RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A Moron is a Moron (Was Re: Edinburgh may withdraw Mugabe.....)

[Qansy Salako]

All,
A moron is essentially a foolish person.

There is a horrendous amount of work to be done in Africa, within a very limited time at that.
It is the work of building and advancing the peoples and societies of Africa.
The "blame it on the white (BTW)" concept is getting old and tired in today Africa.
Whatever sparkle we might have had in the past from our natural history as black peoples has somehow not shined out or
manifested from underneath the endless shame, buffoonery and abominable corruption of our leaderships.
More than 100 years later after slavery, Africa continues to offer the world the worst in state of human misery, degradation and neglect.

This lackluster state of existence is at the root of age-old indignity perpetually meted out on Africa/Africans by other races.

Indeed, there is a gargantuan amount of work to be done in Africa, very fast.

A hoe is not a spade, nor is cocoa a cocoyam.
A moron is a moron is a moron.
If you are a black man in Africa and you have no clue on how to significantly advance your peoples and you hustle your way into any

position of authority only to tyrannize the peoples and waste the time of Africa, you are a fool, a moron.
If you are a black man and you occupy the top leadership position for 10 years or more in Africa and you fail to seriously dent the endemic problems of poverty, disease and ignorance in your country, you are a moron.

If you are a black man in charge of your country in Africa and you wind up screwing up everything, plunging your miserable

peoples into a state of war and backwardness, you are a moron.
If you are a black man and you are the president of your country in Africa today and you end up looting the nation state stupid, privatizing the whole country into the hands of your cronies and lackeys, you are a moron.

The white man, though conniving he may be, does not make a moron out of you, you make yourself a moron.
For there is a generation amount of work to be done, fast, and you did not have the intellect and guts to do it.
It doesn't matter if you were once an intelligent and valiant hero of your peoples before you got to the top, you ceased to be a hero the moment you became a moron, for you wasted the hopes of your peoples and time of Africa.

Aspiring African leaders ought to recognize the amount of work required to be done in Africa.
The outcomes of such works transcend the gains in their local countries, the results will echo and illuminate the darkness of Africa.

That is why there is no time for mediocre leadership in Africa at this time.
Only the few who have the understanding, fearlessness, integrity and genuine love of the people are needed by Africa.
Only the few who do not mind to die on the job doing the right things, regardless of who pull the trigger - the IMF, CIA or a local craze.

We aint as stupid as it seems.
It's just that external forces have come to pour too much water in our cassava.
And there is so much drying work to be done in Africa, but all we've had to work with are shenanigan wet nurses in flowing robes.

Qansy Salako

-----Original Message-----
From: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:USAAfric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Prof Alfred Zack-Williams
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 4:49 AM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Edinburgh may withdraw Mugabe degree

Edward,
Thanks for a serious analysis of former Comrade Robert Mugabe. My only problem with your well thought out analysis is your apology for using the word 'moron'. Why not? The Elders that we venerate have to earn it, it is not all ascription, or simply hero worship, otherwise we destroy such institutions and render them atrophied. Historians tell us that there were viable checks and balances within traditional African polities, which made the leader(s) accountable to the masses, or in some cases leading to their removal or regicide. As you rightly pointed out, how can we explain a leader who systematically destroy what he and others have spent decades fighting for. I am prepared to accept that perhaps Britain did not fulfil all her commitment to the Lancaster House agreement, re: white farmers, but does this justify unleashing 'veterans to burn houses of farm labourers, home of farmers; turning Zimbabweans into paupers. In my own town recently, I ran into a Zimbabwean who was a petrol pump attendant, in speaking to him he informed me that he was a qualified vet who had to escape for his life from Mugabe's security forces. Can we afford to push such qualified technocrats and professionals out of Africa? For our 'nationalist' comrades, who see everything in white and black, the fundamental question is this: what group suffers the most in Mugabe's Zimbabwe? Is it the white who can easily migrate to Britain, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and to West Africa, or is it the poor black Zimbabweans who have no where to go, or even when they do, have to live with constant 'immigration raids' and xenophobia? As Africans we have had our share of political 'morons': do you remember The Emperor Jean-Bedel Bukassa of Central African Empire, who according to Martin Meredith (The State of Africa) told the French representative to his coronation that he had just eater human flesh; do you remember Field Marshall, Dr Idi Amin Dada, Conqueror of the British Empire, who fed the Nile crocs with thousands of innocent Ugandans? These are men who lack the usual power of mind. Africans do not have a monopoly of morons either: Europe's Milosovic, Hitler; Asia's Pol Pot; Latin America's Anastasio Samoza, Papa & Baby Doc Duvalier.

