The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Achebe’s legacy

  • Between Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society (VI)

    Being a lecture delivered by Prof Emeka Aniagolu on topical issues concerning Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society at Sports Club, Enugu. The event was sponsored by FIT Consult.

    Archbishop Tutu XE “Tutu” noted that “. . . without memory it would be virtually impossible to learn: we could not learn from experience, because experience is something remembered. I would forever have to start at the beginning, not realising that a hot stove invariably burns the hand placed upon it. What I know is what I remember, and that helps to make me who I am.” Concluding his remarks on the elemental connection between experience, memory and history, Archbishop Tutu made a poignant observation of the relationship of the three—experience, memory and identity—to the destinies of nations. He noted that: “Nations are built through sharing experiences, memories a[nd] history.

    That is why people have often tried to destroy their enemies by destroying their histories, their memories, that which gives them an identity. That is why new immigrants who want to become naturalized citizens of a new motherland are asked to appropriate significant portions of its history, its collective memory.” We need to fix the problem within, so as to be better fortified to face the problem on the outside.

    So long as we treat our past heroes and heroines, as though they have no part to play in our present and in our future; to that extent do we leave ourselves open to the perils of ignorance, lack of direction and “ad-hocing,” so to speak, our way through one crisis after another; one charlatan after another.

    It is only by conserving and consecrating the immanent majesty of our history, culture and the great personalities who played indelible roles in them; that we can straighten our backs and hold high our heads; because we know that nobility, excellence and integrity, are not only a demonstrable part and parcel of our history and culture; are not only our birthright, but are coded into our DNA!

    Consequently, I subscribe to the second development model, which I call the: “Inside-Out Development Model” for Ndigbo; which advocates judicious and conscious leadership of Igbo States at the local government, gubernatorial and national levels; a development model which presumes that Igbo States have the internal capacity and dynamism—defined in terms of human capital and socio-cultural resources, as well as financial options—nationally and internationally —to bring about dramatic infrastructural transformation of their capital cities, to begin with; as well as their agriculture, agribusiness, healthcare, transportation and communication systems, and all levels of formal education.

    I contend that Igbo leadership has failed to record, institutionalize, popularize, project and celebrate the men and women who have brought out the best in us; so that our youth and others younger still can know that great men and women have already laid the foundation of a great nation of people, worthy of adulation and emulation.

    It is that failing, I contend, more than any “marginalization” from “outside”—by the current Federal government (or any other Federal government, for that matter, in the future)—that has left and leaves Ndigbo dismayed, adrift, and seemingly, unhinged.

    Commerce, trade, entrepreneurship, personal accumulation of vast sums of money, etc., have their place of relevance and importance in our existential scheme of things.

    However, commerce alone, no matter how successful, has never and will never, take the place of culture, intellectual creativity and history. A man with a bagful of money, but who knows not from whence he cometh or whence he tithers; will end up not much more than a vulgar careerist or a conspicuous consumer; contributing little or nothing to the great pillars of the edifice of human history!

    As one of the vignettes in the forthcoming second volume of my Aphorisms, states: “We are too poor not to care about money, but we are too rich to care only about money.” Rich in intelligence, culture, creativity, spirit and avocation; to be hamstrung by only mercantilist groveling for sheets of colored paper and shiny pieces of alloyed metal coins!

    The British historian, Hugh Trevor Roper, who made the insolent but fictitious claim in the 19th century, that African History does not exist, could not have made such a statement about ancient Egyptian, Chinese or Indian history! And the simple question, for us all, is why?

    We must lay the down – in brick and mortar – architecturally and in the form of functional modern infrastructure, the evidence with which generations that come after us, and those that come after them, and so on and so forth; can, not only determine the level of our “development,” if not our “civilization;” but can take stock of and pride in our footprints on the proverbial sands of time! For example, what is stopping the Governors of the Five Core Igbo States, from getting together to build light rail systems connecting their state capitals and a number of key commercial and educational conurbations within their respective states?

    The need palpably exists and the financial resources as well as technical expertise can be harnessed domestically and Internationally. What, then, is stopping such a fruitful development?

    In my estimation, three principal factors have stood in the way of such fruition: (1) Lack of imagination; (2) Lack of political will; and (3) Corruption. In my opinion, therefore, we need FIVE (5) types of audacity:

    1. The Audacity of Hope – President Barack Obama titled his bestselling autobiography, The Audacity of Hope. Why? Simply put: Because hope gives us faith and faith sustains our hope until the things we hope for materialize. It is psychic as well as spiritual “nuclear fuel” which human beings use in difficult times to keep up their morale until their faith blossoms into tangible reality; through “positive action.”
    2. The Audacity of Imagination – The greatest theoretical physicist—Albert Einstein—was once asked what he thought was the most important quality a person should possess; and he answered without hesitation or equivocation: Imagination!
    3. The Audacity of Intellectual & Literary Erudition – The gift of the spoken and written word—of the power of oration and/or penmanship; are critical skills with which human societies have battled historical ignominy and cultural irrelevance. The ancient Greeks are a good example. Here were a small and relatively powerless people perched on the Aegean, who regardless of the later exploits and conquests of the Macedonian—Alexander the Great—literally wrote themselves permanently into history—through philosophical musings, astronomical schematics, taxonomies, legends and mathematical speculation.

    This is not unlike how immediate post-Colonial Igbo pioneer novelists, such as the likes of: Cyprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe, Chukwuemeka Ike, John Munonye, Onuora Nzekwu, Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta and several others; wrote Igbo people—their culture and philosophical worldview—permanently into the storied annals of modern African and world literature. And a number of others are continuing in that noble footsteps: the likes of Ben Okri, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefa Atta, Helon Habila, Teju Cole and others still; and I would like to add my humble self.

