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Ruminations in Thirteen Divisions |
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Monday, 31 January 2005 |
1. PASSING FOR BLACK IN JAPAN
In the trains, in the shopping districts, they enjoy a visibility that heightened by contrast. Africans in Japan (which by the way, is famed for is homogeneity) stand out. The Black-Yellow contrast in the crowds that mill around downtown Tokyo is something a visitor wouldn't fail to notice - especially if the visitor were contributing to such a contrast himself. Their status - in this land of the "Yamato" people is one that has always been a source of intrigue.
A cursory review of Japanese literature - especially in its depictions of blacks reveals much of what one finds in the European tradition. Social blackness and its associated properties as well as associated social reactions is something of a European export to Japan. I believe I do not oversimplify; if blacks in Japanese novels are not jazz musicians – they are either basketball players or criminals with exaggerated forms – the sexual form being the most prominent example of this. And this of course isn’t surprising. When Matthew Perry, acting on behalf of the American government forced the Japanese to open up and trade in 1854 – he brought along with him minstrels who replicated and performed the dances of slaves on American plantations. The Japanese were entertained with a potpourri of ridicule. “Africans”– as represented by European images to the Japanese, almost 200 years ago laid the foundation for a Japanese perspective of the same consisting mainly of caricature and imitation.
And so today you have Africans of recent continental descent in Japan. But there has been a paradigm inversion. Over the years, black Americans have benefited in some sense from the marketing engines that drive the American economy. Hip-hop as a way of life, its anger, its rage; black American presence in sport, entertainment etc have added another dimension to the universe of ideas in which blacks are represented in Japan.
The word, I believe, is kakkoii – meaning “cool”.
And boy, do the Japanese love “cool”.
We may argue for instance, that this is all part of Japan’s psychological reaction to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s shameless embrace of everything and anything American. Its juvenile subservience; a phenomenon that some have characterized as “embracing defeat” – has made way for the marketing of blacks in a way that the guests on Perry’s ship 200 years ago would not have thought possible.
Black Americans are kakkoii.
They sing the blues; they are jazz artists. They represent the world of hip urban fashion. They have a significant presence in the entertainment industry.
They play basketball. They are fast and they are angry. They push the limits in their music railing in anger against society, god, authority – everything and nothing all at the same time. And this suits the Japanese psyche just fine.
The horror of Japanese humiliation in WWII – the shock of seeing Hirohito as mere mortal – Japan exposed; no longer as a land of the “gods” and the pure Yamato that descended from them – but as a land of mere mortals could just be expressing this inner frustration by adopting the means and modes of another repressed, defeated and raging society: blacks in America.
And so we have black face fashion styles (ganguro), japanese rap, Japanese hip hop and other associated elements thrown in.
About 12 years ago; a Japanese youth magazine had on its front page, the important question – “How can we become black?”
The truth is, this selective pseudo-adjustment has a flip side which applies to continental Africans. And this is what intrigues me.
I have watched as the general thrust of the Black establishment in the United States for many years; has to been to affirm legitimacy by emphasizing what John Henrik Clarke called the “African connection” – a connection without which, he opined, blacks would be mere beggars at the door of someone else’s house.
Black culture in the United States did experience a period of Afrocentric revivalism. Afros came in, as did the all-purpose-named “Dashikis”, Egypt and its racial composition were at the top of the agenda, Kush, Meroe, Nubia etc made their way into the popular dictum with lightning speed.
Blacks sought legitimacy by embracing their roots and affirming an existence, and indeed a history that was separate from that of whites.
And of course, they were justified in so doing.
The problem, of course, was that the issue of “who was more African” inevitably came to the forefront; as continued migration of continental Africans to other parts of the world highlighted a contrast between the Diaspora, the neo-Diaspora and the continental.
And thus the lovely inversion arose, for a Black Americans sought their Africanness – continentals in far away places like Japan sought the “hipness” of the Diaspora; attempting to project themselves into the “kakkoiiness” of blacks in Japan – and this to a large extent is still true today.
So, Africans in Japan pass for “black”.
Because to the Japanese; while “blacks” are cool; Africans – with the accent and their own fair share of cultural baggage and “Save The Children” television exposures aren’t “kakkoii”. They are “kawaii so” – pitiful – and this will not do for those “Africans” who believe that their passport to acceptance in the world is an of adoption mannerisms and conduct that is totally alien to them.
This paradox is sharply illustrated in Japan; awful clothing, awful speech – it reminds one of the “white negroes” of yesteryears – or the Europe-artifact importing white Americans are the turn of the century.
To affirm themselves, black Americans, in the past sought to pass for white.
To affirm themselves, white Americans embraced a Europe they never knew.
To affirm themselves, Europeans co-opted Greece and Rome – a Mediterranean world that regarded their forbears as barbarians.
To affirm themselves; the Japanese built American style houses, played golf, opened poisonous fast-food restaurants, listened to classical music, and adopted “American style” methods of teaching in their schools, stressing “individualism” – with often disastrous results.
And today; to affirm themselves, the children of Carter and Lugard – offspring of the colonial industry; in far off lands – shameless Africans “pass for black”. “Black” American, that is.