Tunde

----- Original Message -----
From: Edward Mensah
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 5:26 PM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Edinburgh may withdraw Mugabe degree
Amina
First of all, I must apologize for using the word moron to describe Mugabe. My African values taught me not to abuse our elders, and Mugabe is certainly an elder African. I should have put the word moron in quotes to soften the meaning quite a bit. But I will not retreat from the theme of my argument, that we are going to learn to live with the 2 Mugabes : the liberation fighter who made us all proud as Africans by wrestling power from Ian Smith and his Western supporters, and murderous Mugabe the killer of his own people who has, with the help of western-imposed sanctions, ran down his country's economy. ( Some people take advantage of sanctions by innovations and adopting self-sufficient lifestyles. He chose to destroy his country and blame sanctions.) Note that the degree was conferred when he was a darling of all freedom-loving people. It is quite ridiculous to now withdraw the degree for such stupid reasons as 'information not available'.... When it comes to Mugabe I am very conflicted between these 2 versions of the man. I blame him completely for continuing to impoverish his own people and assuming that he is the olny leader who can save the country in the presence of an overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Unline others, I will not dwell on 'na who cause am'. That is like blaming somebody for your role is running down a sucessful organization. Note that Mugabe sent his troops after his co-liberation fighter, Josua Nkomo, in Bulawayo to cause massive destructions in a matter that was purely political. That was a couple of years after the liberation wars. He needs to retire quitely and save Africa the embarrassment of his misrule. Having said that, I still have a soft spot for Mugabe the African Freedom Fighter.

Edward Mensah

[Amina Zeblim]

Brother Qansy,

 

I don't think that those of us who have opposed the characterization of Mugabe as a "moron" etc. have examined what is happening in Zimbabwe only through the anti-imperial gaze. In fact, what we have stressed is that the problem in Zimbabwe have dual our multiple causes: the actions of Mugabe and the imperialists forces. Of course, a larger number of discussants have tended to slide our ideas toward anti-imperialist Chinweizuist and Rodneyist genres.

 

Some African scholars are so frustrated by the present conditions in Africa that they have bought the Eurocentric propaganda that Africans are incapable of doing anything good for themselves. In my opinion, anyone who dismisses the vestiges of colonialism is a product of some bad social sicences!

 

Certainly, we don't have to blame colonialism for all our troubles, but it is simply naive to assume that colonialism is a mere interlude in African history. Indeed, I forced myself not to laugh at your neoconservative platitudes and simplisitc ideas going for a song in praise of the impreial ethos.

 

I don't know your field of study or line of work, but you should do what I did: read some good books on African history and society. It will ground you in theoretical perspectives and  would certainly dismantle your infrastructure of rose-coloured spectacles and myopic incantations. Self-flagelating scholars, in my opinion, are those who fail to read critically. In my field it is called bad science, and I presume that you would call it a dead art in the humanities. Thanks.

 

Amina Zeblim.

Qansy Salako <ka...@netzero.net> wrote:

---

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[Adeniran Adeboye]

Dear sir,

By now it is clear that most members understand the fundamental problem facing Africa is about LEADERSHIP. A lot of ink has been expended in asserting that we need one kind of leadership or another, and there is near unanimity that we do not have it almost anywhere on the continent. At what point will we begin to design a road map for getting what we all say we want? Where is that analysis that is aimed at dislodging the thieving oligarchy? By what method do we expect to stop the treasury-looting, election-rigging, high-living, power-abusing tyrants who have even gone steps further to engage desperate citizens who would deliver "murder-for-hire" to earn something in order to make ends meet? Yes, of course, in order to carry on with impunity, the oligarchy (the DEALERSHIP) has had to cut deals with local war lords to ensure forced acquiescence of the populace; and with external powers to secure "use" legitimacy. Let those who know how to cut through this thicket speak out. You wrote:

The "blame it on the white (BTW)" concept is getting old and tired in today Africa.

and

We aint as stupid as it seems.
It's just that external forces have come to pour too much water in our cassava.

and I wonder if these statements aren't mutually contradictory. It is however very easy to write such contradictions when we are as frustrated as we are. I dare say that we have been confused thinking that we have achieved some autonomy with our flag independence. We seem afraid to acknowledge that all that happened on the "independence day" was a replacement of the white-faced prefect with a black-faced prefect selected from a pre-trained oligarchy. For negotiated considerations, each prefect has been a reliable servant of the powers outside of, not the peoples inside of, Africa. Of course we are not stupid, but the man with the gun is the majority while the real majority is disenfranchised and defenseless. How do we change that?

Best regards,

Adeniran Adeboye

[Qansy Salako]

Bro. Adeboye,

You ask for ideas on how to cut through the thicket of abominable corruption and bad governance in Africa.

