Cold realities of Africa – China Relationship

Introduction

The break out of China as real geopolitical giant with economic clout in the last decade is resonating across the world most curiously in the continent of Africa. While babel of opinions ride the waves in favour and in opposition, there are fundamental enablers for this development. Beneath and with these fundamental enablers are cold realities which may remain inert nevertheless irrefutable.  These realities are clear to Beijing and chancelleries across Africa.  Some of the points below highlight the issues at stake;

·         Regardless of the increasing geopolitical profile of Beijing, it remains a state be it nation-state or civilisation-state. It is just another country on the Asian continental mass including her disputed territories and disputed continental shelves. Africa is a continent made up of many states with similar/dissimilar policies, institutions, government and strategic objectives.

·         The communist party rule that commenced in 1949 brought a lot of international reversals and rejections for China including the abominable crime of being the only United Nations Security Council member to be deprived of her rightful seat (by United States). This situation was corrected by concerted efforts of African and Asian countries who lobbied for China’s UNSC to revert from Taipei to Beijing in 1971[1].

·         Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party strategic objectives are to hold on to power unchallenged and to maintain internal national security (by any means necessary)[2]. This implies using the newly available enormous resources at her disposal to provide over a billion citizens with infrastructure, services, facilities and incentives to ensure high standard of living. By so doing potential internal tensions, political recriminations and power struggle are nipped in the bud.

·         Chinese investment in Africa are part of strategic objective to readily access and purchase resources required to maintain her increasing economy and burgeoning consumption. It is not a moral venture to reward Africans, power elites and privateers.

·         There are favourable conditions and attractive incentives in Africa open to every geopolitical power[3] which only Beijing saw fit to pursue further for a number of reasons including but not limited to gradual weakness of European Union, United States ambivalence on Africa and Russia clear avoidance of Africa in foreign policy. There is no evidence that Beijing is challenging the named powers which may suggestively lead to erroneous justification of Africa as battleground of geopolitical ambitions. These regressions open window of brinkmanship among African elites to deal with Beijing with freer hand.

·         China is not ready and may never become an independent dominant geopolitical colossus. There are many reasons for this scenario. The decline of the west in real terms is currently restricted to Europe (an Union)[4] with the haemorrhaging of astute political leadership and increasing economic regression. United States remains and will remain in the scene as the undisputed geopolitical (economic & military) although limited power for at least 2 more generation as she possess the knowledge base, resources, institutions, vibrant population, and large economy if defence budget is trimmed considerably[5].  Nevertheless US eyes on Africa remain focused in large on her mineral resources and in limited spaces like Uganda, Rwanda, Egypt and Ethiopia. Even these capitals have increased their trade ties with Beijing which implies that Middle East distraction of Washington DC is an incentive to African chancelleries.

·         Real benefit to Africa from trading with China will take generations to delineate clearly because most capitals and African governments have no public support, lack popular base, suffer from institutional decay, ravaged by conflicts and run like nepotistic enterprise.  While the number of Chinese grants and loans are increasing with what seems like favourable conditions, evidence is lacking on the ability of various African governments to take real advantage with Beijing[6].

·         Lopsided deals, weak foreign policy initiatives and lack of strategic vision dominate most of the bilateral agreements between Beijing and African capitals. With money paid for resources ‘flowing with pressure’ into elite coffers, wider populations within and beyond national capital do not benefit from the largesse. Internal divisions, political intrigues and ego clashes between elites are indicators for unsustainable dealings with China. Of course for no fault of Beijing.

·         Most the investments, deals and agreements across Africa seem to be large construction and consumption projects where knowledge and managerial input of locals are severely limited (by Beijing).  Knowledge transfer and sharing of research & development are limited in action and scope. Of course China is still sending her experts for further training in United States and Europe. The large African infrastructural complexes will surely require huge resources and expertise for maintenance.

·         Another example of China’s loose bargain is population transfers to African countries. This is another evidence of African leaders’ inexperience in foreign affairs as potential explosion of tension from dumping of inexperienced, unqualified Chinese and poor-quality products in various markets overhangs.

·          Finally for now China harbours superiority complex which may be tried out beyond her shores in Africa. For Chinese elites and most of the Chinese people, their origin is unique and separate from the rest of humanity. For these mindsets, Africa is not the origin & home of man[7].

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[1] Clegg, J (2009) China’s Global Strategy Towards a Multipolar World. Pluto: London p.51

[2] Salisbury, H.S (1993) The New Emperors Mao and Deng. HarperCollins: London, Chapter 49

[3] Simms, B (2013) Europe The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present. Allen Lane: London p.257-259

[4] Connolly, B (2012) The Rotten Heart of Europe. Faber and Faber: London

[5] Bacevich, A (2008) The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (Macmillan, USA)

[6] Cardenal, J.B & Araujo, H (2013) China’s Silent Army. Allen Lane: London, Chapters 2 & 16

[7] Jacques, M (2009) When China Rules the World, The rise of the Middle Kingdom and the end of Western World. Allen Lane: London, Chapter 8

Quenelle – the nadir cum collapse of French politics

Introduction

One wouldn’t be condemned if they were lost and later found on a landscape dominated in the last few weeks by the current never-ending development in France. If one is ‘wise’ enough to admit the complete dominance of European politics by the right intellectual poverty for now, then the question would be why is the irrelevant made relevant in the French political landscape?  This question points directly to the heart of the issue, quenelle, currently raging in France between the powerful elite and majority poor French.

