A Profoundly Accurate Assessment of the African Problem

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Ghanaman1 11 years ago

The USA has its own problems. The white boy should solve Americas problems first.

The USA has its own problems. The white boy should solve Americas problems first.
Tommy 11 years ago

I don't think Packer was heeding Kennedy's call which specifically required US citizens to ask what they can do their country (USA) not what they can do to poor countries. One may argue that Packer on a Peace Corp mission to ...
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I don't think Packer was heeding Kennedy's call which specifically required US citizens to ask what they can do their country (USA) not what they can do to poor countries. One may argue that Packer on a Peace Corp mission to Africa is contributing positively to US image abroad and thereby doing something for his country but that was really not what Kennedy meant by his words. Moreover, at the time Packer set out for Togo, the Peace Corp thing had become a much sought after holiday year out for US citizens than it was in the 60s when they had to convince and coerce people to go on the program. So Parker's year out was as much for himself as it was for the sake of Togo - or USA for that matter.
Larbi Asare 11 years ago

You have said it the right way. This is complete rubbish. These are the things who are prepared to lick the anus of the so called white man. The peace corp was not a demand from Africans.It is a means of projecting the imperi ...
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You have said it the right way. This is complete rubbish. These are the things who are prepared to lick the anus of the so called white man. The peace corp was not a demand from Africans.It is a means of projecting the imperialists image over other countries, and at the same time, recruit CIA informants. To most of them, The (USA) is where nothing negative comes from. Pathetic.
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Yes, Packer was heeding Kennedy's call for service -- whether inside or outside the U.S.A. One of the things Americans are good at is selling their brand of democracy, education, culture, etc., which is nothing new to African ...
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Yes, Packer was heeding Kennedy's call for service -- whether inside or outside the U.S.A. One of the things Americans are good at is selling their brand of democracy, education, culture, etc., which is nothing new to Africans. Although Packer may have gone to Togo to boost his resume -- serving in the Peace Corps was certainly a badge of honor -- his willingness to take up this "dangerous" assignment also had to do with his willingness to make sacrifices in order to project the image of his country.
Tommy 11 years ago

"His willingness to take up this dangerous assignment" I don really know what exactly you mean by dangerous assignment.If we continue to project Africa as a dangerous place, then we have no reason to condemn the West, when th ...
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"His willingness to take up this dangerous assignment" I don really know what exactly you mean by dangerous assignment.If we continue to project Africa as a dangerous place, then we have no reason to condemn the West, when they refer to Africa as such. It is unfortunate that majority of us continue to behave like the way most europeans do, by referring to Africa as a country. Europe, and for that matter the United States are nothing to write home. They are not paradise.
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Tommy, I put dangerous in inverted commas because that's not my view of Africa -- that's others' view. My job, as a Ghanaian and African, is to project the continent in positive light.

It is true that some Westerners refe ...
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Tommy, I put dangerous in inverted commas because that's not my view of Africa -- that's others' view. My job, as a Ghanaian and African, is to project the continent in positive light.

It is true that some Westerners refer to Africa as though it were one country, but that's not my view either -- and I did not indicate that in my piece.

Finally, you're right -- Europe and the U.S.A. also have a bunch of problems that they're dealing with, which means that we Africans must work hard to project our continent in positive light, as no one is going to do it for us.
Nanasei 11 years ago

You "Ghanaman1" has never ever talked sense on Ghanaweb. I just pity for you. I wonder how you live your miserable life on a daily basis.

You "Ghanaman1" has never ever talked sense on Ghanaweb. I just pity for you. I wonder how you live your miserable life on a daily basis.
Nyansasem 11 years ago

Really, Packer who was a senior and would be at most 21 to 22 years at that time was "in love" with a woman, Christine who had 8 children already? Christine might be our African goddess then.

Danny, long time! Hope you are ...
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Really, Packer who was a senior and would be at most 21 to 22 years at that time was "in love" with a woman, Christine who had 8 children already? Christine might be our African goddess then.

Danny, long time! Hope you are doing well.
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Thanks, my brother. I am well--just been busy.

Thanks, my brother. I am well--just been busy.
francis kwarteng 11 years ago

Dear Brother,

How are you doing?

I hope you remember telling our problem is ours to solve, not the West's or Asia's.

Unfortunately, the West is part of the African problem. Most of these dictators you mentioned in ...
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Dear Brother,

How are you doing?

I hope you remember telling our problem is ours to solve, not the West's or Asia's.