    1. The Audacity of Creativity – the drive and the guts to actualize one’s God-given promethean talent. To stick with it, to pay the price of due diligence, to postpone gratification in the service of the actualization of one’s talent; those are the hallmarks of the sublime, the hallmarks of the infinite! And, finally;
    2. The Audacity of Political Will & Action – the great Founder-President of modern Ghana – Dr. Kwame Nkrumah – aptly stated that: “Action without thought is blind and thought without action is empty.” To have men and women who have the power of conviction, the stamina of unwavering commitment to the goal of the elevation of their people, and have the determination to see that project through to the very end!

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, we can, with or without the Federal Government:

    Build an Igbo “Hall of Fame” here in Enugu—the spiritual “capital” of Ndigbo;

    Erect a War Memorial – having as its centerpiece what I call “the Wall of Tears” – a towering wall of marble on which the names of every Igbo person (perhaps even, every Easterner), who lost their lives in the pogroms in the North and in the Civil War–combatant and non-Combatant—all three million plus of them; or as many of them as can be identified, are engraved on that wall; with a non-stop water fountain frothing our unending respect and gratitude as well as an eternal flame burning in their eternal memory. We could add an arcade of the statutes of the most memorable warriors that fought in defense of Igbo land: Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; Chukwumah Kaduna Nzeogwu; Christopher Okigbo, Timothy Onwuatuegwu; Joe Achuzie, Phillip Effiong, Joe Achibong, as well as many other too numerous to mention here. I will even include in their ranks, the white American young man—Bruce Mayrock—a University of Columbia student, who, on May 29, 1969, set himself on fire in front of the United Nations Building in New York, in order to protest the death and destruction, especially the horror of the millions of starving Biafran babies and children!

    We can establish a Photographic Museum as part of the War Memorial, that shows pictures of virtually all aspects of the Civil war, from its carnage to its most sublime displays of courage and technological achievements;

    We can build a state-of-the-art Igbo Language Center, as part of the War Memorial and Photographic Museum Complex; bringing to bear every technological and pedagogical innovation, tool, method and data; to ensure that as many of our children born—at home and abroad—have a place they can not only come to develop the facility of speaking, reading and writing our language; but in which some of the finest pieces of modern African literature that has been written by Igbo authors, are collected and conserved as well as translated into the Igbo language;

    We can build a Light Rail System connecting Enugu and the University town of Nsukka; connecting Enugu, 9th Mile Corner, Awka all the way to the Bridgehead in Onitsha; Another line going from Enugu to Ihiala, to Owerri, all the way to Port Harcourt on the Atlantic seaboard.

    The proposed light rail from Enugu to Nsukka is less than thirty miles; the one through to Onitsha about 50 miles; and the one through to Port Harcourt no more than 300 miles. (The Ethiopia-Djibouti Rail Line that was recently completed in a partnership between China and Ethiopia is 472 miles or 759 kilometers.)

    We can build an iconic structure, using the finest and most representative artistic and cultural motifs of Igbo material culture, what I call: “Uno Ozo;” to scale up, rehabilitate and celebrate that splendid meritocratic aristocracy of the Ozo-Title. A structure, conceptualized and designed by the best Igbo architects and constructed by the hands and labor of the best Igbo masons, craftsmen and builders; which generations to come will use as the sublime milestone of the glorious presence of their forebears; as well as consecrate as the “cultural and spiritual heart” of Ndigbo.

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, which of the foregoing initiatives can we not accomplish because of so-called “marginalization?” The social, economic, political, cultural and psychosocial impact putting in place the foregoing (and so many others projects still); would be so powerful, producing such multiplier-effect—economically, socio-culturally and politically; as to make complete nonsense of our so-called “marginalization.”

    In the second volume of my Aphorisms—forthcoming in 2019—one of its vignettes, states that:

    “Until a people or a nation crystallizes critical aspects of its history in brick and mortar, parchment and quill; [such a nation or people] have no memories its succeeding generations can immortalize, and hence, use to sustain the élan or spirit, never mind the identity of their nation!”

    I especially like the slogan on the advertisement billboard of the beer called: Life, which, incidentally, is produced in Igbo land and it reads:

    “Progress is our Culture.” Nothing can be a more fitting epigram for and of Igbo history, ethos, national personality and identity! Let us roll up our sleeves and get back to what made the Igbo people the talk of the nation and the world: our industriousness, inventiveness, innovativeness, audacity, dynamism, tenacity and sagacity!

  • Between Achebe’s legacy Igbo culture and society (VI)

    Archbishop Tutu XE “Tutu” noted that “. . . without memory it would be virtually impossible to learn: we could not learn from experience, because experience is something remembered. I would forever have to start at the beginning, not realising that a hot stove invariably burns the hand placed upon it. What I know is what I remember, and that helps to make me who I am.” Concluding his remarks on the elemental connection between experience, memory and history, Archbishop Tutu made a poignant observation of the relationship of the three—experience, memory and identity—to the destinies of nations. He noted that: “Nations are built through sharing experiences, memories a[nd] history.

    That is why people have often tried to destroy their enemies by destroying their histories, their memories, that which gives them an identity. That is why new immigrants who want to become naturalized citizens of a new motherland are asked to appropriate significant portions of its history, its collective memory.” We need to fix the problem within, so as to be better fortified to face the problem on the outside.

    So long as we treat our past heroes and heroines, as though they have no part to play in our present and in our future; to that extent do we leave ourselves open to the perils of ignorance, lack of direction and “ad-hocing,” so to speak, our way through one crisis after another; one charlatan after another.

