripped to its
> > >>also commonly embroidered on Yoruba agbadas.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Even non-Africans appreciate that the insightful works of Soyinka and Achebe
> > >>enrich us all, hence their international acclaim. But narrow minded bigots like
> > >>- â€Å"After the advent of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, there is nothing more to
> > >>glory in animistic heathenism�
> > >>
> > >>Really!! Somehow Africa’s paganism which is defined by religious tolerance that
> > >>(ignorantly derided as polytheism); is inferior to the monotheistic intolerance
> > >>of Islam and Judeo-Christianity that have over several centuries killed a
> > >>hundred times more people in the names of their false gods (Allah, Yahweh) than
> > >>all pagan religions combined.
> > >>
> > >>towards a stone (Kaaba) in Mecca, if not animism? It’s alright for Muslims to
> > >>
> > >>The truth is that pagans pioneered human civilization and laid down the values
> > >>that now define the so-called Western civilization. Pagans in ancient Egypt,
> > >>Greece, Persia, Babylon, India, Rome and even here in sub-Saharan Africa
> > >>pioneered mathematics, astronomy, medicine, physics, democracy, religious
> > >>freedom and all other positive human endeavours that define modernity today.
> > >>
> > >>On the contrary, when allowed free reign both Islam and Christianity have
> > >>historically stifled intellectual advancement and societal progress.
> > >>After Christianity was imposed on Rome as state religion, an inexorable decline
> > >>followed as Christians persecuted non-Christians into extinction. Rome soon fell
> > >>to the barbarians and Europe lapsed into the Dark ages (400-1100AD) during which
> > >>it stagnated as the Church had absolute control. Galileo was imprisoned,
> > >>Giordano Bruno was executed and countless others were burnt at the stakes as
> > >>
> > >>Similarly, Medieval Islam’s so-called ‘Golden age’ which largely thrived on the
> > >>Indians, Spaniards etc), was relatively short lived. With the forced
> > >>Islamization of these conquered non-Muslims and persecution into extinction of
> > >>Caliphate came to a screeching halt.
> > >>centuries now."
> > >>
> > >>In an unusually candid 2009 interview, Sheik Ibrahim Al-Bulehi, a former member
> > >>of the Saudi Shura council acknowledged that the intellectual accomplishments of
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>"What I want to clarify is that those achievements were not of our own (Muslim)
> > >>making, and those exceptional scholars were not the product of Arab (Islamic)
> > >>culture, but rather Greek culture. They were outside our cultural mainstream and
> > >>we treated them as though they were foreign elements. Therefore we don't deserve
> > >>to take pride in them since we rejected them and fought against their ideas.
> > >>Conversely, when Europe learned from them it benefited from a body of knowledge
> > >>which was originally its own because they were an extension of Greek culture,
> > >>which is the source of the whole of Western civilization."
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>As Al-Bulehi rightly points out above, Western civilization has become the
> > >>dominant force it is today largely because it returned to the rich intellectual
> > >>traditions of its pagan roots in ancient Greece. Today that pagan tradition of
> > >>unfettered religious & intellectual freedom is captured in secular democracy. By
> > >>the way, historians as far back as Herodotus assert that the intellectual
> > >>Muslims on the other hand who refuse to embrace secularism with its attendant
> > >>religious & intellectual freedom have not only remained backward relative to we
> > >>infidels, but have also become an impediment to human progress.
> > >>It is because of Muslims we have to endure long hours of arduous security checks
> > >>several Western nations have promulgated draconian legislations like America’s
> > >>It is because of Muslims and their absurd conspiracy theories about Jewish
> > >>to protect our children.
> > >>
> > >>Worst of all, Islam is the greatest threat to world peace today as it is the
> > >>course here in Naija where Boko Haram threatens the continued unity of our dear
> > >>motherland.