Unfortunately, the West is part of the African problem. Most of these dictators you mentioned in this piece and several others were brought to power with the aid of this same West.

The West supported them and gave them intelligence to crush their opponents. Declassified documents by the American government have exposed Western complicity in setting up most of the directorships around the world.

Newly declassified documents show how the American government, the CIA, gave intelligence to Saddam Hussein to use WMD/chemical weapons on Iranians and Kurds. MIT's Dr. Noam Chomski has catalogued these atrocities in his 100 boks. Read them.

We should not try to make the West an innocent player. We know how the British supported Ghana's NLM to destabilize a democratically elected government (Nkrumah's); we know how the British, Isreal, and America brought Idi Amin to power (See Andrew Rice's book "The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda").

We know how Charles Taylor and the American CIA worked together in the 1980s. Did you follow his trial or listen to what he did with the CIA?

Did you know how Rev. Pat. Robertson, a White-American evangelist, lobbied for Mobuto Sese Seko and Charles Taylor in the US Senate? Do you know how much diamond Rev. Robertson got in return (and later had to lie to federal investigators when he was caught using his private plane to sneak in diamond against American laws)? Have you read the Congressional report on this? Have you seen any report on how the French aided Charles Taylor in his wars? Have you seen how America aided the Apartheid government in the capture of Nelson Mandela (and others) who had Ghanaian passports at the time?

Do you know the role the CIA/Belgian played in bringing Mobuto Sese Seko in power (See Ludo De Witte's book "The Assassination of Lumumba"; read also Adam Hochschil's "King Leopold's Ghost"). You may also want to read "Stone's and Kuznick's "The Untold History of the United States."

Please do find time to read Wole Soyinka's "You Must Set Forth at Dawn" and "The Burden of Memory-The Muse of Forigevenss" and most of his essays collected in books to know how the CIA set up orginizations, such as literary institutions, in Africa and uses them to recruit agents as well as spy on African governments!

We now know how Western NGO's in Russia were used to cause problems for the Russian government.

Please see Noam Chomski's 100 books and he will expose you to many of these declassified information. He will also tell you how much the West, particularly, is part of the African problem, again, by helping bring to power corrrupt leaders who only represent America's interest in Africa. You see how America is militarily and financially supporting Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni despite a UN report indicting both men in the genocide in Eastern Congo. Yet Kagame and Museveni continue to hold onto power. Kagame kills his opponents and those he can't kill sent them to long prison terms on trumped-up charges.

Milton Allimadi, one of my closest friends, an investigative journalist who owne his own newspaper "The Black Star News" on Wall Street, New York, and a fierce critic of Museveni, has exposed many of the evils of Yoweri Museveni to the world. He tells you how the West supports Museveni.

Milton Allimadi himself is a Ugandan American and one of America's respeted investigative journalsists. Go to his website and he will tell you more. What I am trying to say is simply this: Most of us are so obsessed with the West that we don't question the motives of Western men/woman who are sent to perform one task or the other in Africa.

Most of these intentions are not good for the development of Africa. In fact, Wole Soyinka joined a literary organization in Africa and did not know it was set up by the CIA. He later found out.

Let Africans begin to take their destinities into their own own hands and throw away these unhealthy obssession with the West because most African dictators are the darlings of the West. Try to read declassified documents (Noam Chomski). Most are in the public domain. You can read them for free.

Thanks.

francis kwarteng 11 years ago

Hello Brother Pryce,

Please try and watch Democracy Now every day if you have the time. It's usually hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

First, read Tom Ashbrook's "The Power Elite and Nepotism in America." Then r ...
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Hello Brother Pryce,

Please try and watch Democracy Now every day if you have the time. It's usually hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

First, read Tom Ashbrook's "The Power Elite and Nepotism in America." Then read also Adam Bellow's essay "In Praise of Nepotism," published in "The Atlantic," July 1, 2003 (See Andrew's book "In Praise of Nepotism: A Natural History" on the entrenched nature nepotism in America), Celma's "Are We Becoming More Toelrant of Nepotism," Clare Malone's "Get Elected, Get Your Kids Rich: Washington Is Spoiled Rottenl." The latter tells you about nepotism, cronyism, and financial irregularities on Wall Street, etc. find time to read about Jack Abramofff.

Democracy tells you most of the evil things that go on in the World, particularly in the West (America), which Fox and CNN will never tell you. Corruption, nepotism, cronyism, etc. in American make you think Africans are joking. Read the works of Ralph Radar to get informed on how corporate America works.