How about the following:

1.    Keep saying/writing at the personal level about the debilitating effects of corruption and bad governance on the citizens of Africa

        and the attendant indignity it brings forth on the continent.  At this personal level, you can even maintain a constant column in a

        local African newspaper where you provide your own perspectives and insight on government activities, particularly against your

        privileged exposure outside of Africa. You may/should actually choose your own specialty - governance, health, international

        relations, education, economy, etc. 

2.    Select a watch dog/non-government organization (NGO) of your interest or start your own and participate in their programs of social

        commentary and enlightenment. You could do this either with your own writings, write position papers for them

        or you might even participate in demonstrations/picketing that they organize from time to time to promote good governance or

        reject shameful government activities or programs.

3.    As the voice against moronic leaderships is raised higher and higher, it is expected that increased awareness of both the leadership

        and followership will ensure, moving some critical mass within the community, thereby resulting in a new dawn in which sincere,

        good and quality participatory government system (democracy, whatever) is born. When that happens, it would be time for people

        like you to participate in governance of the people. You may call this time our own Africa Renaissance era.

 

Above ideas appear simplistic, right?

Yep, that is one of the essential properties of a good and realistic solution.

Highfalutin and overstrung political ideologies and rhetorics do not a solution make for many a moribund society.

I won't advise that good and quality folks like you join the current chicanery that we call a system in Nigeria, for it's most likely you'd

end up losing your integrity or waste your time in the process. 

Nor would I advocate calling for the citizenry to bear arms in the desire to bring the much needed Renaissance quicker.

I think we can get there safer than that.

Others here would have more pragmatic ideas that you could add to the above.

 

Now Adeniran, follow me on a logical journey that you provoked in your rejoinder:

 

I wrote inter alia before you:

“The "blame it on the white (BTW)" concept is getting old and tired in today Africa.

…….and…….

"We aint as stupid as it seems.

It's just that external forces have come to pour too much water in our cassava.”

 

You Adeniran responded in your rejoinder:
”I wonder if these statements aren't mutually contradictory.”

……and…………..

“Of course we are not stupid, but the man with the gun is the majority while the real majority is disenfranchised and defenseless.”

 

Oops….I think you just committed the same crime of making an antithetic statement in your very last sentence.

You are even a worse offender than I am.

At least, I did my own over 3 sentences, but look at you….you did yours in one and the same sentence!

So I’ll bounce it back to you, why did the not-stupid "real majority" allow the unreal "majority" with guns to render them

disenfranchised and defenseless?

 

Actually, I’ll help you answer the question.

If a couple of gun totting robbers broke into the family home of a professor of philosophy whose wife has both MD and PhD degrees

and their two kids individually have 2 degrees each to their young names. Suppose in their ordeal, these poor folks are kept under the

whims and mercy of the 2 robbers for 5 hours, would you say the unfortunate professor and his family are unintelligent as a result of

their ordeal?

If you wrote “the professor and his family are intelligent, it’s just that they’ve been unfortunate to live under the reign of terror of 2

uneducated social vagrants for 5 hours” and someone said you were making “mutually contradictory” statement, wouldn’t you simply chuckle at the person’s limited skills in contextual argument?

Except that in your case, you’re not ignorant and I respect you, that is why you had made the same statement that contains facts which seem but not necessarily mutually contradictory.

 

That is lesson 3 of PHY 201 for you, Adeniran.

It took me an hour….. so that would be $500, please.

 

Take it easy, Bro.

 

Qansy Salako

 

[Qansy Salako]

Sister Amina,

Why don't we walk through your rejoining thoughts below, together.

-----Original Message-----
From: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:USAAfric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Amina Zeblim
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 8:30 PM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: A Moron is a Moron (Was Re: Edinburgh may withdraw Mugabe.....)

Brother Qansy,

 

I don't think that those of us who have opposed the characterization of Mugabe as a "moron" etc. have examined what is happening in Zimbabwe only through the anti-imperial gaze. In fact, what we have stressed is that the problem in Zimbabwe have dual our multiple causes: the actions of Mugabe and the imperialists forces. Of course, a larger number of discussants have tended to slide our ideas toward anti-imperialist Chinweizuist and Rodneyist genres.  

 

[QS] No, a larger number of discussants didn't just "slide" your ideas toward anti-imperialism. Some of you conscientiously pitched a tent for your anti-imperialist ideas and folks who got tired of the endless tirade against the West just came under the tent to engage you there.  You especially came across as if nothing excites you more than how the white portrays/treats the blacks. Your commendable write-ups on bad governance using Rawlings' tyranny of women in your college days was the only time I saw you sparkle on a serious thought.

 

Some African scholars are so frustrated by the present conditions in Africa that they have bought the Eurocentric propaganda that Africans are incapable of doing anything good for themselves. In my opinion, anyone who dismisses the vestiges of colonialism is a product of some bad social sicences!