> > >>
> > >>With such deeply entrenched Muslim aversion to intellectual freedom required for
> > >>Adamu Adamu perpetuating the mental enslavement of our people in intolerant
> > >>bogus alien creeds.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>Nafata Bamaguje
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU
Dominic Ogbonna sums up what is a realistic assessment, validated by history, of the role of the study and practice of the arts, the social sciences and the sciences in creating civilisation, particularly the beacons represented by Western civilisations :
"...a successful and civilized nation is NOT just any one thing only [It] is also a nation that respects the freedom of the individual, and the freedom of the press, and the freedom of association, and property rights. It is a nation with Jurisprudence, and universal suffrage, and all kinds of other ideological and sociological intangibles that are clearly NOT reducible to Abba's "science and technology". Some of these non-scientific aspects of civilization are just as critical to civilization, and to the quality of human society, as the things that come from science and technology... [ Their ] very presence... makes science possible in the first place."
I present a similar perspective but with precise historical references across a range of disciplines as evident in Nigerian and Western history.
The Arts and Cultural and Economic Development
The Cultural and Economic Colossus that is the Western Arts
The arts play a central role in building the contemporary dominance of Western civilisation, as well as its leadership in creating the template that forms the basis of contemporary global science. The role of the narrative arts- the story telling Abba looks down on- and other arts, is evident in the contemporary global dominance of Western culture which permeates all corners of the globe, projecting the self perception of the West through its imaginative and social values, as well as earning the US a huge amount of money through foreign screenings and purchases of its films, which, along with its music, are still the global standard.
Are there any films or musicians who cross national boundaries the way these art forms from the US permeate the globe?
Michael Jackson died the other day and the whole world changed beceause he was no longer in it. From Asia to Africa and Europe, people were openly changed by his passing. Whitney Houston died recently and the world took note.
Which artiste, anywhere else, has passed away and the whole world took note? One will have to look much further back to a personality like Bob Marley and his kind is rare outside the US.
A lady from Saudi Arabia told me a few years ago that they suffer there from Western cultural dominance, in which the West is perceived as the culture of preference.
Can anyone point to any non-US film of the last 20 years that has a global presence? Yet US films are routinely global presences. Can you imagine the sheer economic power this pervasive penetration of the world through the arts means, plus the sheer cultural heft it gives the US as flag bearer of the West? Can you imagine the sheer economic power they are raking in from all over the world, concentrating it in their corner of North America?
The Domestic and Global Achievement of the Story Telling of Nigeria's Nollywood
In the whole of Nigerian history, the one collective achievement of a body of Nigerians that has registered on the global stage is the story telling of Nollywood. As far as I know, Nollywood is the first original and still the only achievement of Nigerians as a group on the global stage. Is there any other creative activity, from the arts to the sciences, in which Nigerians have excelled as a group and has achieved such economic force in the history of this country?
The US has Hollywood and their technology companies Microsoft , Google and Yahoo as their most prominent global brands. Nigeria has Nollywood. I cannot identify any other collective Nigerian achievement of global renown and perhaps such domestic and global economic force, equal to the achievement of Nollywood. Nollywood is basically the story telling Abba describes as not being central to national development. Nollywood story telling is described as the second largest film industry in the world, in terms of annual number of films produced, ahead of Hollywood and behind India, with a distinctive character of its own.
I discount the Nigerian oil industry because I cannot see the creativity in that industry in Nigeria.
Economic and social development is demonstrated, among other values, by being able to create jobs that enrich the populace and project its image positively. Nollywood could have contributed to those achievements more than any other Nigerian industry in the last 20 or more years.
The Cultural Framework of Western Civilisation
Some contributors on this thread are mistakenly conflating Asian social, technological and scientific development with the kind of total cultural construction represented by Western civilisation. Ogbonna provides an insightful listing of the ideas that form the bulwark of US political and economic existence:
1. The Democratic System of Government
2. The Rule Of Law
3. The Bill of Rights
4. The Separation Of Powers
5. The Separation of the Church and the State
6. The Abolition of slavery
Abba responds that "What you listed are government policies/interventions...and not ``arts". What you listed are interventions that create a conducive atmosphere for science and technology to flourish (you forgot to mention many other measures taken to encourage, promote and reward excellence; the US built a culture of meritocracy and competence; a culture that recognizes and salute these).
These "government policies/interventions", however, were enabled by the work of the arts, political and economic philosophy, political activism, political oratory and religious vision, among other domains of the arts, expressing ideals people fought and died for across centuries stretching from ancient Greece to the present and enshrined in canonical writings ranging from the philosophies of Plato to Adam Smith, to Martin Luther and Thomas Paine, to name a few, and which have been central to ideas about the role of knowledge in human life, which, in relation to determined social struggles, created an environment where science and technology have thrived.