Please find time to visit the US Justice Department for cases pending against corporate America. See my essay "What Amiri Baraka Said About Kwame Nkrumah (VIII)" for additional information on international crimes communicated by Western institutions (See also Norman Finkelstein's "Holocaust Industry").

Find time to read Mark Mazower's "Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century," Washington's "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation and Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present" and "Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself--and the Consequences for your Health and Our Medical Futire," Rebecca Skloot's "The Imortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," Alexander's "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, West's and Tavis' "The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto," Blackburn's "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War 11."

I shall find you journal essays on nepotism, cronyism, financial irregularities, etc., in the West, particularly in America. I have friends who have done some work in this area.

Thanks.
Monika 11 years ago

Don't you see the guy is working hard to finish his dissertation in Criminology, and not Political Science or the exploitation of blacks by whites?

What have all those books, articles, court cases, TV shows, etc. you reco ...
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Don't you see the guy is working hard to finish his dissertation in Criminology, and not Political Science or the exploitation of blacks by whites?

What have all those books, articles, court cases, TV shows, etc. you recommend got to do with his present line of studies and research interests?
francis kwarteng 11 years ago

Hello,

Yet he had the time to write!

Then he should have waited before his doctorate his article.

Daniel K. Pryce has also responded responded to some of my concerns. I believe he will respond to the rest when he ...
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Hello,

Yet he had the time to write!

Then he should have waited before his doctorate his article.

Daniel K. Pryce has also responded responded to some of my concerns. I believe he will respond to the rest when he has the time.

Don't speak on his behalf. Moreover, he can still work on his PhD and respond to my other concerns when he has the time. I deal with PhD students all the time.

Finally, my sources has nothing to with his doctorate. It has to do with exchanging ideas. Don't speak on his behalf.

Thanks.
francis kwarteng 11 years ago

Dear Brother,

Please find time to read "Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Hidden Resource for Development."

This comprehensive report was prepared by the Global Financial Integrity (Dec. 2008). This should add to yo ...
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Dear Brother,

Please find time to read "Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Hidden Resource for Development."

This comprehensive report was prepared by the Global Financial Integrity (Dec. 2008). This should add to your understanding regarding the political economy of development, growth, underdevelopment, nepotism, cronyism, etc.

Also read James S. Henry's "The Price of Offshore Revisited: New Estimates for Missing Global Private Wealth, Income, Inequality, and Lost Taxes." You can get Henry's interview on Democracy Now. But please read the report instead if you have the time.
It's unfortunate I cannot remember these resourceful materials at a go.

Thanks.
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Francis,

I identify with many of the arguments you've made in your three separate comments, and although I agree with some of them, I have my own views about the provenance and causes of the African problem. Additionally, ...
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Francis,

I identify with many of the arguments you've made in your three separate comments, and although I agree with some of them, I have my own views about the provenance and causes of the African problem. Additionally, there are things I know that I cannot discuss in an open forum like Ghanaweb.com, so we may have to discuss those issues privately in the near future.

You see, we were right to blame the West 50 or 60 years ago, and we may even be right to blame the West just 20 years ago, but we can no longer do so in contemporary times. Prior to African nations attaining independence, the West was heavily involved in African affairs -- directly and indirectly. In fact, we did things the way the West wanted, which included giving away the continent's natural resources on a silver platter.

Today, however, any African nation that allows the West to control it from afar simply has leaders who lack foresight. In fact, when Kwame Nkrumah coined the term neo-colonialism, he understood precisely what he was talking about, as these negative influences by the West cannot be sustained without the complicity of African leaders.

As Akadu pointed out in her contribution, part of the problem is the lack of foresight on the part of the African. If, indeed, we claim to have been exploited 50 or 60 years ago, why do we still allow the exploitation to continue?

Have you seen the terms of the contracts the government signed with the firms that are drilling oil in Ghana presently? To state that I am shocked at such frivolity on the part of our government is an understatement. Also, there are fellow Ghanaians who have colluded with foreigners to steal our oil revenue, via the setting up of seemingly legitimate businesses that simply act as subsidiaries for the big dogs.

Sometime in May, I intend to come out with an investigative piece on what's happening in Ghana's oil industry, and to show Ghanaians where their oil money is going on a daily basis!

The solution to our problem can be summed up in one sentence: elect leaders who CARE about the whole nation, not just about themselves. In other words, elect leaders who would fight to promote wealth, economic growth, political stability, and cultural freedom for all Ghanaians, not just for a group of Ghanaians. This is where Africans continue to derail themselves.

