Jo Cox: A Death, A Decision
Kennedy Emetulu
Cornelius Hamelberg
I understand that
from the brothers that I've talked to so far, France is the favourite
nation to win the European football championship -
the reason being
that Négritude
or no Négritude
, there are at least seven Africans in France's national football
squad . France does
not discriminate when it comes to national prestige in football or language proficiency….
I have mostly been gleaning valuable insights from Bernard Porter's blog in which he (a venerable English man and an anti-imperialist too)
has been deliberating on some of the issues under our purview here. He is currently in the UK...
It' doesn't look like Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi ( a Scot) is going to be weighing in on this referendum - as he did on the Scottish referendum.
The savage murder of
Jo Cox is vividly reminiscent of the butchering of Anna
Lindh on the 11th of September, 2003. I wailed like
a new born blues
baby when I first heard the news. In spite of sympathy votes for the side of the referendum that she was canvassing for , they did not win.
I should hate to make a decision as to what is in the best interests of the UK, based on faulty premises. Briefly : Re- Kennedy Emetulu's plea:
Even for a self-righteous, self-appointed minority spokesperson, it's a pitiful display of either abject ignorance or falsification of reality and bigotry
to reduce the Brexit
referendum to being a contest between good and evil, between what
he calls the racists' camp composed of mostly those -
from his point
of view, evil Brits who like former Mayor of London Boris
Johnson want to leave the sinking EU ship and those who want to
stay,
the good guys comprising the angelic likes of Prime Minister David Cameron and good Muslims such as Sadiq Khan the new Lord Mayor of London
and his greater multi-culti flock, including good Nigerians such as the Kennedy Emetulu, or so he would like us to believe.
Curiously enough Emetulu's exhortation is that “Nigerians and all other ethnic minorities in the UK, including all progressive and peace-loving citizens
of the country, vote to make Britain greater in Europe!” - a weak voice and a weak echo, sounding off like Donald Trump only that this one's melody is
simultaneously Sweet Mother and God save the Queen and please Make Great Britain Great Again in the EU - and no to any Britannia Rules the Waves !
Not British to the
bootstraps , how is it to be expected that Johnny
just come should be harbouring any nostalgic sentiments about
former glory or future
victory? As far as he may be concerned the more Nigerians that immigrate into Great Britain, the merrier and the Greater will Great Britain Be! Thanks to
Lord Lugard, doesn't Nigeria already rule / control Peckham now known as “ Little Lagos” ?
As Boris Johnson said (and I think that this was slightly under the belt) the EU aims at accomplishing what Hitler failed to do :
Emetulu may still be a Nigerian at heart and in his soul, but doesn't he know that only British citizens are eligible to vote in this referendum?
This morning when
asked his name, Tommy Mair (alliterates with Tony Blair) the man
charged with the murder of Jo Cox , said
: “ My Name Is death to traitors and freedom for Britain”
But the sins of one man should not be sufficient reason to crucify a whole nation?
Okay,
“They say that
patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings
Steal
a little and they throw you in jail
Steal a lot and they make
you king
There’s only one step down from here, baby...(
What’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this?”
As Grucho Marx put it, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.”
R.S.V.P.
I'm ready
Cornelius
Alinah Segobye
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
kenneth harrow
i agree w see troubling developments, but i don't fear for the u.k. turning into a neofascist rightwing state. i fear for my own country that has inexplicably gone mad in promoting a neofascist idiot like trump. every day another scene of his embrace of hatred, and his stupidities, are exposed, and yet he is on his way to being the republican candidate. i know well enough, after almost 60 years, that an election in this country is determined by the campaigns. enough has been written about trump's politics that i don't feel the need to justify why he is associated broadly with fascist tendencies. my worry is that we have such a large segment of the population that embraces his fascistic appeal that we have to understand the country itself as severely marked by this political identity.
africa might seem distant, the worries about an extreme rightwinger less concerning. perhaps that's true. i doubt it. when mussolini came to power, and wanted to reassert the glory that was rome, he invaded and conquered libya, he colonized somalia and conquered ethiopia, the indominable. i don't fear a return to colonialism with trump; i fear a heightened irrational militantism, and the distance between his fingers and the red button that could spell the doom of humankind.
crazy fears? remember 1933, and the 60 million dead in world war two before you decide it couldn't happen again.
and even if the target of the current hatred and fear is more limited, more targeted, how would we all feel with him taking punitive measures against latinos and muslims that resulted in more guantanamos, more torture, more concentration style camps, more abuses, more hatred.
the sun is shining; i will have to turn such negative thoughts away, and hope we will come to our senses next november. in the face of that, the question of brexit seems slight
ken
-- kenneth w. harrow professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 har...@msu.edu
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
'the distance between his fingers and the red button that could spell the doom of humankind'.
Kennedy Emetulu
..
RE: Jo Cox: A Death, A Decision
“Well, the Britain these far-right people want is not the Britain my family and I want. The Britain we want is the one showed in Birstall where an unnamed 77-year old Pakistani man tackled the killer of Jo Cox in an attempt to stop him and got injured for his troubles. Despite this tragedy, that man is a hero. It is quite significant that he, an ethnic minority, a Muslim, an old frail man, was the one who tackled this fellow in defence of his MP. The Britain I want is the one one being showcased in Birstall today as Britons of all religions, all faiths and all races are coming together in unity to mourn an outstanding British politician”.
The above was originally how I presented the 7th paragraph in the article “Jo Cox: A Death, A Decision”. At the time of writing, which was in the immediate aftermath of the event, some of the reports claimed the unnamed 77-year old man that tackled the killer was a Pakistani. However, it’s since emerged that the fellow’s name is Bernard Carter-Kenny, a retired Yorkshire miner. While no report I’ve read has yet specifically mentioned his nationality, religion, ethnicity or race, I do not think with such a name, he’s Pakistani. I have therefore made appropriate corrections in the article with regard to those posted on the social network on open forums like this one. Anyone who reads those I cannot correct here or in any other forum should please accept this correction as appropriately applicable.
Thank you.