The last few weeks has seen serious emergence of action by the French state since the ill-fated election of Mr Normal, Francois Hollande. Some may take issue with the word ‘ill-fated’ and rightly so. For common French citizens i.e. the majority poor he is a continuation of delusion, hopelessness and poverty of leadership that can be traced back to former president Francois Mitterrand.

Elite Failed Seduction vs. Power Potential of the Multitude

On all counts of his election promise, Mr Hollande’s government has failed to the point that he has been honoured with the lowest presidential poll rating since such record began in France. While that may not be a serious indicator of performance there is no other figures pointing him in positive light. Unemployment numbers have not changed and the so-called holy grail of economic performance in triple A+ lost by the previous government remains unrestored. The question now can be rightly posed, what is the current French government up to?

Before dissecting the question it is important to address the quenelle issue. Not so much on the etymology, morphology, description or essence as I have no time to regurgitate extremes of shallowness or sagacity of many ‘experts’ on the matter. Nevertheless the crucial point is acceptance that finally the government has bared her teeth in an infamous way to distracting citizens and population from pressing ahead with focusing. That is focusing on the poverty of leadership, intellectual hollowing out and administrative meltdown of the French elite. The quenelle debacle is part of the lengthy final lap of dishonour of the French elite who have finally confirmed their impotence, inability and unwillingness to rule.

Neoliberal Allergies

On another level it is also a confirmation of a pattern making round in Europe in the last decade that democratic process and elections are simply tools by the elite to dominate self-deflated majority. The fact that the European Union is a bastion of neoliberal ideology is not lost on citizens across the continent but there is special resonance when it comes to France. Therefore the French elite decided to make an example of an individual, a comedian and a citizen whose only crime is reminding citizens of their right of awareness in a civil space.

Now that the full force of the state has come to bear on the ‘problem’ what next? Will the economy improve? Will the fortune of neoliberal agenda be rolled back? Will any sense of being special be felt by ordinary French men and women? No, is the answer on the three counts; rather the austerity homily will continue without soft belly. The French population will continue to haemorrhage from leadership poverty of elitism and political retrogression.   

Therefore the current French leadership personalised in Francois Hollande has failed with no success in sight till the next election when hopefully the candidate, Mr/Miss Abnormal may enter the Elysee Palace.

Élan Genealogy

None of these unfolding events is either new or crept in by surprise if you are patient with history. Like I stated earlier various previous French presidents have used grandiosity and questionable decisions to bamboozle the electorate. Even General De Gaulle was in the act by pretending to punch above his weight while reality presented a contrary narrative. One must understand the attempt by Napoleon to turn France into undisputed power ended with him in defeat. Jacques Chirac charm and apparent Gallic prowess only consolidate charismatic delusion devoid of increase in quality of life or real prestige in the international arena. Nicolas Sarkozy finally tilted the balance by among horrendous things dismantling French ‘uniqueness’ for a lapdog patch on the altar of US hegemony. Re-joining NATO high Command finally laid De Gaulle to rest in peace.

Francois Hollande simply took over the baton from another elite to continue the policies of his predecessors. What many refused to acknowledge it that elites dominate European political landscape via parties as much as there is no need for difference in policies, opinions and strategies. It is a battle between ‘powerless’ majority and the minority with power. Either the majority put up or shut up. Power cannot be given up without a fight and at the moment French majority are seduced, deluded and confused.

Loser (Client) Projecting Power at the Periphery

Inability to sustain expected change at home has pushed Paris on constant misadventure abroad especially in Africa in the bid to knock London off the perch of 'special relationship' with Washington DC. As the new underling of the State Department it took the lead in 2011 Libyan destruction, Malian invasion and now Central African Republic invasion. All to enable US global capital masked as AFRICOM to extend its sphere against Chinese interests through recolonisation. Evidently and over time there will be nothing to show for it except the usual nibbles of defence contracts for the elites. This pattern of external and southwards vision indicates fundamental failure in Europe where Germany has got back everything she lost without firing a shot in almost 2 generations.  Paris is no longer an equal of Berlin. There is one European economic and political power, Germany, and Paris knows it and its architecture. The EU Paris worked so hard to set up as a bulwark against Germany has failed both French elite in a way and truly the French people. Hence the new African adventures! Poignantly Bismarck said his Africa is in Europe.

Historical Bookmark

The trail of failures of French elite is almost genetic and intergenerational in significance. The biggest of it was rendered clearly and emphatically. The result is Germany. Otto von Bismarck, Prussian Chancellor, spent most of his career attempting to forge Prussia and Germanic principalities into a unified powerful state in the centre of Europe to counter Britain, Russia and France. By twist of French elite incredulity and incompetence, Bismarck joined a conflict in which Napoleon III was taken prisoner by Prussian forces. This defeat was consolidated in the Hall of Mirrors Versailles and Germany was born in 1871, with sclerotic consequences for later generations.

Conclusion

French state reaction to Quenelle is a distraction per excellence a la French elite.  It is a fitting conclusion to remind the French elite to avoid crying like a woman for what it failed to hold like a man.

Unconscious implementation of self-rejection: Examples

Introduction

As we match into the New Year with all the hopes and expectations, one or two will unconsciously malign the context with unwarranted uniqueness. At the individual level it may suffice but collectively some in the current and or previous generations have successfully overcome. Therefore attempting to re-invent the wheel as a New Year template may not be wise. The suggestion is clear eyed seeking for information even when the context seems too foreign to believe. A respected personality told me towards the end of last year that each person spends half his/her life sleeping. True! So waking up is crucial. Many of us are in deep sleep without knowing why or even dispute we are so.  Our children and their successors must not.

Salient Points

Some examples can be found below.