We have the resources, yet we are not making any progress. Why? Has the white man invaded our nations to forcibly remove our natural resources? No! We can do better for Africa, but it has to start with our leaders -- leaders who refuse to accept bribes from foreign organizations; leaders with the capacity to plan 20, 30, 50 years ahead; leaders who sacrifice themselves so the rest of the nation will be better off. God help us, Francis!

N.B.: Look at Togo and Ivory Coast, for instance. Those at the helm of the two nations were planted there both nations' colonial master: France. Just as George Packer rightly pointed out, African leaders are more interested in seeking and keeping power, than in working with opposing voices (a requirement for a functional democracy) to promote the wellbeing of all in their nations. This is where we can find the fault lines of retrogression!
francis kwarteng 11 years ago

Dear Brother,

Your piece is beautiful but it represents an oversimplification of the problem and it explicit and implicit solutions. We need to inlcude he West in decisions we take. Many of the legacies of colonialism, sla ...
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Dear Brother,

Your piece is beautiful but it represents an oversimplification of the problem and it explicit and implicit solutions. We need to inlcude he West in decisions we take. Many of the legacies of colonialism, slavery, and effects of neocolonialism are stiil with us. Some of these problems cannot ve solves in a 1000 years.

American experts even agree that Affrimative Action and other progresssive remediations designed to bridge the racial gap between blacks and whites after four hundred years of slavery can be reversed overnigt, not even in four hundred years.

so, let us not oversimply matters. Again. 20 years of black rule in South Africa cannot reverse the harm caused to Black South Africa in 20 0r 100 years. Jews are still suffering after 5000 years of human history.

This is not to say we should fold our arms and blame someone else for all our problems. Scholars like Thomas Sowell have conducted global research into how progressive ideas like Affirmative Action, etc., have been used to address social, ethnic, and racial disparities, all to no avail. The matter is not as simple as your article indicates. We need to get rid of these vestigial colonial legacies. Our colonial educational system is itself part of the problem. We also need to look at ethnicity and multipart democracy.

We also need to look at the question of attaining "complete" independence from the corrupt West and develop alternatives on our own. Not every Western or Asian idea is good for us. Besides, most of the problems we face in Africa are also problems Westerners and Asians face. If Western and Asian solutions are not working, then we need to find African solutions. We had sustainale empires and strong, powerful institutions (than in the West) in many places in Africa before Western slavery and colonialism destroyed these institutions. Therefore, the Ghaian/Africab should not underestemate our ability to solve problems.

My brother, there is so much I can't share with you on a public space like Ghanaweb. We may have to commmmunicate privately (franciskkwarteng@yahoo.com) or meet in person for us to discuss them.

Let me give you a typical example:

1) The West still dumps toxic waste in Africa after 50-60 years. The West is still part of Africa's problems.

2) The World Bank and other Western institutions have come out with various finding supporting these views.

3) African leaders like Omar Bongo, Teodoro, etc., have spent tens of millions of US dollars underwriting the political lifelines of French leaders from Jacques Chirac, Francois Mittterrand, down to Nicolas Sarkozy. The French leaders have in turn supported these corrrupt African leaders by protecting their governments with mercenary soldiers and intelligence. Do you wonder why Francophone African leaders have produced some of the longest Presidencies in Africa?

4) Most people are not even aware that the French brought Eyadema to power because Olympio threatened to pull out of the CFA Club (to join hands with the German financial system instead) which practicallt underwtites the French economy? Besides, many people don't know that the French (and their Western) partners took power from Laurent Gbagbo and gave it to Allassane Ouattara under the pretext of electoral malpractices? The reason? He too threatened to pull out of the CFA Club. I have well-placed Americans who worked with Ivorian leaders during this period and I can share some of these high-placed info privately with you.

5) See Diadie Ba’s “Africans Still Seething Over Sarkozy’s Speech,” Chofor Che’s “France and Francophone Africa: A Marriage of Inconvenience,” Antoiane R. Lokongo’s “African Nations Can No Longer Afford to Be France’s Garden,” Hinsley Njila’s “CFA—A Currency Designed to Keep Francophone African Countries Poor,” Brian Weinstein’s book “Africanization in French Africa,” and finally, New African’s Ruth Tete’s and Soh Taadhieu’s interview with the Speaker of the Ivorian National Assembly, Prof. Mamadou Koulibaly, an interview published under the title “How France Lives Off Francophone Africa Via the CFA France

6)Currently America is working with Swiss bnaks and other offshore to expose Americans who have stolen the goverments money and hidden them in these accounts. So far, tens of thousands of American names have been realeased. I gave you the names of all the major Western banks involved in these financial crimes. America created Al-Queda/Taliban but chose to extend its war on terrorism to these terrorists no matter where they are; when America realized that Panama's President Manuel Noriega and others were shipping drugs into America, the American government did not blame American drug pushers. Instead they went after Noriega.