…
Cornelius Hamelberg
Professor Alinah Segobye,
Re - Your interest in how Africa relates to Europe, well here's the latest business news : Botswana to order 11 Gripen planes from Sweden
So, you are writing from the historic city of Bradford ! As you must have noticed, Bradford is now visibly a Pakistani stronghold . It was this city that was at the epicentre of Islamic resistance in multicultural Britain and the crucible of book burning (extremists' practical literary criticism) - the book in question, Salaman Rushdie's Satanic Verses - when that book first came into disrepute after (in the spirit of good versus evil) the late Imam Khomeini issued his fatwa.
My main acquaintance with Bradford has been as an armchair tourist through Aziz al-Azmeh the author of my autographed copy of “Islams and Modernities “ and more recently his “Islam in Europe: Diversity, Identity and Influence”
Needless to say, some of the people who want the UK to quit the EU are becoming increasingly afraid of the growing menace that could be posed by EURABIA becoming a reality - hastened by a wanton increase of emigration to Europe, from troubled Muslim lands.
There are those who may want to blame it all on Pakistanis, especially after the ascendancy of Sadiq Khan, the new Lord Mayor of London (of Pakistani ancestry) - they must be thinking Jesus Christ/ Mary Queen of Scots – and asking like Donald Trump , what the hell is goin' on? I myself am not surprised : In Freetown, pre-independence Sierra Leone, a Frenchman Lucien Genet was elected mayor of Freetown. So was a Nigerian born citizen, John Ezzidio before him, in 1845...
But let me hasten to add more juice to the oranges, that during the Ayodhya mosque dispute there were some dark but not sinister rumours emerging and laying historic claims to Westminster Abbey being in fact an ancient Hindu Temple….
It was during the nauseous Apartheid era , just back from New York - about forty years ago that I heard one of the freedom fighters passing through, say up at Harvey Cropper's studio in Stockholm, that there are three categories of people in this world: “The rich, the poor and the tourists” – and that's what some of us have been for thousands of years now - like the fabled wandering Jew – “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” - (King James Version) - perennial or shall we say millennial tourists – as in
“I've been wandering early and late
from New York City to the Golden Gate” -
ah – but everybody's got a place called home – a place to go to – and he's got Israel now, trying to develop that place as well , not just the Great United States and trying to make the United Kingdom great again as Great Britain in the proposed super state, the United States of Europe. Who knows, in time some a-them might even be emotionally committed to pleading for a referendum called Biafrix - for the Igbo enclave formerly known as Biafra to exit the Federal Republic of Nigeria in which case it should be up to the would be “Bi-afrans” to decide whether or not it is to be “ Biafra First”, as they decide their “ To be or not to be” Nigerians - and of course those among them (if there are indeed any” traitors” ) who don't want to exit Nigeria - in that case they had better not be labelled “ tribalists” or worse yet, “racists” or accused of being nationalists or patriots of the type described as scoundrels ! And give the UK and EU countries India, Pakistan, South Africa and China equal rights to emigrate and become free citizens of Biafra!
But let's hear from the horse's mouth (Kennedy Emetulu) about the African angle to this debate that (brain drain, economic refugees) all Africa should be given the green light to immigrate, maybe starting with President Buhari's ten day sojourn in Merry England to heal his ear...
I for one believe in
an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a
foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, and a bruise for a
bruise and that it is much better if conflicts do not escalate...
Cornelius
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
'But let me hasten to add more juice to the oranges, that during the Ayodhya mosque dispute there were some dark but not sinister rumours emerging and laying historic claims to Westminster Abbey being in fact an ancient Hindu Temple….'
i no dey o
Cornelius Hamelberg
Toyin Ade puja,
I don't know if you are pooh-poohing the idea, but whether yu dey or yu no dey, during the Ayodhya mosque controversy and the ensuing arguments about who was everywhere first, long before the prophet of Islam ( s.a.w.) was born, and long before Islam entered India to rule vast swathes of it for over 800 years, there were some subterranean murmurs becoming a rumble ( mostly from Muslim sources ) about preposterous claims being made by Hindus that Westminster Abbey was an ancient Hindu Shrine...
If you have the time and
you haven't done so already
what you need is some
i.e.
The Light at the Centre and his
Last night after digesting the Torah Portion
I moved inexorably closer to fully and exclusively embracing a vegan diet after zapping through the first part of ( a must read) Roberta Kalechofsky's seminal
Kennedy Emetulu
..
Mr Hamelberg,
Can we do away with the gratuitous insults, please? I mean, I don’t get why you’d call me “a self-righteous, self-appointed minority spokesperson” and accuse me of pitifully displaying “either abject ignorance or falsification of reality and bigotry to reduce the Brexit referendum to being a contest between good and evil” and between what you say I called “the racists' camp composed of mostly those - evil Brits who like former Mayor of London Boris Johnson want to leave the sinking EU ship and those who want to stay, the good guys comprising the angelic likes of Prime Minister David Cameron and good Muslims such as Sadiq Khan the new Lord Mayor of London” and so on. Where did you get all this? Why call me “Johnny just come” or declare me to not be “British to the bootstraps”? Are you Swedish to the bootstraps? Is citizenship now graded by bootstraps or by how nostalgic one can feel? Where did you get the idea that I'm crucifying the whole of Britain for the sins of one man? Honestly, I’m not interested in debating your ad hominem attacks. There are more serious issues in the piece to discuss and around the matter than responding to your insults or getting you to defend them. So, please, focus on the important things here, because I am and intend to continue doing so.
First, let me say you are certainly entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. That the killer shouted “Britain first!” when he was hacking down the poor lady is widely reported. You yourself have noted that when he was asked his name this morning in court, he said: "My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain”. Now whether or not the killing has something to do with the Brexit campaign is a matter of conjecture and opinion at this point and at no time did I offer my opinion as the indisputable fact. Indeed, I acknowledged that investigations were still ongoing and that it may well be that the fellow has mental issues. But, again, what is not in doubt is that the tone of the Brexit campaign from some of those at the top of the Leave Campaign energises far-right elements, including unstable ones amongst them. I’m not the only one with this view, it’s shared widely and reported widely. In fact, I quoted an MP, Mr Neil Coyle right there in the article.