This is the happy world of the colomentals. The pitiful children of Empire.
2. Baa, Baa Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool….Fool?
Teaching children; in a region of the world where sheep produce little, if any wool – to query a hypothetical member of the species as to how much wool the same has is the height of ludicrousity.
But even more ridiculous is to have the same sheep reply “3 bags full”.
Now, I have seen a fair number of sheep in Nigeria in my lifetime and none of them looked like they were preparing for winter.
Furthermore, I do not know of any African who thinks that the “sound of the sheep” is actually a “Baaaa”.
But our children are taught to Baaaaa. And they are taught to visualize 3 bags full of sheep wool – in exercises that make about as much sense as teaching children to sing “Snow, snow, go away. Come back some other day…”
The facts are that the education of children in Nigeria is largely a mis-education.
Now; even if the education sector functioned properly; and the Government and ASUU managed to resolve their differences – the sector would still produce goods that are severely defective.
The education of youth in Nigeria – even under perfect circumstances can only serve to divorce them from their environment, divorce them from Africa and create a generation of Zombies – whose heads gravitate towards London, while their bodies remain lifeless on the ground.
These are obvious facts and truisms. Why – I might even go ahead to declare that the perpetual paroxysms suffered by the system in Nigeria is good: For it is better not to produce “persons” at all; than it is to produce persons of “half stature” – whose moral compass is utterly askew and who are educated into beggarliness and slavery.
For that is what our system does to our youth. It teaches them to become beggars.
Beggars who place premium on foreign aid.
Beggars who place premium visits from “the Queen”.
Beggars who place premium on being members of a corrupt and passé British commonwealth – where the wealth is anything but common.
Beggars who place premium on abdicating the African context in favor of the foreign – with disastrous results; as 40 years of “independence” has shown us.
Quite literarily – the system produces Fools.
3. Mongol Thoughts On Mungo Park.
You know the scene. An impatient teacher demands from his students – “Who discovered the River Niger?” – and the bunch yells out – “Mungo Park!”
For years and years – I have wondered – how Nigerians could have allowed an obvious mass murderer; who eventually go his just dessert at the hands of the people he exploited – to be mentioned in any context short of the opprobrious in their schools.
But, again, this is another symptom of the malaise of colomentalism that afflicts Africans – who release Barrabass and crucify Jesus – who call light darkness and evil good.
But this is not all that is paradoxical about this scene.
For the Niger had been known by Africans for years before Park and his comrades ventured along. So if Park “discovered” anything – it was for the sake of Europe.
He discovered it for Europe – not for Africa.
We may thus conclude that the effect of teaching our children History from this perspective is that we come to believe – and we get them to believe; that they are somehow part of the European world.
Half-Europeans. “Civilized” I think is the proper word; except that today; the phrase is “modernized” or “developed”.
It would be a risible sentiment if it wasn’t so pathetic.
And pathetic it is. For these schizophrenic Africans who inversely parallel the tale of the “Ugly Duckling” MUST then explain away their second, third and fourth class statuses “abroad”. This of course, causes them to fragment in their personalities and resort to lies after they return from one of their “trips” or “extended stays” overseas.
The shamelessness of it all is nauseating.
But that is only just the beginning. For as the cycle continues, the schizophrenic must confront himself with reality. He will be forced to ask – “I thought I was one of them. Why the differential treatment?” – And conclude – “I am not good enough. I must try harder. Become more “civilized”. A couple of more wines, a few more pitches to the accent…” And the cycle of uncertainty and misery lasts for generations.
Years ago – the word for a stupid person – or one born with “Downs Syndrome” was Mongol. The reasoning stems from European racialism in the 17th to 19th centuries – where racialists reasoned from historical records that the people of Genghis Khan who had terrorized Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries were persons of defective intellect – though great in barbarity and in strength. Hence, a white child born with Down’s syndrome must have had an ancestor who had been raped by a Mongol. Hence the slanted eyes.
Perhaps the armies of Genghis also made it into Africa by another route, instead of being stopped by Mamluk slaves somewhere in the Levant. How else do we explain the teachers in the class rooms of our primary schools?
4. “This Is How They Do It”
Public officers are often seen to give reasons for their actions. Social activists are often seen to advance strong arguments for their positions. In Nigeria, both groups of people are united on what should be the impetus for every kobo expended – and every fist raised.
“This is how they do it…” we are told, “in advanced countries.”
That we Humans are not gifted with introspection on a more frequent basis is a most vexing deficiency. We do not see, or hear ourselves. This is the most charitable explanation I can advance for the sorry state of moral reasoning in Nigeria.
Is a road to be built? It is because “they” have done it, and this is how they “did” it.
How are our Universities to be organized? Find out how they did it. And so we are now stuck with a semester system whose origins we are completely unaware of.
Is there a problem with our government? We announce that problem and denounce the government by declaiming “In more civilized countries… etcetera, etcetera” – and pompously concluding – “This is how they do it”
Is the death of a prominent public figure in a foreign hospital riddled with controversy? We downplay that suspicion by opining “He died in a civilized country…soooooo….”