Faith, Religion and Reason
Interestingly, the people who determine the environment that enables science and technology to thrive are less scientists than they are politicians and others directly involved in public life. If not for the desperate struggles of Martin Luther and his supporters at the Protestant Reformation, the stranglehold of the Church on scholarship is less likely to have been broken, enabling the Church to continue to dictate the boundaries of scholarship, as it tried to in harassing Galileo Galilei for insisting that the earth revolves round the sun.
There is a lot of merit to the argument that the continuing strength of Islam as a political force is central to the fall of scholarship in Islamic civilisation from its previous stellar height to its present lacklustre position in the world of learning, in which subservience to faith has triumphed over rationality or even a balanced relationship between rationality and other forms of knowledge, such as faith. A decisive point in this defeat is described as the debate between Al Ghazzali , Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd, represented by Al Ghazzali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers and Ibn Rushd's reply The Incoherence of the Incoherence (link to free PDF copy) , a debate between the faith centred position of Al Ghazzali and the more rationalistic position of Ibn Rushd, though he is described as trying to integrate faith and reason, keeping in mind that this rough summary may be best understood as a simplification of these sophisticated issues. According to this view, Islamic scholarship and civilisation have not recovered from this dominance of religion.
Europe, on the other hand, integrated with its Christian culture the rationalistic dimension of the Greek heritage transmitted to it by the Arabs and eventually subsumed the rational within the religious so thoroughly that they feed each other while reason is allowed to hold a prominent dominant place, an outcome of which is the spectacular success of science. Landmarks in this journey range from the works of Thomas Aquinas on the harmony of faith and reason, built on Aristotelian philosophy, the work of the great Renaissance scientists, artists and architects Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti, to the works that helped to foment the revolutions in Europe and the US, such as the works of Thomas Paine and those that fired the visions of the builders of modern Europe and the US founding fathers, of whom Paine was one.
Thomas Paine, Political Thought and Practice and the Culture of Learning
The history of Western democratic, revolutionary and capitalist thought is profoundly affected by Paine's books and activities, such as Common Sense , the central book that gains Paine the title of The Father of the American Revolution, his book The Rights of Man in defence of the French Revolution, arguing for citizen's rights as source of state authority and the Age of Reason, one of the most influential advocates of a rational critique of religion and religious institutions, a mindset that is the bulwark of modern Western secular society, a secularism of which science is a central beneficiary and central standard bearer.
Capitalism, Democracy and Scientific and Technological Progress
There exists an intimate relationship between capitalism, democracy and the scientific and technological leadership of the West. Democratic systems encourage freedom of thought and speech, and scope of research and application. Capitalism enables the accumulation of funds to invest in research and development as well as the reaping of financial investments from science and technology which are ploughed back to create more developments in those fields. Without a robust capitalist environment, would we have had the Industrial Revolution and certainly not the Information Revolution, a prominent aspect of which runs on the economic lifelines provided by venture capitalists with money to innovators without money. Bill Gates, the founders of Yahoo and Google, along with Zuckerberg and Facebook all started as students without money, money which investors provided. This match between innovative talent and wealth is central to the success of the global technology hub that is Silicon Valley.
How did the West develop such a robust capitalist system? Through a combination of the work of business people, politicians and the sheer historical convergence of various unanticipated factors, including religion, the latter suggested by the debate around Marx Weber's thesis in The Protestant Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism.
Cultural Foundations of Western Science and Technology
Magic, the Occult and Science
The arts have played a fundamental role in the development of Western science. Central to this is the contribution of religious, occult and philosophical cosmology to scientific cosmology. Tian Yu Cao in Conceptual Developments of Twentieth Century Field Theories, argues that the modern scientific understanding of nature as constituted by laws that can be understood and even worked with by the trained expert, the scientist, was a development from Western magic, itself derived centrally from the Hermetic tradition, the roots of which are described as being in Egypt. Cao makes this point beceause Western magic introduced to the Western intelligentsia the idea of the cosmos as not only a unified structure, an idea already familiar to them from the Greeks and the Arabs, but the Hermetic idea that this cosmos was organised in terms of laws that could be discovered, understood through study and cooperated with to produce results.