I don’t know how well you have been following the Brexit campaign; but if you have been following closely, you will know those spewing hate pursuant to their agenda. It’s a matter of public knowledge amongst Britons and people living in the UK. So, no matter what name you call me, it will not change the facts on the ground, because it is what it is.
Obviously, my piece was written from the point of view of an ethnic minority citizen in Britain. I’m entitled to my opinion and my worries, including my suspicion of those on the Leave Campaign who use what I called neo-racialist tones to sell their view. I stated clearly in my original piece that Jo Cox’s death has at that time left me too sad to muster the strength to make a proper analysis of this future I see if we leave Europe, but now let me explain a little more broadly my position vis a vis the larger debate.
To me, the myopia surrounding the Leave Campaign is breathtaking. Acontextually quoting documents that Britain signed with the EU since 1973 is like a wife selectively recalling promises made by the husband when they were courting after more than forty years of marriage and after several more agreements and rearrangements later. Ignoring the reality of what had gone on in that period and how the world and their world have changed between themselves and between themselves and others (just so as to insularly hold on to the original promises as she selectively sees them) is akin to asking the husband to restore her virginity after twelve children.
Okay, they are talking sovereignty. I mean, that is their big overriding freedom argument, right? Or is this not why you accuse me of not being “British to the bootstrap” and being “Johnny come lately”? Isn’t this why you patronisingly declared that I’m incapable of “harbouring any nostalgic sentiments about former glory or future victory? So, does this mean once out of the EU, Britain would also be making plans to leave the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, NATO and all those other pesky international institutions that infringe on the majestic sovereignty of Great Britain? In fact, what exactly does the Sovereignty preachers want to legislate on with their full sovereignty that they cannot do now? What exactly is Europe stopping them from doing? Oh, I know! They want to scrap the Human Rights Act of 1998, because, in the words of one of their big hitters, Michael Howard, the nation must be liberated “from the avalanche of political correctness, costly litigation, feeble justice, and culture of compensation running riot in Britain” due to the Human Rights Act. Is that why when they angrily talk about Britain losing votes in the EU, they conveniently forget to mention the thousands of individual Britons winning in the European Court against the UK Government?
Frankly, the hypocrisy is mind-boggling. They live under a constitutional monarchy where the upper house of parliament is unelected and the lower one produces a Prime Minister only voted for by a small national constituency. They have a voting system that allows the House of Commons to be taken with 25 percent of the voting population, while a barrage of laws is constantly being churned out from an unelected Whitehall and civil service covens under a supposed process of delegated legislation. Yet they talk of Europe taking their democratic right?
Here is the thing, no one denies that the EU needs serious reforms, but even in its present state, it is a force for good for its individual members, including Britain. From the end of the Second World War through the Cold War to the present age of fighting amorphous, stateless terrorism, the genius of European states pulling together cannot be over-emphasised. The EU is not a superstate and is not usurping the sovereignty of Britain or any other member state. It’s an association of states pulling together to practically do things collectively in a way as to get the most from their geographical and cultural relationships and their natural interdependencies. Of course, that requires that states willingly surrender certain powers for the effective operation of such a union. So, since when did that become a loss of sovereignty? Or has there been any case of a transfer of power to the EU without UK parliamentary authority? Did the Almighty Europe stop the UK from opting out of the European Monetary Union? The irony is that these same people are grandiosely declaring that Britain is the 5th largest economy in the world and proposing this as one great reason to leave the EU. They do this without realising or without acknowledging that the status has a lot to do with Britain being in the EU and London being treated as the economic and financial capital of Europe. If they think that will remain the case once Britain is out of Europe, they need a reality check.
Anyway, the Leave Campaigners should not limit themselves. No matter how the vote goes, Britain is still going to be geographically in Europe; the world will still be dealing with her, whether or not she votes out and yes, everything they are saying so far only proves that they are Little Englanders (just look at their leaders), because if they are not they would know that this isn’t about sovereignty, but the result and part of a vicious and reckless game of power within the Tory Party, with combatants prepared to sacrifice the nation to achieve their ambition. That is why I think the Faustian bargain between elements of the right and far-right over this referendum can only legitimise UKIP, Nigel Farage and all the political undesirables from the far-right ready to take Britain to the abyss. So, in the end, it is not the economics or legality of the in or out that will take the nation down, but the political and social demons unleashed on society by the Leave Campaign in their quest to seize the key to No 10. Believe it or not, we have seen a glimpse of that future already in the killing of Jo Cox and hopefully, UK voters will reject that future on the 23rd of June 2016 .
In conclusion, let me point out that as a Swede (and if not a Swede, as someone who knows a lot about Sweden), you should be very interested in what happens with Brexit and how that impacts Sweden after June 23rd 2016. I say this, because Sweden is Britain’s closest ally in the EU. In fact, they seem to have taken Britain’s template in their relationship with the continental body, including opting out of the European Monetary Union. So, whatever happens, I look forward to hearing your view on how this whole Brexit debate affects things at your end.
Thank you.
…
Kennedy Emetulu
..
Professor Harrow,
I fully share your worries about Trump’s dark influence in American politics, but I’m reasonably convinced that even if he survives the Republican Convention in Cleveland, he won’t make it to the White House. Hillary will defeat him in the November elections and save the world from the incubus. The man is his own worst enemy.
…
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Mr Emetulu,
Please, let me clear the air.
Perish the thought that I should want to insult you, gratuitously or otherwise.
Most of my family are British citizens and live in various parts of the United Kingdom. One of my great-grandfathers was an Englishman. So what?
Of course when Nigeria's President Buhari agreed with Prime Minister Cameron that “Nigerians are fantastically corrupt” you can be sure that the cloud of suspicion that has been hovering over Nigerians even before then has still not been completely dispelled from the minds of your fellow British compatriots, through no fault of theirs and that could be an additional cause of the kinds of resentment that we could righteously label as racism.
