Whole Soyinka, Integrity, and Awards From "Undemocratic Governments"
Okey Iheduru
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGCbkjrvaX-mSbtXadd5RFNqpGAAcXDOZYJC8Gz22zV8d9P9TA%40mail.gmail.com.
Akin Ogundiran
Okey Iheduru,
For you to come to this platform and call Wole Soyinka " an overrated ethnic bigot" for accepting an award from President Bola Tinubu and rejecting a previous award from President Goodluck Jonathan shows how your ethnic bigotry is eating you inside out. Only a clown (more so someone like you who makes a living as a political scientist) would claim that Jonathan was somehow more democratic than Tinubu.
Akin Ogundiran
Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
Professor of History/African Studies, CCSU
Chief Editor- "Africa Update"
https://sites.ccsu.edu/afstudy/archive.html
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries
www.vimeo.com/gloriaemeagwali
www.africahistory.net
Founding Coordinator, African Studies, CCSU
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2025 9:51 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Whole Soyinka, Integrity, and Awards From "Undemocratic Governments"
EXTERNAL EMAIL: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
Mensah, Edward K
Get Outlook for Android
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Whole Soyinka, Integrity, and Awards From "Undemocratic Governments"
|
CAUTION: External Sender |
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/0845e468-8e90-4a61-ad83-ff562af4c368n%40googlegroups.com.
|
This email originated from outside the University of Illinois System. Use caution when replying, clicking links, or opening attachments. DO NOT reply to any requests asking you to reply from a personal account or SMS. |
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Its not helpful insulting Okey over his stance.
The stance should be analyzed instead.
What Okey did not mention is the broader context of his analysis, a well known style of Soyinka analysis in the Nigerian online space, a context of which the recent incident in question is only the latest illustration of what is seen as Soyinka's questionable pro-Tinubu politics.
There was a substantial shift in Soyinka's politics in his alignment with the APC, beginning perhaps from the crisis in the governor's forum involving a struggle between that forum and the GEJ govt, in which Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi was prominent, a relationship that has seen Soyinka in consistent battle with GEJ and his wife, struggles part of the broad based struggle to remove GEJ but which eventually focused in the choice of Buhari as the APC Presidential candidate, a logical choice being the strongest politician in the North but a tainted choice given his antecedents, of which Soyinka had been the most trenchant chronicler, a choice that eventually led to his Presidency and after him to the Tinubu Presidency.
What is the morality and logic of Soyinka's role in the highly controversial impact of the APC in Nigeria, from Fulani militia terrorism led by Miyetti Allah becoming a parallel govt through Buhari, a scourge that continues today to the devastating economic policies running from the end of the Buhari Presidency to that of Tinubu?
The Tinubu Presidency was framed by Tinubu himself as a Yoruba centric project with himself at the centre, at his strategic "emilokan" speech when the APC chairman, in the face of a seemingly passive Buhari was making moves suggesting Tinubu could be edged out of the APC Presidential race after Buharis eight years.
Tinubu got the Presidency but lost in Lagos, his stronghold, an apocalyptic outcome to which Lagos APC responded with a brutal anti-Igbo campaign in the guber elections to destabilize guber candidate Rhodes-Vivour whose wife is Igbo, that campaign being the arrowhead of the use of Yoruba ethnicity as the primary criterion for SW leadership, in the face of the clear trans-ethnic slant Lagos politics had assumed as evident in Tinubu 's defeat in Lagos.
There is a lot about the APC that suggests it's been centrally an ethnic alliance, a balance between the Muslim North and the SW represented by Tinubu, in spite of the rebellion of the SW governors against Buhari's Fulani herdsmen national proliferation agenda.
So, when people describe Soyinka's relationship with Tinubu and the APC project as having ethnic overtones, those considerations cannot be dismissed but need examining.
As for who is more democratic between GEJ and Tinubu, one could compare the presence or absence of oppression of people's democratic rights under both Presidents- attacks of demonstrators, on social media activists and offline activists etc
Thanks
Toyin
Okey Iheduru
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfNb9B%3DoNk6DnQ%2BEaC-X-3c-dQU_jcJeB5ucGj3Qe9Zs1w%40mail.gmail.com.