·         Allergic to village/origins – there is greater tendency that individual members of the current generation possess higher attraction to so-called cities/urban areas than the villages, their origins. Villages are now associated with the negative, unproductive and unsuccessful. Why is this? This is in part the result of formal education that at its heart dismantled and relegated our view of our collective origins. In the previous decades, these origins were condemned more for lacking infrastructure, restricted access to clean water, lack of electricity and lack of telecommunication. As many communities have achieved high penetration of modern facilities the winds starts blowing in another direction. Village then became the unsafe bastion of evil, unfit for children, destructive to young people, unfit for graduates, unfit for globe-trotters and a den of retrogression. Just a place to be buried! For those who claim to find ‘new faith’, their origins have become the point of separation between their old and their new. Even when there is agreement on safety insurmountable conditions are constructed before positive can be associated with the village. I must admit many of our sisters occupy high places here.

·         University degree is ultimate – there is nothing wrong with formal education but for many those who lack it (villages and urban spaces) are inferior. In this view they cannot compete, have inferior opinions and deserve rear seat in public events. This is the new craze. Of course graduates can live in villages and do their business and professional affairs therefrom especially with electricity, water and telecommunication in place.  Graduate can interact with non-graduates without problem and with spirit of humility share knowledge and wisdom instead of running away from one’s origin. There is increasing evidence that acquisition of more degrees doesn’t translate to access to expected destination. Many in Europe and Americas can testify. By the way many graduates have Europe?

·         Thinking is vague, fear is not real – it is very clear that many of us accepted the conveyor-belt assembly line education system in our various countries without question. The main objective of these systems is to extract unalloyed submission and eliminate dissent. In a funny way, if one get all answer with As then he/she is top dog. There is nothing wrong with high grades but when you ask the same high flyer about applying the subject to local examples, he/she barks because one is fed on foreign examples. For example many like me received Comparative Advantage as conventional wisdom of Economics. So how can China be explained? Rostow’s stages of economic growth is another one. Lenin’s Imperialism, Last Stage of Capitalism is another as if any stage of imposed capitalism is not imperialistic. You marvel as some of us revel in their understanding of austerity. Should we be afraid of critical thinking? Should we be afraid to ask tough questions? Yes, raising hand in schools wasn’t seen as cool for many! Will the children be encouraged down that ugly line? Where will liberation come from? Eating and throwing to go back to it again? Of course in fear! Imposed education system will never encourage or teach thinking. Certificate and degree don’t make one, once a human being nothing else is required to be complete. No one is born stupid but on adulthood the right to build an altar to stupidity cannot be challenged.

·         Leadership & management is hmm – conveyor-belt assembly-line education system is a followers game. Zombie a la Fela! Do as I tell you, absorb all you heard! So everyone is working hard to obtain the high grades and rush out to the best job in the best establishment. Fine. Our children are surely going through similar ropes. No one received lessons in leadership, provided with resources to manage expectations of other men and women. Probably one thought that degrees and certificates will take care of it. This is not just about promotions and pay rises. Not about Mandela style; leading from the front and selling out those behind or vice versa. This is the onus to accept responsibility that in your full consciousness you are sufficient and capable to take a giant leap in every situation. It is not about aggression and hard-power confrontation. You can reverse the trend that expects your submission and confront your ‘real deal’ in any establishment or institution.  Not a submissive leader though. Self-employed or master-servant showpiece, it all applies. This is the fact that allows us to reclaim ourselves and our histories. It allows us to shine our dignity even when it is denied and also to anticipate new arrivals of imposition on the scene. Europe is no better than China and India. China and India will do no better than Europe.

·         First language is not vernacular – many carry vivid examples of structural obstruction to speak their first languages in schools and on-going restriction to colloquium in the religious sphere. Classical example of continuation is prevention of children to learn/speak their parents’ language because ‘English is more important’. However when they are at school they easily pick up the local slang/dialects. This mean no stories, proverbs, poems and linguistic puzzle in the first language. This is called ‘development’ but to all and sundry it is ontological blindness. The breast that provided milk is responsible for delivering language(s). Matters will continue to arise! Please let stop killing our first languages with different convenient excuses.

·         My neighbours are not tribes – without thinking we refer to our African brothers and sisters as tribes. Are they? Do you like to be referred to as a tribe member? Have you thought about it for few seconds? Why are Europeans not referred to as tribes? Instead nations? Nationalities? Hmm, my worry doesn’t mean that the trend will change positively tomorrow. It took a long time to arrive and will take more time to be dented.  Interact with your neighbours seriously without supervision because you’ve much in common before the imposition, so says the laws of geography.

·         Foreign Investment is the key to development – What does it or doesn’t mean? If I attempt to reduce to basics. How will it go for a family leadership to be overthrow by an external entity for a few extra currency?  This new ‘investor’ will surely reconfigure his assets (human and inhuman) as he/she saw fit. Will the ‘investor’ reconfiguration of human assets/liabilities go down well with local observers/stakeholders if it include but not limited to ‘touching up’? What are the legal/actual limits? Where does the investment favour or empowered the seller post-sale?

·         Church is good and indigenous laws/traditions are evil – if you are not a true reflection of your ontology, traditions and heritage; you’ll make not a good church person either. Trees don’t grow with roots in the air. Tell it to your children.

Like I stated, these are few example. Though points of contextual conflict but not for strategic condemnation. Hope is not a word, it is life. Life may be addictive, good health ever greater. Still an examined life is worth living.