In some countries like Ireland , it takes more than a/one generation to become Irish. As a – I assume, first generation immigrant , the description Johnny Just Come/ Johnny Come Lately is not very much amiss, from the point of view of the blue-blooded Brits (British to the bootstraps) who may sing “God save the Queen “ possibly with even more emotion. Of course I was not saying that you Emetulu have to be British or Swedish or even German to the bootstraps to take part in any of those nation's referendums , although I do suppose that it could be demanded of those persons who in the near future could want to vote in a possible referendum about a Biafra, that they have more than a residential qualification (within Igboland) to qualify for having a say so. I dare say that some of your Biafran countrymen could even demand that they are bonafide ethnic Igbos to qualify to vote in such a referendum. Right?
In calling you all the things that you are, “a self-righteous, self-appointed minority spokesperson” you must understand that my freedom to think and to speak goes with the territory. It seems to me that you are deliberately refusing to face other people's reality and that's what you do when you reduce this very important referendum to merely being a contest between good and evil and between what you referred to as being the racists' camp composed of mostly those - evil Brits who like former Mayor of London Boris Johnson want to leave the sinking EU ship and those who want to stay, the good guys comprising the angelic likes of Prime Minister David Cameron and good Muslims such as Sadiq Khan the new Lord Mayor of London and the other good people including good Nigerians like you, Mr. Kennedy Emetulu.
I have been following the Brexit debate and discussing it with various people, since it started - so please don't think that your Sahara Reporters piece is the only minority spokespersons opinion that I have come across, to date. My judgements in this thread are all based on a very careful reading of the concerns and some of the unguarded reservation that you have expressed. It may be that you are not aware of the cumulative effect of your words on even a dispassionate reader. If you don't believe me, then ask somebody else about the effect of these your words : “Nigerians and all other ethnic minorities in the UK, including all progressive and peace-loving citizens of the country, vote to make Britain greater in Europe!” – or do you think that I am taking you in hook line and sinker like one of the gospel writers? If there is one thing that I know how to do it is that I read critically and I'm not easily impressed by outward pious sentiments such as calling anyone who loves his Britain a “racist” (“not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved Rome more “ etc. was part of Brutus the assassin's funeral oration in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar )
I well remember voting in the referendum about joining the EU. I am as interested in the Brexit referendum as you are , the only difference being of course that since I'm not a dual citizen, I will not be voting on June 23rd. It's widely anticipated that if Britain votes to leave the EU then Sweden and a few other countries will follow. In the UK, Scotland might like to have another bash at holding an independence referendum – Ireland of course would not be happy if you guys decide to make an honourable exit.
Because of the free movement within the EU , many Swedish citizens originally from West Africa, Somalia, Iran have relocated to the UK but on the other hand the UK has not been doing as much as we have ( Sweden took in 160,000 refugees last year)
So far, I've only read your first paragraph and that's what I have replied to. It's now 05.15 a.m. on this early Sunday morning. Please be patient. I will reverentially attend to the rest of what you have to say later in the day.
Yours sincerely,
Cornelius
Kennedy Emetulu
..
Prof Alinah Segobye,
I’m enjoying your musing and long may it continue! Hahahahaha!
Now, let me first say this: If you look at my profile picture on Facebook, you will see the picture of Steve Biko. I put it there on 16 June 1976 in commemoration of the Soweto Uprising and then wrote the following by way of explanation:
…….
Today is the 40th Anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, which was a popular students’ response to the Apartheid educational policy of making Afrikaans the language of instruction in black South African schools. The Uprising, which started peacefully as a march on Wednesday, 16 June 1976 was met with police brutality that lasted several months up till the end of the year in several other protests nationally. Yes, the immediate cause of the Soweto Uprising was this educational policy, but it is indeed representative of Black resistance against Apartheid in all its expressions. Though official records normally say only 176 students were killed, credible estimates of up to 700 have been made. The Soweto Uprising is indeed one of the most decisive moments in the beginning of the death of Apartheid.
The man you see in my profile picture is Steve Biko, the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement and one of the men behind the Soweto Uprising. Biko was killed later by Apartheid police on Monday, 12 September 1977 at the age of 30. Steve Biko is a famous name in Pan-Africanism and in freedom movements all over the world.
“At the heart of Back Consciousness is the realisation by blacks that the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude, but if one’s mind is so manipulated and controlled by the oppressor then there will be nothing the oppressed can do to scare his powerful matters” - Steve Biko, I Write What I Like
Amandla!
…
I bring this to your attention here to assure you that you are not the only one thinking about how South Africa is addressing the challenge of racism 40 years after June 16, 1976. For any conscious African, what happens in South Africa would help define what happens with the rest of Africa, because of the special place of the nation in our racial and continental awakening.
So, yes, the questions you are raising are crucial today as they are for tomorrow. How the postcolonial African views his relationship with the erstwhile metropole, including how he manages it, is at the heart of the debate today on several levels, be it at the political, economic, social or cultural level. And at every turn, it revolves around how the postcolonial African is treated at home by his erstwhile ‘colonial masters’ and their political successors (indigenous and foreign) and how he is treated in the metropole as an immigrant or even as a citizen of ethnic minority origin.
In fact, I must say you are well-positioned in Bradford to see the relationship up close, even though that would be more from the Asian-British perspective. But it’s still the same impulses governing the relationships from both sides. The constant feature is the empire striking back and the political forces of the metropole struggling to define their response in such a way as not to be seen as outright moral reprobates, while their hypocrisy is really quite obvious to the informed. For instance, if you’ve been following the news recently, you would have read about how Mr Cameron went to Buckingham Palace and declared in company of the Queen and some top members of his party on a visit to the monarch that they were about to host some “fantastically corrupt” countries at an Anti-Corruption Summit in London. Though he mentioned Afghanistan and Nigeria, it was his mention of Nigeria that got everyone thoroughly exercised.
While Nigerian citizens at home and diaspora and its civil society organisations took umbrage at such evidently callous talk from the Prime Minister and while the latter was looking for a face-saving escape route, the Nigerian leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, without understanding the full implication of his actions (and certainly with poor advice to boot) supported the comment and in a populist display (egged on by Mo Mohammed, the Sudanese billionaire who seemed on hand to save him from himself) declared all he wants is not an apology, but a return of assets (stolen funds supposedly recovered or recoverable in the west) to Nigeria from the west.