A book that demonstrates this occult culture in its combination of imagination and rationality, learning and experimentation, integrating broad scholarship with spiritual activity in which the magician trains themselves to understand natural law and work with it, but in a manner different from the instruments of modern science, is Israel Regardie's The Tree of Life : A Study in Magic( link to free PDF copy), which is based on the sweep of the Western magical tradition, from its Egyptian appropriations, to its blend of neo-Platonism and magic, down through the Middle Ages to the present. A historical text that demonstrates how the mentality represented by ideas and practices like those described by Regardie shaped the minds of scientists in the formative period of modern science in 17th to 18th century Europe and how it was transmitted in a modified form into modern science is Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (link to free PDF copy). More modern works take off from Yates' pioneering efforts. The relevant information is plentiful online.
Taking inspiration from this early cosmology of human understanding and management of cosmic law, some of the most influential of the earlier Western scientists were magicians and occultists, these disciplines being central to how they saw the universe, inspiring them in their quest for knowledge and providing the ideational template which they transposed into what is now known as modern science. Some of the most influential modern scientists develop along similar lines, but more in terms of philosophical and religious ideas. Useful guides in the relationships between religion, science and philosophy, particularly in exploring their roles in contemporary scientific discoveries are the works of Paul Davies, such as The Mind of God : Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning.
Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Occultism and Mathematical Cosmology
Central to the influence of the occult and religion on science is Isaac Newton, whose work in the
Western esoteric school -dealing with hidden skills and knowledge not
available through conventional education- of Hermeticism along with
his deep study of the Bible and theology shaped decisively his mind and his
scientific discoveries. A central tenent of Hermeticism is
the maxim of Hermes Trismegistus , after whom the school
is named 'As Above, So Below'. Within that context, the cosmos is understood as
organised in terms of the correspondence of order at various levels of
existence, from the more abstract levels to the material plane. This
world view may be correlated with that of modern scientific cosmology,
which understands the cosmos as organised in terms of laws that
unify its totality.
Central to the quest to understand cosmic unity is the study of unifying laws and Newton's work in gravitational law and the laws of motion is central to that. Central to Newton's work in gravitation and laws of motion is the concept of force, which I would describe as a layperson as the impulse acting upon bodies. The concept of force is central to Newton's development of gravitational theory in terms of invisible forces acting upon each other at a distance, an idea, which, according to Richard Westfall in his Encyclopaedia Britannica 1992 essay on Newton, the great scientist adapted from the occult idea of invisible forces that act upon forms across space and perhaps unify the cosmos.
Westfall describes Newton's achievement as bringing to a consummation the vision of the great Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras who understood the cosmos as organised in terms of mathematical form and whose mathematical work was related to an effort to understand that cosmic order. Like Pythagoras, Newton was fired by the vision of grasping cosmic order through both intellectual and supra-intellectual methods, as testified to by his magnum opus Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, which rounds off with Newton's celebration of his understanding of cosmic law as a demonstration of divine order as expressed through the creation and transcendence of time and space by God.
" In the Beginning, God Geometrised" so declares an expression from an idea attributed to the Greek philosopher Plato and described as adapted by the great mathematician Friedrich Gauss stating 'God arithmeticises', thereby carrying forward the Pythagorean and Platonic vision which has become central to modern science, even though the divine justification for cosmic order in terms revealed by mathematical form is no longer canonical in science. This mathematico-cosmic vision, as it were, has shaped Western science across the centuries, as represented, for example, by the great astronomer Johannes Kepler, who understood the orbits of the planets as organised in terms of geometric solids as well as practising successfully the occult discipline of astrology, which is based on mathematical calculations of relationship between the celestial bodies and events in human life.
Frances Yates in Giodarno Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition describes the difference between Kepler's occult and scientific work, and if I would add, that of Newton and other occult and philosopher scientists, as the ability to allow various realms of knowledge to feed each other while distinguishing between them. Kepler and Newton were inspired by philosophy, occultism and religion but they understood that to demonstrate conclusively their ideas in scientific cosmology, they needed a form of logic, that, unlike the logic of philosophy and the occult, has to be accessible to verification by other scholars who might have little or no interest in their occult and philosophical inspiration, those not being in the realm of science, science as it was emerging in the 17th century scientific revolution in which these men played a central role. Yates develops these ideas further in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment.