Now the American drug on war is in Mexico, South America and Africa; then when Saddam Hussein was alleged to have failed in assassinating George Bush, Sr., Bush, Jr. targed Saddam Hussen. American officials and Belgians officials who masterminded the assissanination of Patrice Lumumba (the Belgian government has accepted its culpability and apologized to the Congo) are walking free in America and Belgium, but Charles Taylor, a CIA agent/mole, a man whose wars the French supported, is in prison.

7) This is where our problem is. The West is as much a part o the Africa problem. Aren't they still stealing our wealth with the aid of our leaders? Why can't we go to Swiss and American banks to tell them to stop harboring Africa's wealth? Why are Wesstern leaders always promoting dictatorship in Africa? Of course, we are partly to blame for our wone problems. I have never said the West is to be exclusively blamed for problems.

8) Please go back a little, say, 300-500 years of human history, to see how Asians, pricipally Japan and China dealt with the worse. Their study and dealings showed them how corrupt the Western was and therefore chose to deal with them at a comfortable distance. Look where they are today. I have tons of historical examples to illustrate my point. But time and space will not allow that. For intsnace, it got to a point the Chinese ignored the West for 30 years and developed its society with Western assistance.

Finally, Goerge Packer may even have been a CIA agent. Who knows! It sad Africans atttach so much importance to and truct in the West. Like I said before, Wole Soyinka joined a literary organization which was giving out scholarships, etc., to upcoming writers. It would later be revealed that the CIA was looking for avenues to recruit agents.

And CIA agents (and Western intelligence agncies) don't have anything good for Africa. Most of the legacies the CIA created all over in Africa are still with Africa today as I write. Lt me give you another example: Richad Aoki, a Japanese-American and a founding member of the Black Panther Party, supplied arms to the Black Panthers whch they used to support African Americans (and themselves) from white supreacists. Recent declassified documents reveal that Richar Aoki was an FBI informant (See Seth Rosenfeld's report on the website of "Center for Investigative Reporting" and his books "Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power"; go to Democracy Now).

An FBI agent Burney Threadgill, Jr. has publicly confirmed working with Richard Aoki. Yet until this information came out Black America thought Richard Aoki was a saint. We need to stop praising these white folks and begin to do real work for worselves. Many of these George Parkers may not be saints.

Please read Noam Chomski and watch Democracy Now everyday. Most of these declassified documents and the evils the West does in the West outside the West, particularly in Africa, are discussed. You can't get these on Fox News or CNN. Besides, the American educational system does not teach most of these high-placed information.

Then later we can then discuss what we both know in private but can't discuss in public.

Thanks.
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Thanks for the follow-up, Francis.

Thanks for the follow-up, Francis.
Akadu Mensema 11 years ago

My answer is very simple. Africans have short memories on right and wrong. Look at Ghana. Mahama attacked Akufo-Addo's policy of free education, calling it sakawa, yet Ghanaians are very at home with Mahama when he said that ...
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My answer is very simple. Africans have short memories on right and wrong. Look at Ghana. Mahama attacked Akufo-Addo's policy of free education, calling it sakawa, yet Ghanaians are very at home with Mahama when he said that he will not promote free education. Rawlings after all that he has done is free insulting others. I think illiteracy is one of our problems! Invite me to your celebration of DOCTORSHIP!
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Akadu, I am pleasantly surprised you did not call me any names today! Hmmm, is it the sign of the times?

Well, I'll graduate in May, but I am not sure where/to whom to send the invitation! Lol!

Akadu, I am pleasantly surprised you did not call me any names today! Hmmm, is it the sign of the times?

Well, I'll graduate in May, but I am not sure where/to whom to send the invitation! Lol!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

I am pleasantly surprised too.
Wonders will never end!!

I am pleasantly surprised too.
Wonders will never end!!

Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Greetings, Brother Sammy!

Greetings, Brother Sammy!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

Greetings, my good brother, and the best writer and scholar on Ghanaweb. Greetings!!

Greetings, my good brother, and the best writer and scholar on Ghanaweb. Greetings!!
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Brother Sammy,

Thanks but I think you, Kofi Amenyo, Kwarteng, and Ahoofe are all better writers than yours truly!

