End of the Dilemma: The Tower of Babel—Part lll

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• Agyeman. 12 years ago

  Haha,keep dreamin about kenya.I know my wife's homeland like the back of my hand and there's no way the kikuyu hegemony will allow a Luo to rule that country.My wife's kikuyu peoples look down on the Luo whom they see as viol ...
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  Haha,keep dreamin about kenya.I know my wife's homeland like the back of my hand and there's no way the kikuyu hegemony will allow a Luo to rule that country.My wife's kikuyu peoples look down on the Luo whom they see as violent,conceited and not fit to lead.Pretty much the same prejudices we have in Ghana.But we're probably better in Ghana in inter tribal relations than Nigeria or Kenya.

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• KOLA, LONDON PROPER 12 years ago

  The Ghana situation is quite different from other African countries as Nkrumah did well to put up secondary boarding schools across the country where different tribes came together to live and had common education.
  
  Happy y ...
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  The Ghana situation is quite different from other African countries as Nkrumah did well to put up secondary boarding schools across the country where different tribes came together to live and had common education.
  
  Happy you mentioned ex-president Kuffuor who blatantly and clearly relied on ethnocentrism to the extent that it was heightened and disgraceful to have even got the Asantehene involved, as though Asantehen was the president.
  
  Maybe it is the reason NPP is failing and disintegrating.

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• UNMISGUIDED AFRICAN CHILD... 12 years ago

  RACE,RACE RACE...THE COLOUR OF RACE !!
  
  It leads one to ask
  So, What is the colour of God?
  
  If the Almighty God came down on earth
  what would She look like?...And,who would He sound like?
  
  If Mandela believes in O ...
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  RACE,RACE RACE...THE COLOUR OF RACE !!
  
  It leads one to ask
  So, What is the colour of God?
  
  If the Almighty God came down on earth
  what would She look like?...And,who would He sound like?
  
  If Mandela believes in One Human Race,
  does he come close to God?
  
  In the words of Aime Cesaire:
  
  "We the people of the BLACK race,came into this world imbued with
  the desire to live...and found ourselves exploited aming Exploitors"
  discuss.

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• UNMISGUIDED AFRICAN CHILD... 12 years ago

  ...and found ourselves Exploited among
  Exploitors

  ...and found ourselves Exploited among
  Exploitors

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• francis kwarteng 12 years ago

  Dear friends,
  
  Thanks for you insights. At least we are all learning. I am happy we all wish the best for ourselves, our families, individial ethnic groups, country, and Africa.
  
  Most of the times interactions like these ...
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  Dear friends,
  
  Thanks for you insights. At least we are all learning. I am happy we all wish the best for ourselves, our families, individial ethnic groups, country, and Africa.
  
  Most of the times interactions like these open my eyes to things I don't know.
  
  Continue to share your wisdom with us.
  
  Have a good weekend.

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• Kwaku 12 years ago

  Let's face it as Africans: ethnic nationalism is a continental phenomenon. It exists in every country, only in varying degrees. It is usually called tribalism, a Eurocentric term, as some of us see it. But much as we may try ...
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  Let's face it as Africans: ethnic nationalism is a continental phenomenon. It exists in every country, only in varying degrees. It is usually called tribalism, a Eurocentric term, as some of us see it. But much as we may try to sanitise it, even if we call it a form of micronationalism, hence ethnic nationalism, it remains what it is: tribalism, a destructive force, because of its divisive nature. It is a phenomenon, as Francis Kwarteng states, that has been captured by Godfrey Mwakikagile in his book "Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria," which is a comparative study and continental in scope in terms of relevance.
  
  But I differ with Kwarteng when describes Godfrey Mwakikagile as a "Eurocentric Africanist." He is right when he describes him as an "Africanist." Mwakikagile is highly regarded as an African scholar. But his books are African-centred in terms of analysis. I have read his book, "Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria," and at least two others by him: "Relations Between Africans and African Americans: Misconceptions, Myths and Realities," and "Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done." I have found nothing Eurocentric in his writings; nor have I heard anything Eurocentric about his writings from those who have read his works.
  
  What I know is that he is highly critical of corrupt African governments, and of tribalism as well as despotic rule, a position articulated by many Africans including George Ayittey who also has been described by some of his critics as "anti-African." There are also those who have equated George Ayittey's works with the filth spewed by white American conservatives who hate Africa and call him a puppet used by whites to denigrate Africa.
  
  If telling the truth offends Afrocentrists, because "it makes Africa look bad," then there is no hope for Africa.
  
  There are also some Africans, including a number of Africanists such as Godfrey Mwakikagile, who have called for the re-demarcation of African boundaries; not in all cases but in some. Some Nigerians such as Wole Soyinka, about whom Kwarteng has written above, have even called for the dissolution of the Nigerian federation. It is not just Igbos who have demanded that. Soyinka himself is not an Igbo. He is a Yoruba. Does such a proposal make them "Eurocentric" because they supposedly want to "destroy" an African country, their own country at that, when, in fact, they want to replace a dysfunctional federation with viable independent states in their own best interest as members of the former federation? in his book, "The Open Sore of a Continent," Wole Soyinka bluntly states:
  
  "When I listen therefore to some pontificating voice declaring that the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable, I detect only wooly or opportunistic thinking....There is absolutely no foundation in the absolute for such a declaration....We did not shy from the probability of a civil war and the possible disintegration of the country as a consequence....With all the imponderables that confronted the nation, with all the variables of sectarian interests, some of them overlapping, others canceling one another, I frankly could not advance any invulnerable reason for my preference for a solution that did not involve disintegration."

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• Kwaku 12 years ago

  One more point:
  
  When Soyinka wrote, "We did not shy from the probability of a civil war," he was referring to the 1990s, especially in 1993, when the country almost slid into chaos and civil war after the annullment - by B ...
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  One more point:
  
  When Soyinka wrote, "We did not shy from the probability of a civil war," he was referring to the 1990s, especially in 1993, when the country almost slid into chaos and civil war after the annullment - by Babangida -of the presidential election won by Moshood Abiola. He was not referring to the Nigerian civil war during the sixties.
  
  Therefore Nigeria has faced the prospect of disintegration since the sixties. The federation was almost destroyed during the civil war (1967 - 1970)when the Eastern Region seceded and declared independence as the Republic of Biafra.

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