Also prominent in this emergent scientific culture was John Dee, prominent mathematician and dedicated and ambitious occultist.
Newton describes most forcefully and poignantly his sensitivity to this correlative symbiosis and difference between various realms of knowledge in concluding his Principia with a description of his religious vision as encapsulating his scientific cosmology and describing his further vision of unity in the physical world, in which a force shapes the motion of all forms within the physical world and the human body, from electricity to blood, but concluding that there is no sufficiency of experiments to prove this expanded vision of his, thereby leaving that vision outside the domain of scientific proof.
Alchemy
One of the most spectacular examples of the transformation of occult theory and practice into science is the discipline of alchemy. It involved a complex of theoretical ideas and practical techniques involving material instruments. My understanding so far of this very secretive and arcane field is that it might have been a system for developing a transformation of the human self in relation to the transformation of material substances, with this transformative process symbolised by and related with the transformation of material forms from one state to another, centred in the idea of transforming other metals to gold and making one immortal, through the creation or discovery of the Philosopher's Stone.
The alchemists are described as central to laying the foundations of the relationship between scientific theory and experiment that is the defining mark of modern science. They developed elaborate laboratories and instruments for experimentation, testing their theoretical formulations, and encoding their ideas in symbols that the uninitiated would not understand, even though presented in books that were at times publicly available and written in European languages, a technique of encoding, of hiding information in plain view in a manner related to the highly specialised terminology of modern science.
The culture of experimenting on the material world using specialised laboratory instruments, and correlating such experimentation with theory, passed into modern science, but the ideas of transforming the self were left behind. I would not argue for a direct influence from alchemy to nuclear science and the Hadron Collider, but one may deduce in such efforts the persistence of the idea that material forms can be transformed from one state to another through human effort. A modern interpretation of the alchemical theory of transformation between elements is evident in the exploits of the alchemist Nicholas Flamel in Michael Scott's fantasy novel series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.
Perhaps the most successful transformer of the occult world of alchemy to science while working actively in both worlds was Isaac Newton, whose work in alchemy and religion is described as more voluminous than his better known work in physics and mathematics. Alchemy provided for Newton a cosmology and an experimental framework which he mined diligently, adapting to his scientific discoveries, and like many occultists, he hid the occult roots of a number of his most important scientific ideas so that, along with the influence of the disdain people later had for alchemy, for centuries people were baffled as to why such a great mind should devote so much effort to what they saw as a pseudo-scientific pursuit like alchemy or why the father of modern science should be so committed to research on religion.
Modern Newton scholarship demonstrates how these interests feed each other in his works, studying his extensive original documents in various libraries and posted online at such sites as The Chymistry of Isaac Newton and The Newton Project. His writings on religion and philosophy are published online and in print as in the Newton Manuscript Project on his theological work.
Books that are very successful at showing how these interests are woven together in Newton's life are Richard Westfall's, Never at Rest : A Biography of Isaac Newton abridged in The Life of Isaac Newton, distilled in his Encyclopaedia Britannica 1992 essay on Newton and in his Britannica online essay, and the compact but very rich and meticulous Newton : A Very Short Introduction by Rob Lliffe.
20th Century Science, Philosophy and Religion
It is very useful in understanding the implications of the two great discoveries of 20th century science, Special and General Relativity and quantum theory, to understanding the role of philosophical ideas and ideas related to religion in forming the scientific explorations of scientists like Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrodinger, Niels Bohr, Srinivassa Ramanujan, Henri Poincare, as well the scientists’ interpretations of the philosophical implications of their work, as in Weiner Heisenberg's Physics and Philosophy : The Revolution in Modern Science ( link to free PDF copy).