[QS] Nods.....indeed. But anyone who merely reduces all of Africa woes to "white man did it to us" is as frivolous as they are myopic. 

 

Certainly, we don't have to blame colonialism for all our troubles, but it is simply naive to assume that colonialism is a mere interlude in African history. Indeed, I forced myself not to laugh at your neoconservative platitudes and simplisitc ideas going for a song in praise of the impreial ethos.

[QS] My sister, laughter is good for you, do not hold back a laugh and spite your beautiful face.

Didn't know that what I've been saying is tantamount to giving the imperialists a pass on their culpability in Africa underdevelopment. Ok, as usual, let me further simplify my message for you this way.

There are two causes of our problems in Africa - local and foreign. Our local causes are largely the results of marauding and moronic leaderships who pauperize the people and throw many of our societies into perpetual states of strife, disease and ignorance. They are the wolves in our midst. Our foreign causes are the imperialists who constructed flawed nation states for us to manage as freed slaves to begin with and who after unwillingly leaving the construction sites still teleguide which block we use and which bricklayer we employ, grinningly from behind the hills. They are the hens in our midst. I am saying that we have better control over our wolves than we do the hens. Let us first chase away the wolf, then come back to the hen.  Much like carrying the man with a broken waist, it will be easier to wrap our hands around our problem this way than just simply yapping at the hens all the time while the wolves roam around in our yards and farms, unchecked. Amina, if you don't get this imagery, then you've been reading too many classroom books written in western wisdom. You ought to pack them books up and go spend some time in the village and listen to the problems of the people in their own language and space.

 

I am saying that many of you who're chorusing Mugabe's anti-imperialist chant with Mugabe ought to know that you're being used and duped. I do not know of any African alive today who would object to reclaiming of stolen Zimbabwean lands from the recalcitrant white farmers to the original black owners. Unfortunately, despot Mugabe seized back the land purely for the purpose of supporting his own lame-duck president-for-life ambition, not so that there could be more work and productivity for local farmer or more food in the land. Mugabe is the wolf amidst Zimbabweans. The moment the West cried foul, Mugabe is yelling "imperialists...imperialists..." and you sentimental intellectuals are up in arms against the hen, stroking the senile wolf as if he is a worthy representative of Zimbabweans and Africa. But he is not. 

Do you get that or need I break it further down for you?

I can you know.

 

If a boy has not yet got a good grip on the sword, he does not ask for how his father died.

If all the necessary infrastructures (laws, loans, etc) are yet to be in place, then it will be unripe to implement the idea of land reforms because you will achieve nothing with the reform, a la current reality of the local black farm owners in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is a master con old artist. He fought the war to liberate his people from the white occupation and rule, but then he soon equated the nation state of Zimbabwe with himself and could not imagine how Zimbabwe could exist without him or him without Zimbabwe. So he personalizes the state, jails, seizes land, maims, exiles, etc. Classic case of fall of man.  And some of you intellectuals become really touchy and passionately afrocentric because in your minds, this is a quintessence fight between rightist black Mugabe and leftist white imperialists. Ok, suppose you are right and the white imperialist are just sour grapes over the reclaimed land, who is losing and who is winning underneath all your dint?

 

The West who are now using the tyrannized state in Zimbabwe as their rallying cry - are they lying on Zimbabwe?

I read how some of you even countered that the European sanctions contributed more to the suffering of Zimbabweans at

this time than Mugabe's policies do?

I remember Abacha said the same thing during his dark days in power in Nigeria.

 I asked you above who is winning and who is losing. I'll tell you.

Mugabe is winning and Zimbabweans are losing.  

Therein lies your wisdom based on books of "anti-imperialist Chinweizuist and Rodneyist genres."  

 

I don't know your field of study or line of work, but you should do what I did: read some good books on African history and society. It will ground you in theoretical perspectives and  would certainly dismantle your infrastructure of rose-coloured spectacles and myopic incantations. Self-flagelating scholars, in my opinion, are those who fail to read critically. In my field it is called bad science, and I presume that you would call it a dead art in the humanities. Thanks.

[QS] Why would you need my field of study? Boy, and she sounded so facetious and cavalier about it. Is it so you may establish a mark of legitimacy or measure of intellectualism in what I am saying? 

Well, I nor go school o...I nor know book.

If you like, call my postings mere barber shop talks or start deleting them on sight...na you sabi.

I nor care one kobo....sam sam....walahi talahi. 

 

Books? What books?

So you had to read books before you discovered that "the white man is to blame" for Zimbabwe's lack of meaningful progress

after almost 25 years of Mugabe's regime?

Many of the books some of you read on Africa are but text books containing pedantic ideas and reasoning.

They contain complex sentence constructions, academic catch phrases, chic new words and bumper sticker clichés.

So they have their use and need which is basically the training of minds in critical thinking on human geography and humanity.

That is why laborious attempts to use them in practical discussions as you have been trying to do here but only render you demagogic and pretentious. 

It is the reason foreign policies of the West fashioned on the teachings in these books and recommendations of your type as

special advisers stand aloof from the people they purport to help.

In many of the books, one will not find accurate reasons on why Rawlings ruled Ghana for 20 years and still thinks today his

was a great success story or why Obasanjo was full of sound and fury for a total of 11 years in Nigeria and still left the nation

worse that he met it.

But the taxi driver in Accra or the gateman at Obsanjo's Otta farm would tell you in simple terms, rather accurately, the true personalities of these blokes before and after they forayed into governance.

For example, the books are already telling us, Obasanjo achieved solid macro-economic success in Nigeria.

Eight years after, when will this success translate to any meaningful impact on common Nigerians in terms of employment, hunger, health care, or even simple pursuit of happiness.

Or what is the purpose of paper weight government, securing debt cancellation and robust foreign reserve when you're leaving

your people hungrier than you met them? 

Arrant nonsense!

Books ko, books ni.

 

Is it how my writings are devoid of references to resources I should have consulted (book titles, authors, ideology) that has

fooled you into assuming that I don't read?

What a terrible mixture of arrogance and ignorance.

You have no idea how many books I read and disagree with both in concept and data. You have no idea.

So after all those books you have read, you still don't know that the more you have a grasp of a problem the simpler you would

be capable of rendering the problem - articulation, discussions and brainstorming of solutions.

You didn't know that....I am both surprised and disappointed.

 

I'll tell you how I do it.

Unlike you, I have graduated from 100% reading of books written for Africa to 30% books and 70% field data.

Whenever I go home (Lagos, Nigeria), which is quite frequent, I not only talk to people to know what ails them and where,

I make sure I see my self-selected areas of the city which I call "markers of governance."

I visit the Lagos State Secretariat, Oshodi bus terminus, Ojuelegba, Iyana Ipaja, Lekki, Idumagbo, etc.

At the secretariat, I see how every office (no matter how small) has a television running all day long and how the commissioners and other senior officials hold clandestine meetings until midnight, and I get an idea of productivity in the state civil service.

At Oshodi, I see how peasants eat, nurse, sleep and sell amidst heaps of refuse that've accumulated for months and oozing stench from food on sale, feces, dead human bodies, sweat, rot, etc. All these happening with multitude of commuters who are 1000 times more than available transports, many trekking for miles into and out of Oshodi.

I see poverty, misery, hopelessness, and want...all ever getting worse than in my last visit.

I got an idea of how much contact government/governance makes with the people it is supposed to service.

Most of what I write or say are a distillate from my field data, not books on neo-colonialism genre.

That is why they appear simple and easier to understand.

 

Oh by the way, while you were reading some esoteric books on Nigeria, I spend 2.5 hours yesterday watching the video of the entire proceedings on the US Congressional hearing on Nigeria titled: "Nigeria at Crossroads: Elections, Legitimacy and A Way Forward."

I listened to election monitors and other participants who were on ground during the Nigerian shameful elections.

Some of them, who were white, even felt more pain for Nigeria on behalf of Nigerian than some of you intellectuals ever express.

But they are white......they caused Obasanjo to rig and foist Umaru Yaradua on Nigerians anyway.

So it's their funeral, right?

 

Look at what you promised reading would do to me and how you said it:

    "It will ground you in theoretical perspectives and  would certainly dismantle your infrastructure of rose-coloured spectacles and

    myopic incantations."

 

Theoretical perspectives?

Why would I need those after I have the actual field data?

"Dismantle your infrastructure of rose-coloured spectacles and myopic incantations?"

My "infrastructure?" What in the world does this statement mean?

Does that make you sound and feel like an intellectual?

Ok.....fine.....whatever....

I also believe that Obasanjo is a born-again Christian.

 

Amina Zeblim. 

Take it easy, Sis.

 

Qansy Salako

[Dr. Valentine Ojo]

Qansy Salako:

You have merely chosen to pitch your tent squarely with the "Let's Batch
Africa" and "African leadership" neo-thinkers - a la George Ayittey - who
have chosen and elected to believe that Africa's current state has
nothing, and nothing whatsoever to do with our 500 year history of
missionarization, evangelization, exploration and exploitation, discovery,
slavery, colonization, settler politics and neo-colonization by Europe and
by Europeans.

Africans are simply inept. Period! We cannot rule ourselves without being
tele-guided by the Europeans. The BLAME for our situation rests sqaurely
and solely with our inept "leaders" - who are of course from among our
ranks, a reflection of us as a people.

This is what is coming across loud and clear from your criticism (and
those of people like Tony Agbali, Edward Mensah, et al) of Amina and of
those of us who have chosen to take a more balanced view of things, and
refused to ignore the long-term and massive psychological impact of this
500-year domination that cannot be easily neutralized in 50 years.

Especially going by the way many of our educated African colleagues
think...and write. And how our "rulers" - left-overs and hang-overs from
this 500-year intense brainwashing - are behaving in office.

Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
****************

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[Ayoola Tokunbo]

Dr Ojo,
It would appear you have got wrong the position of those of us you have
chosen to call "Anti-Africa".
The point we are making is this: the present problems in Africa are best
understood at two very important levels. First there is the objective level
(objective conditions). Here we talk of slavery, imperialism, colonialism,
neoclonialism, Africa's post-colonial state, globalization, neoliberalism,
Structural Adjustment programmes etc. These are conditions that were
imposed on Africa in spite of the valiant efforts of Africans not to allow
these pernicous systems to take hold in Africa.There is no doubt whatsover
that all of these phenomena have affected and are still affecting Africa,
and the effects have been devastating. Make no mistake about that. It would
appear as of now that there little we can do to turn things around. Please
pay attention to the way i have put it: "it would appear...
On the other hand, there is the subjective level. Here Africans have choices
to make, and have been making choices since the period of slavery. While
some Africans resisted all of these foreign impositions, there were those,
for personal gains etc., were too willing to join hands with foreigners to
rape and oppress their own people. As people like Adesanmi have rightly
argued Africans were not all passive under all of these foreign
interventions. There was indeed the African agency. What happened before
independence vis-a-vis foreigners and their manipulation of Africa is still
happening now. Africans are still making choices depending on their
interests.
Set against the backdrop of choices being made, we should therefore hold
ourselves accountable for choices made - including our leaders. (whichever
way we want to define leadership). For instance looting of treasury in
Africa is indidivual choice - of course within the context of favourable
conditions for doing so ( e. g.very weak rule of law regime, weak state
machinery etc.). There Africans who go to Asia and import drugs they knew
were fake and expired, and willingly sold same to their own people. These
wicked people made choices. In the last election in Nigeria, it was not only
Obasanjo and PDP who rigged the elections, some of our people collected
money from the politicians and cooperated with them to rig the election. So
all of those concerned made individual choices.
If Dr Ojo would not mind, let me use him as an example. Why is Dr Ojo so
concerned about Nigeria that he is spending all of his resources to ensure
that Nigeria and Africa are transformed to what we want them to be? It is
because our good friend Dr Ojo made a personal choice to be part of the
effort to better the condition of the Blackman. On the other side of the
equation there are those who were once in USA and then returned home to
Nigeria and not only joined the looters, but are also looting in Nigeria.
These Africans also made choices.
Now bringing all of these arguments together, in the case of Mugabe, inspite
of the wickedness of Britain and other western powers vis-a-vis the land
issue, he made a choice when instead of confronting these wicked forces
decided on his own to oppress his own people - making them jobless etc.
Mugabe made certain choices which are against the interest of Africa and
Africans. And we must hold him accountable for the evil he has done to the
good people of Zimbabwe, just as each and every one of us must be held
accountable for our roles vis-avis Africa.
In summary there is a place for imperialism etc in the tragedy of Africa.
There is also individual responsibility.
This is the point we are making; no more no less!
Tokunbo Ayoola

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[Dr. Valentine Ojo]

Tokunbo Ayoola:

I will try to keep this brief.

By and large, I agree with the sum total of what you put very succinctly
and clearly here as a major part of our problem in Africa - including your
using my position t illustrate your point

I will restrict myself to two comments, were I am afraid I disagree with
your position, and characterization, viz., you opening comments, and your
closing paragraph.

1. "It would appear you have got wrong the position of those of us you have

chosen to call "Anti-Africa".

I really wouldn't your position "Anti-Africa". But you have chosen to put
the BLAME squarely on African choices, ignoring the fact that these
choices cannot be understood independently of the trauma - the "shock and
awe" (and still on-going) - of some 500 years of domination: spiritually,
mentally, economically, physically, politically, culturally, politically,
militarily...you name it, despite the valiant resistance of many among our
people.

At the very least, people in your camp are underestimating the impact that
such a massive and all-pervasive influence (domination) can have on the
psyche - and therefore the actions - of their victims. And how difficult
it may be to rid our people of the residual effects.

2. "Now bringing all of these arguments together, in the case of Mugabe,

inspite of the wickedness of Britain and other western powers vis-a-vis
the land issue, he made a choice when instead of confronting these wicked
forces
decided on his own to oppress his own people - making them jobless etc.
Mugabe made certain choices which are against the interest of Africa and
Africans. And we must hold him accountable for the evil he has done to the

good people of Zimbabwe..."