So this thing we call “civilization”, this thing we call “modernization”, and this thing we call “development” represents for Africans a moral objective.
It seems that Africans are cursed with the most perverse kind of self abnegation.
That there is such a thing as an “African future” or were we to co-opt the language of moment; an “African modernity” – a newness of form, an intactness of spirit and above all – self derivation – is a concept about as alien to the minds of those who dominate our public arena as a hell frozen over.
So we live our lives this way; and we talk that way because “this is how they do it” and above all because; most shamefully, we are not in control of our lives.
Thus, civil liberties and labour groups in Nigeria denounce the Obasanjo administration because its manner is uncivilized. It is not because its actions are morally wrong from a self derived perspective – it is because he isn’t doing it “like they do it” – he is running an “uncivilized” government; civility being represented by Bush, Blair or , the House of Saud.
The depths of perversion are thus illustrated by the fact even our assessment of “the wrong”, our assessment of “the unjust” is derived from those who have represented “wrongness” and “unjustness” to Africans in the greatest measure.
We might thus opine in the words of the sermonizer – “when the devil sets the standards for the saints, Heaven looses, my friends.”
The colomental lives life in inherent defeat.
5. Commandments in Fundamentals
It is not enough for the colomentals that they have driven African languages from the public arena on the continent. It is not enough that they are driving these same languages away from the schools. The vermin have decided to invade the African home itself!
Thus; it is now something of a fashion statement for the elites of colomental detrimental Lagos, the upper crust of colomental shariamental Kaduna and the crème de la crème of colomental homosexual Port Harcourt to declare with pomp that they do not raise their children in the mother tongue.
The fact that communicating in the mother tongue is enough to earn one severe whiplashes or expulsion from what we call “primary” and “secondary” schools is not enough to satisfy the umbrage of our fashionable colomentals.
To them; the height of upward-mobility is determined by how puzzled one acts when in the midst of African language speakers.
Thus, we discover another colomental fundamental. An 11th commandment if you will – “Thou shalt not speak”
It is not enough that these people loathe themselves; they want to spread their self loathing and amplify it with what wealth and position they may command in society.
They desire to intimidate and they justify it with the most ridiculous excuses.
We are told, for instance, that severing the mother tongue from the child leads to a greater proficiency in English. English we are told, is the language of the world. Ergo, severing the mother tongue means giving the child a greater chance in the labour market.
This is a funny argument since all the “colo-children” I have met do not speak English like the “queen” or her “brood”. Indeed, their communication is an exercise in stiltedness – it seems the mother tongue is strong enough to permanently dent their accents.
In the same vein; the arguments they advance would seem strange to, say, Italians, the French or Japanese. Those groups have no problem with teaching English as a Foreign Language – along with other languages; which in itself, is not a bad idea.
But; the colomentals don’t want English as a second language. For them, it is the language of God himself and education in its intricacies must be supplemented by a slew of revolting Hollywood movies.
This issue of language is another example of the schizophrenic coming up short.
Consider, for instance, a popular argument – That under the present political arrangements on the continent, it is better for African States to adopt “neutral-English” as a national language etc.
This is of course laughable, since English is anything but a neutral language. It is the language of Imperialists who have lists of specific agendas and specific goals – and self determination of Africans is not found in either list.
Furthermore; there is certainly no reason to believe that systems with ethnic complexity need “a” single language.
This is obvious when we consider that the Earth herself is the most ethnically complex system available and people living on this planet have gotten on fine for millennia without a need to conflate languages through vicious and dubious means. Indeed; in the vastest of Empires, linguistic diversity was a given – as for instance, in the Mongol Empire of Old. The Mongols saw no need to impose linguistic forms on their subjects – they were more concerned with the movement of goods and services; something that can take place to great extents under circumstances of linguistic diversity – as the whole history of colonization and trans-Atlantic enslavements show us.
States do not “need” a single language. There is no evidence that “single, national” languages contribute an iota to National stability.
We have the entire history of African States as evidence, and the condition of States like Modern Switzerland or Empires like the Old Ottoman.
Indeed; the use of English serves as a continuous repression of the ethnic identities and ethnic forms of the various nationalities that make up these African States.
Assuming that these African States are legitimate (which they aren’t); a reasonable approach to the language question would be a policy of absolute education in the mother tongue. Is it too much to ask that our children be taught to see and describe the world – whether of science or of art in their Mother tongues? Of course we may concede some ground to the colomentals and allow them to teach English as a second language (since they expect their children to take the TOEFL anyway) – but the viciousness of their self loathing bars them from even considering this. English, Chinese, French, Spanish – any number of foreign languages may be taught on the African continent – but simple reason dictates that for the nationalities that have populated the continent for millennia; their languages should be given preeminence. The world should exist for us in the linguistic framework of Yoruba, Igbo, Twi, Ewe etc. This is fundamental.
But for the colomentals, it is not. And so, their lies continue.
6. “Toys” And the Tots Amongst Us.
It is only out of utmost necessity that we even bother to refute some of the more ridiculous lies that are spread by the colomentals. Yet, we have a duty to activism because we believe that popular movements and a popular dissemination of information is vital to our interests as Africans.
