Re: Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

[Michael Afolayan]

Thanks a great deal, Ken. I predicted right that you would add pleasant spices to the conversation, and you did not prove me wrong. Needless to say, I appreciate your perspectives. So as not to reinvent the wheel, let me quote a significant portion of my response to a friend on FaceBook, who looked at my position from different lenses. She wrote:

===

FB Friend: I understand where Ms Fulani is coming from. 1st of all the woman came into her personal space and move her hair out of the way so she could read her name tag. I wonder if she felt free to wander around the room moving white women’s hair to read their name tags or if she simply introduced herself and asked them their name. I see that has an example of a micro aggression. Secondly was she as aggressively insistent in asking any of the white people where they came from in order to ‘prove’ that they were neither English nor British?
===

Me: . . . Thanks a bunch, my good friend. I think it is the context of this matter that matters (sorry for sounding tautological). Honestly, if someone came to me, and removed my hanging hair to read my name tag, if I were a woman, I would see it as a form of affection. Remember one of the instructions that our dean gave us during orientation in those days was to wear our name tags where someone would see it at a glance? Look, the Yoruba often say, Ìjà ló dé l'orin d'òwe, meaning, literally, when there is an inner discord, an ordinary humming of a song could be misconceived as a scornful parody. The translation is poor but what it means is that small things don't have to blow up into a cataclysmic outburst - shooting the darts of emotion at each other. And, by the way, I have been reliably informed that Ms Fulani is actually from the Caribbean. My assumption of a Nigerian extraction was wrong. I just hope she makes up with Lady Hussey and we can all get along, in the prayerful appeal of the late Rodney King (of 1991). And we can look at each other in the face again and repeat those sacred words of Maya Angelou's 1993 poem, On the Purse of Morning, and say, GOOD MORNING!

===

I know I did not address the concerns of my former colleague (BTW, she and I we were good friends and fellow professors years back), and I think I have not addressed yours either. I was not at the event and could not read the mind of the parties involved. But I need to point something out: I did not suggest that the palace should do nothing. I suggested the octogenarian should have some form of orientation in cultural sensitivity. This was a cosmopolitan jamboree and it was expected that people would come from all over the place in the planet earth. Honestly, I would be delighted to know where everyone at that gathering came from. Of course, I would not go as far as moving a woman hair out of the way only because it could be misinterpreted as a form of sexual overture. If English were my first language, I would probably have a way of saying this is an ÌHÀLẸ̀ - the shooting of a squirrel with a battle cannon! I would rather witness the arrest, trial and imprisonment of a First Lady who had the audacity to subject a citizen to extrajudicial humiliation - kidnapping, arrest, torture and detention than support Ms Fulani's case. 

Thank you very much, Ken.

Michael O. Afolayan

• 
  

On Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 05:40:08 PM EST, Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:

dear michael

i read about this event, indeed, like you.

my thoughts were weirdly conflicted, as you so well indicate.

the older woman asked a question of an "african" woman, i.e. a black woman who probably looked foreign to her, that many non-university people probably do all the time.

most people do not realize the impact on a black person when asked repeatedly, where are you from. or an asian person too, i suspect. the question implies, you don't look like us, so where are you really from. you can't be one of us.

the older people have a more grounded sense of "us," but you who have lived in the states know that outside university circles, it is very very commonplace, and those who pose the question are often thinking of themselves as kindly, not mean or oppressive.

it is hard for people to put themselves in the shoes of Others. for the black woman here who felt, particularly in this eminent social event, to be singled out as different and in need of being labeled, i.e., othered. for the white woman to understand that her intentions nonwithstanding, her words were offensive. if she repeated them she couldn't have been too bright, or discerning, or even caring i suppose.

what to do in those circumstances?

your point: the hammer went too far. agreed. but do nothing, when the "royals" were implicated? at that point, i have to withdraw. those brits have their own set of principles, actions, possibilities of what to do under these circumstances, that i suspect, as  in france, are rapidly changing. and i haven't a clue what is now the right thing to do there. events like this are apt to change the climate?? dunno.

you tell me!

your response struck me as very humane. but the older woman's age shouldn't be an excuse. was the punishment too extreme, i just don't really know any more. once we might have said, just correct her, teach her a lesson; now we are teaching a whole society a lesson, and teaching lessons can get to be old very quickly.... as you make so clear.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: Michael Afolayan <mafo...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2022 2:53 PM
To: Usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>; Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu>; Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>; Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>; Farooq Kperogi <farooq...@gmail.com>; Moses Ochonu <moses....@vanderbilt.edu>
Subject: Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

 

Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

I wonder where the  agents provocateur of our USA-Africa Dialogue group are when I truly need them the most. I know Oluwatoyin is too busy, fully preoccupied with the intellectual excavation of our heritages – the dilapidated states of our ivory towers, the desecration of our palaces’ celebrations of entry, and the endangerment of the historical landscapes of our cultural relics. I can forgive Oluwatoyin. But how come we have not seen Ken Harrow express his usually objective and deep analyses, on this particular issue? I have not read something coming from Cornelius whose humorous interjections often kept me thinking and rethinking the realities of issues that we had thought we could walk by and ignore. Farooq has not spoken for some time; neither have I heard much from Moses from Vanderbilt. I miss those voices. Could it be that one or more of these people have not heard of the brouhaha coming from the Buckingham Palace concerning the alleged racist interrogation of Ngozi Fulani, the CEO of the domestic violence charity against black women, called Sister Space? Here is the synopsis: It so happened that Lady Susan Hussey the godmother of Prince William insistently asked Ms Fulani where exactly she came from. The latter felt offended and walked away from her role as one of the advisors for the Palace. I forgot the cartoon character that used to ask the question, shaking, “Am I missing something?”

I know racism when I see it. In fact, if you are a black man, and you lived in America for more than four decades, as I have, and you still don't recognize racism, then you have a serious problem, which might be psychological, if not psychiatric. And, trust me, when I see one that is a mere mirage of objective reality, I also almost always recognize it.