Georg Cantor, Kurt Godel and Philosophies of Mathematics
Science, religion, philosophy, the occult and esotericism are best understood as symbiotic because of the mutual fertilisation of these disciplines as well as the light they throw on each other even when they don't affect each other directly in the work of practitioners of these disciplines. Rene Descartes made foundational achievements in philosophy and science through his philosophical program of developing authoritative methods of knowledge, ranging from introspective self enquiry to mathematics. The great mathematicians Georg Cantor and Kurt Godel are described as understanding mathematics as existing in a world independent of the human mind, a world into which mathematicians penetrate to perceive these forms and make them accessible to their fellow humans, an idea manifest in Platonism, one of the earliest ways it was introduced to Western thought, but also existing in various cosmologies, from Yoruba Orisa cosmology, in the odu ifa, mathematical forms described as spirits representing the identity of all possibilities of existence, abstract and concrete, actual and potential, to Hindu yantras, geometric forms understood as the embodiment of deities, the permutations of which demonstrate the structure and development of the cosmos.
Scientific, Religious and Philosophical Cosmologies and the Creation of the Universe from 'Nothing'.
Tian Yu Cao in 'Ontology and Scientific Explanation' in Explanations: Styles of Explanations in Science describes eloquently the idea of the universe as emerging from nothing, an idea developed in quantum theory to explain the ultimate origins of the universe beyond the generally accepted scientific theory that the universe came into existence through an explosion known as the big bang. What existed before the big bang? Cao argues that a very good answer is ' nothing'. This 'nothing' he describes as a self created and self sustaining mode of being, having no connection with any forms in the observable universe, and therefore not susceptible to the question "what came before what you describe as causing the universe, whether the matter that led to the big bang or a quantum space?"
Is this idea of "nothing" as the source of the universe not familiar from non-scientific sources? From the Biblical, " In the beginning, the world was without form and void" to the Buddhist idea of sunyata, Emptiness, the Void, to the Jewish and Hermetic Kabbalistic notion of Ain Soph, No-thingness, the Unmanifest, the idea of 'nothing', self created and self sustaining, has been central to religious and philosophical cosmology. It is also deployed most powerfully in Soyinka's Credo of Being and Nothingness and The Man Died.
Literature, Recreation and Inspiration
While developing scientific and technological innovation, whether influenced by philosophy, religion or the occult or not, how does one relax? How does one rest the mind and body? Can body and mind remain healthy without rest, without play? May the arts not play a central role in the rejuvenation of mind and body? May the arts not be central vehicles for those very religious, philosophical and occult ideas through which people find meaning in life? Is it adequate to enjoy the wonders of science and technology without a sense of the meaning of life beyond such physical conveniences?
Is it not relevant to learn how others have managed challenges like being deprived of their freedom in the name of a cause they understood as just? The struggle for justice is sustained by the awareness that one can survive persecution. Such awareness may be gained through learning about others' efforts in that direction, the 'fellow voyagers' as described in Soyinka's prison poem ' O, Roots'. Rather than succumb to the soul destroying culture of conformity represented by the corruption that has made the development of a scientific and technological culture in Nigeria difficult on account of inadequate funding, one could subsist on inner wealth instead of enriching oneself by guzzling public funds, inner wealth as demonstrated by Soyinka's meditations in solitary confinement in prison during the Nigerian Civil War in which he drew inspiration from the most basic elements of his prison environment, lizards, flying birds, the falling feather of a bird, men being led to be hanged, the walls of his prison cell, the garden constructed by his fellow inmates and destroyed by the warders, , rain, keyholes, etc etc, as portrayed eloquently in The Man Died his prison autobiography and A Shuttle in the Crypt, his poems written in prison.
Wole Soyinka's Global Stature
Is there any other Nigerian figure of Soyinka's global stature?
As for the following comment from Abba: "Besides, there are many others in Africa who are probably as, or even more, deserving of the literature prize (Achebe is surely one)."
I would like to know about such writers since I want to learn more about African writing and keeping in mind that the prize is politicised being largely Western centred.
In terms of sheer ideational power, imaginative inventiveness and linguistic force, Soyinka has earned a unique place in world literature. Soyinka has one work of ultimate sublimity in poetry, A Shuttle in the Crypt; an incomparable essay collection, Myth, Literature and the African World( I refer here to the three essays "The Ritual Archetype", "Drama and the African World View" and "The Fourth Stage", excluding the other two on the history of African literature. Soyinka has many other essays but from my reading of them, even if they are up to 100 they might not be equal those three in the immortal power of their ability to speak to the perennial and deepest challenges of the human condition) ; a bombshell of an autobiography, The Man Died ( I have not read his three or four other autobiographies) ; a most memorable dramatic work, Death and the Kings Horseman ( I have not read some of his plays, described as his best known works, The Road seems particularly well regarded).