Now, without going into a full analysis of why such a call was meaningless at such a forum (as was eventually proven) and how I think President Buhari should have handled it, the point I wish to make in relation to the issue here is that we still respond to Western impulses from the position and with the mentality of the oppressed with all its psychological burdens. Our leaderships respond as subordinates and people who seem not capable of thinking for themselves once it concerns the relationship with the west. Their multinationals steal our natural resources and mindlessly destroy our environment in the name of free trade, while our governments are paid pittances as royalties that the thieving elites share amongst themselves as rent, while they unleash their state instruments of coercion and violence to hold the people down once they complain. Our leadership cannot make any economic or political decision without having to be dictated to by their erstwhile colonial masters and the Bretton Woods institutions. This has been our story from the moment they granted us flag independence. Of course, I’m speaking generally here for convenience, because despite the subtle differences between say, Nigeria and South Africa due to Apartheid and the special history of the latter, it all still boils down to the same thing, even if we get stuck arguing about degrees. Truly, the fangs of neocolonialism are fully bared.
Having said all the above, let me point out something, Prof. I am not saying this because you and other Afrocentric academics are here and I’m not saying it to make you feel good. I’m saying it as a matter of fact and if it helps in any way to encourage you and others in your field of study, the better. You see, despite the failures of our leaderships, African postcolonial scholars and academics, like you have been the ones who’ve made it possible for us to keep a semblance of respect in this relationship so far. You have been the ones who have managed to speak truth to power, you have been the ones exposing the unfairness of the relationship and you have been the ones doing all these things from the position of academic equality with their best brains, rather than from the position of subservience. Think about it, there has been no western policy change in Africa that tilts in the African’s favour that did not start with the academic work of the postcolonial African scholar. You will almost always notice that by the time African and international civil society organisations begin to make an issue of it to influence changes in policy in the corridors of Whitehall, Department for International Development (DfID) and Downing Street, the African postcolonial scholar would have already studied it and defined the problem first. So, when you tell us here about your musing and how all this will ultimately impact your research, know that there is a long queue waiting to see the outcome of that. Whether the outcome is in the form of a book or essay or anything of the sort, Prof, do not forget me. I’m already in the queue, I’m fully interested! Hehe!
So, back to the substantive issue here and your confession of not being able to make sense of the current debate surrounding the Brexit, I would say it’s par the course. Yes, it’s par the course that our continent’s recent past keeps butting into the picture because it simply cannot go away! It's a real historical and contemporary experience involving people and relationships. The empire will always, always strike back! For instance, if you have been following the Brexit debate, you will note that one of the arguments the Leave Campaign is making in order to appeal to non-European ethnic minorities is to say their campaign to leave Europe is based on addressing the injustice of Europeans having higher immigration rights than others who are not Europeans on the basis of Britain’s membership of the EU. But that is only as far as they’d go. There are no policy proposals, for instance, about giving Commonwealth members better immigration status after Britain leaves the EU or a fairer trade policy or any kind of support in addressing the multifaceted problems facing Africans in our relationship with them. Instead, they have proposed an Australian points system that boils down to them taking from us the best brains as they continue with the current policy of fleecing Africa of its natural resources and raw materials, while still making it difficult for us to access western markets.
When you see the deaths piling up with the Atlantic and Mediterranean crossings, how can you take seriously people who totally refuse to address that problem when you know they are in a position to do so? How can you take seriously people who attack the German Chancellor Angela Merkel for opening up her country in a rare show of humanness? Of course, we know the immigration issue is highly politicised, but we know that the pressure has always come from the right and far-right of western politics! Take Britain, for instance. When Tony Blair came in, under the new air of freedom and internationalism the new government tried to encourage a real multicultural society by making immigration less stressful for people from the 'Third World' and refugees under the Geneva Convention. A lot of money was poured into a reformed immigration legal aid system to give applicants better hope before the law by having their cases argued competently before the courts. There were less whimsical changes to the immigration rules and deportations were rare, because the filtering process was generally effective.
But the opposition on the right kept insisting immigration was a problem, even though studies after studies come up with the net benefits of immigration. They sold the fear in every nook and cranny of the UK and encouraged local communities to reject any government plan to settle refugees or asylum-seekers even temporarily in certain places. They cut the legal aid budget for immigration to the bare bones to make it unattractive to legal-aid dependent immigration professionals as a means of stopping immigration. They began to churn out new immigration rules and directives so fast that practitioners could hardly keep up. This became the fillip for the formation and rise of anti-immigration hard right parties like UKIP. Even at some point, the BNP made political hay from it all! This coalition of the right and far-right began to propose clearly harebrained solutions to the contrived ‘immigration problem’ and soon the government began to be framed as clueless. Immigration was one of the main reasons Labour lost the election under Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband and the key reason the Remain Campaign will lose this EU referendum if they do. The demonisation of ‘the other’ is in full flow. That is the Britain of today.
So, you see, my worry is not about Britain leaving the EU per se, but the character of the leadership that is in place now and that would likely be in place after to negotiate the exit and reshape the communal relationships within Britain if this happens. For instance, the immediate beneficiaries of a British exit from Europe politically will be the hard right of the Tory Party as we know it today. That section of the party is today in alliance with the extreme right as publicly represented by UKIP and Nigel Farage and they are the arrowheads of the Leave Campaign. Now, think what will happen. David Cameron loses the referendum and he and Chancellor George Osborne are immediately swept out of power. That is certainly what will happen if he loses because that is the ‘big picture’ people like Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith and their followers within the Tory Party are looking at. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader recognises that the impulses driving the Brexit debate are the rebellious ferments within the Conservative Party, but his lukewarm response to the Brexit has only energised a more vicious section of the Tory Party, which has stolen a march on the Remain Campaign, because of what they see as division in the ranks of the Leave Campaign due to the lukewarm attitude of Mr Corbyn. In fact, that is why the pro-Remain campaign of such individual Labour MPs as Jo Cox caught the attention of the Leave Campaign and why she was specially targeted on Facebook and so on by their activists. The SNP, which has punched above its weight in its support of the Remain Campaign is what it is - a Scottish interest party, and, in the end, if the Leave Campaign wins, this will only have its own position strengthened in terms of an agitation for Scottish independence. In other words, a Leave win will simply return Scottish nationalism to the forefront of UK politics and the Scottish pro-independent forces would win hands down, because the prospect of joining the EU as a sovereign nation on their own would trump any argument any No Campaigner can bring up now! After all, what is sauce for the goose is cause for the gander! The argument would be if Britain can leave Europe on the strength of the sovereignty argument, why can't Scotland leave the Union on the strength of the same argument?