Brother Sammy,

Thanks but I think you, Kofi Amenyo, Kwarteng, and Ahoofe are all better writers than yours truly!
Monika 11 years ago

... Akadu writes well too, only that he refuses to write prose which would have conveyed his concerns better than the kind of poetry he thinks he excels in so much. And his partiality (for NPP/Akufo-Addo) and tribalism (again ...
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... Akadu writes well too, only that he refuses to write prose which would have conveyed his concerns better than the kind of poetry he thinks he excels in so much. And his partiality (for NPP/Akufo-Addo) and tribalism (against Ewes in particular but also northerners in general) bring down his virtues on this forum
Monika 11 years ago

Yevu may be made to translate as "cunning or tricky dog" but that is not how the word Ewes use for whites may have originated. The origins may be more benign than that. This issue has been discussed on ghanaweb before.

Ma ...
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Yevu may be made to translate as "cunning or tricky dog" but that is not how the word Ewes use for whites may have originated. The origins may be more benign than that. This issue has been discussed on ghanaweb before.

Many whites in Africa detest being called yevu, obroni, oyinbo, or whatever name we give them. I see two reasons for this: they have used a derogatory term to denote us for so long that they think if we also have a similar designation for them, it must be derogatory. And so they find it difficult to believe that these terms are not derogatory and even in certain instances may be complimentary. But even as we Africans are beginning to see the tricky and exploitative ways of the "white man" these terms are beginning to have a negative tinge to them. But they are still largely devoid of the racist stereotyping that comes with the terms they apply to us. I suspect these people won't be offended if we use a local term that comprises the word we use for "white" (fitaa) but yevu, obroni or oyinbo are not the words we use to denote the colour white. Note too that the Twi word "obibini" refers to a black person even though no part of that word has any relation with the Twi word for the colour black.

A second reason why they do not like this term is because it identifies them as an outsider - someone who doesn't belong. It means one is not quite welcome. That's why Packer insists he has a name by which he wants to be called. But for us, he will always remain, whether for good or for bad, yevu, obroni, oyinbo...

That sodabi thing may also be just a tale. I don't think it is a corruption of an English phrase in a Togolese environment that use French as "yevugbe" or German before the First World War.

I have read Packer's book denoting events in 1982. He made a return visit to the country and maintained contacts with a few guys there. So many things have happened to Togo since then and the country remains as impoverished as ever. It seems this village still has a long long wait ahead...
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

You write:
Note too that the Twi word "obibini" refers to a black person even though no part of that word has any relation with the Twi word for the colour black."
This is not true. The word "obibini" has a relation with th ...
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You write:
Note too that the Twi word "obibini" refers to a black person even though no part of that word has any relation with the Twi word for the colour black."
This is not true. The word "obibini" has a relation with the color black.
Obibini derives from "bibire" which is an old Asante word meaning "black".
Thus, obibini (shortened from obibireni)means a black person.
Africa is also known as abibiman/abibirem, meaning land of the black people.
Monika 11 years ago

Thanks for that, SAS. I will add that to my stock of knowledge. Very useful.

One little question: will every native Twi speaker know this?

Thanks for that, SAS. I will add that to my stock of knowledge. Very useful.

One little question: will every native Twi speaker know this?
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

No.

No.
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Sammy, thanks for this great lesson. I also learned something new today!

Sammy, thanks for this great lesson. I also learned something new today!
Daniel K. Pryce 11 years ago

Thanks for sharing your views with us! I think Packer's views may be based on both his observations and the things he was told by the locals in Togo. This means that his assertions may be incorrect, but, overall, I see the bo ...
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Thanks for sharing your views with us! I think Packer's views may be based on both his observations and the things he was told by the locals in Togo. This means that his assertions may be incorrect, but, overall, I see the book as funny, pleasurable, and interesting!

Monika 11 years ago

Oh no, I don't blame Packer if the etymologies of yevu and sodabi were rendered incorrectly. Packer was not a linguist researching into these things. He made it plain in his narrative that these were what he was told by the l ...
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Oh no, I don't blame Packer if the etymologies of yevu and sodabi were rendered incorrectly. Packer was not a linguist researching into these things. He made it plain in his narrative that these were what he was told by the locals. He didn't assert that it was so. And Daniel, you and I may have heard similar stories too - they sound nice without their being necessarily correct.

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A Profoundly Accurate Assessment of the African Problem

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