Alibi wishes to share this with you. That Alibi is on a mission. Enjoy.
In a message dated 11/1/2007 7:23:45 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
cafeafricana1 writes:
Idang Alibi on thursday: I agree with Dr Watson(2)
(http://dailytrust.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=3962)
(http://dailytrust.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3962&pop=1&page=0)
(http://dailytrust.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=emailform&id=3962&itemid=99999999)
Written by Idang Alibi, ([log in to unmask]); 08036938729
Thursday, 01 November 2007
I was simply overwhelmed by the torrents of positive responses I got to the
first part of this two-part series on Dr James Watson’s comment that the
Blacks are less intelligent than the Whites. I have never had any experience
quite like this since I started writing on this page some five years ago. I
received over a hundred phone calls commending me for speaking the mind of the
average African man who is genuinely concerned about the way we are. I received
over 400 text messages.
Even as I was writing this yesterday for today’s publication, the phones
never stopped ringing and only one thing was on every caller’s call or text
message: "I agree with you completely. Continue to tell us the home truth. That
is what we need to hear to be able to grow".
I must confess that I am pleasantly surprised because it is completely
contrary to what I had expected. It is not what I had dreamt of at all. I was
waiting for a storm of very angry reactions from pseudo- intellectuals, and ‘
patriotic’ black men who are usually very touchy when they think the dignity and
pride of the black race have been assaulted. I expected that there will be
many of such who will accuse me of being a sell-out or a self-hater. We are not
a people given to deep introspection. We take things as they come and have
an incredible capacity to endure wrong things for so long and not get angry
with ourselves or with anybody else with a view to changing things for the
better.
Readers’ objective, and not necessarily positive, reactions to a writer’s
piece, is to the writer what spectators are to a football player on the field.
It helps to urge you on even if some do not agree with you. But when, as in
this case, every single person who read the piece calls to congratulate you
and say some nice things to you, you feel good and want to do more. I wish to
announce to all who reached me to say that they too are worried about the
unpleasant state of the Blackman that I am immeasurably heartened by their
disposition.
When a people begin to worry about the unsavoury state of their existence,
it is a clear indication that sooner or later, something positive will happen
to those people. This is because every revolution begins first in the minds
of a people long before the actual revolution comes to take place. The fact
that we who ought to have regarded Watson’s testimony about our inferiority as
an insult on the basis of pure emotion are saying that what he is saying is a
painful truth gives me confidence that our mindset is changing for good.
Immediately after most of our African nations achieved their independence,
it would have been pure heresy punishable by a fatwa if a white man said we
were inferior and a Blackman said he agreed with him. Late Senegalese president
and poet Leopold Sedar Senghor and his fellow Negritude poets who loved to
romanticise our so-called glorious past would have asked that Watson be
roasted alive. It is a good thing that even at that time, our own Wole Soyinka who
was not a part of that groovy train of romanticists told the Negritudists
that "a tiger does not proclaim his tigritude". He acts. He pounces on his prey.
Soyinka’s tigritude jibe is still relevant today for those who are branding
Watson as a racist. A man who is said to be inferior does not proclaim that
he is not inferior. He acts it. He shows it. That is the challenge facing
every African man or woman today.
Because last week’s piece struck such a responsive chord as seen from the
positive reactions to it, I have now decided to write a book on this subject.
When a people begin to admit some honest but painful truths about themselves
and their failings the way we have started doing now, that is a cheering
indication that they are poised for a positive change. I may not have the gift of
prophecy but I can see now that even if the Blackman is suffering a curse,
that curse has run its course and he would soon be delivered of every veil that
seems to be covering his eyes and every spell that has benumbed him and made
him incapable of self-help.
Last week, at Alesi in Obubra Local Government of Cross River State, the
Katsina-Ala Ogoja-Ikom-Calabar Highway, a major trunk A road that links the
North with over 12 states in the South-South and South-East zones of the country
was about to cut into two. Maybe as I write, the road may have effectively
given way, cutting off the South from the North of our country. A TV crew got
to that spot and interviewed some commuters whose cars, lorries and trucks got
stuck in the mud of the deep crater on that portion of the road. One man
told them in faltering English that there is too much "sufferness’ in this
country. In like manner, I want to say that there is too much "sufferness" in
being black in this world today.
This is because being black means you will live in the rundown part of
neighbourhoods even in your own country and have the worst possible deal from your
own government and the governments of other countries. Right here in
Nigeria, white oil workers in the Niger Delta areas live in quarters that are simply
heavens on earth while the natives who share fences with them live in
squalor. What sort of life is this? Without even dying, a black man suffers hell or
has a foretaste of it while still here on this planet. Too many things are
wrong with the black man. Any black man who does not take steps to make heaven
has automatically decreed for himself double hell because right now he is in
hell.
We live in hell-holes called houses and have a hell lot of time with all
manner of hellish predators. We must suspend a sense of righteous indignation
and really focus on the fate of the black man. We are not pathfinders of any
route to anywhere. We are not pacesetters in anything. We are not discoverers
of any hidden truths. We are not inventors of any useful tools. We hardly make
insightful statements. Our leaders cannot lead. They cannot follow. They do
not learn from recent or past history. They do not listen to anybody. They do
not lean on anyone for support and wise counsel. They are just like that. We
the followers are no better. We do not initiate anything for the world to
copy from us.
We cannot even copy any worthwhile thing from anybody. If we copy democracy,
we will debase and give it an idiotic name called "home-grown democracy".
What is that? It is a kind of democracy in which a goat stands for an election,
his name is substituted with that of a sheep and after the vote is cast, a
dog is declared the winner. It is also the kind in which a candidate who
emerged number 14 in his party’s governorship primary is manoeuvred to be number
one, the number one is manipulated out of the race, confusion ensues and to
get out of the quagmire, a candidate is conjured from nowhere and manipulated
to become governor to superintend the affairs of millions of people!
Home-grown democracy is pure crap. Democracy is democracy anywhere in the
world if you are honest, my friend. It may not be the same as the brand
practised in the UK, America or Arabia, but any reasonable man will recognise the
spirit and principle of democracy when he sees it. Our home-grown variant of
democracy is pure euphemism for thuggery, rigging, violence, manipulation,
falsehood, injustice, unfairness and our apparent inability to govern ourselves.
Anytime an African country approaches a transition, citizens and foreigners
who have business in that country are filled with trepidation. Some citizens
living in volatile areas begin to run back to the relative safety of their
tribal enclaves.
To be concluded next week.
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