I believe in such a situation, whether we realise the intended consequence or not, the biggest and only political beneficiaries of the exit would be the hard right and the far-right. You only have to observe the rise of these parties throughout Europe and the campaign of a man like Donald Trump in America to realise that leaving Europe cannot be good for the European integration project, both on the national and citizens’ levels and it certainly cannot be good for any ethnic minority, be they just visitors like you or citizens like me and my family. Of course, I'm not proposing this view as an incontrovertible truth, but only as a view based on who I am and how I'm reading the whole situation.
CHEERS!
….
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Kennedy Emetulu
…
“Of course when Nigeria's President Buhari agreed with Prime Minister Cameron that “Nigerians are fantastically corrupt” you can be sure that the cloud of suspicion that has been hovering over Nigerians even before then has still not been completely dispelled from the minds of your fellow British compatriots, through no fault of theirs and that could be an additional cause of the kinds of resentment that we could righteously label as racism.” - Hamelberg
My mentioning the Prime Minister’s faux pas has nothing to do with the Brexit debate and there is nowhere in my discussion of it that I said or implied that how Cameron or the British treated the matter has anything to do with racism. I explained my limited aim of bringing it into the discussion and stated clearly I was not doing a full analysis. I stated that “the point I wish to make in relation to the issue here is that we still respond to Western impulses from the position and with the mentality of the oppressed with all its psychological burdens”.
Indeed, if I was interested in discussing it further from the point of view of the British reaction, I would have simply pointed out that all the matter did was to energise the supposed anti-corruption British press whose only response to the matter was to stridently question why Britain kept giving such a corrupt country like Nigeria, a country its president agrees with Cameron is fantastically corrupt, the yearly sum of over £200 million. I personally don’t blame them for seeing it that way, rather than question the fact that British establishment and institutions have supported and welcomed looted money into its system without question. After all, international relations is a zero-sum morality game and you can only look out for number one. So, why should I blame the British press for looking out for British interest, rather than Nigerian interest when those that should be looking out for our interest are thoroughly compromised, intellectually bereft and devoid of any sense of responsibility to the Nigeria people?
I only raised the issue to underscore the neocolonial relationship and the hypocrisy of the West when pretending to fight a moral war, in this case, against corruption. It’s all in the context of the musings of Professor Alinah Segobye who I’m sure understands the point I am making.
“In some countries like Ireland , it takes more than a/one generation to become Irish. As a – I assume, first generation immigrant , the description Johnny Just Come/ Johnny Come Lately is not very much amiss, from the point of view of the blue-blooded Brits (British to the bootstraps) who may sing “God save the Queen “ possibly with even more emotion. Of course I was not saying that you Emetulu have to be British or Swedish or even German to the bootstraps to take part in any of those nation's referendums , although I do suppose that it could be demanded of those persons who in the near future could want to vote in a possible referendum about a Biafra, that they have more than a residential qualification (within Igboland) to qualify for having a say so. I dare say that some of your Biafran countrymen could even demand that they are bonafide ethnic Igbos to qualify to vote in such a referendum. Right?” - Hamelberg
I’m not interested in whatever point you are making here as it concerns the proposition of what the future might hold with regard to a Biafra. It’s enough for me that as a citizen of whatever hue I have equal rights with other citizens of whatever hue in the UK. That is all that qualifies me to talk about this referendum, which is the right I’m exercising in speaking my mind. However, if you are interested in continuing to interrogate how indigenously British I am or seek to continue to make that part of this debate, I don’t think I would be joining you further in such a debate after this explanation. I say this not as a sign of disrespect, but because it would serve absolutely no purpose as I clearly pointed out in my original response to you.
“In calling you all the things that you are, “a self-righteous, self-appointed minority spokesperson” you must understand that my freedom to think and to speak goes with the territory. It seems to me that you are deliberately refusing to face other people's reality and that's what you do when you reduce this very important referendum to merely being a contest between good and evil and between what you referred to as being the racists' camp composed of mostly those - evil Brits who like former Mayor of London Boris Johnson want to leave the sinking EU ship and those who want to stay, the good guys comprising the angelic likes of Prime Minister David Cameron and good Muslims such as Sadiq Khan the new Lord Mayor of London and the other good people including good Nigerians like you, Mr. Kennedy Emetulu”. - Hamelberg
Obviously, you are here still believing your contrived reality. What I wrote in my original piece is still here in this listserv. You are free to interpret it the way you choose, but I’m confident other discerning people will not read it and conclude that I am simplistically making the Brexit issue a battle of good and evil. They certainly will not claim that I am refusing to face other people’s reality because I am not here debating myself as I am debating views opposed to mine on the issue in question. I mean, the fact that I respect other people’s opinions or appreciate their position does not mean I have to accept them if in my judgment these are not in my interest or in the interest of the nation. As much as they are entitled to their views, I’m entitled to mine. The question of accepting their reality does not arise when their reality is just another opinion.