    It is only by conserving and consecrating the immanent majesty of our history, culture and the great personalities who played indelible roles in them; that we can straighten our backs and hold high our heads; because we know that nobility, excellence and integrity, are not only a demonstrable part and parcel of our history and culture; are not only our birthright, but are coded into our DNA!

    Consequently, I subscribe to the second development model, which I call the: “Inside-Out Development Model” for Ndigbo; which advocates judicious and conscious leadership of Igbo States at the local government, gubernatorial and national levels; a development model which presumes that Igbo States have the internal capacity and dynamism—defined in terms of human capital and socio-cultural resources, as well as financial options—nationally and internationally —to bring about dramatic infrastructural transformation of their capital cities, to begin with; as well as their agriculture, agribusiness, healthcare, transportation and communication systems, and all levels of formal education.

    I contend that Igbo leadership has failed to record, institutionalize, popularize, project and celebrate the men and women who have brought out the best in us; so that our youth and others younger still can know that great men and women have already laid the foundation of a great nation of people, worthy of adulation and emulation.

    It is that failing, I contend, more than any “marginalization” from “outside”—by the current Federal government (or any other Federal government, for that matter, in the future)—that has left and leaves Ndigbo dismayed, adrift, and seemingly, unhinged.

    Commerce, trade, entrepreneurship, personal accumulation of vast sums of money, etc., have their place of relevance and importance in our existential scheme of things.

    However, commerce alone, no matter how successful, has never and will never, take the place of culture, intellectual creativity and history. A man with a bagful of money, but who knows not from whence he cometh or whence he tithers; will end up not much more than a vulgar careerist or a conspicuous consumer; contributing little or nothing to the great pillars of the edifice of human history!

    As one of the vignettes in the forthcoming second volume of my Aphorisms, states: “We are too poor not to care about money, but we are too rich to care only about money.” Rich in intelligence, culture, creativity, spirit and avocation; to be hamstrung by only mercantilist groveling for sheets of colored paper and shiny pieces of alloyed metal coins!

    The British historian, Hugh Trevor Roper, who made the insolent but fictitious claim in the 19th century, that African History does not exist, could not have made such a statement about ancient Egyptian, Chinese or Indian history! And the simple question, for us all, is why?

    We must lay the down – in brick and mortar – architecturally and in the form of functional modern infrastructure, the evidence with which generations that come after us, and those that come after them, and so on and so forth; can, not only determine the level of our “development,” if not our “civilization;” but can take stock of and pride in our footprints on the proverbial sands of time! For example, what is stopping the Governors of the Five Core Igbo States, from getting together to build light rail systems connecting their state capitals and a number of key commercial and educational conurbations within their respective states?

    The need palpably exists and the financial resources as well as technical expertise can be harnessed domestically and Internationally. What, then, is stopping such a fruitful development?

    In my estimation, three principal factors have stood in the way of such fruition: (1) Lack of imagination; (2) Lack of political will; and (3) Corruption. In my opinion, therefore, we need FIVE (5) types of audacity:

    1. The Audacity of Hope – President Barack Obama titled his bestselling autobiography, The Audacity of Hope. Why? Simply put: Because hope gives us faith and faith sustains our hope until the things we hope for materialize. It is psychic as well as spiritual “nuclear fuel” which human beings use in difficult times to keep up their morale until their faith blossoms into tangible reality; through “positive action.”
    2. The Audacity of Imagination – The greatest theoretical physicist—Albert Einstein—was once asked what he thought was the most important quality a person should possess; and he answered without hesitation or equivocation: Imagination!
    3. The Audacity of Intellectual & Literary Erudition – The gift of the spoken and written word—of the power of oration and/or penmanship; are critical skills with which human societies have battled historical ignominy and cultural irrelevance. The ancient Greeks are a good example. Here were a small and relatively powerless people perched on the Aegean, who regardless of the later exploits and conquests of the Macedonian—Alexander the Great—literally wrote themselves permanently into history—through philosophical musings, astronomical schematics, taxonomies, legends and mathematical speculation.

    This is not unlike how immediate post-Colonial Igbo pioneer novelists, such as the likes of: Cyprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe, Chukwuemeka Ike, John Munonye, Onuora Nzekwu, Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta and several others; wrote Igbo people—their culture and philosophical worldview—permanently into the storied annals of modern African and world literature. And a number of others are continuing in that noble footsteps: the likes of Ben Okri, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefa Atta, Helon Habila, Teju Cole and others still; and I would like to add my humble self.

    1. The Audacity of Creativity – the drive and the guts to actualize one’s God-given promethean talent. To stick with it, to pay the price of due diligence, to postpone gratification in the service of the actualization of one’s talent; those are the hallmarks of the sublime, the hallmarks of the infinite! And, finally;
    2. The Audacity of Political Will & Action – the great Founder-President of modern Ghana – Dr. Kwame Nkrumah – aptly stated that: “Action without thought is blind and thought without action is empty.” To have men and women who have the power of conviction, the stamina of unwavering commitment to the goal of the elevation of their people, and have the determination to see that project through to the very end!