Example of Positive Construction of Africaness in Christian Music

Introduction

There is growing frustration among many on the purpose of life. As an extra bill, for many Africans an addition conundrum is the question of identity. Most of these experiences and renewed search border on the apparent failure of observed solutions, various puerile salvific constructions and colossal failure of human interpretations of divine claims. Be that as it were it is not the purpose of this piece to delve into theologies rather make a brief detour on a long journey towards eliciting the lacuna between Africans and cultural imperialism of the last 500 years.

On a small scale I am attempting to use the music of a relatively known musician called Harcourt Whyte (1905 – 1977) to construct a compelling positive narrative that successfully blended African ontology, pan Africanism and Christianity through singing. Of course geography will bind it together in the form more likely of a state. In the background were the dominant logic surges towards giving options or prescription melding, this sagacious man constructed his music with a refreshing foundation of immutable African metaphysical core expressed through nuggets of philosophical statements, evergreen proverbs and pre-Christian reflections.  Atop this edifice, he laid out the resurrection-imperative of Christianity.  In a sense you obtain full dose of African dignity and unblemished rendering of Christ essence.

The State called Music

For non-Igbo speakers, it is a challenge because most of the songs I am referred to are composed and sang in Igbo nevertheless there are similar templates among various African peoples and nations especially for many whose linguist heritage is under serious assault and threat of extinction.  One must assert that the first radiance of his music is the intrinsic beauty of Igbo language, like other African languages. I am aware that associating African languages with beauty is something many Africa may reject with reflex action. The diabolical Hegelian (German) distortion of Africa and Africans has carried itself into the present with similar untainted panache as aggressive despoliation of the continent through transatlantic slave trade. Nevertheless there is consolation that such gems are captured and saved for future generations.

I stumbled onto Harcourt Whyte music and songs while reflecting on the subject introduced above. I must put my hand up that my detailed knowledge of man is limited. Internet search generated an eclectic array of web pages with thin information on the man. The beauty of his productions is that for me, they are not rendered in English which preserved their richness while the contents touch on many values including cultural pride, pan Africanism, cultural identity, rich Christian theology devoid of dominating/rejecting Africanness, Afrocentric geopolitics and many more.  I am certain that no primary school, secondary school or university in Igboland/Nigeria has a productive curriculum of this man.

Still I found a number of points vindicating my position that Christianity and Africanness have a lot in common and a lot of share without the former dominating and suppressing the latter in a given geographical and or geopolitical entity.  This is more exciting considering the climate of imposed separation of Church and state, a template for sharing power by European power elite concluded in 1648. Harcourt Whyte simply developed a theology in his songs that confirmed that every experience in a unique place must have its context upheld, an unimposed context that reflects essence of the people and their unique historical experiences down the ages and towards the future.

Many may have listened to these songs in the past and present without giving much taught beyond their inspiration, originality, intellectual potential and high-quality. Nevertheless these values reflect the fact that like many good things that come out of Africa, Harcourt Whyte was ahead of his time in his thinking, his theology and outlook of life. His message is that you can be fully African and be fully Christian, and be political. And that this Christianity is constructed on African historical and metaphysical experiences, something Latin American Catholics attempted in the 1950s with European counter-reactionary vehemence.  More so that being an African Christian is not a template for inferiority or an excuse for retrogressive performance.

From a personal perspective, his magna opus K’Afrika Wee Muta Ihe, [For Africa to learn (from the past)] was arranged with clinical efficiency in simple lyrics, powerful harmony with powerful (geo) political messages. They draw one to listen attentively while using Christ’s experience as a template for reminding African listeners of their strategic collective errors in dealing with imperialists and global power elites due to lack of foresight, inability to engage oppressors cunningly with matching tenacity, lack of unity and etc.  See sample of the (rough translated) lyrics;

Christ came to his own

His own rejected him

The Jews preferred a (common) thief

And condemned their redeemer

Today Jews have regretted

When (Mazi) Mbonu Ojike

Killed the whiteman in himself

And immersed fully into his African tradition

Nigeria failed to notice his positive humanity

Never understood him or his words

Today Nigeria has remembered Ojike

When Lumumba wanted to unite Congo

The Congolese regarded him as a lunatic

Followed Shombe and whiteman to kill him

Today Congo has remembered Lumumba

When Nkrumah liberated Ghana

Towards total liberation of Africa

When he concluded that only whiteman worthy of trust

Is a dead one

Ghana never understood

Ghana removed him from power to die in exile

Today Ghana has remembered Nkrumah....

Africa

The ungrateful receiver of gifts

Who shows appreciation only when the gift is finished.

His powerful poetry hacks on the mysteries of life, the inevitability of personal responsibility and futility of human experiences. When one contrasts some of the verses with current events, you are confronted with a reality that is no different. A reality which all the human intellectual constructions so far have miserably failed to articulate or manage successfully. Atop is the unfurling evidence of industrial-scale misinterpretation of various religious traditions (in Africa) starting with their alignment with the global power elite solely committed to unbridled profit, monopolistic capital acquisition and unchallenged capital accumulation. Consequences do not exist!

Real Politics with eyes open

It is very clear that from these experiences, Harcourt Whyte was ahead of his time as current generation self-condemn with uncritical attachment with conventional wisdom even as evidence of their abuse and distortion manifest daily. As democracy wings dangerously with virulent capitalism irreversibility on its legs, as Whyte warned, Africa confusingly remains the crucible of domination by United States via AFRICOM and China in apparent penetration via dumping of poor-quality goods, questionable deals and lop-sided trade.  While United States is a known quantity, many Africans assumed Beijing is and will be a benevolent player as if (independent/interdependent) superpowers play moral games. Most importantly many Africans (some will deny) are unaware that current Chinese mainstream thinking rejects Africa as the home of man, hence a separate Chinese origin.