Now, take a simple premise often capitalized upon by the disgraceful bunch: that of technology. We are made to assume that the presence of technology insinuates a right to lead – a moral quality if you will; and that technology is morally equitable to that zen-like
State in society which we may refer to as “advanced”.
A couple of simple observations. If this, were indeed a law of nature written in stone; then the Mongols wouldn’t have sacked the technologically superior Arabs and Chinese – nor would the Goths have sacked Rome; or the Huns have taught a sizeable portion of Eurasia a thing or two about conquest and domination.
We would also have to theorize; that the moral principles on which a sizeable portion of the world organizes itself – namely those of Christianity, Islam and Judaism continue to survive and garner adherents in contradiction of this immutable law. For Mohammed, Jesus and Abraham were “primitives” – if we go by the endless pontificating of the shallow Imperialists around us.
Hence, if a “tribe” of “Jesuses” lived somewhere in Africa today – The U.K and the U.S would probably feel the need to “civilize” them; not to talk of a “tribe” of “Pauls” or of “Peters” and “Johns” – the point being that most of the world organizes itself around the words of men, who by today’s standards were “undeveloped”. If by some strange act of science they were to be transported to the present – would the ever inquisitive citizens of today’s Imperiums ask them if they live on trees?
Colomentals are primitive, by their own standards. This is very simple to deduce. A few bangs here, a couple of crackers there, a few flashing lights, a couple of exhaust fumes – and this translates to a status of “betterness” – a superiority if you will. And so they sell their souls.
Surely it should be obvious that even if one desired that conveniences of a “modern” world; such conveniences should be acquired on one’s terms? And what better way to do that than to have a significant input in the production of the conveniences which we now deem so necessary?
But the silliness of these people knows no bounds – and we have been stuck with them for a very, very long time. So suits choke us in the hot weather, grammarians trip themselves to expatiate predicates, local musicians utter gibberish and call it music because if they don’t, they have rejected the automobile.
This apparently isn’t something the Chinese believe.
Nor the Europeans – for the Europeans saw no need to abandon their language, manner of dress, or philosophy in favor of elements from the Orient despite that fact that European Hegemony in the latter part of the last millennium was founded on European appropriation of developments and discoveries that had taken place in the Orient – the compass and gunpowder being chief amongst this.
But our colomentals don’t see nor do they reason.
Indeed, that they are so easily awed and so quickly abdicate their dignity is but proof that the entire colomental movement is made up of children. Children with power, children with toys and gadgets – but children nonetheless; and this is why they are so dangerous.
7. “NOLLYWOOD”
I do not think that the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the African arts sector has been more poignantly illustrated than the phenomenon they call Nollywood.
Now, movies and films have their place. The issue here, is not even a matter of content.
I doubt if I can watch any movie, from anywhere on the planet without deducing its plot, and climax a couple of seconds into its opening. Cinematic Art, these days, is overtaken by Deus Ex Machinas run amok and if these be a sign of the times, that is all well and good.
But why Nollywood?
Are our children so devoid of cultural connections, so enslaved, so shamelessly beholden to external forces that they are too lazy to come up with a slightly more original appellation for the Nigerian film industry?
Hollywood in Nigeria? Of all the idiotic sentiments!
The tag is repulsive. It bespeaks crude imitation. It bespeaks shame – God! Have these people no shame?
The tag is decontextualized. Why is the Nigerian Film Industry called Nollywood? Nobody knows – except that perhaps; it is so because of certain imitative tendencies built into much of the colomental culture of “modern” Africa – or because the producers have as their set aims and goals a step-by-step replication of the Hollywood movies they so admire.
I trust I write in charity – but when our producers are so bereft; bereft of historical knowledge, bereft of cultural knowledge, bereft of anything except a lust for lucre – they become destroyers of the very society they claim to want to transform.
If the Nigerian Film Industry has to have a nickname – why not call it Niffy? At least that is something that is derivable from the acronyms N.F.I.
If its appellation must derive from a place – Idumota, Iweka Road etc are all available.
What is also telling here – is the shameless manner in which the Nigerian press picked up this appellation and basically propagandized it – another shocking example of the absence of self-referencing and self-derivation in Nigeria.
We must conclude here again, that the problem is childishness. For this kind of behaviour reminds me of the little urchin, who upon receiving a new toy runs out to his friends house and proclaims – “I have mine, and its just like – No; better than yours!”
So the aim then, is to make the “Wood” in Nigeria, better than or equal to the “Wood” in America.
How pathetic!
You would think that with all the love that these colomentals have for the lands and cultures they so aspire towards; a little knowledge of the history of the same would temper their activities. I have for instance, on the table before me, a pack of playing cards. The symbols on the cards stand for various things – clubs, knaves/jacks, kings, queens, jokers etc – express manifestations of European culture in a phenomenon that was invented in the Orient. But that playing cards were invented in the Orient didn’t stop the Europeans from appropriating them – after all, tweaking does marvelous things; and who really cares, after 700 years?
The sad thing is that when the arts of this “modern” African era get submerged in the sands of time only to be unearthed by a future generation; the archaeologist who carries out the job might well mistake them for European handiwork – albeit by cheap, counterfeit craftsmen – and conclude; that the continent of Africa was once inhabited by a wide spread “race of degenerated whites”.