“I have been following the Brexit debate and discussing it with various people, since it started - so please don't think that your Sahara Reporters piece is the only minority spokespersons opinion that I have come across, to date. My judgements in this thread are all based on a very careful reading of the concerns and some of the unguarded reservation that you have expressed. It may be that you are not aware of the cumulative effect of your words on even a dispassionate reader. If you don't believe me, then ask somebody else about the effect of these your words : “Nigerians and all other ethnic minorities in the UK, including all progressive and peace-loving citizens of the country, vote to make Britain greater in Europe!” – or do you think that I am taking you in hook line and sinker like one of the gospel writers? If there is one thing that I know how to do it is that I read critically and I'm not easily impressed by outward pious sentiments such as calling anyone who loves his Britain a “racist” (“not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved Rome more “ etc. was part of Brutus the assassin's funeral oration in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar )”- Hamelberg
I did not write with you in mind, Mr. Hamelberg and I did not post it here inviting you to comment. You are perfectly entitled to a contrary view, but don’t make it seem like a crime that I expressed a view you do not agree with. This is a marketplace of ideas and like in a market, people come, read and pick what they want and discard what they don’t want. I have stated clearly in response to you earlier that when I wrote the original piece I was writing specifically from the point of view of an ethnic minority citizen in Britain and that I’m entitled to my opinion and my worries, including my suspicion of those on the Leave Campaign who use what I called neo-racialist tones to sell their view. I then said: “I stated clearly in my original piece that Jo Cox’s death has at that time left me too sad to muster the strength to make a proper analysis of this future I see if we leave Europe, but now let me explain a little more broadly my position vis a vis the larger debate”.
The above was how I introduced a new aspect of the debate with you. Maybe, you didn’t see all this because you’re curiously claiming to have only read the first paragraph of my post and that this is all you’ve replied to when it is obvious that this paragraph of yours I’m addressing is actually an issue I raised in the third paragraph of my post. So, if you have only read the first paragraph of my piece and it’s supposedly the only part you are responding to, who then wrote the above response to my third paragraph? Hehehehehe! Anyway, all that really does not matter in the great scheme of things. I patiently await your return to respond to the rest of what I said as you’ve promised.
CHEERS!
….
Cornelius Hamelberg
Looka here Kennedy Emetulu :
Many thanks for your painsatking elaborations. I understand that you are another mighty megawatt twinkling in the firmament . Cheers!
I'm not in need of enlightenment and there's no reason for any more tittle-tattle from you to me. There's nothing difficult or extraordinary in your piece and I understood you perfectly the first time; I am used to both meeting and reading some of the best minds in Sweden and Britain etc. endlessly engaged with Brexit - not to mention papers, books and lectures, live forums, used to listening to much more sophisticated stuff live and direct and discussing matters directly, with the likes of minority voices other than that of Mr. Emetulu.
You've said all the things that you have said and now you turn around and ask me (the reader) why do I say that you have said what you just said?
I now understand that both of us read and I suppose hear and understand even the most simplest of issues, differently – hence your laborious, tortuous (like torture) and long-winded explanations of everything that everybody’s updated common-sense takes as for granted.
I have followed the complexities about love of your country (the United Kingdom) and what's best for the country in determining how Brits vote in this referendum , so let's call it a day!
Cornelius Hamelberg
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Professor Harrow,
Mood I'm in, I'm still laughing.
Earlier in the day, on the tube to our Kulturhuset in down town Stockholm I started my journey through BLACKASS and from page one, no headphones on, started laughing – and to hell with the people staring at me as if I (Black Man) maybe back in Africa because of the light summer heat had now finally gone off my bonkers – which made me laugh even more merrily and the more the thought took shape, the more the ripples escaped and became mirth-ier. Philip Roth's erotic fantasy The Breast is funny enough - except that the stasis of his erectile projection - a story of metamorphosis al-right but mostly of stasis - passive receptivity and an object of stimulation unlike the infinite social, cultural , political , not to talk of the sensitive and the emotional possibilities of metamorphosis from black to white - black and white – black and night. The last time it happened on the screen was through a deliberate act of deception in Soul Man - and so I burst into a fresh round of uncompromising laughter and this time it was the politics of my imagination i.e. possibly Ogbeni Kadiri 's worst nightmare : metamorphosed overnight into an Oyibo (white skin, green eyes, red hair) one that the devil had cursed and returning (waking up from his nightmare to lo and behold he had just been transformed into one of my favourites species: an oyibo! And so laughter continued as my Oyibo Ogbeni Kadiri the protagonist of my imagination (nationality Nigerian) walked down Furo's street on the way to the interview and seeing the world anew through his new green eyes, maybe cursing the gods or the wizards or fate or all of them together for being so cruel. It was a short ride, my train arriving at the Stockholm Central Station at the point where a mother is laughing and saying to her child who has just beheld Mr. White Man , “ No fear, no cry again my pikin. No be ojuju, nah oyibo man”
One I arrived at the Kulturhuset , I phoned the real Ogbeni Kadiri to tell him about the cause of my laughter….
Re - “but i don't fear for the u.k. turning into a neofascist rightwing state”
Of course, I share your optimism that there is no danger of the UK and the descendants of the people who first gave us the legal document the Magna Carta will become Nazis or that the principles enshrined in the Magna Carta are in danger of falling into desuetude.
My optimism is even greater about the United States of America. In the same breath and just like yours truly, I suppose that you also have some reasonable reservation about the US prospective President's latest spiel that the US should consider profiling Muslims – supposedly a practical anti terrorist measure ( vetting suspect ideologically anti American extremists, racists, anti-Semites, terrorists , Sadists, homophobes, islamophobes ) but raising the inevitable question that have always dogged racial profiling and the head question : What does this kind of profiling lead to and where doe sit end?
As to the UK referendum on the EU - rule of thumb is that the bonafide Brits don't like foreigners like Barack Obama, telling them what to do . But today, the scary proposition that Brexit could mean an economic meltdown for the man in the street - plus the noxious propaganda that Tommy Mair was an ambassador of Britain First and merely executing Brexit policy is said to have blown some wind of change into the sails of those who don't want to take any risks by Br-exiting the EU
BTW, one only has this life in which to serve the Almighty in every capacity and formally as any nationality. The proposition that “ The word was made flesh and dwelt among us” is so loaded that one does not have to read paragraph two the book that was written on the island of Patmos to take on the many implications of his contention….
Shalom aleichem !
Cornelius
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Professor Harrow,
Mood I'm in, I'm still laughing.