Some thirty-something years ago, in my past American life, I directed a Title VI center, where one of my primary responsibilities was to travel or send folks around the country correcting biases, myths and stereotypes relating to Africa and the peoples of African descent. This was the peak of the Ethiopian crisis, and insults and assaults were being thrown left, right and center about Africa and Africans. I can’t count how many times my office was called as expert witnesses in court cases relating to asylums, race matters and other ethnic imbroglios. In all reality, this case of Ms Fulani would certainly not fall within the paradigm of biases and stereotypes. For years, all I wore were Nigerian attires, even if I had to wear winter coats over them in the frozen tundras of the Upper Midwest winters. I expected folks to ask me where I came from. I looked (still look) very African/Nigerian/Yoruba. My accent never changed (I know this could not be the case with Ms Fulani given that she was born in the UK). She would be like one of my children (all four of who are now adults, born and raised in the US). One of my daughters takes pride in introducing herself as a Nigerian American. In my humble opinion, Ms Fulani overstretched the racist implication of her dialog with Lady Hussey. It almost reminds me of a "big" case in which my office was called upon when an African American woman sued a fellow worker to court because the colleague, a white woman, came to work one day wearing an African attire. I did not go as an expert witness but sent a note, for which the litigant called me an "Oriole" a euphemism for a black man whose soul has been sold to the white establishment (black outside, white in the inside- just like the oriole cookies). For crying out loud, if Ms Fulani had answered the octogenarian the very first time she asked for where she came from, and stated that she was Briton but of African or Nigerian extraction, her parents being Nigerians, she would have there and then nipped the matter in the bud. Honestly, I sympathize with Lady Hussey and if I were a counselor to Buckingham Palace, I would request that she be restored with apologies, but just made to undergo training in cultural sensitivity, knowing full well that there would always be some folks out there waiting to make a big deal out of issues of this nature. Whatever you say could and would always be misconstrued as offensive. She would learn to stay away from such folks in verbal exchanges - a sile and/or a handshake would truncate explosive altercations of this magnitude. As my father would always say, “The most difficult person for you to wake up is someone who is pretending to sleep.”  Even in Nigeria, Ngozi Fulani’s name would invoke curiosity. I don't know how to ask for her ethnicity without becoming a lightning rod for thunder and brimstone.

Mind you, I am not minimizing Ms Fulani’s experience. She probably might have seen enough of verbal exchanges that brought back memories of unpleasant human hate. But, I am sorry, in my judgment, this one does not fit in that category. It is a classical case of making a mountain out of a proverbial molehill.

I stand corrected.

Yep, feel free to call me anything and ask where the heck I came from - I'm African/Nigerian/Yoruba (and, lest I forget, a naturalized American). I won't be offended. But, in the words of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (1972), please "Don't Gag Me!"

Michael O. Afolayan

(Transitioning in London, UK)

[Michael Afolayan]

[Harrow, Kenneth]

dear michael

i read about this event, indeed, like you.

my thoughts were weirdly conflicted, as you so well indicate.

the older woman asked a question of an "african" woman, i.e. a black woman who probably looked foreign to her, that many non-university people probably do all the time.

most people do not realize the impact on a black person when asked repeatedly, where are you from. or an asian person too, i suspect. the question implies, you don't look like us, so where are you really from. you can't be one of us.

the older people have a more grounded sense of "us," but you who have lived in the states know that outside university circles, it is very very commonplace, and those who pose the question are often thinking of themselves as kindly, not mean or oppressive.

it is hard for people to put themselves in the shoes of Others. for the black woman here who felt, particularly in this eminent social event, to be singled out as different and in need of being labeled, i.e., othered. for the white woman to understand that her intentions nonwithstanding, her words were offensive. if she repeated them she couldn't have been too bright, or discerning, or even caring i suppose.

what to do in those circumstances?

your point: the hammer went too far. agreed. but do nothing, when the "royals" were implicated? at that point, i have to withdraw. those brits have their own set of principles, actions, possibilities of what to do under these circumstances, that i suspect, as  in france, are rapidly changing. and i haven't a clue what is now the right thing to do there. events like this are apt to change the climate?? dunno.

you tell me!

your response struck me as very humane. but the older woman's age shouldn't be an excuse. was the punishment too extreme, i just don't really know any more. once we might have said, just correct her, teach her a lesson; now we are teaching a whole society a lesson, and teaching lessons can get to be old very quickly.... as you make so clear.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: Michael Afolayan <mafo...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2022 2:53 PM
To: Usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>; Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu>; Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>; Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>; Farooq Kperogi <farooq...@gmail.com>; Moses Ochonu <moses....@vanderbilt.edu>

Subject: Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

I agree with Lord Michael Afolayan to a great extent, but the Lady Interrogator was pushing it (her curiosity) a little too far, by her insistence. Fifty-something years earlier and equally curious, she could have well been the English Landlady interlocutor in Soyinka's " Telephone Conversation "

Of course, Ngozi Fulani could have risen to the occasion, taken it all in her stride by being cool - a big plus and genteel.

In Lady Susan Hussey’s garters or under her hat I too would have been a little curious ( but not yellow as in I am Curious Yellow) ) at such a stunning juxtaposition of names: Ngozi ( 100% Igbo) and Fulani ( like a bonafide herdswoman) as it were, a fusion of opposites and a good conversation starter.

And her Ladyship too,  “ Hussy”? What a name!

On many a social occasion  in her earlier days (at those garden party social introductions where the thoroughbred race horses and the thoroughbred mares  meet and clink glasses, Hussy or Hussey must have been the butt-end of much ribaldry and a worthwhile conversation starter for Mr Horny  - bottoms up - up yours - wanting to get to first base without more pointless political tittle-tattle  of exactly where did you come from followed by more unnecessary big grammar self-introduction “ I am Professor So & So from Boston Massachusetts”, or any further delay when the horse from Epsom is roaring to go and singing,  

“When that steamboat whistle blows

I'm going to give you all I got to give

And I do hope you receive it well

Depending on the way you feel that you live”

( Dear Landlord 

[Harrow, Kenneth]

Michael, it is always such a pleasure to read your thoughts. I had only another to repeat, england is different from here. Your colleague’s comment on microaggression might be true, but only true here and not there. How true would it be in lagos, or yaounde? I wouldn’t presume to know. It’s the humanism of your reading of all this that touches me, despite the pain caused. Ken

Get Outlook for iOS

---

From: Michael Afolayan <mafo...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2022 6:54:34 PM
To: Usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>; Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>; Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>; Farooq Kperogi <farooq...@gmail.com>; Moses Ochonu <moses....@vanderbilt.edu>; Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu>
Subject: Re: Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

 

[Toyin Falola]

Farooq left the site because of Cornelius!