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, we can, with or without the Federal Government:

    Build an Igbo “Hall of Fame” here in Enugu—the spiritual “capital” of Ndigbo;

    Erect a War Memorial – having as its centerpiece what I call “the Wall of Tears” – a towering wall of marble on which the names of every Igbo person (perhaps even, every Easterner), who lost their lives in the pogroms in the North and in the Civil War–combatant and non-Combatant—all three million plus of them; or as many of them as can be identified, are engraved on that wall; with a non-stop water fountain frothing our unending respect and gratitude as well as an eternal flame burning in their eternal memory. We could add an arcade of the statutes of the most memorable warriors that fought in defense of Igbo land: Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; Chukwumah Kaduna Nzeogwu; Christopher Okigbo, Timothy Onwuatuegwu; Joe Achuzie, Phillip Effiong, Joe Achibong, as well as many other too numerous to mention here. I will even include in their ranks, the white American young man—Bruce Mayrock—a University of Columbia student, who, on May 29, 1969, set himself on fire in front of the United Nations Building in New York, in order to protest the death and destruction, especially the horror of the millions of starving Biafran babies and children!

    We can establish a Photographic Museum as part of the War Memorial, that shows pictures of virtually all aspects of the Civil war, from its carnage to its most sublime displays of courage and technological achievements;

    We can build a state-of-the-art Igbo Language Center, as part of the War Memorial and Photographic Museum Complex; bringing to bear every technological and pedagogical innovation, tool, method and data; to ensure that as many of our children born—at home and abroad—have a place they can not only come to develop the facility of speaking, reading and writing our language; but in which some of the finest pieces of modern African literature that has been written by Igbo authors, are collected and conserved as well as translated into the Igbo language;

    We can build a Light Rail System connecting Enugu and the University town of Nsukka; connecting Enugu, 9th Mile Corner, Awka all the way to the Bridgehead in Onitsha; Another line going from Enugu to Ihiala, to Owerri, all the way to Port Harcourt on the Atlantic seaboard.

    The proposed light rail from Enugu to Nsukka is less than thirty miles; the one through to Onitsha about 50 miles; and the one through to Port Harcourt no more than 300 miles. (The Ethiopia-Djibouti Rail Line that was recently completed in a partnership between China and Ethiopia is 472 miles or 759 kilometers.)

    We can build an iconic structure, using the finest and most representative artistic and cultural motifs of Igbo material culture, what I call: “Uno Ozo;” to scale up, rehabilitate and celebrate that splendid meritocratic aristocracy of the Ozo-Title. A structure, conceptualized and designed by the best Igbo architects and constructed by the hands and labor of the best Igbo masons, craftsmen and builders; which generations to come will use as the sublime milestone of the glorious presence of their forebears; as well as consecrate as the “cultural and spiritual heart” of Ndigbo.

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, which of the foregoing initiatives can we not accomplish because of so-called “marginalization?” The social, economic, political, cultural and psychosocial impact putting in place the foregoing (and so many others projects still); would be so powerful, producing such multiplier-effect—economically, socio-culturally and politically; as to make complete nonsense of our so-called “marginalization.”

    In the second volume of my Aphorisms—forthcoming in 2019—one of its vignettes, states that:

    “Until a people or a nation crystallizes critical aspects of its history in brick and mortar, parchment and quill; [such a nation or people] have no memories its succeeding generations can immortalize, and hence, use to sustain the élan or spirit, never mind the identity of their nation!”

    I especially like the slogan on the advertisement billboard of the beer called: Life, which, incidentally, is produced in Igbo land and it reads:

    “Progress is our Culture.” Nothing can be a more fitting epigram for and of Igbo history, ethos, national personality and identity! Let us roll up our sleeves and get back to what made the Igbo people the talk of the nation and the world: our industriousness, inventiveness, innovativeness, audacity, dynamism, tenacity and sagacity!

  • Between Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society (V)

    Being a lecture delivered by Prof Emeka Aniagolu on topical issues concerning Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society at Sports Club, Enugu. The event was sponsored by FIT Consult.

    Africans enslaved on the Island of Trinidad, even invented a miraculous musical instrument, which had it been invented by white people, would surely have been included as one of the wonders of the world: the Steel Drum.

    The Steel Drum is a musical instrument made from discarded oil drum, which, with strategically placed bumps on its concave surface, is made to play every note on the musical scale! Today, Steel Drums are developed and institutionalized muscal instruments used to play everything from popular music to full orchestra performances of classical Western music: such as Beethoven’s celebrated 5th Symphony and others.

    I do not have to go into a long epistle to remind everyone that the greatest athletes the United States has produced as a nation-state—have been Blacks—African Americans. Most of America’s greatest Heavy Weight boxers, field athletes, track-runners, American Football Players, Basketball Players, Baseball Players; have been Blacks—African Americans.

    Even regarding American Democracy, African Americans, not only fought alongside white Americans in securing the United States as a republic from British colonial rule, in 1776; but gave America’s half-baked democracy, which allowed only white propertied males the right to vote; as well as institutionalized a system of racial discrimination against non-whites (especially

    Blacks) called: “Jim Crow”—from the second decade of the end of the American Civil War (1870) to 1964, when the United States Congress finally passed the Civil Rights Act.

    It was the Civil Rights Movement, instigated, organised and led by African Americans (especially, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.); that saw to the humanistic revalorization of America’s democracy.

    And just before anyone goes thinking that the contributions I outline here are confined to the artistic, entertainment, sports and protest politics; let me assure you that the very same descendents of enslaved Africans in the Americas (especially in the United States of America), made prodigious contributions to the modern science and technology of the United States, despite the handicap of their second class, if not third class citizenship. FOUR (4) African American inventors and innovators stand out in bold relief in the realm of scientific and technological contributions to the modern industrialization and development of the United States: (1) Norbert Rillieux; (2) Lewis Howard Latimer; (3) Garrett Augustus Morgan; and (4) George Washington Carver.