Earlier in the day, on the tube to our Kulturhuset in down town Stockholm I started my journey through BLACKASS and from page one, no headphones on, started laughing – and to hell with the people staring at me as if I (Black Man) maybe back in Africa because of the light summer heat had now finally gone off my bonkers – which made me laugh even more merrily and the more the thought took shape, the more the ripples escaped and became mirth-ier. Philip Roth's erotic fantasy The Breast is funny enough - except that the stasis of his erectile projection - a story of metamorphosis al-right but mostly of stasis - passive receptivity and an object of stimulation unlike the infinite social, cultural , political , not to talk of the sensitive and the emotional possibilities of metamorphosis from black to white - black and white – black and night. The last time it happened on the screen was through a deliberate act of deception in Soul Man - and so I burst into a fresh round of uncompromising laughter and this time it was the politics of my imagination i.e. possibly Ogbeni Kadiri 's worst nightmare : metamorphosed overnight into an Oyibo (white skin, green eyes, red hair) one that the devil had cursed and returning (waking up from his nightmare to lo and behold he had just been transformed into one of my favourites species: an oyibo! And so laughter continued as my Oyibo Ogbeni Kadiri the protagonist of my imagination (nationality Nigerian) walked down Furo's street on the way to the interview and seeing the world anew through his new green eyes, maybe cursing the gods or the wizards or fate or all of them together for being so cruel. It was a short ride, my train arriving at the Stockholm Central Station at the point where a mother is laughing and saying to her child who has just beheld Mr. White Man , “ No fear, no cry again my pikin. No be ojuju, nah oyibo man”
Once I arrived at the Kulturhuset , I phoned the real Ogbeni Kadiri to tell him about the cause of my laughter….
Re - “but i don't fear for the u.k. turning into a neofascist rightwing state”
Of course, I share your optimism that there is no danger of the UK and the descendants of the people who first gave us the legal document the Magna Carta will become Nazis or that the principles enshrined in the Magna Carta are in danger of falling into desuetude.
My optimism is even greater about the United States of America. In the same breath and just like yours truly, I suppose that you also have some reasonable reservation about the US prospective President's latest spiel that the US should consider profiling Muslims – supposedly a practical anti terrorist measure ( vetting suspect ideologically anti American extremists, racists, anti-Semites, terrorists , Sadists, homophobes, islamophobes ) but raising the inevitable question that have always dogged racial profiling and the head question : What does this kind of profiling lead to and where doe sit end?
As to the UK referendum on the EU - rule of thumb is that the bonafide Brits don't like foreigners like Barack Obama, telling them what to do . But today, the scary proposition that Brexit could mean an economic meltdown for the man in the street - plus the noxious propaganda that Tommy Mair was an ambassador of Britain First and merely executing Brexit policy is said to have blown some wind of change into the sails of those who don't want to take any risks by Br-exiting the EU
BTW, one only has this life in which to serve the Almighty in every capacity and formally as any nationality. The proposition that “ The word was made flesh and dwelt among us” is so loaded that one does not have to read paragraph two the book that was written on the island of Patmos to take on the many implications of his contention….
Shalom aleichem !
Cornelius
On Saturday, 18 June 2016 18:46:40 UTC+2, Kenneth Harrow wrote:
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Professor Harrow,
Earlier in the day, on the tube to our Kulturhuset in down town Stockholm I started my journey through BLACKASS and from page one, no headphones on, started laughing – and to hell with the people staring at me as if I (Black Man) maybe back in Africa because of the light summer heat had now finally gone bonkers – which made me laugh even more merrily and the more the thought took shape, the more the ripples escaped and became mirth-ier. Philip Roth's erotic fantasy The Breast is funny enough - except that the stasis of his erectile projection - a story of metamorphosis al-right but mostly of stasis - passive receptivity and an object of stimulation unlike the infinite social, cultural , political , not to talk of the sensitive and the emotional possibilities of metamorphosis from black to white - black and white – black and night. The last time it happened on the screen was through a deliberate act of deception in Soul Man - and so I burst into a fresh round of uncompromising laughter and this time it was the politics of my imagination i.e. possibly Ogbeni Kadiri 's worst nightmare : metamorphosed overnight into an Oyibo (white skin, green eyes, red hair) one that the devil had cursed and returning (waking up from his nightmare to lo and behold he had just been transformed into one of my favourites species: an oyibo! And so laughter continued as my Oyibo Ogbeni Kadiri the protagonist of my imagination (nationality Nigerian) walked down Furo's street on the way to the interview and seeing the world anew through his new green eyes, maybe cursing the gods or the wizards or fate or all of them together for being so cruel. It was a short ride, my train arriving at the Stockholm Central Station at the point where a mother is laughing and saying to her child who has just beheld Mr. White Man , “ No fear, no cry again my pikin. No be ojuju, nah oyibo man”
Once I arrived at the Kulturhuset , I phoned the real Ogbeni Kadiri to tell him about the cause of my laughter….
Re - “but i don't fear for the u.k. turning into a neofascist rightwing state”
Of course, I share your optimism that there is no danger of the UK and the descendants of the people who first gave us the legal document the Magna Carta will become Nazis or that the principles enshrined in the Magna Carta are in danger of falling into desuetude.
My optimism is even greater about the United States of America. In the same breath and just like yours truly, I suppose that you also have some reasonable reservation about the US prospective President's latest spiel that the US should consider profiling Muslims – supposedly a practical anti terrorist measure ( vetting suspect ideologically anti American extremists, racists, anti-Semites, terrorists , Sadists, homophobes, islamophobes ) but raising the inevitable question that have always dogged racial profiling and the head question : What does this kind of profiling lead to and where doe sit end?
As to the UK referendum on the EU - rule of thumb is that the bonafide Brits don't like foreigners like Barack Obama, telling them what to do . But today, the scary proposition that Brexit could mean an economic meltdown for the man in the street - plus the noxious propaganda that Tommy Mair was an ambassador of Britain First and merely executing Brexit policy is said to have blown some wind of change into the sails of those who don't want to take any risks by Br-exiting the EU
BTW, one only has this life in which to serve the Almighty in every capacity and formally as any nationality. The proposition that “ The word was made flesh and dwelt among us” is so loaded that one does not have to read paragraph two the book that was written on the island of Patmos to take on the many implications of his contention….
Shalom aleichem !
Cornelius
On Saturday, 18 June 2016 18:46:40 UTC+2, Kenneth Harrow wrote: