Out of Africa

This summer, I had the immense honor of meeting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (who’s article for the Guardian is featured in my last post).  She talked a lot about her journey toward writing and becoming a writer: from writing about people with blonde hair and blue eyes playing in the snow and eating mangos to writing about about Nigerians playing in the sand and eating mangoes. All-in-all, it was a great hour+ spent.

When I first read her book, “Purple Hibiscus,” I fell in love. Here was a story about Nigeria and Nigerians that was cliche, that didn’t proliferate the horrible Western ideals of Africans. It was modern, unlike the books written by Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka (both who I also admire) which are rooted more in historical Nigeria. Her other books, “Half of a Yellow Sun,” and the most recent, “The Thing Around Your Neck,” are equally as great.

In the clip below (which is from one of the TED talks), Adichie repeats a lot of the things she mentioned in the talk when I heard her speak. Her point is this: without a variety of stories, with only a single type of story, the world is deprived of the truth. The single story of Africa must be changed — it’s stuck in Africans as poor, backwards; Africa as a place of negatives. Newer African authors, like Chimamanda Adichie, are becoming more prominent in the Western world and are changing this single story.

And I’m thankful for that.

The clip is engaging, funny, and informative. But most especially, for me as an aspiring writing, it’s eye-opening.

It’s about 19 mins long, so if you don’t have time to listen to it all, here’s some “soundbites”:

“Show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become. … Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. … Start the story with the failure of the African states and not with the colonial creation of the African states, and you have an entirely different story. … The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story the only story.  … But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe, and it’s very important, it is justas important to talk about them. I’ve always felt that it’s impossible to engage properly with a place or person without engaging with all the stories of that place or that person. The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity… it emphasizes how we are different, rather than how we are similar. … Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity. … When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.”  

– Chimamada Ngozi Adichie, quoted from a TED Talk
(filmed July 2009, posted October 2009)

This was written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the Guardian recently:

South Africans and Nigerians (and indeed other African immigrant groups) have simply not had the time or the neutral space to grow an organic understanding of each other. The Nigerians arrive with their different, more distant colonial experience, with their mercantile spirit, with none of the conditioning of the South African menial wage-earning experience and – yes – with that swagger. They arrive in a vulnerable country where the legacy of institutional exclusion still thrives. They create spaces for themselves in whatever way they can and, of course, they arouse resentment.

You should read the whole article, which stems from the recent controversy over the sci-fi movie District 9, which portrays Nigerians as the ultimate bad guys. Nigerian officials have asked for Sony to offer an apology for the film and take out all references of Nigeria, saying it promotes negative stereotypes of the country and its people.

According to the United Nations, millennium goals for the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are far off track—and when it comes to Africa the need is great and the prospects for moving forward are dim. None of the goals, which include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; combating the spread of malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for development are likely to be met in Africa, a United Nations study concluded.

Should we become the United States of Africa?

And even if we should, are we ready?

Age 43 and with his own Facebook page, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi of Nigeria believes that the youth of the country will be the ones to bring change. Especially in regards to teh conditions in the Niger Delta, where oil has brought violence instead of development.

How do you see the situation in the Niger Delta?

The criminal activities that were taking place in the Niger Delta are no longer as rampant as they used to be. Kidnappings are no longer a daily occurrence. They occurred due to the lack of an enforcement of laws. The laws are there, but the government didn’t see the need to [enforce them] and people were doing anything they wanted to do with impunity. When some of us took over they said,  “Negotiate with them.” I said that I negotiate with those who have ideological intentions. I didn’t see anybody among those who claimed to be fighting for the Niger Delta with any ideology.

The Niger Delta area requires total re-branding because what is on the ground is not what is being portrayed. Things have started changing at a very high magnitude. All the young governors are pushing things in a different manner. Almost all of us governors in the Niger Delta have started making things change.

How have you been trying to improve conditions?

We believe that one way to transfer ourselves from our own injustice is to ensure that you look at the quality of education, infrastructure, the availability and quality of teachers, the training and re-training of teachers. Education is an essential element in the progress of our people, because, at the end of the day, there is a competition in the committee of states and if you are not properly educated you cannot compete. And you the governor will have visited injustice on your people if you don’t address that.

The law says that primary education is the responsibility of the local government council. But what we’ve done because of the incapacity to develop that area, we’ve taken it over from them. We are currently building 250 primary schools. Before the conclusion of the construction of those schools we intend to train and retrain teachers and hire more teachers.