    Norbert Rillieux, a mechanical engineer by training, revolutionized the sugar industry throughout the world in the 1800s, with his patented invention called: the Multiple-Effect-Vacuum- Evaporator. Refined sugar is still made all over the world to this very day, using Rillieux process.

    Lewis Howard Latimer, an electrical engineer by training, helped Thomas Edison with the invention of the incandescent electric bulb. Latimer wrote the first textbook on incandescent lighting in the world, invented and patented a process for making carbon filaments for light bulbs.

    George Washington Carver, was a trained agricultural chemist, an ex-slave boy who escaped from his slave master; educated himself to university level, holding a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in agricultural chemistry from Iowa Agricultural College. George Washington Carver was a “Renaissance Man” in every sense of the word:

    He introduced the growing of groundnuts into the agriculture of the South in the United States – in order to naturally replenish nitrogen in the soil, which had been depleted of nutrients from intensive cultivation of cotton. He derived 326 products from groundnuts alone. Came up with 108 uses of sweet potatoes.

    Developed 75 products from pecans. And Developed 118 industrial applications from agricultural products.

    In 1943, Carver’s homestead was incorporated into the George Washington Carver National Monument by the United States Government. And last, but no means least of my four examples of African American inventors, is: Garrett Augustus Morgan.

    Garrett Morgan invented and patented a number of very useful gadgets, one of which people use every day and everywhere in the world, without even thinking about it, let alone thinking of a black man as its inventor: the Automatic Traffic Light! And what has all this that happened so far away and so long ago got to do with us here in Nigeria and in Igbo land? It was and still our genes—African genes—a great deal of which came from Nigeria and from Igbo stock; doing duty on the dancehall, the basketball court and the science lab in the Americas! So, what we did and still doing over there, we can also do over here!

    In fact, we started to do just that over here, during the period of the Biafran War, before we were overwhelmed by the combined firepower of Nigerian, British, Russian and Egyptian armaments; and we finally capitulated in January of 1970, after a gallant and glorious 30-month war of resistance! No people should be prouder than us over what we were able to achieve in the face of the most daunting existential odds imaginable!

    There are those who are of the view that what happens at the “Center” (meaning the capital, Abuja), is the primary if not the sole determinant of what happens in the “Region” (meaning the states). And one can be sympathetic to that point of view given the historical backdrop of 33 years of military rule, during which the governance of the country was highly centralized, not unlike the command and control structure of the military itself.

    Moreover, the military-sponsored 1999 Constitution of Nigeria likewise centralized power, authority, revenue allocation and distribution at the “Center.” Still, in a post-military democratic dispensation, what happens in the “Region”—positive and/or negative—can also affect what

    happens not only in the “Region” itself, but also at the “Center.” The power of positive or negative example has no geopolitical limits. It can emanate from and/or migrate to the East, West, North or South!

    Every now and again, as an opening gambit for my students, when I used to teach at the university in the United States; I would ask them to name any one of the fabulously wealthy so-called “Merchants of Venice” in Florentine Italy. And, of course, my question will be met with blank stares and deafening silence. But if I ask if they know the following individuals: Leonardo Fibonacci, Leoardo da Vinci, Marco Polo and Michael Angelo; all of whom came from the very same Florentine Italy; their eyes light up with excitement and recognition and their hands shoot up into the air.

    I wish to suggest that there was cultural nobility and pride, moral certitude and philosophical clarity, that was imbued and ensued in Igbo culture and society; that manifested itself in an ethos of self-appropriation and proper public conduct.

    That cultural nobility and pride, moral certitude and philosophical clarity; was what made possible the creation by Ndigbo of the only “meritocratic-aristocracy” in the history of the African continent, and perhaps, the world: the Ozo-Title.

    Here was an institution, nobility and aristocracy attainable only through a system of meritocracy; a nobility that could not be inherited through bloodlines. The individual members of each and every generation must give a meritocratic account of their own capabilities, achievements and credentials; in order to gain admission into the ranks of that exalted aristocracy. Hence, an Okonkwo, in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, could rise from being the son of an indolent and indigent father, to become one of the Lords of Umuofia; based solely on his individual achievement.

    It was what prompted me to write a historical novel in 2005, titled: Ozo: A Story of an African Knighthood. Truth, honor, integrity, courage, self-edification and dignity; were the watchwords of that incredible institution. It could not be bought or sold; and having all the money in the world, especially, if it were ill-gotten; would not qualify you for entry into its exalted ranks. An

    Ozo’s word was his bond. Honor meant everything to him. He would rather die than lie, steal or cheat!

    It was that traditional theosophical value system of Igbo society (later, interspersed with Christian morality and piety), that brought forth men like: Nnamdi Azikiwe, M.I. Okpara, Akanu Ibiam, Sir Louis Mbanefo, Charles Dadi Onyeama, Anthony Nnaemezie Aniagolu, Pius Okigbo,

    Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chukwuemeka Ike, and so many others too numerous to mention here.

    Wither is gone that remarkable institution with its accompanying sociopolitical ethos in Igbo land? Instead of our marshaling our truly remarkable cast of characters—at the cusp of Nigeria’s independence and later still—to do duty for us all, by heralding the brilliance of their professional careers; the moral fiber of their lives; the unassailable legacies they left behind for posterity; we consign them to the shadows, muttering under our breaths, as though we want our youth to forget them, to wallow in the illusion that they are reinventing the wheel!

    If you ask most Enugu State citizens—young and old—the history of how Enugu State was created, most would not have the slightest idea. The older ones among them might have a vague notion that the late Chief C.C. Onoh had something to do with it, and that would, most likely, be the extent of their “knowledge.”