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
You are making the same mistake Okey.
Ivor Agyeman-Duah
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfPkirb0SPU740ziHQMu_dWOv67jOJOzSJ5PCkqYqHF%2Biw%40mail.gmail.com.
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Some people think Soyinka has betrayed the principles he has himself championed.
I'm of that view myself.
A better picture of Soyinka might not be simply that of an activist but of an activist-politician, whose strategies are not always aligned with democratic principles.
He seems to fume in The Man Died about the Biafran commander Victor Banjo delaying in the Midwest before proceeding towards Lagos in the name of effecting the capture of the SW on behalf of Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War, enabling the Fed govt to regroup and defeat the Biafrans at Ore, the first major defeat of Biafra in that war and the turning of the tide against the Biafran secession.
Why should a self described social justice activist who claimed to be unaligned with any side as he sought to prevent sales of arms to either side be unhappy that a commander from the secessionist group is delayed in his efforts to capture the commercial centre of the nation, leading to the strategic Biafran defeat?
What is the full story about the reasons for Nigerian head of state Yakubu Gowon's imprisonment of Soyinka during the war?
Note that Soyinka is Yoruba. Banjo was Yoruba. Some of the Biafran leadership was from the minority SE. But the core of Biafra, particularly as the war dragged on, was Igbo.
Why did Soyinka ally himself with the same Buhari he had earlier condemned as unfit for national leadership in "The Trouble with Buhari?"
Why did Soyinka help legitimize the govt of IBB who came to power through a coup by serving in his govt, chastising those who challenged his decision as "disco critics" who prefer perpetual critique to participating in active nation building?
When one has projected themselves in terms of high visibility or high standards of public engagement, the person will invite critique.
Soyinka was the first to suggest that the 2011 Boko Haram terrorism resurgence was due to disgruntled PDP politicians from the North who felt shortchanged by the PDP's choice of GEJ as their flag bearer.
For this Adamu Adamu published a brilliant condemnation of Soyinka in relation to Soyinka's championing of Yoruba spirituality, which Adamu conflated with traditional African spirituality and depicted as inferior to Islam.
Years later,national security officer Azazi made a similar declaration as Soyinka and shortly after perished in a helicopter crash.
Azazi's aides declared they would reveal the results of their enquiry into Boko Haram sponsors. We later heard no more from them.
In reporting accounts of weapons being dropped on cattle routes, Soyinka was the first person known to me to sound the alarm about the convergence of Fulani herdsmen and the creation of a private army that later blossomed into the Fulani militia/violent Fulani herdsmen crisis that escalated with the obvious though tacit support of Buhari 's govt but to enable that govt the same Soyinka backed Buhari, an open critic of the war against Boko Haram and a clear right wing ethnocentrist, for Presidency.
People trying to understand Soyinka's complex political history could focus on particular episodes but how does one grasp the complete configuration of something that does not have the same shape all the time?
Apologies for my recurrent comments. Its because I'm intrigued by Soyinka whom I deeply admire but don't consider a model for political activity even as I understand his art as operating at the limits of human creativity.
Great thanks
Toyin
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAJ8bqTiA%2BKTb7BjdCopuAWeX3SAJbo0kDx2hTbPwkjJRE7Qh_Q%40mail.gmail.com.
Folami Kolade
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfOpWBdKjhk7JECVu1VgiKVJuiCwO53s-61cpzpEOg5kFg%40mail.gmail.com.
ogunlakaiye
Cornelius Hamelberg
People’s Planet
25th June, 2025
“overrated ethnic bigot”?
It’s a calculated slur, unworthy and unbecoming of the accuser…
It’s not as if it all boils down to - by popular opinion, who is more democratic/ undemocratic / clueless , Goodluck Joe or Bola Ahmed Tinubu - and that the most wise & infallible professor Iheduru it is that has the last word on the matter because his impeccable academic, democratic and other virtuous credentials have seated him on the throne of judgement, so that when he pronounces judgment his is not merely a very learned opinion, it is a judgement that cannot be contested, right?