To read the complete interview on allAfrica.com, click here.

Some of the coolest things, to me, about his plan for his state: 

• providing free primary school education
• that maintenance is more important than construction
• the hopes of building a new city hub in Rivers so that Port Harcourt isn’t the only one

Thing I learned:

• Rivers State has a free pre-natal program
• They have one of the only syringe factories in Nigeria
• There’s a monorail in the old city (I’m assuming Port Harcourt)
• There’s some foreign investment going on … from South Africans, and even Ukrainians. 

The continent seems to be riddled with bad leaders. 

Check out Nigeria’s “go slow” leader. Better than a dictator?

NOTE: I received this story in my e-mail and therefore, unfortunately, do not have a link for the original.

THE TRIAL OF A GOAT 
By Reuben Abati

The Vanguard newspaper considered the story so important it had to position it strategically on its front page on Friday, January 23: this is the story of the goat that was paraded, the other day, as a robbery suspect by the Kwara State Command of the Nigerian Police Force. Even the BBC published the story on its website. We are told that a group of vigilante security men had tried to arrest two men who were trying to steal a Mazda car somewhere in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara state, when suddenly the two suspected robbers took to their heels.
The vigilante men, who in many parts of the country now help to secure life and property, due to the inefficiency of the police, gave the robbers the chase. One of them escaped. The other one rested his back on the wall, and turned into a goat. The local vigilante refused to be outwitted. They promptly arrested the goat (in a bold display of citizen action) and took him(?) to a police station, where the goat was dutifully arrested and detained. The goat has since been paraded before the press, apparently to show how efficient the Kwara Police Command is, and in the words of the State Police PRO, Mr Tunde Mohammed, the goat, ram or sheep (there is an identity crisis here) will not be left off the hook until investigations have been concluded.

If anybody is wondering what is going on here, I urge that person to consider also a similar story that broke a week earlier in the Isokoko area of Agege, Lagos. This other story was also so important, it made the front page of the PM News. It is the story of an Okada, motorcycle passenger who after using the helmet that was provided by the motorcyclist suddenly turned into a tuber of yam. Persons who claimed to have witnessed the miraculous transformation raised an alarm and called in the police. The motorcyclist and the tuber of yam were arrested. Both okada rider and yam tuber are currently being detained at the Isokoko Police Station in Agege, Lagos. The reduction of the Nigerian Police Force to a level where its officials now arrest and detain goats and tubers of yam as criminal suspects is disturbing indeed. It is a strange development in Nigeria’s criminal justice administration system. We have before us a major issue of law and its interpretation. And it is something that should interest our legal experts.

Where is the goat that is now in the custody of the Kwara State Police Command being kept? Behind the counter? in the cell? or in the yard? Will it share the same cell with similar criminals? And how did the Investigating officer take the goat’s statement? In Nigerian law, every one on trial is entitled to fair hearing. Is the Kwara Police Command planning to grant the goat bail? What is the goat being charged for? Attempted theft? Disruption of public peace? Or what? Whatever offence this goat may have committed is bailable. If it is still being kept as at the time of this writing, I insist that the Kwara state Police Command is guilty of a violation of the goat’s rights as a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The law is that anyone who is arrested should be charged to court within 48 hours, the offence that has been committed should be read to that person in a language that he or she understands, and the person should be allowed to have access to a lawyer of his or her own choice.

Where then, are our human rights and constitutional lawyers? Gani Fawehinmi, Festus Keyamo, Olisa Agbakoba, Femi Falana, Bamidele Aturu, Jiti Ogunye, Mike Ozekhome, Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa… there is some work for you please in Ilorin. A citizen of the Federal Republic is being detained beyond 48 hours by the Kwara State Police Command. He is also being denied bail. His offence has not been communicated to him in a language that he understands. And yet, the Nigerian Police have been parading him on television and maligning his character Yes, he is a goat. But if the police consider him a legal entity worthy of arrest, as a criminal suspect, a hardened armed robber for that matter, then certainly, he deserves to be treated according to the law. The Yar’Adua administration says it is committed to the rule of law. The matter armed robbery suspect turned goat in Ilorin provides a test case for this.