    Similarly, if you ask most Igbo youth—thirty years or younger—about the history of the Nigeria-Biafra War; a war in which Ndigbo lost an estimated 3 million human beings, they will likely give you vague generalities or sometimes, startling counter-intuitive, not to speak of

    counterfactual commentaries, that have little or no basis in historical facts.

    But the fault is not theirs. Where are our Great War Memorials, Museums, Monuments and Citadels of knowledge and information on that single greatest peril Ndigbo faced as a nation of people? The answer is little or nothing! Except for the “Civil War Museum” in Umuahia, which, with all due respect, is a national joke compared to similar places around the world; there is nothing to show, memorializing – in brick and mortar – in penned letters and erudite expression, that monumental suffering and sacrifice in Igbo historical experience.

    ➢ We can cite the historical example of the Pyramids in Ancient Egypt – built some 10,000 years ago;

    ➢ We can cite China’s ‘Forbidden City,’ constructed between: 1407-1420 AD (or CECommon Era), not to speak of the Great Wall of China;

    ➢ We can cite St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (whose construction began in 1506 and was completed in 1626 AD (or CE – Common Era); And

    ➢ We can cite India’s Taj Mahal – a monument to the great love an Indian king had for his queen (whose construction began in 1632 and was completed in 1648); to name a few examples.

    What is the consequence of that self-imposed historical lacuna; that self-imposed historical illiteracy and vacuum in iconic symbolic monuments and architectural buildings? Impassioned youth motivated by a myriad of economic hardships and  frustrations, half-baked truths and jingoistic leadership, goaded into self-serving, messianic, cult-like organizations that leave them vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and even death!

  • Between Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society (IV)

    Being a lecture delivered by Prof Emeka Aniagolu on topical issues concerning Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society at Sports Club, Enugu. The event was sponsored by FIT Consult.

    Clearly, even then, the Congolese admired European skills but, equally clearly, no unbridgeable gap was felt to exist between the two cultures. This fruitful relationship

    continued until the Portuguese became more interested in their Brazilian colony and largely lost interest in Africa except as a source of slaves. A few centuries later such a relationship would have been almost unthinkable.

    Chamberlain states further that: “The peasant communities of medieval Europe XE “European peninsula” XE “Europe”, even perhaps the towns of Renaissance Europe, were not impossibly far removed from their African counterparts. But Africa had nothing remotely like the urban civilization of Europe in the period after the industrial revolution. Psychologically the two cultures had moved very far apart, the more so because of the great stress nineteenth century Europeans XE “Europeans” were prone to put on technological advance. To them it became almost a badge of ‘civilization.’

    Yet, the phenomenon of industrialization is not automatically equivalent to or interchangeable with the phenomena of civilization. In fact, the phenomenon of industrialization is not even, necessarily, the logical or inevitable end-goal or result of the phenomena of civilization.

    Industrialization XE “Industrialization” is a component, an attribute of civilization. It is neither the defining characteristic nor necessarily the social and cultural objective or goal of human civilization. If that were the case, we would not be able to characterize the civilizations of early or late antiquity, or medieval times as civilizations at all, despite their prodigious accomplishments in virtually all areas of human endeavor; because they were not industrialized societies.

    Egypt XE “Egypt” is a country that is heir to the very foundations of human civilization. Yet, the modern state of Egypt is a developing country trying hard to become an industrialized nationstate.

    Similarly, sub-continental India is a great and ancient civilization, yet the modern state of India is an industrially developing country, still racked by widespread poverty and disease. China XE “China” , a country with a longstanding history of civilization, is also trying hard in the context of the modern world, to become a fully industrially developed nation-state. Yet, whilst Egypt, China and India, for instance, are all trying to become industrialized modern nationstates, are they also trying to become civilized nations? Consider, if you will, that in the late 1700s, the Chinese knew so little of the prodigious developments of the modern Industrial Revolution unfolding in Western Europe XE “European peninsula” XE “Europe” , that they still cultivated an attitude of superiority towards Westerners, thinking England another part of the “tribute paying” barbarian periphery of the “Eternal Kingdom” of China XE “China” . Van Alstyne (1973) reports that, “When Lord McCartney arrived at Tientsin in 1793, accompanied by a numerous staff and bearing gifts valued at 15,000 [pounds] for the [Chinese] emperor, he was naturally received as a messenger from a new tributary state.” (p. 17) Mistaking Lord McCartney, whose trip to China had been financed by the British company, the East India Company, for the envoy of the English Crown, “The [Chinese] emperor sent a gracious reply to King George III . . . ,” (p. 17: Ibid) which when translated read:

    “I have already taken note of your respectful spirit of submission . . . I do not forget the lonely remoteness of your island, cut off from the world by the intervening wastes of sea.”

    On the converse side, the United States, is a highly industrialized but relatively young country, with little claim to much of a civilization to speak of compared to Ancient Egypt XE “Egypt” China XE “China” , India, Greece or Rome XE “Greece” ; or even Spain XE “Spain” , Italy XE “Italy” , Portugal, France or England—from the period of the European Renaissance to modern times; yet, the United States, though, more highly industrialized than all those empires, states and countries, lacks their cultural antiquity, sophistication or civilization. Thus, industrialization is not a precondition for the presence of civilization, anymore than the presence of civilization is a guarantee of industrialization.

    Consider, if you will, the very interesting definition of civilization proffered by the brilliant family therapist and best-selling author, Michael Gurian in his book, The Wonder of Girls (2002); a definition that does not entail the presence of industrial technology at all. He notes that “. . . the essential job of a civilization is to protect both the woman’s right to professional success . . . and her right to mothering . . . Civilization XE “Civilization” is measured . . . by how it bends over backwards to assure the success of a woman of balance, and ensure the possibility that a mother can mother her children fully.” Gurian goes on to add that “Mother-infant attachment is a very serious matter. Some researchers argue it is the foundation of a civilization. It is certainly the basis for all later mother-child communication.” Based on Gurian’s definition of civilization, the highly industrialized, capitalist society of the United States, is not particularly civilized. Speaking to that fundamental flaw in the industrial capitalist society of the United States, Gurian explains that: Our culture [meaning the United States] is very different: It is not “nature-based,” but rather, “economy-based.” If mothers work, they generally cannot hold their babies on their chests or backs for long periods of the day. They cannot coo at them, talk to them, be available to be smelled by them, to be tasted at the breast, to be seen, eye-to-eye, to be heard. Among primate infants (including humans), infant attachment to the primary caregiver (usually the mother if she survives childbirth) is one of the primary indicators of later success as an adult, both in forming attachments and intimacy, and in finding a respected place in social networks. But our society, focused so heavily on economic success, forgets this.

    Or consider another definition of civilization offered by Kenneth Kaunda, the founder-president of the modern state of the Central African country, Zambia. In his insightful philosophical work, A Humanist in Africa (1966), Kaunda notes that: “The experts have all kinds of standards by which they judge the degree of civilization of a people. My own test is this. How does that society treat its old people, and, indeed, all its members who are not useful and productive in the narrowest sense? Judged by this standard, the so-called advanced societies have a lot to learn which the so-called backward societies could teach them.”

    Thus, a scientifically and technologically sophisticated society should not be automatically equated with a civilized one. The phenomena of “civilization” and “science and technology,” are neither synonyms nor substitutes for or of one another. Civilization XE “Civilization” can be present in a low-tech society, just as surely as it can be minimally present or totally absent in a high-tech society. Civilization can, of course, co-exist with or encompass high science andtechnology in a society. However, civilization is not the automatic causal result of high science and technology—industrialization; any more than the existence of high science and technology —especially war-making high science and technology, necessarily presumes or guarantees the presence of civilization.

    Conversely, the fact that a society has a low level of science and technology does not automatically mean that it necessarily also has a low or non-existent level of civilization. A low-tech society can have a non-existent, low, or high level of civilization. On the other hand, a high-tech society can have a non-existent, low, or high level of civilization. It is social behavior, not solely level of science and technology—especially war-making science and technology—that is or ought to be, the crucial determining criterion of the presence, absence or relative level of civilization in a society.

    It is this misleading equation of high-tech with high civilization (and low-tech with lowcivilization), that a stunned world during and after the atrocities of Nazi Germany XE “Nazi Germany” found it (and still finds it) difficult to square the assumed “civilization” of a highly industrialized or scientifically and technologically advanced society such as Germany (from 1920 through 1945); with the systematic and institutionalized barbarity of the Nazi regime.

    As Davidson (1992), observes of that seeming puzzle: “In Europe XE “European peninsula” XE “Europe” , for example, [such] critics have had to watch the Germany of Goethe and Heine give way to the Germany of Hitler and Himmler, and have tried fumblingly to explain the decay by speculations on the nature of the German character, speculations which are then found to have explained nothing.” How could people as highly “civilized” as Germans have perpetrated the kinds of atrocities against Jews XE “Jewish” XE “Jews” and other groups in Germany and parts of Eastern Europe XE “European peninsula” XE “Europe” they did during the Nazi era? Yet, an understanding of the distinction made in the foregoing between civilization defined primarily in terms of social behavior, and civilization defined solely in terms of level of industrial science and technology, clears up much of that confusion. The fact that Nazi Germany XE “Nazi Germany” was a highly industrialized society, thus a high-tech society, did not automatically mean it was also a highly civilized society. In fact, a good case can be made for the very low, if not non-existent level of civilization present in Nazi Germany, despite its high level of industrialization—science and technology—especially, in the area of war-making.

    It is perhaps this same confusion between “civilization” and “barbarism,” based on the presence or absence of industrial development that prompted the Nigerian savant, Chinua Achebe XE “Achebe” (1975), to point out with his characteristic brevity and wit that: “. . . The fallacy of the argument lies, of course, in its assumption that when you talk about a people’s level of development you define their total condition and assign them an indisputable and unambiguous place on mankind’s evolutionary ladder; in other words, that you are enabled by the authority of that phrase to account for all their material as well as spiritual circumstance. Show me a people’s plumbing, you say, and I can tell you their art.”

    And yet, many, if not most of our people do not realize the sheer immensity of the contributions Africans and their descendants, enslaved in the Americas, especially in what later became the United States of America; made to both its cultural, technological and scientific development, from the late 1600s to the present day. For example, they gave the Americas (especially the United States of America) both its soul as well as its identity as a nation, through the musical arts: Soul Music, Rhythm & Blues (R & B), Gospel Music (what used to be called: “Negro Spirituals”), Jazz, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Merengue, Mambo, Salsa, Cha-Cha, Ska, Samba and Calypso.

  • Between Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society (III)

    Being a lecture delivered by Prof Emeka Aniagolu on topical issues concerning Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society at Sports Club, Enugu. The event was sponsored by FIT Consult.

    Little wonder Prof Chinua Achebe, in his powerful critical essay: The Trouble with Nigeria (1983), states without equivocation, that: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely the failure of leadership . . . The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility of personal example, which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”

    The great Igbo scholar, Prof Ben Nwabueze, rightly observed that: “. . . to be in politics in Nigeria or even merely to hold a political office and not enrich oneself by it through corruption is seen as a mark of naivety, if not idiocy, and earns for the person concerned derision and mockery by his friends and clansmen.”