Not only has the post Berlin-conference failed the people for whom the decisions were against their wish/will, their descendants have grossly failed to confront the basic questions of what, why and how of these imposed territorial and geopolitical configurations. The main culprit is the ubiquitous lack for identity. Clarity of identity and essence of existence precede call for discussion of common issues and problem dynamics whose potential solutions may be incentive to pursue further cohesion and closer bonds. Unity is an expensive value and Harcourt Whyte laid it bare by laying harshly into generations of post-colonial leaders who have grown pathologically allergic to people-oriented leadership and governance.

He navigated the headlines of the sad experiences across Africa by expressing these gaps as failures of Christianity and or divine duties as related in the gospel.  Of course what was missing in Harcourt Whyte political theology is the absence of acknowledge that Christianity in Africa is stunted because instead of being a victim it is an oppressor who trait continues to manifest. Christianity did not arrive in Africa as an unaided evangelical encounter between peoples; rather it touched down as an arm of imperialistic script of civilisation stripping. Most importantly, the end will never and doesn’t justify the means. The conundrum will be resolved when pedlars of ‘truth’ finally concede with praxis of a ‘truth that sets one free’. Whether what obtains in Africa (except Egypt and Ethiopia) currently is an unfettered Christianity is open to debate. Following Chinua Achebe’s 1999 Odenigbo Lecture conclusion on the role of early (foreign) church in bastardisation of Igbo Language, one wonders whether the so-called church leaders have (any) authority  or leverage whatsoever on politics and socio-economic issues.

Conclusion

In recognising Harcourt Whyte, I managed to represent a reality that is not only denied deliberately in discourses but has shifted like some form of mind control that Christianity in Africa is separate from her politics. Nevertheless another useful point is the fearlessness of his lyrics which presupposes that Christianity in Africa can only thrive in spaces of confidence and bold relationships of praxis that Africa is the common of Africans and the common home of man under the charge of Africans. Above all (African) gospel music is influential more so if listeners permit their inspiration to navigate beyond the platitude of time-limited & attention-limited relaxation towards transforming positive feelings into calculated life-giving positive action.

Confusion of History in the African (Home and Abroad)

Introduction

The issue of history for Africa and Africans is very complex especially in the last 2 generations and almost everywhere Africans are found currently. The confusion of an average African when it comes to his or her history can be disturbing. While it is very clear that a dramatic shift emerged with colonialism, this shift seem to have morphed into consolidation of nonsense; the abrogation of African history. Of course if you do not know your history you are not only lost, your trajectory is equally a lost path no matter how temporally rewarding it may appear. Let me do a brief survey of my contentions in confrontations with history for Africans.

Assignment 1

In an era when the northern countries have ‘conquered history’ by attempting to re-write the historiography of human interaction in part through allowance for relationships of negatives, double negatives. A counter-productive and regressive affront on compendium of certified human historical precedence! A concerned individual agape at the confusion is best served to know oneselves with certainty before taking a plunge. Let us inject some tasks by tackling the questions, Who are you? Who are your fathers and mother at least to last 4 generations? Where did each generation reside? Do you believe as ‘instructed’ that data is unavailable or unreliable where it is available?

Plain Truth Ma’am/Sir

Few items to clarify! I have stated in an earlier piece that the biggest battle for mankind is the battle of the mind. It will be the most contested piece of ‘real’ estate as evidence increasingly shows that concentration of attention on the material is waning. What is attracting most attention of power elites is the means to control the mind of those controlling/consuming resources especially what I call hidden or unknown but knowable knowledge. Nothing esoteric! Reflect back on the various battles fought with so much blood to testify the dignity of African person. The earlier generations of Africans suffered, perished and decimated because they are human but denied their dignity.

When this battle was won on the back of irrefutable evidence that the ‘conqueror’ is rather a child of the conquered hence came from a common origin in Black (East) Africa, naturally the discursive calculus was shifted to culture. That all human beings are Africans including the Chinese and Indians, that no one is superior to Africans and vice versa. A powerful conclusion in the face of slavery and racism and other discriminatory strategies institutionalised even in God’s name! In essence the case is finally settled that we are all (equal) human beings but gaps remain in the cultural sphere. Have you noticed how mainstream media and establishments in the Anglo world attempt to portray their view of underground racism? How they avoid the biological question but focus on culture whatever-it-means when equality issues by minorities come to public attention? Then such attitudes will be trivial challenges to Africans at least for the effort of Dr Chiek Anta Diop whose indefatigable scholarship finally laid bare the truth of Africa and Africans. His books are legendary in setting in stone who Africans are. The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality?, Black Africa: Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federal State, The Cultural Unity of Black Africa, Civilization or Barbarism etc.

No Obstacles

Those who spent sometimes in formal studies in Africa in the last few generations must have confronted parts of the brainwashing that suggest African peoples/communities’ isolation, siege mentality and erstwhile fear of their neighbours including impossibility to conquer their physical environments and elements.  One point is that Sahara Desert was an obstacle to interaction between African peoples while evidence points in the opposite direction. Another salient point was the determinism enthroned that the peoples/communities inhabiting jungles of tropical equatorial climate stagnated in the shrub areas of impenetrable vegetation, suggesting their lack of technological initiative/infrastructure to dominate and control their environment and intellectual advancement to trade, share, exchange and interact. Evidence equally points in opposite direction.