And when you gentlemen of the law, great officers in the temple of justice are through with the Ilorin case, please do not forget to go to the Isokoko police station in Agege, Lagos where a tuber of yam, that was once allegedly a human being is also being detained as useful evidence in a similar case. Both cases should be pursued all the way to the court of law. We need to know, and their Lordships should provide the necessary education in this regard, whether a goat and a tuber of yam, although previously said to be human beings can be put in the dock in a court of law in Nigeria. And to ensure fair hearing, what language would a goat or a tuber of yam speak before the court? Would there be interpreters in court to translate the goat-speak during cross-examination? And will farmers be invited to differentiate between a normal tuber of yam and a human being that turned into a goat? I plead that this is a matter of urgent national importance. And a great test for jurisprudence.

It has been said to my hearing that the Criminal Code forbids sorcery, and witchcraft, and that such unscientific occurrences as a human being turning into a goat or a tuber of yam, and the police arresting a goat and parading it as a criminal suspect is unknown to Nigerian law. It was a goat that was taken to the Ilorin police station and a yam to the Isokoko police station in Lagos and the police men on duty believed those who brought the reports, so much, that they quickly took action against the goat and the yam. These are law enforcement officers at work. I don’t want to condemn any police man. I believe that the courts should be allowed to pronounce n this matter once and for all.

Two years ago, one woman was said to have turned from a bird into a human being somewhere in Lagos and she was lynched to death. Before then, one boy called Samuel was burnt alive on the streets of Lagos, after he had been accused of witchcraft. Soldiers and policemen watched the execution and joined the mob in the act. Television stations recorded it all and played the footage later in the day. In Akwa Ibom, most recently, many children were accused of witchcraft and they were tortured , killed, burnt alive and so on. The belief in the supernatural, indeed in metaphysical possibilities is so rife in our land.

Nigerians are animists at heart. They believe that every living being has a dual spirit. A goat can turn into a human being and vice versa, and a tuber of yam could be human. Local folktales are full of such references and in more contemporary times, the churches and local movie producers have turned the myth into reality. The only place where the metaphysical is treated with utter non-chalance is in the statutes. The law and the Nigerian people are at different ends in this regard. One of the issues that the court of law can address is whether or not the time has come to accommodate this social reality in our laws. We have to take serious precaution lest all criminals adopt the tactics of turning into cats, goats, cockroaches etc. And the police would do no other job than to go about arresting animals.

While all that is being considered, the courageous lawyers who choose to take on these human rights cases, (pro bono of course) should insist that the goat in particular should not be subjected to any form of torture. The Vanguard and the BBC have different photographs of the goat that was involved in the matter of failed theft. It is needless to reiterate that it is the right goat that should be charged to court. No man can be tried for an offence that has been committed by another. As it is with men, so it should be with goats. And where are the animal rights activists in Nigeria? By now, they should have been on the streets defending the rights of a member of their family who is obviously under stress in Ilorin. They must insist that the Kwara Police Command must respect all international conventions and treaties on the rights of detained persons to which Nigeria is signatory.

Now that this matter has become a matter of public interest, the Inspector General of Police must ensure that his men produce the detained goat upon request and that the yam that is being kept as evidence in Isokoko is carefully protected. On no account should it be said that the goat is a victim of accidental discharge or that it attempted to escape from custody and got shot in the process. The proper weight and size of the tuber of yam in Isokoko must also be properly documented. And may the Lord be with the Nigerian Police Command as it tries to reduce the number of criminals on Nigerian streets by putting an end to the nuisance of the goat in Ilorin police custody. Let someone shout alleluyah please.

If I were A Governor…

If I were a state Governor in Nigeria today, I would hurry up and quickly find a way to get close to any of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s daughters. There is such a big scramble for the President’s daughters today. It is not a good thing for an able-bodied, young man like me to be left out of the race. But yours sincerely can’t even make any attempt because he is not a Governor. Only Governors are acceptable as Presidential daughters’ suitors please. UMYA and Mama Turai are not even looking at people like us. Two daughters have already been taken by state Governors. Well, God dey.

If I were a Governor, walahi, I won’t waste time to get my own Presidential daughter too. Imagine the benefits: direct access to the President whenever and wherever, a full taste of Presidential anointing in my own bedroom whenever, well when able, and forever. It is also a powerful talisman against any threat of impeachment. Who will dare threaten to impeach the President’s own son-in-law? And of course, I will get a second term. Who will dare challenge the President’s son-in-law? And if any body tries it, I could always fall back on the good sense of the INEC Chairman and his men.