A Nigerian writer known to me who comes close to Soyinka is Christopher Okigbo, although he published only a slim body of poems, Labyrinths, but the book's power is like the power contained in the atomic nucleus that can trigger an atomic bomb. Sadly, Okigbo's greater promise was not fulfilled since he died fighting in the Biafran side in the Nigerian Civil War, his body lost as he covered his men retreating from a federal advance.
Soyinka's three essays I mentioned from Myth, Literature and the African World and The Man Died will stand till the end of time as monuments in the landscape of human achievement, as signposts on the journey of human progress across the ages. As long as the human mind remains what it is, as long as it is not fundamentally restructured to a higher cognitive level, creating a different form of humanity than is evident today, I expect these works will remain be among those of which Hans Georg Gadamer in Truth andMethod declares can never be superseded, like ideas and achievements in science and technology can be superseded by later developments in those fields.
Even explorers from other worlds who are able to understand human cognition and appreciate human values are likely to revere such works as demonstrations of what the German poet Rainer Marie Rilke described as his task as a poet but which may be extended to a task on behalf of all beings in existence, on earth and beyond earth-to justify one's existence by transforming the visible world into visible art.
Soyinka on the Link Between Boko Haram and Prominent Political and Social Orientations of Northern Nigeria
Soyinka makes the following points on Boko Haram:
1.Boko Haram is a manifestation of religious mania in Northern Nigeria that has gone out of control. Whatever one might think of a direct relationship between Northern religious extremism and Boko Haram, history abounds in examples of a culture of religious extremism in Northern Nigeria, often leading to mob actions resulting in the murder of Southerners and Christians in the North, these mob actions at times being inspired by perceived slights against Islam originating from outside Nigeria, without any provocation from Christians.
Such periodic murderous mob actions are the sporadic but recurrent manifestation of a culture of extremism expressed most forcefully in Northern religious extremist groups, from the earlier examples to the more recent Maitasine and Boko Haram.
2. Northern Nigeria is prone to such murderous mob actions and organised religious fanaticism partly because it runs an educational systen that provides ready foot soldiers for such campaigns, these being the alamjiris, products of a system described by Zainab Usman as based on the idea of the migrant scholars travelling in search of knowledge but, as described by Gillian Parker seemingly often abused to become a collection of poor young people who are available for manipulation, and being poor and often disenfranchised by poverty and limited education from full participation in society, are prone to flare up against perceived enemies.
3. That Boko Haram is the tool of disgruntled Northern politicians who are aggrieved at their loss of power. Soyinka has not proven this point conclusively but he sums up deductions that may be made between the threats of violence by Northern politicians like Atiku on the failure of the North to secure the Presidency as expected on the PDP platform and the eventual escalation of Boko Haram terrorism on the swearing in of Jonathan's government, along with the politically sharpened thrust of Boko Haram's pronouncements as the group openly seeks to achieve its declared goal of bringing down the government.
thanks
toyin
Dear Ozodi,I fully agree with you...and I wish we have far more people like you who have the capacity to see what is right and call it so. I must admit I didn't read much of Soyinka during my secondary school. Our teachers were (rightly I must add) the Achebe type. It is always gratifying when I go to other parts of the world and I get asked the usual two questions about Nigeria: the prowess of the Eagles and the greatness of ``Things Fall Apart". I do not know whether Soyinka has what it takes to be an excellent scientist....being great in one area does not necessary mean one will be great in all others. I do not know. What I do know is that Nigeria will have been far more respected if his prize was in/on something that matters....like in Chemistry, Physics, Medicine and Physiology or even Economics.The main message is Nigeria (and Africa too) does not really matter in the grand scheme of things (vis-a-vis science and technology). No one from Nigeria (or Africa) has won any of those major prize...and that speaks volumes. Hopefully, with the right leadership in Africa we can begin to focus on what really matters (excellence in science and technology) and achieve the much needed excellence in that area.Abba
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