Not so fast!

"...inspite of the wickedness of Britain and other western powers
vis-a-vis the land issue..."

No, it was precisely BECAUSE of...and not "in spite of"! Until he made
those "choices" - to seize back the lands the whites stole - Robert Mugabe
was the poster leader for Africa -"The Spook Who Sat By the Door."

"...he made a choice when instead of confronting these wicked forces.."

Again, No! My own reading is that "he made a choice to confront these
wicked forces...", albeit a little belatedly.

"...decided on his own to oppress his own people - making them jobless etc."

That's is precisely what the West would want us to believe! Mugabe DID NOT
decide "on his own to oppress his own people - making them jobless etc."

At the very minimum, he has the ZANU ruling party with him. Besides it is
not about a decision "to oppress his people and make them jobless" - what
does he (or any leader) have to gain from that?

It is as a result of WESTERN ECONOMIC SANCTIONS against ZIMBABWE that
things are breaking down in Zimbabwe, and people are becoming
jobless...not on account of a "WICKED DECISION" by Mugabe to render his
people jobless.

"Mugabe made certain choices which are against the interest of Africa and
Africans."

Again, I beg to disagree with you. In this particular instance, I am of
the opinion that Robert Mugabe made a choice that is in the long-term
interest of Africa - as against a dubious short-term gain, choices that
"against the existing interests of white European Settlers" on the
southern tip of Africa.

Tokunbo Ayoola, let us stop kidding ourselves and begging the issues.

The Tragedy of Zimbabwe is NOT about Robert Mugabe - it is about the lands
the so-called white European "settlers" stole from their original African
owners, and to which they are still clinging tenaciously, and about which
if something is not done to change the situation soonest, the Southern
African Continent can again erupt in flames!

This is not about Robert Mugabe - but about the duplicity of the West,
about the bad faith of the West, about the West unwilling to keep its own
part of a bargain, about the West always pointing the accusing finger at
"the others" - never at themselves!

The younger generation has less patience than the older generation. See
what is happening in Nigeria...

This is also about the HYPOCRISY of the West!

Nigerians are as jobless as Zimbabweans, if not more jobless. They are
probably suffering more...why is the West not sanctioning Nigeria?

Museveni has been almost as long in office as Robert Mugabe, and his
people are worse off than the people of Zimbabwe...why is the West not
after him?

Please answer me these questions...

P.S. To these last points, I wrote another response earlier - more
elaborate to the case of Nigeria - which was not posted then. I will try
to re-send it and hope it will be posted this time.

[Rex Marinus]

"Now bringing all of these arguments together, in the case of Mugabe,
inspite
of the wickedness of Britain and other western powers vis-a-vis the land
issue, he made a choice when instead of confronting these wicked forces
decided on his own to oppress his own people - making them jobless etc.
Mugabe made certain choices which are against the interest of Africa and
Africans. And we must hold him accountable for the evil he has done to the
good people of Zimbabwe, just as each and every one of us must be held
accountable for our roles vis-avis Africa."

-Ayoola Tokunbo

Ayoola tokunbo:
There is a counterintuitive strain in your argument that I find particularly
interesting, and I want you to clarify some of these:
(A) At what point does objective reality end and subjective reality begin in
this dialectic of history that you've outlined? Furthermore what is the
relative depth of complicity of each "reality" in manipulating the African
condition?
(B) How free are African leaders to act, even if they choose, for the
interest of their states? Before you answer this question, let me remind you
of the history of political leadership in africa, and possibly elsewhere:
every African political leader who has toed an indepedent line has either
wound up dead, prevented from power, or at the worst, removed from power
with the active conivance of external forces. I also like to remind you, to
factor in, the very meaning of the weak state: it means the proxy state -
it's economy is outside of itself; it has weapon making capability, so it
depends on its own security and national defence on those who can either
send weapons or withdraw it; it can be subverted quickly by the use of even
internal mercenary elements (including NGOs) who can be quickly recruited,
and depolyed with limitless funds and material; it can be overwhelmed by a
concert of just 8-7 nations, using a barrage of images, rhetoric,
dissimulation, usury, to reconfigure its place in the public imagination,
which is often far less discerning. Now, given this scenario, is the
additional fact, that nobody comes to power in Africa, without the say-so of
these external interests - be they multinational corporations or the cartel
of governments and the western elite interests that they serve. These
interests, we have come to learn, are in fact, more crucial in determning
Africa's political, economic and cultural leadership, than the African
peoples themselves. which of course means that some of those whom you call
"African leaders" are simply put, photo-tricks. So, it doesn't matter: even
if you like vote for Olu Falae, their "good man in Africa" Olu Obasanjo will
come to power by all means neccessary to secure the interests of Shell or
Exxon Mobil, and so on and so forth. They just want their own "Olu"and they
pay good dollars to get him. They surround him with their own security
guards, spies, marksmen, economic advisers, policy consultants, Diaspora
experts - all those who have to pay mortgage, or child support, or alimony,
or for a roll in the hay, or for their own merlot, as normal people do. So,
its not personal, its just a job, and they get well paid too. If you were
Obasanjo, faced with this scenario - in which your life depends
fundamentally on just a phone call between Washington and London - what
would you do? And talking about looting - why is the destination of these
"loots" often offshore - precisley mostly in one direction? What kind of
shadowy patnership makes up the postcolonial state? How does that define or
redefine political leadership in Africa? I guess my question is who and what
makes the African leader? who do they work for?
(C) Finally, HOW exactly did Mugabe deny JOBS to Zimbabweans? Did he loot
Zimbabwe? Did he hand Zimbawean jobs to foreigners so that Zimbabweans will
not have jobs? What execatly are those choices that Mugabe made which are
against tghe interest of Africa and Africans? I ask out of sincere
ignorance, and I'd love you to really enlighten some of us who are
mystified.
Obi Nwakanma