Cornelius also, for some time, left the site because of Farooq.

It is by God’s intervention that Ken and Gloria are still with us.

One day, I will receive a medal for keeping together a million voices!!!!!!!

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[Chika Okeke-Agulu]

One day? We are not waiting for that! We hereby award Prof. Falola a Medal of Honor for his services to the nation of UsaAfricaDialogue! But seriously, you have been masterful in keeping this group going these many years.

In the meantime, here's the text of Ngozi Fulani's royal interrogation:

as recounted by Ms Fulani:

Lady SH: Where are you from?

Me: Sistah Space.

SH: No, where do you come from?

Me: We're based in Hackney.

SH: No, what part of Africa are you from?

Me: I don't know, they didn't leave any records.

SH: Well, you must know where you're from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?

Me: Here, the UK.

SH: No, but what nationality are you?

Me: I am born here and am British.

SH: No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?

Me: 'My people', lady, what is this?

SH: Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you're from. When did you first come here?

Me: Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the 50s when...

SH: Oh, I knew we'd get there in the end, you're Caribbean!

Me: No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.

SH: Oh so you're from...

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Here comes the sun king

Sonny Rollins (Earl Coleman) : Two Different Worlds 

One thing that we can be sure of is that it’s not the sort of mishap that’s ever likely to take happen at e.g. the Nobel Banquet , always a very international gathering, the seating so well pre-arranged, a festive occasion followed by some ballroom dancing,  cheek- to-cheek ,  till the wee hours of the morning…

Methinks that we’ve got to be equally fair to both the oversensitive Ngozi Fulani and Baroness Hussey. The context , place and time, not  the Isle  of Man, Yaounde, Dakar or the Republic of the USA  but early in December 2022, the stars shining at a Buckingham Palace reception in Merry England, and if we're lucky  we could possibly view the whole event from surveillance cameras or on Sky TV, to note exactly what happened. I think that we’ve got to give the Baroness a break: Here comes the high-stepper Ngozi in style, hair piled up a mile high and looking like a thing that the cat brought in from outer space,  the poor Baroness still in grief and not too good at remembering new faces and names must still have other odd memories of e.g Meghan - another one from somewhere or other ,  and Ngozi is an honoured guest in the palace  and under royal protection no less than King Charles III saying to President Buhari ( as reported by Mr. President himself) you have a home in the UK, please feel at home: you’re most welcome.

But be generous, let’s make some allowance for  the Baroness’ pedigree, her upbringing, and age,  curiosity, an inevitable part of her human nature, who does she want to get to know  better?

 Ngozi! 

What could be so wrong with her persistence? According to the transcript 

Lady SH: “Where are you from?”

Ms Fulani: “Sistah Space.”

SH: “No where do you come from?

Ms Fulani: “We’re based in Hackney.”

SH: “No, what part of Africa are YOU from?”

Ms Fulani: “I don’t know, they didn’t leave any records.”

SH: “Well, you must know where you’re from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?”

Ms Fulani: “Here, UK”

SH: “No, but what Nationality are you?”

Ms Fulani: “I am born here and am British.”

SH: “No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?”

Ms Fulani: “‘My people’, lady, what is this?”

SH: “Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you’re from. When did you first come here?”

Ms Fulani: “Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the 50’s when…”

SH: “Oh, I knew we’d get there in the end, you’re Caribbean!”

Ms Fulani: “No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.”

If Ngozi had lost her cool and opted for a tit-for-tat, the  dialogue could have gone something like this:

Lady SH: “Where are you from?”

Ms Fulani: “I was born in England , like our Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Where are you from? “

Lady SH: “I beg your pardon? “

Ms Fulani: “  I asked, “Where are you from ?”

At which point Baroness Hussey would have probably shrieked or hissed under her breath, “ For goodness sake, can’t you tell  I’m British?” 

Ms Fulani  : " Cheers! So , we're sisters!” 

[Chambi Chachage]

Michael,

Racism is sometimes — if not quite often — experienced differently across the Atlantic Divides. My own experience of racism as a student in the UK, RSA, and the US are not the same. So why not defer to Ngozi Fulani et al.?

The article by Mandu Reid who was there sums up their experience with racism — she writes:

“At a reception on Tuesday to honour those working to end violence against women and girls, I witnessed racist remarks from a member of the royal household directed at my friend and fellow activist, Ngozi Fulani. Lady Hussey’s prolonged interrogation about where Ngozi was really from, what her nationality was and where her people were from, was not – as many people have insisted to me over the past 24 hours – the kind of well-meaning curiosity that all of us experience from time to time (though it’s possible that Hussey believed that it was).… I see that ‘She’s 83’ is now trending on Twitter, imploring us to leave this nice old lady alone, a stance that adds a dash of ageism to the racism that has pervaded much of the commentary” — 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/01/lady-hussey-resign-monarchy-race-remarks-institution?fbclid=IwAR35II99aOyrhVcXvAczveMC5w5e9pCfh8QeK-H3lfoiOtWGfzE08xV3rFs&mibextid=S66gvF

May you not be gagged, but “stand corrected”.

Best Regards,

Chambi

[Toyin Falola]

I have come across Africans who see not being greeted, as in saying “good morning,” as racist. And I tell them, do they greet one another?

Achebe once interpreted “gazing” as racism. If a white man gazes at me, is he a racist?

I travel a lot, and sometimes, the person who sits next to me does not extend the courtesy. So, if the person is white, is he a racist?

TF

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALYfFMpbvuLaiyXfutHTXZDwpbhTyLckGBa_Mt--ccMiaukT9A%40mail.gmail.com.