The second case continues to raise its head with most peoples of Southern Nigeria in their argument against errors of colonialism that forced different peoples under the same political/geopolitical umbrella. Yes, differences exist but were similarities totally absent? Were interactions between communities totally non-existent? If these peoples come from the same origin in East Africa, how come difference rings the bell more than similarities? Does the failure of imposed political experiments eviscerate prior indigenous models and structures of interaction between communities prior to colonialism? Weren’t communities engaged in trading across thousands of miles? Are Igbo totally isolated from Yoruba, Nupe, Hausa, Angas, Birom and the rest? Prof John Oriji’s effort in this direction is laudable at least in delineating the temporal and spatial dimension of interconnection and interaction between Ndigbo and their neighbours over time.

Common Identity

Are our historical endeavours serious when attention is focused mostly on unique differences and narrow cultural nationalism? No offense to Ijaw/Ijo family members but Prof E Alagoa made this type of historical scholarship his fort in the attempt to erase Igbo connections in space and time. At a sundry level, doesn’t the current Nigerian President possess Igbo heritage in his names despite being Ijaw? Whose interest is best served by such academic and political polemics? Is it not the case that every community or people in West Africa finally settled in their respective geographies after setting on westward migration from East Africa many generations ago? Naturally languages are lost and gained; defensive-oriented dispersal produced new losses and gains, cultural reduction and enrichment as well.

Is it logical to claim the Berlin Conference boundaries are unrepresentative while simultaneously deny the obvious brotherhood/sisterhood littered across common words, similar manners, similar rituals and accepted hospitalities? Divide-and-rule seems to be the lesson most (African) elites accepted hook, line and sinker.

One of the saddest outcomes of independence is the confidence colonisers maintained and continues to do so that their expectation will not fail. The confidence that the new elite in various African countries will maintain the status quo. In essence that the new elite will never recover their history, they’ll never know who they are. It is a powerful faith even for the theologically faithless. Part of this outcome originated in the universalist imposition of cultural imperialism by sadistic purveyors of Christianity & Islam. Their ultimate goal of creating new men and new women rested in their prior total destruction; their historicide. At this point one can surmise some correlations between rendering of unique history of peoples and the propensity to concentrate power in a particular people to dominate others.  Few African countries actually pursued sound historically-oriented development post-independence where citizenship of the new political entity doesn’t clash with original nationality.

The knowledge of history is the beginning of wisdom. Until Africans begin to see and believe that all Africans regardless of their pigmentation come from the same source, the same origin, the same hearth; then previous mistake occupy the conveyor belt for the next run. History is not just about yesterday; it is equally about living connection with events of long time ago, appreciating the highs and lows of these interconnected actions of peoples, deep reflexive reception of one’s heritage as historical/value priority without bigotry and devoid of puritanical fit.

A spectre is haunting the world, the spectre of change. This change is gradually emerging even as many deny it. It is not just about the decline of North America and Europe, it is rather the obvious reality that political experiments of the last 100 years will modify or go away. For those who are thumping their limbs as archpriests and apostles of one brand of democracy or another, such realities will decline. Look back to the history of Africa and other continents up until 1900, political power is mostly concentrated in few individuals and is definitely hierarchical. The delusion that the current generation is special and privileged is nonsense. Only lack of historical knowledge can generate such conclusions.

Conclusion

I’ll conclude this piece with a comparative rendition of 2 men’s understanding of history, their distinct managements of state affairs and how their platforms have survived their legacies.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah burst into the colonial scene with vigour and clarity of his place, the place of Africans and the place of the coloniser in history. He was not a child of privilege or sufficiency. He was quick, aggressive and too shrewd a player for London. In a sense he was isolated at the time even in his own (West Africa) backyard. While Ghana (Gold Coast) offered him a platform to resist the coloniser he had no illusions of his limited resources and it in part contributed to his leaning toward utilisation of communist opportunities. Nevertheless he accepted the historical vision of one people, one heritage and one continent. Geopolitics dominated and underpinned by African history and experiences! While he was overthrown under the auspices of the West, Ghana at least remained intact and continues to do.

Mr Felix Houphouet-Boigny (Le Vieux: Old Man) burst into the scene as an aristocrat and privileged. As an assimilated French person he saw himself as an extension of the metropolitan France hence Ivory Coast is solely an appendage of the Republic in the north that happened to be in Africa. His position and strategic interest conflicted with his African origin as expressed in Franz Fanon’s conclusion in Wretched of the Earth. Le Vieux was aware and could have been present in Paris when General De Gaulle denied gallant African troops glory in WW2 victory parade. There is no evidence he protested such racism. Today, he’ll be regarded as a moderate in the true sense of the word. His understanding of history is rather confusing but at best accommodates subservience.

As time will have it he served as useful conduit for destabilising Nkrumah’s Ghana and contributed to his overthrow and exile. While he stood in power for the next 3 decades, Ivory Coast, his baby, became a model with ‘achievements’ including a replica Vatican in Yamoussoukro his village when majority of his subject had little to eat. When he died in 1993, his baby equally died with him. But before that he played a part in the murder of another proud African whom he despised as a challenger, Captain Thomas Sankara. Captain Sankara’s murderer, Captain Blaise Campoare heeded his father-in-laws advice to do the honours and Captain Sankara was cut down in his prime because he knew and relished his African history.

In a twist of history, Ivory Coast has never seen peace since Le Vieux’s exit to the point that his Paris deemed it strategic to attack the country twice. Just another piece of real estate! Of course Le Vieux approved of General De Gaulle’s genocide of Africans.

