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From:
chernob jallow <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 25 Nov 1999 16:29:42 PST
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Hamjatta,

I wrote that Ayittey is a critic, writer and scholar. You don't have to
agree. I have read Ayittey intensely enough to vouch for his erudition,
objectivity, insight and scholarship. Again, you are at liberty to disagree
with me.

You write: "as for Ayittey when I read his piece, that this is some
scholarly work was laughable and a big joke. For Cherno Baba to load
plaudits on Ayittey's erudition as a scholar tells you why Cherno is a
dilettante in disquinshing(sic)between flowery prose and sholarly work." You
are casting doubt on Ayittey's scholarship. You have every right to, but on
what grounds? You did not provide any evidence why Ayittey's scholarship is
piffling.

But the solace is, you didn't find anything in his article worth your
skepticism of being scholarly. Atleast, you didn't mention it in your
article. Better still, you went the whole hog emphasizing Ayittey's point to
Halifa: "Frankly,you assert,"had Halifa read Ayittey's central theme with
detached emotions of someone with every right to be annoyed but nonetheless
sanguine, he would have discovered that Ayittey's contention is thus: the
Nyereres and Nkrumahs of Africa are certainly not saints. Heroes they are
but saints they aint." Here, you are defending not refuting, Ayittey's
arguments.

Dawdling over who is a scholar, isn't, what is scholarshp, isn't, can
fritter away our energies and make us take polarizing interpretations or
definitions. We can argue about this for the entire next millenium. It is
unnecessary. For example:

You called Halifa a "scholar of great distinction and erudition." What makes
your scholar or his arguments in this debate, scholarly, is open to
question. While neither you nor Halifa has been able to  refute anything in
Ayittey's article, you tried to raze to the ground, your scholar's
scientific methodology and enquiry. You are in doubt of your scholar: " If
you had displayed this principle of scientific inquiry into your answer and
defense of Nyerere and Nkrumah," you told Halifa, "you would set your
sympathies and Pan African prejudices aside and employ the cold logic of
scientific inquiry to dissect the lives and times of these two African
leaders." Here, you defend, or if you please, emphasize, Ayittey's central
theme in his article that you don't find scholarly, and in the same breath,
you cast doubts on your scholar's scientific methodology and inquiry.
Re-arrange your arguments; they are upside down.

Like a cat on hot bricks, you jumped from your criticism of Halifa to the
"pomp and sententious piffle" in my writings. And you add: "you seem to
forget that you have yet to graduate and mistake your flowery prose and
immature verbosity with(sic)intellectual precision."

Well. It is surprising that this criticism has come belatedly. First, you
didn't say what was "immature verbosity" about my writings. Second,when you
commented on my critique of Halifa's rejoinder to Ayittey's and Shirima's
article, my "flowery prose and immature verbosity" didn't strike you. You
wrote: "Cherno, whilst you were very correct in debunking Halifa's
misconceived and misplaced afrocentrism, perchance you were a bit harsh on
him;even name-calling. Anyway, thanks for such a brilliant and gallant
piece." How short is your memory.

In your compliment, you had simply qualified my article as "brilliant and
gallant." I assume that since you found my article so, you must have read it
over and again. Surprise, surprise, it never stroke you that my article was
choke-full with "flowery prose and immature verbosity." Which compels me to
wonder if you are simply borrowing a line of thinking from Halifa, who,
currently, like in the past, continues to be pettifogging over my prose and
choice of words.

I hereby assert: your originality of thinking in this regard is sans teeth,
sans taste, sans eyes, sans everything. It is skewed and sullied. Or worse,
blindness of vision and confusion of imagination, clogged your deciphering
of "flowery prose and immature verbosity" in my article before giving it
thumbs-up. Or are you referring to other articles I wrote not this one?
Either way, I find your arguments incapacitated by contradiction.

Let me confess: I love words; it is no joke. Ever since primary six, I have
cultivated the habit of introducing myself to new words, finding their
meanings and utilizing them as and when necessary. Everywhere I am, I am
armed with a vocabulary book, which records any new word, phrase,idiom I
come across in my readings. Over the years of writing, my vocabulary has
enriched itself, my familiarity with words and expressions has come in handy
- time and again.

Many of my readers in both The Gambia and elsewhere, continue to tell me how
my stretch of prose brings into locus, issues and realities that they
otherwise couldn't have deciphered or couldn't have commented upon for
limited eloquence. Needless to say, as I write this response, my e-mail
account is full of compliments from many people, on my prose and style of
writing.

You see, words serve as vessels of message. They quicken the pace of
communication. You may not like how the message is being carried or the
message itself. This is why it is imperative that you do not lump my
"flowery prose and immature verbosity" with my arguments and ideas into the
same camp. They need compartmentalization. Judge me in each case. And it is
an unruly rush to judgement for you to think that I "mistake {my} flowery
prose and immature verbosity" for intellectual maturity.

I am not an intellectual. Nor do I claim any intellectualism;I am not there,
yet. Let the intellectuals be. I see myself simply as a young, budding
reporter and writer trying to make sense of my existence and realities
around me, yet occasionally prone to youthful immaturities and peccadilloes,
and limited in my human capacity to grapple with the elasticities of world
complexities.

You stressed that I hadn't graduated yet. Translation: university graduation
or degree will propel me to "intellectual precision." Wrong. True, I am only
an undergraduate, but university graduation or degree is certainly not the
only path to intellectual maturity and wisdom. In my opinion.

Again, you are at liberty to disagree. Anyway, thanks for the stimulating
criticism, and the compliments earlier.

Best regards,
Che'
Detroit, MI

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