How about love? I am in love with the President’s daughters already without even meeting anyone of them. Love, that is the simplest part of it. And I would prove it. Look, to show that I love the President’s daughter, once she agrees to marry me, I would invite musicians from Congo, South Africa, China and the United States. I assure you Beyonce will be invited too. And Rihanna. And Shakira. And I will invite that boy, what is his name?, the one that sang: as you dey do me, do me, do me… give it to me someone. Nobody has declared a public holiday yet to mark his wedding to the President’s daughter. If I were a state Governor, I would add that extra dimension and declare a public holiday. Why hasn’t someone thought of that? Come to think of it, it is a good idea you know?

Most of us will forever remember exactly where we were the night Barack Obama was announced as the next President of the United States. I wish I could say I was at Grant Park (especially since I was living in the Chicago-area at the time), but instead I was working late at school. Even so, it was still memorable. Now it’s just days before the inauguration and I’m starting to wish I bought a ticket to D.C. and will be at the Washington Memorial.  Well … almost. It sounds like it’ll be really crowded. 

People are coming from all over the world to see the dawn of a new era in the United States of America.  Airlines with international flights that day are entirely booked up. In Nigeria, people are even moving to neighboring countries with the hopes of getting on a plane that will bring them to the States on Tuesday. 

“Being the first African-American to be elected president of the United States, there is this euphoria on the part of Africans to grace Obama’s inauguration to lend moral support.  I learnt people are also going there from several other parts of the continent” – unnamed source.

It’s obvious that Barack Obama becoming the 44th president of the United States will not simply affect this country … it looks like many Africans believe January 20th will be the dawn of a new era for Africa as well.  However, will it be? Nigerians here in the diaspora have a warning:

Don’t celebrate more than the owners of the occasion. Rather, Nigerians should use the occasion to ponder and pray for their country. Americans and Kenyans, the warning went on, worked hard to get to their present status in life.

Emma Agu, a Nigerian singer who will perform at the inaguration and the African Inuagual Ball, has a similar warning, but his act “Obama: The Wind of Change” speaks to the frenzy and excitement which the election has brought: Africans may need to work hard to change their status in life, but winning the election Obama has become the catalyst of change that may have been needed to make this happen. The act, he said, is not a praise song but focuses on how the frenzy of the election swept through the world, and how it can change it. 

“The change that must come to African nations. The change that tells sit tight leaders like Mugabe, and the other tyrants in Gambia, Bukina Faso and whole lot of them that their time is up. The change that we are one nation, one people under the sun. The change that all men are equal,  regardless of who they are,  or where they come from.  

Obama: The wind of Change is my own little way of   using my God’s given talent to contribute to the on-going happiness that has touched the whole world.”

Just like we won’t forget where we were November 4, 2008, none of us will forget where we were in two days either.

Note: I began writing this entry in August, and never finished it. I am posting it now and as I find articles that may speak to the issue, I’ll make updates. 

Yesterday, my friend and I had just picked up my dad from the airport, when the two men got into a conversation about how bad things are in Nigeria. Especially in the Port Harcourt/Niger Delta region. For those of you who don’t know — there’s been a lot of “terrorist” action (bombings, riots, kidnappings, etc) due to a lot of conflict over oil revenue.

So my dad and friend were talking about how the Port Harcourt airport should be the best in Nigeria, how the roads should be the best, the schools, the hospitals — everything should be the best. Better than Abuja, the capital. And then my dad said something that stuck with me — “That’s what opened those boys’ [the rebels] eyes. They saw where all their oil money was going to and they protested.”

I was reminded of this conversation as I read this article in The Punch. It discusses the multiple ways Nigeria is denegrating.

In any case, our problems are man-made. And so, our salvation is in our hands.

I spent all of yesterday working as support staff for focus groups. Half of the day was with Africans (sub-Saharan black Africans, primarily from West and Central Africa). One of the main complaints about the US media is how it portrays Africa. Everything is primitive or bad or poor when it comes to Africa. Forget the bustling cities of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. Forget the amount of progress being made all around the world.

Well, I found this image on-line — the “World at Night” — and it kind of reinforced some of those complaints.