In a history of 2 histories of 2 men, one was driven out in ignominy because of his assertiveness and acute sense of history. The other held on for tactical victory only for the heritage amassed from his poor sense of history to go up in flames.  Lessons of history are not only acquired in classroom rather enriched in willing hearts out of great experiences and proud associations drawn from greatness of men and women who lived before.

Where is your money and where will your money be?

Introduction

Talking and writing about money in a personal way can be challenging at a time it requires expertise to do so.  Nevertheless my concern and its expression through the title question is rather a confirmation that a major shift in our (diaspora) thinking of effort, work and reward in Europe and US has occurred in a radical way albeit latent. Events of 2007-2008 alerted everyone that the erstwhile economic normal has vanished.  The main question remains if we (I mean adults, parents) have received the new economic lesson and its implication for the future especially when it comes to hard-earned cash.

The Old Known

Ever since the dawn of man in East Africa and with distribution of various people across the world, man in various communities have consolidated the art of wealth accumulation, monetary exchange and interaction, and investment management. Call it whatever you like, each community or peoples have articulated market and economy as can be observed in their on-going survival and or prior to their genocidal extinctions.  Economy, market and capital (ism) is nothing foreign to most of the world’s peoples; what is different is application, purpose and motivation. The over-arching argument of all at the base level is that investment is a risk and if an investor fails to obtain returns, then loss accumulates.  The reverse holds for returns and profits. No one needs Adam Smith or Dr Karl Marx for enlightenment.

It was also a known fact the banks are a sources of wealth creation or substantial income accumulation for individuals, families, institutions and the state through interest-yielding instruments.  This is based on the ground that interest rate as national policy appreciates that citizens and people (not select classes) are the highest (potential) wealth of nations/states.

The New Known

The reality arrived in 2008 masked as global economic bubble burst accelerate by global banking elite virulent machination of US housing market. Sadly this is part of the truth which commenced earlier with Reaganomics, and earlier by delinking of US dollar from gold in the 1970s. In a simple language, at this time the interest of the powerful global political elite converged with those of the powerful global money/banking elite. In Gramscian conclusion, it is a re-hashing of merging of state interest with those of the corporate world.(1)  Recent increases in domestic energy prices in the face of UK government platitudes is a classic example. Sadly many in the diaspora ‘believe’ it is a sound economic/fiscal policy. Genocide without firing a shot!

For these select (poor) performers, the world is the only geography of interest with states as convenient appendages for realising tactical and strategic objectives. Backed with deadly military power, any state that obstructs this plan is reduced back to Neolithic age. Examples litter the highway of mangled conventional wisdom!

This implies that politicians of Europe and US answer only to their co-elites. The people or citizens have vanished.  The banks are free to mess up ordinary peoples’ deposits including losing it without compensation to owners.  Failed banks in contrast to the old known become too big to fail. Responsible individuals within failed banks are sacrosanct and rewarded with huge bonuses while failed banks are recapitalised with public fund.  With US leading the way, the so-called developed world finessed their emporium of virulent capitalism by unleashing austerity on powerless, confused and raped populations accompanied by the media cabal.

Real Outcomes

When you reward a bandit, he comes for more.  When the bandit is too powerful, then he drafts the enabling laws. So this is the state of event in the self-inflicted declining US-dominated geopolitical and geo-economic space. (2)

First of all the banks have changed. With Central banks moving away from managing the national economy to now making cheap money available, accelerated by money printing to enable money elite consolidate their destructive speculations.  Commercial banks are reduced to accomplices of national rapes and manipulations that leave populations and cities impoverished, mangled, wasted and demoralised. European and North American banks no longer serve as points or sources of wealth accumulation, income aggradation and safe deposit management for ordinary people. Underpinning the whole edifice is low (0%) interest rate across the board only accessed by a privileged few and austerity unleashed on the majority.

Implications

As for many diaspora working very hard under challenging circumstances, there is a reality which most of them confront but seem unable to admit. That is the fact that so-called development of the developed Europe and North America has hit the buffers, in a sense the centre is not holding. No shaking!  Remember Fela’s song, “Army robber…”! Then the army was in power in Nigeria, hence the government was stealing from the state according to the lyric. Fast forward the same lyric to post-2008 Europe and North America.

Now, have we bordered to unpack the meaning of 0% interest rate plus austerity for individuals and families? We read and hear it so much that its serious daily impact is lost. For starters, you cannot save money in a bank. Secondly, your work time is shortened. Thirdly, income diminishes aggressively as days go by.  Have you guessed or thought that a possible correlation exists between 0% interest plus austerity and criminality in the society? The challenge of making ends meet for families is getting increasingly savage.

Now the questions! Do you in good conscience believe that your hard-earned money is safe in any bank? Can you advise your child that banks are safe depositories for hard-earned cash? Will you deny that the pillow you sleep on offers better service than today’s banks?

With common people devastated and their hard-earned money dissolved through collective punishment via low interest rate, the door to income aggradation through bank instruments is closed. Survey banks in UK and confirm if any product offers up to annual return of 5%? If you deposit 1000 units of any currency in any European bank in January 2013, are you certain that at least 50 units will be added as interest? This is your hard-earned money.

Considering the fact that many diaspora possess an insincere image of their ontology and their original geography, I am hamstring in offering fresh ideas. Somebody gave me a serious warning, which is that one mustn’t assume individuals/families want to improvement their lives. However for the sake of the children I’ll pose a few questions. Read these questions back to yourself as if your child is asking them. Does your homeland offer viable investment opportunities? Does commercial banks in your homeland offer better return on deposits of their instruments? Does your homeland’s central bank offer better returns on treasury bills/bonds?