There are occasions when silence means acquiescence.
This is one such occasion.
Call me your typical Yoruba praise singer
if you will, you see, it’s in the blood, and, as
you all know, blood’s thicker than mud.
We’re not talking about just anybody,
we’re talking about Wole Soyinka,
we’re talking about a man of all seasons,
we’re talking about the one hell of a political activist
who went on a world tour campaign against the despotism
of the notorious Sani Abacha of Nigeria
Hello there :
Let me ask you a question : In total freedom,
does a free man such as our venerable Wole Soyinka,
a man of good conscience, have a right to refuse an award,
any award that you can imagine?
You bet he has and just like
Jean-Paul Sartre who refused the Nobel Prize
Wole Soyinka doesn’t need any permission or approval
from Okey Iheduru or former president Goodluck Joe to do so.
Just for the record: Soyinka's reasons for not accepting a national award from Goodluck Jonathan
It should be interesting to note the reasons that Benjamin Zephaniah gave when he refused an OBE Award
Such is the vanity and vaingloriousness that even some of those who formerly wept about colonialism all day long, who were strongly anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism have usually claimed humility and unworthiness, yet seem to have had no qualms at all and were in fact tickled by the idea of being knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II -as a reward for services to the crown - so, we have so many Sirs in colonial and post-colonial Africa - in Sierra Leone for example ( Sierra Leone, Britain's first colony in Africa, and for the longest period of time, 150 years) about eleven people have been knighted so far ,and in Nigeria which was only a colony 1914 -1960 ( merely 46 years) ten people have been knighted so far
Of course the reasons advanced by Benjamin Zephaniah for rejecting the Order of the British Empire (OBE) ought not to disqualify those who seek such honours for other personal or national reasons.
As the eloquent Owerri Motor Park poet famously articulated ,
“ I will even fight to defend that fundamental right of yours to hold even a different opinion from mine. I will never see you or any other with a divergent opinion as an enemy. What I am however not sure of is if myself and/or any other would enjoy that same right of holding a divergent opinion from yours without being attacked, especially, psychologically, by you (it really doesn't bother me personally, but it is a problem in a civilized setting like here).”
And as Tom Lehrer’s song goes,
“Oh the Protestants hate the Catholics
And the Catholics hate the Protestants
And the Hindus hate the Muslims
And everybody hates the Jews”
Indeed , “ in a civilized setting like here” in contrast with other civilised settings such as that of former colonial powers such as Nazi Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Russia, Japan, the United States, Portugal, the Netherlands and others who fought the second world war because of differences of opinion etc and fast forward to the ongoing philosophical differences of opinion and disagreements between the Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and for full measure, you may even consider this news item about just hours before Zohran Kwame Mamdani was democratically elected
Amy Koita : Allah lenon
ogunlakaiye
Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Interesting response but why all the insults from Kadiri?
I would have liked to respond critically but when a person believes that insults and debate go together I lose interest in engaging such a person.
Thanks
Toyin
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/c1e9f0d9-5142-41f1-9df4-6f377d91d50en%40googlegroups.com.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin,
C’mon. Jesus is reported to have said, “Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing .“ A later Rabbi said, “Father , forgive them, for they know nothing “ (A bunch of bloody ignoramuses like Chi-chi) and just the other day, you must have heard the leader of the free world (and the free word) using the F word when he said what he said
For someone who has been to the moon and other remote areas of the cosmos - mentally - in search of knowledge , someone initiated into tantra, and given your earlier discourses on the glorious vagina and your latest discourse in this forum about the wonders of man’s penis and the Shiva Lingam, one wouldn’t suspect that you would be so sensitive about the use of ordinary nouns and adjectives in attempting to understand, by naming and describing discrete phenomena by their proper names, or metaphorically speaking by similitudes
Given the whole colourful poetic spectrum available in a normal person's vocabulary ( Shakespeare's Bawdy and all the jargon you have encountered since you've been roaming far and wide in the literary world ) don't you think that any uncouth speculation by Professor you know who , about our Wole Soyinka being "an overrated ethnic bigot" is far worse than such a speculations coming from any semi-literate, uneducated buffoon, imbecile or idiot?
