“a light that illuminates the past”
Cornelius Hamelberg
Amended and abridged :
“a light that illuminates the past”
Football. The good old days :
“When Nigeria played in the UK without boots and won 5 - 2 , back in 1949
If indeed, “History is a light that illuminates the past, and a key that unlocks the door to the future" (in the gospel according to Runoko Rashidi) then with reference to Nigeria’s recent, turbulent political history, this should be a good audio-visual resource:
https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryVille/videos
And if history is a light, I suppose that so are historians,
a light or lights that shineth in the darkness…
Before travelling to Nigeria in 1981 for a four year hiatus - I knew a little about the legendary Balogun Thunder, Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Herbert Macaulay, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Akintola, Sir Abubakar, the Biafra War. My main preparation and background was Michael Crowder’s “The Story of Nigeria”, Robin Horton's “Kalabari Sculpture”, Soyinka’s total output by then, plus the latest from Ola Rotimi, Juju Music, Guy Arnold, I decided that I would be travelling light but fully armed with Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Pedagogy in Process: The Letters to Guinea-Bissau
After the August 6, 1983 Elections in Nigeria, I was eventually surprised to read the headlines in Dagens Nyheter proclaim :
“Triumph for Democracy in Nigeria !”
The fact is that even exile theoreticians and ideologues from Nigeria living in comfort in Stockholm or in Massachusetts can’t write on-the-spot commentaries, even if (nostalgia) they know the terrain well, and believe that yesterday (the good old days) in the US, in Sweden and in Nigeria, are no different and even worse than today.
Just like Nathan Shachar of Dagens Nyheter reporting from Jerusalem , so too only someone like independent scholar Oluwatoyin Vincent Adeopju currently living in Nigeria can truly write about Nigeria and give on-the-spot commentaries, and we are all witness to the commentaries of a venerable like the late great Ayo Olukotun, the Prince of Nigerian commentators. In this forum, of course, Ojogbon, world traveller, lately Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa (where he preached from the podium after being awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws) Ojogbon an intermittent if not frequent visitor to the homeland and from that vantage point he pens his regular pieces in the Nigerian press, and delivers his lectures from the podium of this and that famous or aspiring university about the exigencies of the hour and what must be done to salvage the situation and to proceed straight forward.
In this forum there are also regular inputs from Salihu Mohammed Lukman //Salihu Mohammed Lukman (Director-General at Progressive Governors Forum), another light,
Professor Jibrin Ibrahim who keeps us updated about the latest disasters and problems facing democracy in Nigeria with his weekly columns here, and likewise, almost on a monthly basis, na wah o - once a month Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani) complaining, sometimes, bitterly, legally
A critique of the latter two - Musa Rafsanjani and Jibrin Ibrahim is that of necessity their views have to be circumscribed by the demands of the particular NGOs that give them their daily bread, and therefore tailored accordingly.
“Something’s never quite right
Ah, but who would want to listen
to you kissing his existence good night?” - Walking Man
About Professor Ibrahim’s latest -Anarchy , interestingly interrogated and challenged by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, apart from the internal/ domestic rivalries/ the never-ending infighting along all the known fault lines - party-political, regional, ethnic, religious, class-conflicts fuelled by hunger (them belly full but we hungry) poverty, corruption, injustice, there are the unasked and unanswered questions , such as where are all these weapons of destruction coming from , and who are the external enemies who want to destabilise Nigeria and other emerging African nations?