[Dr. Oohay]

Such assumptions appear to emerge from IC (Inferiority Complex), a problematic non-interrogation of one’s selfhood and self-knowledge.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/PH0PR06MB90043558BD49BDE64FBF5D0CF8199%40PH0PR06MB9004.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

"In my humble opinion, Ms Ngozi Fulani overstretched the racist implication of her dialog with Lady Hussey," Michael Afolayan wrote. How did Ms Ngozi Fulani overstretch the racist implication of her dialog with Lady Hussey? Michael Afolayan explained thus, "For crying out loud, if Ms Fulani had answered the octogenarian the first time she asked for where she came from and stated that she was Briton but of an African or Nigerian extraction, her parents being Nigerians, she would have nipped the matter in the bud." Employees at Buckingham Palace are life-employed, if not Lady Susan Hussey, an octogenarian, would have gone on pension, at least, a decade ago. It is noteworthy, that she is godmother to Prince Williams and as such she would have met a lot of people from different parts of the world in the course of her service in Buckingham Palace. Ms Ngozi Fulani, was not at Buckingham Palace to seek employment but for a social event to which she was duly invited. Therefore, Lady Susan Hussey had no right to interrogate her about where she came from. In a respective manner, Lady Hussy should have introduced herself to Ms Ngozi Fulani stating part of UK she hails from and Ms Fulani would courteously have reciprocated in like manner by introducing herself to the baroness.

The racist behaviour of Lady Hussey to Ms Fulani is being belittled by Michael Afolayan by suggesting that she should have answered the racist query of the baroness without hesitation. If the tone of Lady Hussey's enquiry had been friendly to Ms Fulani, she would have responded friendly too. What Ms Ngozi understood from the tone of Lady Hussey's query to her was: you are not supposed to be here; and why are you here? The octogenarian, Lady Hussey, was in the Buckingham Palace when Prince Harry and her wife, Megan, alleged that the Royal Palace wondered loudly to their hearings what colour their impending child would bear because Megan is bi-racial. Counsellor Michael Afolayan honestly want Buckingham Palace to re-employ octogenarian Hussey but before then to send her to undergo training in cultural sensitivity. And I laugh because one cannot bend a dry fish just as one cannot convert an octogenarian racist.

S. Kadiri 

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: 04 December 2022 11:25
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/2ba6a139-9ce7-4be4-a149-d80927deec38n%40googlegroups.com.

[Michael Afolayan]

Dear Chambi:

Sorry, I almost missed your intervention here. But I cannot agree more with your position that, "Racism is sometimes — if not quite often — experienced differently across the Atlantic Divides. My own experience of racism as a student in the UK, RSA, and the US are not the same. . ."

You are right on the money, my friend. Thanks to the link that Gloria sent to me yesterday, where I learned that in "America, racism is in the water." Elsewhere, it is in the way you greet or fail to greet the folks on the other race isle. I was at a Board meeting one day when the Chairman introduced my friend, an African American, to make his presentation. My friend stood at the podium and looked at the chairman straight in the eye, and in his soft but firm voice said, and I paraphrase him, "Dr. X, thanks for introducing me; please feel free to call me by my first name at any time, but I insist on you addressing me by my title of Dr. Y today because that was how you have introduced everyone else except me. I just don't appreciate it . . ." It was on that day that I realized that title recognition could also be an attribute of racism. I learned a big lesson from my friend. And I recall this story to agree with you. Even racism (and its expression) has its eclectic character.

In all honesty, I would still love to hear from the Baroness. I think the story has been from Ms. Ngozi Fulani and her enthusiasts. Hearing from the former would shield us from being victims of the danger of a single story or even worse still, victims of what the Yoruba call "Ìròhìn Òkèèrè" (News Told From a Distance), which, they as say, often adds one thing, or takes away one thing.

Thankfully,

MOA

===

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[Michael Afolayan]

Dear Cornelius,

Thanks for your intervention on this matter. But how you write prose like poetry is a skill I need to learn, maybe acquire, someday. And, on the other issue, you nailed it when you wrote . . .

Quote

. . .One thing that we can be sure of is that it’s not the sort of mishap that’s ever likely to take happen at e.g. the Nobel Banquet, always a very international gathering, the seating so well pre-arranged, a festive occasion followed by some ballroom dancing,  cheek- to-cheek ,  till the wee hours of the morning…

Unquote

What I am hearing you say is what my father would have said differently, "Epe po j'ohun to nu lo; abere sonu, a gbe seere" (The drama is more than the act; when a needle is lost, you don't have to call down the gods for intervention), right?

My case is closed. I'm glad I made folks speak to the matter.

MOA

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DU0PR03MB84157CE4FBB7A65DEA6E957EAE199%40DU0PR03MB8415.eurprd03.prod.outlook.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Baba Kadiri, 

Words, words and more words. 

You must admit that training in cultural sensitivity “should go a long way in helping to solve the insensitivity problem, even if you think that the problem is more deep-seated and systemic..

Hopefully, this will cool the temperature  a little further: 

King Charles III invites Ngozi Fulani to Palace after racism row .

Just imagine, she’s actually going to be  an honoured guest, sipping tea with His Majesty! 

I’m also impressed  by this poem that was posted to this forum earlier in the day : 

Maya Angelou : On the Pulse of Morning 

I’m sure that you can’t read it and remain the same old  Baba Kadiri

That poem followed by the heartbreaking news about what’s happening in Haiti and to Haitians at the hands of other Haitains is enough to radically change anybody’s day and to change our perception of the unholy hullabaloo about Baroness Hussey’s quiet interrogation of a guest at a garden party at Buckingham Palace   - by comparison , a triviality   - although the Buckingham Palace “jamboree” was  meant to be a serious gathering of activists concerning the issue of Domestic Violence  - so, naturally Baroness Hussey  has her dark fears and wanted to know more about where Ngozi Fulani was coming from.The issue cannot be downplayed  and this too, is not racism : 

 Ngozi Fulani: Black women don't want to risk their abusers being murdered'

Strong Words  - a strong poetic line : 

“And I laugh because one cannot bend a dry fish just as one cannot convert an octogenarian racist.” ( Baba Kadiri) 

Thanks to Yoruba Beliefs and Sacrificial Rites by J. Ọmọṣade Awolalu, more than twenty years later,  thanks to Ojogbon Falola’s Counting the Tiger's Teeth and much earlier on , thanks to Wole Soyinka’s “ The Road”, one got to know that the dog is Ogun’s sacrificial animal, Ogun ”the patron saint of Taxi drivers'' , daredevils who are committed to doing that extra mile just to sacrifice one to their deity. I had a direct experience - witnessed this sacrifice actually taking place once  and that was in  a brand new Volvo Car speeding from Omoku to Ahoada, - at the wheel an Ekpeye Prince  - me at in the front seat beside him, in the back seat my Better Half, my son and  one of our Swedish guests, a young lady from Stockholm  - suddenly there appeared on the road an object which I first identified as a python which  -  in a flash metamorphosed into what looked like a giant rabbit from “ Watership Down”  - at which point the prince put his foot down on the accelerator -as we say either in America or Nigeria, “gassed”  ( we had been boozing heavily) and then there was a mighty thud as the car collided with the metamorphosed object and the Prince shot his clenched fist out of the car window  and screamed. “ I got her!”  - what ?  - “ The bitch!”  - it had been a dog - and the prince’s reason for such gladness was that a long time ago in the annals of Ekpeye history, during one of the intermittent  tribal wars, a female dog had sniffed out where an Ekpeye chief had been hiding, and since that day dogs are forbidden in Omoku which is in Ekpeye-land.  AS you may or may not know, “ female dogs” are not allowed at Mt. Athos either. 