“The bat-like posture of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju makes it very difficult in this discourse to identify him whether as a mouse or a bird. At best, he is very chameleonic.”
Is this what you’re fuming about ?
I would be amused, if I were you , even if your being “chameleonic” is far from being true…
Please address the main issue, not the innocuous ad hominem.; do what you “ would have liked to do” : “ respond critically” !
About the “chameleonic” I once had a girlfriend who I fondly remember used to tell me , “ I am as constant as the Northern star”
From 2 days ago : Nigeria’s Tinubu Wild U-Turn Stuns Africa - No More Raw Exports, Joins Traoré
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
I enjoyed Salimonu's description of me for its imaginative flair.
It was the description of Okey by Salimonu that I see as unhelpful in a critical discussion
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/d69abb63-9b28-4d18-8c64-85f199e97bd5n%40googlegroups.com.
Cornelius Hamelberg
“His sister Pam works in a shop
She never stops, she's a go-getter
Takes him out to look at the queen
Only place that he's ever been
Always shouts out something obscene
Such a dirty old man
Dirty old man” ( Mean Mr. Mustard)
Not one of us.
If, God forbid, Former President Buhari, Goodluck Jonathan, Wole Soyinka, President Tinubu or Prof Iheduru had said exactly what President Trump said the other day, ”They ( Israel) don’t know what the f they are doing”, then they would have got a lot of flak from Nigeria’s pious & sanctimonious pastors for obscenity and they who might have even accused them of “antisemitism “
However, it’s exactly as you say : “It was the description of Okey by Salimonu that I see as unhelpful in a critical discussion.”
Be that as it may, Baba Kadiri’s jocular exaggerations may be viewed as minor insults ( “Those who are not suffering from intellectual menopause” ( reminiscent of of Norman Mailer chutzpah with his coinage of the term “ menopausal minds” - different from the more derogatory “menopausal minds” )“a professorial dimwit, lacking in brain power to process facts needed in making sound judgment”, “That is the kind of behaviour one would expect to see from a street urchin, a liar and a fraudster” ) I’m sure that Prof Iheduru’s feathers remain unruffled being called a dimit etc , and more importantly, these minor insults aside, shouldn't we pay closer attention to what Baba Kadiri the walking encyclopaedia of Nigerian affairs is saying? The essence. His argument? His telling it as it is ? We ought to appreciate the good that he does each time he challenges and corrects what would otherwise pass as some kind of gospel
About the funny, unexpected, misplaced and in some cases incongruous, ill-fitting expletives, unfortunately, that’s how it is, an angry and frustrated man has no time for sycophancy or niceties. Baba Kadiri’s is a very Nigerian way of talking, it’s emotionally charged self-expression, even in Chidi’s “very civilised place like this”. A wayward/ crazy danfo driver from the Owerri Motor Park almost runs over a hapless pedestrian - his foot slams on the brakes just in the nick of time - one more life saved and what does the saved pedestrian exclaim? He exclaims, “God punish you!”. It’s his personal catharsis - emotional release from all that pent up emotion arising from the day to day frustration about life and living conditions, “cost of living get so high rich and poor they start to cry” etc
Release of pent up emotion:
“The first thing they say when they're mad: 'Fuck it'
You play a little too much with them
An interesting take here on Greatness
https://bernardjporter.com/2025/06/27/greatness/
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Its not a Nigerian way of talking.