Conflict of denying Change

Change is complicated even when one is at the centre of it. Diaspora or being one is part of complicated and complex change. The wear-and-tear naturally wants one to settle for the initial consolation prize.  In truth very little matters! Nevertheless consider seriously your sacrifice, effort and deprivations.  Consider current and future state of your hard-earn cash in Europe and North America. Convergence of political and money interest means that citizens/people have much to lose.

Perfect example is the recent past economic 2013 debacle in Cyprus. For the first time European Union approved official stealing of peoples’ bank deposits in the name of haircut. The dirty part of it was the mainstream media insincerity in refusing to add the preceding adjective, ‘imposed’ haircut. It was done under duress, imposed by force, stolen by legal impunity. A collorary is that Greece is currently and for a long time will be ‘living in bondage’ under the Troika! Remember a Nigerian film with similar title!  Whether its presence in Europe is a geographical accident is a debate for another day! Portugal and Ireland are also European too.

It was a first and so will happen again. The colour of one of your passports, if it is red will not guarantee your protection. As Ndigbo home in, “The manner a quail is savagely dealt with will be template for dealing with the chicken”.

Notes:

1. Selections from the Prison Notebooks by Antonio Gramsci. International Publishers

2. World in Crisis: The End of the American Century by Gabriel Kolko. London: Pluto Press

Who are you and who are your children?

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to survey challenges of maintaining identity for diaspora and their offspring. While the scope of the issue in the title can be generalised, the focus is rather restricted to Africans and Ndigbo specifically in the diaspora. One cannot but observe different dimensions identity crisis express itself in diaspora populations as a result of various structural forces among others. Fact is diaspora is a minority. In the grand scheme of things, a minority is a legal, religious and cultural after-thought of the host country. Of course there is no reason to suggest a puritanical agenda which is not only impossible but is humanly counterproductive. Sparta and Apartheid South Africa are perfect examples of puritanical extremism based on myopic view of heritage.

Journey of Life

One of the most ubiquitous artefacts of diaspora (not induced by conflict) is the sense of unpreparedness for the length of time spent on the road. For a great minority, it was anticipated and for the majority it comes as a shock. This is irrespective of whether the first trip was made with eyes open or not. Men are in majority of this experience. Memories of home is sustained by various ingenious ways including but not limited to family meetings or networks clusters especially in police states of Europe.

These men and women struggle a great deal and their inspiration is mostly drawn from events from home. In few cases did the pain of settlement compel them to marry indigenes of their host countries, in most cases they marry by importation. By importation I mean arranging/travelling to the home country if possible to find a wife/husband from within the community. This is one way of sustaining one’s identity.  No doubt one remains the son or daughter of their father including those who married outside the community.

Second Base

Given the social/legal structures of host countries, diaspora quickly realises that the underlying forces where not tailored to his/her interest, history and ontology. The struggle to survive, regularise stay, get a decent job, improve one’s prospect add to the stress that weighs down historical dimensions of existence. In the first instance the host language diminishes one’s existence regardless of one’s fluency because it can only render truly its own history. It is very clear that history of a people is best transmitted in their own tongue and (top) women in this case are the undisputed inter-generational teachers.

The stress of life challenges and in some cases diminishes sustenance of identity stability in the guise of extended periods of time between home visits, poor connection/communication with umunne/umunnadi, removal from social, economic and political changes in the home country; and where children are involved, poor linkage between children and aunties, uncles, cousins and the physical identify of the community.

Third Base

Addition of children into the equation adds a new dimension to the complexity of identity. Level of cultural pride indicates the direction of travel. It is anticipated that in host country’s cultural space where indigenous culture is dominant and unshakable especially in language and religion, diaspora identity could be sustained by exposing the children to their parents’ first language.  Fluency in speaking, reading and writing should be the ideal. Indians, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Chinese and lately the Poles have shown the way in United Kingdom. Many of their children are not only multilingual but perform excellently in schools including post-secondary formal developments.

Cultural immaturity of parents only prevents such development in African/Igbo diaspora. Many parents who discourage their children from speaking their first language fall into this category and for them the colonial languages are the viable tongues. This is equally a carry-over from various home countries where interactions between nationalities were reduced to bidirectional exchange across imposed colonial linguistic relic. In addition for this lot, their first language is deemed inferior, an intellectual handicap and an inconsequential colloquial necessity.

Reviewing many school curricula in Europe, obviously diaspora/minority has no place. The on-going changes in the UK education system are further testament that future history will be contested in terms of minority contribution. For any diaspora/minority parent to expect his/her children to learn the history of their (African) peoples in a European classroom borders on the lunatic fringe. It is the responsibility of parents to provide their children with histories, cultures and metaphysics of their peoples through home readings, encouraged historical readings, walking through both sides of genealogies. By so doing these children of tomorrow should be able to see themselves as personages of multiples heritages and multiple cultural experiences with none less or greater. Parents should network to share information on resources, publication and new developments.

Cold Reality

 The biggest battle that has confounded man/woman is the battle of the mind. The mind remains the last frontier, a contested geography where each parent must prepare their children and consolidate their identity, cultural maturity and cultural pride. Such values allow children to navigate seamlessly between cultures without supressing and disrespecting themselves or even go as far as condemning themselves in ignorance.

Many parents will surely work assiduously to provide material things, intellectual development and security to their children. In the absence of clear understanding of cultural identity, their ability to have a balanced understanding of their inclusive heritages; only disaster waits in the corner of time. Even the investments and assets purchases in the home country for the children’s future management remain doubtful. According to Ndigbo, those who are ignorant of a particular burial (process) start exhumation from the feet. Surely not a good sign!