Pathetic. Indeed.
8. Giving The People What They Want.
We love clichés. Especially when they are meaningless sentences ripped off from a bootlegged copy of the latest foreign cinematic vomitus. We love to quote the “7 keys to Success” and “X Habits of Highly Successful People” – we journey with the “Richest Man in Babylon”, listen to a “Parable of Dollars” and fancy ourselves radical capitalists out to outsmart the Americans; dressed as it were in our sharp ties and extra polished shoes.
In all my years in Lagos; I have not seen the kind of explosion in so called “motivational materials” that is presently available. Metaphysicians, Religionists, Occultists, Transcendental Meditators and all manner of teachers from across the seas have their materials peddled in Lagos.
Capitalism, the people are told, is the key. Go out there and make more money.
Good enough.
I saw an item in a Newspaper a couple of days ago – a television station in the West was altering its program content balance to 9:1 ratio in favor of foreign broadcasting. The rationale for that was that advertisers weren’t patronizing the station.
Of course they weren’t. Today’s hip, colomental generation thrives on shows thrown out by MultiChoice and TVUnAfrica. It doesn’t matter whether they are reruns from the 70s, the 80s or the abominable 50s; or whether those who watch related with what they watch in any sense.
Much like throwing scraps to a dog, the electronic media feeds Nigerians, hungry and starved of foreign content with the residues of a bankrupt western culture. And the Nigerians love it.
The “buffooning” blacks, the “smiling” whites, a world of stereotypes and prejudgments carefully packaged and fed to famished Africans who ironically, cannot get enough.
The latest football matches from Europe (where Fans throw bananas to African players), the latest gist on the homosexual affaire of two empty headed excuses for human beings, the latest music (ah! The same old stuff: sex, murder, drugs and “wanna wanna” speak; so much for being “the latest”), the latest idiocies, the latest rants, the latest propaganda and deception.
And why not? After all, our colomental brothers and sisters have grown up reading and learning the art forms of these “selling cultures”. They measure success by what they read in American motivational books, they construct philosophies of life that are totally divorced from the African context, they champion something called “individualism” and “liberalism” – which of course the wise understand to mean – “I have the right to sell myself into slavery and stick my tongue out at you while I do so”.
So they come away from these shows “knowing” without a shadow of doubt that “So and so will win the next U.S. Presidential election” – Not bad; for people who don’t know what elections are supposed to be going on in their neighborhoods.
And they also “know”, without a shadow of doubt that the people who live in America act in such and such a fashion. See; the TV has taught them everything!
This new, modern, colomental culture of packaged idiocy is amusing, to say the least. But it is what the people want; so we must give it to them.
They don’t want to see Yoruba plays on T.V.; After all, they don’t understand Yoruba because nobody taught it to them.
They don’t want to listen to the fundaments of African instrumentation – because no one taught it to them. They prefer two ladies kissing on T.V.
They don’t want Yoruba game shows, quiz shows or folklore programs – No, no, - Our colomentals are “Internationalists” – to view such programs would be to commit the great sin of “Tribalism” – gasp – even as they hire teachers to school their children in “barbaric” Germanic tongues (so much for Tribalism).
Because we are told (and we believe), that the media like all businesses exists to make a profit, we should not complain when our newspapers are in English, when the matinees we watch aren’t subtitled (after all, you all get English, right? Unlike those pesky French!!!) and when the only thing our children are interested in picking up from these movies is slang, sex positions and more slang.
Yes – we give the people what they want; but who taught the people to want these kinds of things?
Can desire be cultivated? Is its acquisition passive?
That is the question.
The business executive who gives up cultural imperatives in pursuit of lucre might just want to stop and ponder. He might realize for instance, that what he peddles not only functions to satisfy pre-existing desire; it also does much to create it.
Do we really need an out and out culture of homosexuality complicating the disease problem in Africa today?
The answer might just lie on your media screens.
This apparently, is what the people want.
9. Top Marks For Marx – Not.
Our colomental brethren of the socialist stripe are even funnier than those who call themselves capitalists. I am yet to find out what makes Marx so appealing to a certain class of “African Intellectuals”. My ancestors weren’t Marxists, and neither, I suspect, were theirs. Furthermore, Marx was a racialist, a true “man of the west” – the same “west” that these socialists claim to despise. Communism, as largely practiced in the USSR was the cause of countless deaths; an inherently imperialistic exercise and a racist one at that.
We may argue that communism departed from Marx, true – but we also have to wonder, what it is about Herr Marx that makes people so prone to departing from him. Though, were we to apply the same standard across the board to all historical personalities, we would ask Jesus the same question – and in all probability, we wouldn’t have to ask Mohammed.
Marxism, is an Occidental phenomenon. It is a response of the occident to the occident and as such, it disqualifies itself, on a prima facie basis from being of any relevance to the African.
Socialism, Trotskyism, Leninism, Maoism etc – are as disconnected from the African context as Confucius is from Sango. But then again, because Africans have been taught that they must define themselves in any number of labels predetermined and pre-chosen by Western Experience, our jolly eggheads in response to the “capitalist” imperialists reached for Marx.
But so far, the radicalism of the African left has given us nothing. Slogans, protests and tears in our eyes and the unnecessary fixation of the African in an Occidental conflict that has nothing to do with him.
There is no capitalism versus socialism battle in place – since no capitalist or socialist states exist. We have today, as we did in the past, Mercantilists all over the globe, and this it seems, is the order that will continue. Mercantilists spread empire and they spread war – and this is exactly what is happening.
Why the African left is fixated on fighting an imaginary enemy remains a mystery to be solved.
If we stuck by the principle of self derivation; then Africans wouldn’t even define themselves in either mould. But we don’t, and the left doesn’t, because even they are colomental.
In essence, what we have is slaves running from one master, to the other.
Much like Black Muslims who adore Arabs and despise the European – the African left may be said to be in love with a phenomenon that is no less of a danger to the integrity of the African Universe than the Mercantilists and Imperialists of Europe.
Its about time we revived that most important of concepts – Africa For Africans.
Not for the International Left, Not For Arabs, Not For Europeans, Not For Imperialists, Not For Western Liberal Racists, Not For Hypocritical Environmentalists;
Africa FOR Africans – and it has such a nice ring to it too!
10. The Weak Shall Inherit The Earth.
By now, it should be obvious to even the densest of African analysts that on the International Political scene, we are in quite a bit of a pickle.
You see, Uncle Sam has his eyes on the Gulf of Guinea and this is a big problem. A catastrophe of monumental proportions. I recently heard a top State department official loudly pronounce that 30% of the United States oil would be coming from the Gulf of Guinea in a couple of Years – a pronouncement that reminded me of a little brat in my neighborhood who yells “Devil Bless You” to his adversaries.
So we have the United States interfering with “Mother Russia” in its battle against “Chechen Terrorists” – so that of course it can have a significant say in the destiny of certain pipelines and the movement of certain amounts of crude.
And we have the United States in the Middle East; offering democracy with the right hand and cuddling despots of Saudi Arabia with the other – an immensely tricky situation we are told; after all – a cardinal principle of International Relations is to choose the lesser of two evils and to deal with the world as one meets it. Indeed – except that for the United States; the choice is hardly between the House of Saud and the Osama – both being clients at one point in time or the other of the American establishment.
And now, America is at our doorsteps. Ready to do business with Nigeria Inc – a government that represents a corporation more than it does a State – and why not? Since its antecedent is the Royal Niger Company.
Yet, we have more moral idiots from the Niger Delta calling for “western sympathy” in the region.
Poor fools – with their darling hearts and stupid heads.
Businesses aren’t in the sympathy business – and there is no reason why they should be.
So while our team of hack “analysts” and the shameless columnists that populate our newspapers rejoice at the prospects of a “significant American investment” in the region; we only have to look at how such investments have benefited Haiti for instance.
This is not capitalism. It is mercantilism and the Nigerian State is playing the game to its hilt with its corrupt American partners.
Yet, the wretched of the earth hope for sympathy. And why not? The scriptures do say “Hope maketh not ashamed” – yet because they are lacking in knowledge, all they will have at the end of the day are barren pieces of land and charred earth.
No wealth.
No health.
No improvement.
Just charred earth. A worthy inheritance one might say – but Africans are notorious for putting up with “little”.
What was that song again? “Shuffering and Smiling”.
“E go beta” – Indeed!
There is a glaring lack of attention to this most crucial issue in the Nigerian press. I have not seen any analyses of America’s Military presence around the world in the pages of the Guardian. I have not seen any research done into how the regional commanders of the American military dictate domestic policy to the States that fall within their spheres.
The Guardian and those like it are more interested in analyzing “SlapGate” – minor trifles that would pale in comparison to the disaster that lurks just off the coast of the country.
Watchmen of the society? Certainly not.
The presence of American Military Bases on the African continent is a setback. It is a throwback to the era of the Glover Regiment and Carter’s troops who marched on Ijebu.
And once we allow them in, getting them out will be a serious problem; as Okinawans can testify.
What then? Nothing much – I suppose as usual, we will have to wait for the Imperialists to finish what they have to do on the continent and inherit their remains.
Charred earth, no less.
11. Despots And Double-crossers
The wise must understand a simple fact – power flows from sources of high potential to destinations of lower potential. This simple key is the doorway to understanding what has been mislabeled as “Africa’s Leadership Crisis”.
The truth is; Africa doesn’t have a Leadership crisis simply because it doesn’t have Leaders. And this is not an accident of History; it is the result of design.
We look at the social wrecks that abound on the continent and it is rare for us to find that criminal, in charge of a State system dedicated to pillaging and plundering – that has not been acting in tandem with foreign imperialist interests.
Idi Amin was a noted Anglophile; a colomental if there was ever one – who was brought to power by the British; after of course serving them faithfully in the campaign against the anti-colonial mau-maus.
Mobutu received nothing less than $2bn in aid from the American establishment; ostensibly to “prevent” the spread of communism; but more believably to tighten his hold on the State apparatus and provide a haven and a base of operations for Western Interests.
The list is long – from CIA operations in Liberia, to support for the Apartheid scum in South Africa – to public endorsement of the corrupt Moi in Kenya; to adulations for the crook Babangida – gestures of solidarity sealed with discounted sales in guns, grenades, missiles and other technological relics from the European wars of 1914 to 1918 and the sequel which took place circa 1936 to 1945.
These despots are fed with arms, publicly endorsed and praised – while in the background, the noble western press moans about Africa’s leadership problem and that peculiar susceptibility of its cultures to violence and repression.
The trend is not a new one.
Today; the current favorite seems to be the pipeline builder, Paul Biya in Cameroon who has perfected the delicate act of eternal self succession. Although, a closer investigation might leads us to a different conclusion; seeing how that Teodoro Obiang; the crazed murderer of Equatorial Guinea is “primus inter pares” in the Bush white house.
So the Imperialists set up despots and then they knock them down again and sneer at Africans for their susceptibility to such violation.
And its not just in Africa.
After all, Askar Akayev, Saparmurat Niyazov and Islam Karimov – as well as all the other jolly members of the Central Asian Despotics Club are all in the good books of the American establishment.
So there is no problem with our leaders; seeing that of course, we don’t have any.
What we have are regional managers; who manage the mercantile corpo-states that we pledge allegiance and citizenship to.
Once this fundamental key is understood, life becomes more colourful, and dare I say amusing.
For instance; we will understand that these managers can be “hired” and they can be “fired”.
We will understand that they get monthly or annual paychecks – called Foreign Aid, Development Assistance – or some other innocuous euphemism.
We will see, that they all have “Ogas” that they report too, and that we, are of course, at the bottom of the food chain.
Indeed, nothing can be more liberating than the revelation of ones expendability.
In the grand scheme of things, as far as the Nigerian corpo-state is involved; we are expendable.
How liberating indeed! For this must mean; that on a purely moral basis, we owe no civic duties, nor iota of respect or recognition to the corpo-state.
No flag to salute, no anthems to sing and certainly, no Queen to wave at – or perhaps intimate with a rare species of Tomato grown only in the heart of some Sharia infested region.
WE have no taxes to pay – and no public services to expect.
We owe no one honor, respect or fealty.
I ask – is this not the life of perfect liberty? For what do we gain by continuing in the service of a corpo-state that views us as expendable?
The foundations for parallel governments have thus been laid – and unlike their colomental precursors, the helmspersons of these wont be “on the take” from imperialist gangsters who aspire to run the world.
12. A House Divided Against Itself
What is the trouble with Nigeria? This is an oxymoronic question. It is like asking – “what is the problem with Hell?” that is to say – “why is Hell so hot?”
The answer to that would be “Hell is hot, because it was designed to be hot for a specific purpose”. As such, Hell doesn’t “have” a problem. It is working just fine.
In the same vein, Nigeria doesn’t “have” a problem. It is working just fine.
It must baffle the average “Nigerian” who grows up being steadily “indoctrinated” into becoming a pseudo-European that things in his country “just don’t work”.
The truth is that while things don’t work for him; they certainly do work for those who designed and maintain the system.
So the poor Nigerian immigrates to Europe and feels right at home.
The balance of power in the Nigerian State is the product of a colonial order.
There is no escaping this fact.
The institutions of the State aren’t designed to produce Africans. They are designed to produce pseudo-Europeans.
The civic institutions are a sham, the State and its citizens are blinded to History – and the children are taught to salute the Queen – symbol of an Imperialist Order that raped the continent!
Yet; these good hearted Nigerians plod on, waiting for that mysterious day of Miracles when all things will be good and great.
They have faith in “one Nigeria” – just like some believe in Santa Claus, or Father Christmas or a giant kettle orbiting the moon.
Nigeria’s oneness is questionable.
I certainly do not believe in it. And I esteem those that do to be frauds of the highest order.
Nigeria is not one, never has been and certainly will not be so long as we proceed with colonial institutions and structures – political or otherwise.
The immediate abolition of all colonial state structures on the African continent must be seen as a first step to saving the people who live on that continent.
Ethnic nationalities should then be free to opt into federated or confederated arrangements with their neighbors based on principles and agreements mutually designed.
Those that wish to abide alone should abide alone.
If we hold the African human to be precious – this is the path that affords the most credible option for the realization of that goal.
But again; trust our colomental press – for whom “One Nigeria” remains a mantra.
This myth of “One Nigeria” is perhaps the most dangerous idea to have plagued the African continent – even in recent times; and I include Apartheid in the list of “dangerous ideas”.
One Nigeria serves as a launching platform for Islamic Extremism.
Crazed terrorists from the Middle East can use this rickety institution to marshal the resources of the Nigerian State, derived from the plunder of the geographical Nigerian South to continue an agenda of black genocide.
The myth of One Nigeria gives the impression of false security.
This “One Nigeria Big Brother” myth is perhaps the biggest stifler of innovation on the continent.
But we are told of benefits.
Nigeria as a super power.
Nigeria as a medium power.
Nigeria on the U.N security council.
Nigeria with peace keeping troops here and there.
Let us stay together and this prestige that comes from being “big” will be ours.
What meaningless drivel!
In the first place; there is no reason to doubt that once the corrupt States on the continent have been abolished, that ethnic nationalities will not regroup under terms favorable to them to create an even bigger and more populous state,\.
In the second place – what is the pride in being “big” when one’s people suffer abject poverty?
The vanity and the egotism of the “One Nigeria” crowd is perplexing!
They dream fanciful dreams; coated in ridiculous phrases like “redemption of the black race”.
Our resident moron in Aso Rock even tells us “with the failure of the PDP, all hope for the black race is lost!”
What presumptuous demagoguery!
A little imagination might be in order here:
If Nigeria does get on the U.N Security Council, it will be the only member on the council that:
Employs a foreign language throughout the length and breadth of its social institutions (and this is even with a possible India on the UNSC).
Runs its economy on handouts and hand-me-downs by other members on the council.
Is completely devoid of any native cultural context in its formal institutions.
Boasts a lunatic colonial administrator named Lugard as a founding father!
The list it endless. Suffice it to say that the already disgraceful United Nations would become even more of a disgrace with the abomination called the Nigerian State sitting on the UNSC.
But that’s not all.
When one considers the “ethnic nationalities” currently under the jurisdiction of the Nigerian State – it puzzles one that even these nationalities; which already possess a solid cultural basis from which leadership can be projected are seriously failing to live up to the task of the hour.
The task is not to reform the Nigerian electoral process.
It is not to create fair elections in future.
It is not to make things work in Nigeria (a contradiction in terms).
The task is to abolish the Nigerian state and other such coercive structures on the continent – and failing that, to restructure them and weaken, severely weaken, as to the point of death; the power of the colonial legacy in these institutions.
The ridiculous double talk one hears from Afenifere and the Ohanaeze is shameful; showing again, that these groups that purport to represent significant aspects of the Nigerian population cannot be trusted to “bell the cat”.
We have had 40 years in which “Nigeria” was allowed to make her mistakes.
Enough!
40 years in the wilderness was enough for Israel – but apparently it is not enough for Nigeria; this being that Nigeria is no Israel – and those vainglorious Prophets; puffed up with fleshly visions that they may deceive the innocent – who prophesy a “Special Destiny” for “One Nigerians”, are Liars who have their parts in Gehenna.
God may have called Israel out of Egypt – but I can assure you; that God did not create Nigeria and Lugard wouldn’t recognize a burning bush even if it was aflame on his head.
Abolish the work of the enemy.
That’s not so hard to understand; is it now?
13. A FAILED SOCIETY
Nigerians are everywhere. In Lviv, Ukraine. In ReykJavik, Iceland. In Tbilisi, Georgia. In Baku, Azerbaijan. They are everywhere. And everywhere they go; they harbor a deep resentment for the country that has orphaned them.
But this resentment is misplaced and it reveals yet again; the infantile grasp of the situation that most Nigerians have.
They think, for instance, that Nigeria owes them so many things.
They call these things “basic rights”.
They want “potable water” “electricity” etc – These are “rights” to the average Nigerian and he resents Nigeria because the corpo-state doesn’t provide these “rights”.
This kind of attitude is childish nonsense.
You must come to understand, that Nigeria owes nobody anything – save those that created here and enforce that debt by their power over her.
To those foolish enough to describe themselves as Nigerian citizens, she looks upon with scorn.
She owes them neither security, health, wealth, or anything else.
Why should she?
After all, Nigerians didn’t create Nigeria.
They don’t have power over Nigeria – so why do they expect the State to willingly put itself in their debt?
It owes them NOTHING!
We may even note as an aside, that even if it did owe them anything; how would they collect on the debt?
Fundamental to our understanding in this regard is that a State is subject only to its creators and administrators; as such, Nations want a State that is as small and weak as possible – chiefly to represent them in the International arena.
But since Nigeria did not beget Nigerians and its power is not derived from them – why do these people think “Nigeria” is their country, or that the State has some services which it must render towards them?
The people who live under the jurisdiction of the Nigerian State are thus Immoral.
They want that which they are not owed; they prosecute those who are not indebted to them and they claim for themselves a country that would have nothing to do with them!
They do this chiefly because of the Laziness of their minds; because of their unreason.
Perhaps when these societies come round to their senses, they will begin the urgent task of creating for themselves institutions over which they have power – and which do their bidding and not the other way around.
Until then, their continued perception of Nigeria as a country which is supposed to provide them with anything whatsoever; their continued perception of Nigeria is anything but a giant corpo-state working for its benefactors will bring them more tears.
The societies under the jurisdiction of the Nigerian State are failed societies because their thinking and prayers and acts serve to perpetrated colonial hegemony over their lives.
It is thus unreasonable to pray for a better Nigeria. One might as well try to reform the Devil.
No; Death comes upon that which is corrupt and old; and the new rises in its place.
Those who truly “love” Nigerians can only wish Nigeria a speedy death.
It is in this task that Nigerians have failed themselves.
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Last Updated (
Thursday, 24 April 2008 ) |
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Posted by Robot| 13.11.2005 21:43