I dintt have the energy to wade through a quagmire of insults bcs I want to engage someone on social media
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/775607f8-01bb-4020-8f4e-0dda43eed863n%40googlegroups.com.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin,
https://www.facebook.com/reel/932903795526799
For cyberspace societies there are recommended rules of engagement known as "Netiquette"
However, it’s really not always a matter of ”to be or not to be” thick skinned. In real life it’s mostly people with low self-esteem that are most easily offended. For instance, when the Pharisees told Jesus that he (Jesus) was not Almighty God, do you think that he was grieved at hearing that ? And what it is alleged that he told some of them, according to John 8 :44 ( “You belong to your father the devil “etc) - how do you think they reacted? The death penalty? We are to assume that if you or he told today's Pharisees that sort of thing they would most definitely accuse you and him of “antisemitism”
The great, self-assured free-wheeling President Donald J Trump for example does not go into hiding or self-imposed exile because his darling Nancy Pelosi suggested that he’s an “idiot” or a "cretin" in any so-called “civilised” space, be it the Owerri Motor Park the cerebral headquarters of a certain kind of “poetry” or be it within the precincts of the Senate, St John’s Church (the one situated near the White House) or indeed the House of Commons from which the late great Northern Ireland firebrand Rev Ian Paisley got himself suspended for thirty days for shouting at Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to her face, at the House of Commons, “On behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, prime minister, I brand you a liar and a traitor ! "
Unfortunately, we are so fixated on identifying with our own cherished self-image and that’s why we tend to be so easily offended when that image does not correspond to reality. To tell you the truth , in my current state I’m arrogant to the point that I look with either disdain, compassion or indifference, at the one who designates me as belonging to the category of “vermin”. There's the Amidah . With humility as the ideal, the prayer goes "let my soul be like dust to everyone"....
As for the one who believes himself to be Jesus come back again, in the flesh, such a one could be brought gently back to earth by asking him,” Where are your disciples?"
Should I not be more concerned about my own shortcomings than the shortcomings of others ?
BTW, I’m the very worst of all the people that I know, those who are close to me, and regularly, I come to that contrite heartfelt awareness after due introspection, self-examination and a review of Salih's Advice…
Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: 28 June 2025 10:24
Mensah, Edward K
Get Outlook for Android
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2025 12:56:28 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Whole Soyinka, Integrity, and Awards From "Undemocratic Governments"
|
CAUTION: External Sender |
Cornelius Hamelberg
Baba Kadiri,
“They say that patriotism is the last refuge
Steal a little and they throw you in jail
Steal a lot and they make you king”
We also understand all too well that under the chameleonic guise of patriotism, some
mischief makers - like spies, even a supercilious barbarian or two in disguise, masquerading as superior civilised beings can sneak into this our civilised forum in order to be manipulative here, well versed in witchcraft and the other dark arts, as well as the science of ethnic jingoism by which to promote and achieve their nefarious purposes.
True, life /things could be much better, that’s why everybody has an axe to grind. Some people even want to achieve greatness. Everybody = all kinds. Millionaire, billionaire, trillionaire, call him pauper or fakir and he won’t care or even hear,,,
However, to all intents and purposes surely Messrs Iheduru & Adepoju his apologist have the good of Nigeria at heart and we must assume that is their default position until and unless explicitly proven otherwise. Which does not mean that given all the water that has flowed under the bridge since even before Nigerian Independence, the tragic events of January 15 1966, the Biafra War and all that (the rest of the Pandora's box) wounds are healed but the scars remain even if it’s no longer this particular Kipling truism that we find in The Ballad of East and West which begins
“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;”
Here are Wole Soyinka's very clear reasons for not accepting that award in 2014
WOLE SOYINKA: WHY I REJECTED JONATHAN’S CENTENARY AWARD
If Okey Iheduru is familiar with the basis of Soyinka's objections in 2014 and he thereby knows that the notion of “undemocratic government “ was not mentioned in either case (2014 and this year’s award) then the only reason for Professor Iheduru’s atrocious “overrated ethnic bigot” posting was to be provocative and that is all. He posted, and is perhaps really having fun / enjoying the predictable reactions: That-wise he has succeeded in smoking out Baba Kadiri and hopefully he now fully understands how outrageous his posting aimed at ethnic baiting was.
Alhadji Ayinla Omowura & his Apala Group - Owo Tuntun 1977