Such a long preamble… 

I wish I knew what the saying is in Yoruba, to wit,that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” . 

Please smile : The old Buckingham Palace Professor of  His Majesty's Modern English who has a penchant for correcting everybody about his new modern mother tongue being moreover a fanatic for context  - hence the Varieties of English known as “ Nigerian English”  will probably say “ Wrong again Mr. Bacon  - not kosher . therefore treif and hence vermin ,  that the female gender of dog is “bitch” ( female dog)  and hopelessly compromised, and not wanting to be as fastidious as our grammarian friend ( you can’t teach old monkeys like him new tricks either) so  we should just have to shrug our shoulders, confident in the knowledge that , after all , “a dog is a man's best friend” and ebonically speaking  some of the booty  referred to as “ bitches” are also some men’s best friend, and leave it at that.

As you and I can testify, for the dark-looking immigrant or even one who has ordinary dark hair, “Where do you come from ?” is an everyday question in Sweden, most often asked out of curiosity, with no offence meant. When I intuit unhealthy curiosity or racist offence, I have a variety of ways of dealing with that kind of question - depending on the situation - at e.g a job interview, followed by the other question,”How do you like Sweden?” or just talking to Peggy Sue who may have some more loving intentions or ambitions, the answer could be different. Sometimes, if I smell a racist the answer is “ South Africa!”  - a man has got to draw a line . Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that the same kind of “ incident” occurring in Sweden would have resulted in that someone resigning… 

This idea of “ microaggression “ used to characterise that absurd piece of theatre staged by Baroness Hussey and Ngozi Fulani, I daresay that if it had been a man  - e.g a real rastaman with heavy dreadlocks like Benjamin Zephaniah, Baroness Hussey pressing him on exactly where do you come from and who are your people?  It would have started with this expletive : “ Up yours “  or  “Bomboclaat !

A good poet or playwright could write a really witty dialogue between  Benjamin Zephania and Baroness Hussey, arising out of that kind of situation….,

[Michael Afolayan]

"I have come across Africans who see not being greeted, as in saying “good morning” as racist. . ." TF

Humorous would be an understatement. As we say in my village, "Two people must always be guilty of "s/he did not great me." The question is if she did not greet you, did you greet her/him?" And when you accuse someone of looking (gazing/starring) at you, villagers would ask, "How did you know they were looking at you if you were not yourself looking at them?"

There we go!

I think the ways of our elders are the ways of wisdom.

MOA

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[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Have you ever looked straight 

in the face of a White colleague, greeted

that person, and received a  disdainful 

shrug? That is the context to

consider. Although it is not a major

infraction, it could be an indication 

of underlying hostility. I suspect that

this is the context of the complaints

cited.

With due respect to my honorable

colleagues, there is no need to trivialize 

racism, and discount the pain and agony

of its victims.

Clarence Thomas,  Kanye West,  and  

my colleague  here at CCSU 

who says that racism does not exist,

are not  good  models - even for those

who escalated the ladders of success.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

---

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Cc: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>; Farooq Kperogi <farooq...@gmail.com>; Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>; Moses Ochonu <moses....@vanderbilt.edu>; Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>; Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Yoruba Affairs - Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

 

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[Salimonu Kadiri]

Thank you, Menahem Hamelberg, for posting the transcript of interrogation of Ms Ngozi Fulani by Lady Susan Hussey at Buckingham Palace. Ms Ngozi Fulani is the founder of Sistah Space, a charity organisation based in UK and working against violence on women and girls. When the Queen Consort, Camilla, hosted an event on violence against women and girls Ms Fulani's organisation, Sistah Space, was invited to the venue, Buckingham Palace. Consternated Lady Hussey did not welcome the presence of Ms Ngozi Fulani and she subjected her to psychological torture, the greatest and most harmful violence against any human being. According to Menahem Hamelberg's posted transcript, questions and answers were eight each. For simple illustration, let us list the questions numerically as 1a, 2a etc, and the answers as 1b, 2b, etc. Thus, question 1a from Lady Hussey (where are you from?) was correctly answered in 1b by Ms Fulani, I am from Sistah Space which is the name of the organisation she was there to represent. Lady Hussey's question 2a was, "No, where do you come from?" Ms Fulani replied innocently in 2b thus, "We're based in Hackney," suggesting to any normal thinking person to know that Sistah Space, which Ms Fulani was there to represent is based in Hackney. Then in a hostile and furious tone Lady Hussey repeated her question from 2a in 4a, "Where do you come from?" And Ms Fulani politely answered in 4b,  "Here, in UK." The racist blood running in her veins made Lady Hussey to howl at Ms Fulani in 5a, "NO, but what nationality are you?"  In spite of the provocative questions, Ms Fulani replied in a cultured manner in 5b, " I am born here and I'm British. As if to say being born in Britain does not make one a British, Lady Hussey exclaimed in her question 6a, "No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?" Ms Fulani retorted in 6b, "My people, lady, what is this?"  There, Lady Susan Hussey should have stopped but with the racist marrow deeply entreched in her bone she continued to taunt Ms Fulani. Thus, in her question 7a, Lady Hussey exclaimed, "Oh! I can see Iam going to have a challenge getting you to say where you're from. When did you first come here?"  Yet, in her answer 5b, Ms Fulani had told Susan Hussey, the down-to-earth racist that, "I am born here and I'm British."  