     (to see a larger picture, click here)

As you can see from the picture – there are barely any city lights (the white spots) in Africa. Instead it’s pretty much all dark (meaning no lights at all) or there’s that nice long strip that’s all red (signifying “wildfires” as the source of light at night). I’m sorry, but seeing as places like Ghana and Chad actually have electricity pretty much 24/7 … as I’m sure does Ivory Coast and possibly places like Kenya and Cameron … this map just frustrates me.  You also got to love how Lagos, Nigeria is pretty much lit up by “natural gas flares” (the green).  Can Africa get any more primitive?

And it’s all based off of information gathered from NASA (of course).

NOTE: I’m equally enraged by the “fishing fleet lights” off the coast of South America. But at least they get some bright white lights on their continent. And Australia?? … let me just focus on Africa.

No matter how bad you claim they are … you know you can’t resist African films. Just the way Indians (and others around the world) love all the crazy nuances that make Bollywood, Bollywood — we Africans, too, love the often bad acting, soap opera dramas our film industry produces.

Well … for all you proud African-film watchers, and even for you closet ones, here’s a chance for you to contribute. The African Council for Arts and Culture recently announced a Name and Logo Contest for the Nigerian and Ghanaian film industry. All lovers of the new African Cinema and Music are invited to submit proposals for the following categories:

1. GHANAIAN FILM INDUSTRY:The Ghanaian home movie sub sector is informally nicknamed “Gollywood”. The Council feels this name sounds too much like “gullibility”, which they find as ”an insult to the creative talents of Ghana.” So fans … submit a serious name and logo proposal for the Ghanaian Movie Industry. PRIZE: N200,000 Naira (two Hundred Thousand Naira or equivalent in Ghanaian Cedi).

2. NIGERIAN FILM INDUSTRY: The Nigeria home video sub-sector is currently nicknamed “Nollywood.” “Nolly” apparently means “nothing, so …”  again, the Council does not ”feel comfortable promoting ‘nothingwood.’”  Also, why they feel it’s an insult to the pioneers of the industry to simply “jump into the “wood” bandwagon just because the Indians call theirs “Bollywood” and the Americans “Hollywood.”” A Nigerian way is needed … so Nollywood fans here’s your chance to make your mark on the industry. Prize money for the name and logo that will replace the “nothingwood” name is N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira).

3. YORUBA LANGUAGE FILMS: The history of the Nigerian film industry is linked with that of the Yoruba language films. The Candomble and Capoera in Brazil, the Orisah and Santaria in Cuba, Calypso in Trinidad and Tobago all have roots in Yoruba Culture. It’s definitely a Diasporic culture, and therefore the film industry should be of interested to the Yoruba Diaspora. All the Yoruba films I have every watched are about juju … highly amusing, but something the Council is disappointed with. Their biggest problem, voodoo is ”portrayed in the home videos as forces of evil that are negative and inferior to the Abrahamic religions of Islam and Christianity.

We pray the brave Yoruba filmmakers, artistes, designers, politicians, intellectuals and millionaires take the lead in branding and placing the Positive Progressive Virtues of our African Civilizations in their moves, music and lifestyle for posterity.

“Yoruwood” is the current name being “whispered” for Yoruba home movies. So a more serious one, along with a logo, is in search. The prize money for the name and logo of the Yoruba Film Genre is N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira)

4.THE HAUSA LANGUAGE GENRE: This is a newer film sub sector of the Nigerian home video industry, which is emerging. Right now, since the main location of development is in Kano, they current name is … you guessed it … “Kannywood.” A more respectable name is needed. Prize money = N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira)

5. IGBO LANGUAGE MOVIES: Not to be left out, the Igbo language movies is another sub-sector coming largely out of the eastern Nigerian city of Enugu. Big surprise here though. It’s not called “Enuguwood”, or “Igbowood” or “Iggywood” or any wood-ism. The informal name is “Ikenga.” But something more serious is still needed. The prize money is N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira).

Three other categories exist, CROSS OVER MOVIES, ADULT CONTENT AND EROTIC ARTS, and AFROMEDIA NIGERIA FILM & CULTURAL ENTREPRISES DEVELOPMENT FUND (ANFCED). Prizes are awarded for all of them.

For more information, read this release from Nollywoodwatch.com. Deadline is September 30, 2008.

I think the coolest thing about this is that the African Council for Arts and Culture is a Diasporic organization based in Germany. It just shows how active the community in the Diaspora can be, and how they can help to initiate change for the African continent.

Now start working on those names and logos!!!