_____________________
"If I don't learn to shut my mouth I'll soon go to hell,
I, Okigbo, town-crier, together with my iron bell."
--Christopher Okigbo

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[Amina Zeblim]

My sister,

 

First let me say that I enjoyed reading your essay. It is good to have different voices. But I want to push you a little, as we say. Peoples of African descent have been subjected to depradations of racism and slavery, colonialism and necolonialism, and globalization. I would argue that most African leaders wish that they could circumvent the legacies of domination and exploitation. I don't think that Mugabe chose to brutalize the people of Zimbabwe. I think that it is his resistance to neocolonialism that has resulted in what pertains in Zimbabweans today.

 

 I like to use simple examples to drive home my point: our current experiences here in the West should speak to the problems facing Mugabe. Most of us who were educated - primary school to first degree level- in Africa are far better than our "other" peers in terms of academic preparation and production (publications) etc. But look at the roadblocks that are placed in our way in terms of funding and promotion. Although, I would say that compared with most of you, I am an "Amina-just-come in the West. But I have seen that as an African and a woman, anytime I assert myself even in jocular way it is constructed as being overbearing and hostile.  Just this past week my new supervisor asked me if I went to school in "Africa," aka Ghana. I answered yes, but politely demanded to know the import of the question. He explained that he was surprised that I have two terminal degrees and that I speak good English!  I jokingly told him that he was born here, socialized here, and went to school here, but does not even have one terminal degree. In short, the guy became so red all over that I thought he was going to weep! And I was prepared to offer him a Ghanaian-made tissue paper full of pepper!  I realize that as long as I allow others to have the last word, however, degrading, I would remain in their hegemonic books as the good, cheerful African woman who is always wearing "African-made attires and wierd hair-dos!"

 

So much for an aside. This is how slavery, colonialism, and neocolonialism shape the political-economy relationship between Mugabe and Blair for example. Look at what is happening around the world! If Mugabe's action had led to the killing of thousands of people in any part of the world, for instance, in Iraq, could you imagine how Mugabe would have been framed by the institutions that be. Let us get real and recognize the effects of slavery and colonialism etc. on the African psyche and how others perceive us.

 

Thanks, Sister Ayoola

 

Amina Zeblim.

Ayoola Tokunbo <toks_...@hotmail.com> wrote:

=== message truncated ===

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[Ayoola Tokunbo]

Sister Amina,
While at times i do not agree with you on some - very few - points, i have a
lot of regard for your nobility.
Talking about your experience with your supervisor reminded me of my first
day in Graduate school in England some years back. I was in one Professor's
class and after he had delivered his lecture he requested that the students
ask him questions. I was the only black person in the class.The white
students in class seemed too intimidated to ask him questions.
Sister Amina,trust an African who had just come from Africa - a West African
at that - and not intimidated by skin pigmentation. I raised up my hand and
asked some questions. Apparently the man was flustered by my questions. He
tried as much as he could, but his answers were nonesensical, and knew
within himself that was not his day.
Sensing that our man was not comfortable, i refused to press my advantage
further. At the end of the class, the professor met me on the corridor, and
the first question he asked was: " I did not know you people speak good
English in Nigeria?" To which i replied that it was not only in Nigeria that
English is well spoken, but all over Africa. I then asked him whether he had
heard of Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe, Awoonor, Ayi Kweh
Amah, Nuruddin Farah etc. He could not say a word; thoroughly embarrased by
his stupidity and ignorance.
He was trying to put me down, but succeeded in making himself a complete
idiot.
So sister that is why it is pains so much that Africa is in its present
mess.
Tokunbo Ayoola

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