I really appreciate Ms Ngozi Fulani's extreme patience and tolerance in withstanding the horrible interrogations from Lady Susan Hussey. Ms Fulani whose organisation is fighting against violence on women and girls had suffered psychological torture from a fellow woman though of no colour. Consequently, Buckingham Palace officially stated, "We take this incident extremely serious and have investigated immediately to establish the full facts. In this instance, unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made. We have reached out to Fulani on this matter, and we are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes." The 83-year-old Lady Susan Hussey was retired from her life-duty employment at Buckingham because of the incident. However, turn the other cheek African apologists say, the Octogenarian should be re-employed and made to undergo training in cultural sensitivity. And there is sense in that suggestion as much as sending a fingerless lepper to undergo training in wearing rings on fingers!!

S. Kadiri  

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: 04 December 2022 11:25

To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey: Much Ado About Something Here?

 

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Baba Kadiri, 

Since you are one for deep reading ( and voraciously too) on matters that interest you, could you please tell us whether or not  the one “ with the racist marrow deeply entrenched in her bone” is featured in Harry and Meghan's books, especially the latest one about them : Revenge  : Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors.

I’m wondering, because deep down, if she is the way that you say she is, then it’s possible that she must have clashed with Meghan earlier on  and possibly with Harry too -  Ngozi Fulani possibly reminding her of an earlier clash with Meghan, the upstart ( wanting to start calling the shots at Buckingham Palace ) and Baroness H  is now safely out of the way because of this incident. Harry's Meghan too. Safely out of the way. 

The world   - especially the Black and White world and the relations in between, “ the holy places where the races meet ” has not changed much, but the rest has changed considerably since she first started working at Buckingham Palace. Don’t forget that some people who know her say that she’s slightly deaf, which means that she probably didn’t hear what Lady Fulani was saying and therefore had to ask again, and again. On top of that she could have been suffering from other old age afflictions such as short term memory (different from  long-term memory, and  very different  from your own phenomenal elephant memory 

Si, if I may,  the plot thickens:  Add to that menu of innocent possibilities the possibility of mistaken identity…” haven’t  I seen you somewhere before ?” Me? Yes, YOU! Etc and who are you, and where are you from? Is that your legal name  etc? He, she , we, they  might fit into any number of roles being hallucinated by paranoid or even racist conspiracy theorists.

Black people want to take over Buckingham Palace! Our friend wants to be appointed speech writer for His Majesty Charles III (and  because there are no blue-blooded, capable real Englishmen around with the necessary training in basic courtesy, Buckingham Palace Professor of His Majesty’s English with a mouth sweeter than honey, thinks that he’s the best man for the job. Another case of  Mistaken identity ( in loving memory of Pa Michael Imoudu what colonialism has done to some of us.) 

Taj & Toumani : Queen Bee

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Menahem Hamelberg, a mere glance at the history of human race will show that those who ascribe to themselves the racial colour, WHITE, and to us, the racial colour BLACK, have declared that life is a feast but the BLACKS should not participate in it. Meghan's experience illustrates this further. 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/08/prince-harry-royals-meghan-racial-attacks-duke-duchess-sussex-netflix 

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-63876934 

Harry and Meghan Netflix latest: Royal Family deny they were asked to comment on series - BBC News Harry and Meghan's Netflix series touches on press intrusion, relationships with the royal family and race. www.bbc.com

S. Kadiri

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

Sent: 08 December 2022 00:02

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Baba Kadiri,

Song of the day 

I’m afraid I haven’t had time to go through the five long pages of that BBC link that you posted. Although I’m a royalist  I haven’t been following the Meghan &  Harry story that closely, the last I saw of her was the Oprah interview  in which she was trying to win some sympathy.; she doesn’t seem to understand that the House of Windsor has a long history, and that by the way, Queen Charlotte was said to have been black  or  so-called “ coloured “

 BTW, I think that the United States ( another former colony ) ought to join the Commonwealth…

I don’t agree with you., entirely.  In my opinion “ those who ascribe to themselves the racial colour, WHITE, and to us, the racial colour BLACK,”  know that “This World was made for all men” (  from Songs in the Key of Life

Let’s face it: racism and anti-racism can also be ideological.:

You heard the bard singing: sarcastically 

“Now, I'm liberal, but to a degree

I want everybody to be free

But if you think that I'll let Barry Goldwater

Move in next door and marry my daughter

You must think I'm crazy!

I wouldn't let him do it for all the farms in Cuba !”  ( I SHALL BE FREE NO. 10) 

It’s hard to believe that there’s any truth in Meghan or Harry or Meghan & Harry accusing Windsor of any kind of  “ racism”  - discrimination etc etc. 

How can anyone in the family accuse the darling heads of the commonwealth to which so many colours are attached and so voluntarily belong, of that sort of thing?

Admit too, that Harry & Meghan’s wedding ceremony -  Blessed Holy Matrimony  was something of a fairy-tale event. Everybody was there.

Nor can they utter any words of regret about that fabulous occasion.

On the other hand, we are not standing in their shoes, and as the saying goes,  “He ( or she) who feels it, knows. “

Joni Mitchell sang - and this was not some be careful about HIV propaganda about what happens when a man does not put on his raincoat : Sex kills .  - ( from the album “ Turbulent Indigo “) ,

the so called “ inter-racial sex” which in the days of lynching got  many  a Black Man lynched - sometimes for merely looking at somebody…During the apartheid years some of the so called “ inter-racial” couples used to cross the border, go over Botswana to do their thing…

On the whole, once emancipated from all kinds of mental slavery and savagery,  the races should be able to get along swimmingly, but in some minds and deepest bone marrow there’s still that invisible Mason-Dixon line that must not be crossed  - the Apartheid line  - so one helluva ugly bitchy , Missy B who I have never shaken hands with, let alone touched and wouldn’t even dream of touching with a sterilised  toothpick,  she’s so ugly that every time she looks into a  mirror just passing by, the mirror gets  shattered, she's worse than what Shaykh Yasser al-Habib says about Farook’s namesake yet she had the temerity to ask me “ Why don’t you want to go back to your country?” In her so-called “own country” cuntry, she is an unhappy , miserable old nobody. 

Similarly, it's the trash media, the tabloid press always out to sell the sensationalised, sexed-up sleaze, that has at various times been relentlessly campaigning with the usual best-selling racist bullshit, spreading their usual libel, lies, hatred and slander, crucifying and making martyrs of Prince Harry ( son of Charles III and Princess Diana) and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (daughter of Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle) 

With that kind of media troublemakers imagine how it could have been if Prince Harry had married a real Zulu Princess from Kaw-Zulu Natal, South Africa! 

It was The Duke of Wellington who said “Publish and be damned” wasn’t it? 

Therefore,  the sound advice to be given is that even as they ( Harry & Meghan)  continue to rake in millions from Netflix and publishing, they should take this  this warning seriously :

 Windsor warns Harry and Meghan about “the point of no return”

More music :

Uprising 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Baba Kadiri,

Good gracious! 

Or is it “goodness gracious”?  I bet you haven’t heard that polite expression for a while. Fact is though things change , at the same time so much remains the same. The last time I paid that royal couple any mind was on the 10th of March 2021 when I blogged THE FALLOUT FROM THE MEGA MEGHAN-HARRY INTERVIEW CONTINUES. HOPEFULLY, IT WILL SLOWLY EBB OUT, DIFFUSED, DE-FUSED, ENDED.

Sadly, the nonsense has not slowly ebbed away, diffused, de-fused or ended. On the contrary things have only progressively got a lot worse. 

Sadly, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II  passed away without a resolution to the Harry-Meghan debacle which must have almost crushed Her Majesty’s dear heart, Crown Prince Charles is now Charles III - he’s now the boss  - God save the King  - they sure should not displease him and according to the very latest, Harry & Meghan’s latest adventure  a mere publicity stunt , yes I mean  their cheap money-making soap opera on Netflix for which they have raked in $128 million which I have not seen and don’t intend to waste any time on, has got mostly negative reviews. The point is that  with so much else going on in the world  - our world , Ukraine and all that ,  the FIFA World Cup, Warnock beating Walker in Georgia ( up to when I last checked, not a word about that at Frontpage Magazine - very strange  ) so as all, all the other news continues to dominate the media , famine in Africa, Gangs the new superpower in Haiti, Rwanda’s Militia-23’s invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo etc etc etc, nobody I know is even remotely interested in the Harry-Meghan story, no matter how much she goes ahead with washing any dirty family linen in public, not even if she chooses to bare her royal breasts for more publicity or sympathy 

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

n Thu, 8 Dec 2022 at 16:40, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Menahem Hamelberg, a mere glance at the history of human race will show that those who ascribe to themselves the racial colour, WHITE, and to us, the racial colour BLACK, have declared that life is a feast but the BLACKS should not participate in it. Meghan's experience illustrates this further. 

black and white, nothing in between?

pure and simple.

but not glissant, who wrote, about "relation":

“Roots are lost, new roots are set, and the task for the theorist is how to appreciate the multiplicity of roots and the entanglements of relationality against compulsions to unify in the one and the single”

the "one and the single" will set us against each other forever.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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

Sent: Friday, December 9, 2022 9:52 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Here’s an alternate view which proposes Ngozi Fulani employed Machiavellian tactics, setting off to Buckingham Palace not formally dressed for such an occasion  but dressed to the hilt in  some gaudy/ fanciful African paraphernalia  whereby to accentuate  and  proclaim her difference, thereby deliberately provoking Lady Hussey’s curiosity , taking offence and cashing in on victimhood when Lady Hussey asks her , “Where in Africa do you come from ?

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Baba Kadiri,

My very last take on this issue unless you say something that deserves a response. 

Here are some more modified views of Ngozi Fulani

There’s no denying that Meghan must have been giving her Harry some royal treatment. It should also be natural that she should be expecting some royal treatment in return,  not only from her Harry but also from all the other members of the Royal Family that she got married into.

 As a couple,  the Harry & Meghan  that's in full public view, Meghan  seems to be the brain wagging the tail , and doing her share of the PR. You must also agree that when offended, the wisest course of action ought not be self-exile to Meghan's United States  followed by a series of Netflix documentaries aimed at tarring and feathering the Buckingham Place Family Members to the whole wide world, as a bunch of rabid racists. That’s not royal behaviour or behaviour worth the name “Royalty” 

So far, the end result of wanting to put the Royal Family to shame and embarrassment  - at considerable monetary profit to themselves ( Harry and Meghan)  just for the effort, is a lot of  Negative Reviews of  their (Harry and Meghan's”  Netflix Series

On the brighter side it’s Christmastide  a time for good cheer , good neighbourliness, peace on earth, and goodwill to all men, reconciliations between the various sectors of the Royal Family,  Harry & Meghan and the rest of the various palaces. Hopefully , the kids will soon be singing Christmas carols such as The First Noel...

On Thursday, 8 December 2022 at 16:40:55 UTC+1 ogunlakaiye wrote:

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

An addendum to your BBC link : 

Rishi Sunak intervenes to BLOCK move to strip Harry and Meghan of their royal titles - PM opposes landmark bill

On Thursday, 8 December 2022 at 16:40:55 UTC+1 ogunlakaiye wrote:

[Dr. Oohay]

Quasi comedic thought experiment?: make Susan of Nigerian descent and Ngozi of British descent; omit their respective “titles” or honorifics but don’t change their respective skin “colors”; how would the dialog play out?

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[Michael Afolayan]

"the "one and the single" will set us against each other forever." KH

I cannot agree more, Ken!

My intellectual hero, OB Yai, told me something I should (and will) never forget. He said there are two things about which scholars should be careful. One is typologizing, because, according to him, there is no end to types. The second, he said, is presenting an issue with the confidence of comprehensive totality. Because, he warned, there will always be an exception to a given rule - in grammar, stylistics, as in true life.

I laugh whenever I hear of the "black-white-and-nothing-in-between" indictment conversation against the English royal family. At least, one of them who was an attraction to all girls in town and across the globe chose a biracial girl as his bride. It debunks that "comprehensive totality" assumption. Half a century earlier was a black man from Ghana by the name Joe Appiah (father of our own Anthony K. Appiah) who dared and challenged the assumption of his time and had the audacity to pick a bride from that same royal family by the name Peggy, and she chose him in place of the pageantries of royalty. The story tells me, again, that a blanket condemnation of the royal family as racist punches a hole on that line of thought, if my knowledge of logic still holds. Once more, we can't make ourselves to be bamboozled into "the danger of a single story" (in this case, a single perspective).

Look, I am not (and cannot) be a royal apologist, but their story/ies must be weighed on the scale of truth. There are many along that line who have manifested racist tendencies, but there have been those who have defied the rule of conventional wisdom and embraced difference.

Coming back to the matter at stake, in my own informed (or informed) opinion, I think Meghan's experience is an empirical proof that the issue of race is an interesting social discourse that will forever be a part of the royal family - for better or for worse. 

It's a prediction, not a prophecy.

MOA

===

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Don Harrow,

“Racial purity”? 

Not to worry. 

Baba Kadiri 👍

an original man  - no Neanderthal traces in him

is fully aware that He & His Better Half have produced quite a few somebodies and someones  “in between” .

He is of course going to object to the idea of someone being neither this nor that, an identification that rhymes with the etymology of the word mulatto ( the mating of a horse and a donkey producing a mule, hence the dirty word “mulatto”) along with all the Frank Yerby  gradations that he objects to so vehemently  - although yesterday,  black -to-black in standing ovation about football he was laughing on the phone about it, at least  he started laughing uproariously after he mentioned the term “ quadroon” . He laughed, I laughed, we laughed.  

“Black and White

 Black and Night

 It’s babies makin babies”

Sly & The Family Stone : Babies makin Babies

We whose ancestors emigrated from Africa a long time ago  - and that includes you too, whoever you may be,  we don’t have the time to be experts in everything, but I think that we could listen to Svante Pääbo or at least his Nobel Lecture.

Walcott :" I have Dutch, nigger, and English in me, and either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation"

Although there are so many players of African ancestry in both the English and French teams which are going to clash tonight,  since charity begins at home, I hope that Baba is going to support England , I hope that Raheem Sterling will be in the squad, along with defender Kyle Walker, rising star Jude Bellingham another great player among others, and above all Yoruba man Bukayo Saka, the fastest pair of football legs anywhere..

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Dr. Oohay,

In my next post I'll  try to do justice, take a shot at what you suggest “ Quasi comedic thought experiment?: make Susan of Nigerian descent and Ngozi of British descent; omit their respective “titles” or honorifics but don’t change their respective skin “colors”; how would the dialog play out?” 

But for now permit me to get this swipe at reality, off my chest: 

The absence of precise information gives rise to so much speculation.

 For all of us, sometimes, it’s a singular lack of imagination or too much of it that gets in the way once we start speculating , sometimes even giving rise to conspiracy theories , such as the theory that all the peeved baby babble coming from Meghan and Harry is in the service of bringing the House of Windsor down  - to paint  the House of Windsor  as a house of ill-repute and ditto  with all the other strong monarchies in Europe and elsewhere, replace them all with Republics, that it started with the demise of the Tzar of Russia, Emperor of Russia Nicholas II Former emperor of all the Russias, followed by the dethronement of Emperor Haile Selassie by that Marxist donkey Mengistu Haile Mariam…

If only , just as with the football referee , we could have recourse to the cameras for e.g a penalty check! ! 

The whole “microaggression” melodrama under our review started with Baroness Hussey flipping  back Ngozi Fulani’s ornate hairdo to take a proper look at her name tag, for identification purposes.  For all we know, looking so black and beautiful and so  strangely dressed , Baroness Hussey could have mistaken her for one of the gardeners or serving maids from Buckingham Palace’s diversity kitchen. We nota bene too that  according to Ngozi Fulani’s own testimony and transcript, Baroness Hussey did not first introduce herself  as Baroness or Lady Bullshit and then ask “ Excuse me, what’s your name ?“ Nor did she plunge directly into mega-aggression with a look of incredulity stamped on her face as she sternly asked  the preponderant  question uppermost in her mind: “Where on earth do you come from?”

Now, if  when everybody else was discreetly or formally dressed in nice floral dresses, nice suit and tie, the White  Susanne Wenger , exuding “ Black Power” were to turn  up at that Buckingham Palace cocktail party, nicely dressed up in her most colourful Egungun dance outfit, then Baroness Hussey  could have also been curious enough to exclaim , perhaps with a bright or horrified smile “ My Goodness ! /  Good God !!  / My God!!! / Good Gracious!!!!, that’s a beautiful dress ! “  - and then the ignoramus could have asked out of genuine curiosity,  somewhat like the landlady in Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation and without prevarication,  “Where on earth are you coming from?” 

The late Wenger or course like Fulani could have decked  themselves up so nicely, to make an impression  - a  lasting impression, knowing full well that you can only make a first impression once - so why not go for the kill - turn up in the most outlandish costume possible, so that everybody at the party  will be talking about it / you for weeks after the event, about the thing that the cat brought in from outer space… 

[Harrow, Kenneth]

france won.

end of story.

glad to see that walcott line, one of my many many many favorites from him.

we are all mixed morons, mixed mules of many points back, without any being The Origin. some hate that idea; some love it.

let's just try to go with salif keita -- different like all of us foreign birds.

k

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

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

Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2022 7:39 AM

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAFYPD-QJFb1vzRRy3f-9VtmzJtk%2B0AP_r3X-iRgYa9oheFh0tA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Haile Selassie's address to the United Nations in1963

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

“Birds of the same feather flock together”

With great velocity 

Aiming at the moon

Captain Harry Coon

Missed that penalty

How could he? 

Shit happens.

As the Frenchy say

“france won. end of story.”

Mazel Tov!

Inshallah, tomorrow, Morocco 

of course, would like  to teach France 

a lesson that she should love to forget in a hurry

 if the match does not end in her glory 

All the marabouts in Mecca & Al Madinah Al Munawwarah, Algeria, Dakar & Touba are praying and doing their thing with perhaps less enthusiasm for Morocco's victory in Western Sahara where politics kicks in.

As I said to Baba Kadiri, shortly before that match between England and Senegal, “May the best man win “ and he said to me ( typical) “ A real African says, “ May Senegal win!”

In the upcoming battle between Morocco and France, I’m sure that the military junta in Mali is probably doing some extra supplicatory dua  with their Nawafil prayers and reciting Al-Fath with great Kavanah even if this is what  the map of Europe looks like today 

Salif: Dery