    The second reason for my skepticism about the explanatory power of the “marginalization” school of thought is the following empirical data, provided in the SDGs Monitor of July –September, 2017; regarding poverty rates across the 36 states in Nigeria.

    Of the five core Igbo States: Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States, three—Anambra, Abia and Imo States—feature among the first ten of Nigeria’s States with the least levels of poverty. The other two—Enugu and Ebonyi States—feature at numbers 16 and 22 respectively, on that poverty list.

    In the meantime, every Northern State in the Federation, without exception, fell within the bottom half of that poverty list; with seven (7) Northern States: Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Jigawa, Yobe and Zamfara States, having over 80% poverty rates; and the two that fell at the very bottom of that list—Yobe and Zamfara States—having over 90% poverty rates!

    If Igbo States are systemically as well as systematically “marginalized,” what explains that poverty distribution in the 36 States of the Nigerian Federation? It could be argued that it is because of the extraordinary work ethic, enterprise and creativity of Ndigbo, which is demonstrably true, that they have managed to dig themselves out of the economic hole dug for them by outside undertakers! Or, could it be that the same elite phenomena of a corrupt comprador bourgeoisie, operational among so-called Igbo “leaders,” is also operational among so-called Hausa-Fulani “leaders;” the ostensible controllers of the presumed “lion’s share” of the “national cake?” Governing elites, who have more or less, turned their backs on Nigeria’s middle and working classes, never mind Nigeria’s rurally-based peasant class.

    In addition to the distribution of poverty among the 36 States of Nigeria, of which the Igbo states featured among the first ten states with the least amount of poverty; is the list of the latest WAEC Ranking of the 36 States of Nigeria. Once again, all the Igbo states fell among the first 10 highest ranked states in Nigeria.

    And that, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, is precisely my point: with committed leadership—at the local government, gubernatorial and national levels; with effective husbanding of resources—at the local government, state, national and international levels; the sky is the limit of what Ndigbo can achieve in and for Igbo States in Nigeria; regardless of so-called “marginalization” that is said to be the stumbling block placed before us! Once we correct our warped value system, by restoring our traditional values of integrity, self-respect, honesty, self-edification, achievement-based status assignment—like the traditional meritocratic aristocracy of Igbo society: the Ozo-title—as well as the reintroduction of the cultural and historical conservation of our traditional ethical and theosophical system of—nso

    ani (sacrilegious and heinous acts); ugwu (dignity); ebube (pride and majesty); and ofor na ogu (truth and justice)—the power and dynamism of the “Inside-Out Development Model,” the opposite of the “Outside-In Development Model;” will reanimate Igbo culture and society and make for irreversible positive development.

    Many people mistakenly assume that technological and scientific underdevelopment is tantamount to a state of omnibus underdevelopment. Yet, in my book on world history: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Multicultural History of Western & World Civilization (Vol. 1) (2008); I argued that a society can be technologically and scientifically underdeveloped, but socially, culturally and philosophically developed; and that industrialization is not the sole measure of civilization. I noted that: “In the world history that was composed by the Western World since the 17th century, perhaps no  other term has been as bastardized as the term civilization. The term has come to be so closely equated with scientific and technological sophistication and advancement since the modern Industrial Revolution as to render it virtually inapplicable, if not, in fact, meaningless in relation to other spheres of human social life. That near total association of the concept of civilization with scientific and technological sophistication and advancement by the Western World since the modern Industrial Revolution was and is self-serving. One of the major characteristics that distinguish the Western World from the rest of the non-Western World since the advent of the modern Industrial Revolution is and has been, precisely the degree of scientific and technological sophistication and advancement the Western World has attained from that time onward.”

    To define civilization solely, or, at the very least, primarily in those terms, therefore, is, to use the very yardstick as measurement that ensures, by definition, the Western World’s “superiority” and thus, “higher civilization.” Using that measure, for example, the English, who for centuries were at the bottom, or very nearly at the bottom of not only several other European peoples, but many non-European peoples of the so-called “Known World,” could claim themselves to be one of, if not, in fact, the most civilized people in the world! Yet, the history of civilization among the English—the Angles, Saxons and Jutes had its humble beginnings only as late as 1066 – 1154 A.D. when, under the heavy-handed but steady sway of the Norman Kings England was welded into “. . . one State and one system of law and order . . .”

    Additionally, Guest notes that: “Henry II (1154-89) further strengthened the royal arm by introducing a national system of law. In 1295, under Edward I, there was convened the Model Parliament, representatives of nobles, clergy, and commons—an expression of national unity . ..” Compared to the ancient civilizations of antiquity—Ancient Egypt XE “Egypt” , Persia, Babylonia, China XE “China” and India, this relatively recent and comparatively shallow history of civilization in England is not much more than a drop in the proverbial bucket. What, anyway, is civilization? What does it mean for a people, nation, or society to be civilized? As the Encyclopaedia Americana Vol. 7 (1989), observes: “The term “civilization” is widely used by historians, anthropologists, and other workers in the social sciences, but it has no single, fixed meaning. Any discussion of the concept must begin with the question of definition.” Shillington (1989) explains that the word ‘civilized’ “. . . is of Greek origin. In general terms, it refers to an organized society in which people can practice their arts and culture and live in harmony.”

    Notice that that original Greek meaning of the word civilized, does not include science and technology at all; supporting [my] earlier point of the self-serving nature of modern Western reconceptualization of the phenomena of human civilization: a re-conceptualization designed to fit the new level of scientific and technological sophistication, power, prestige and prominence attained by the West from the 18th century onwards. [Consequently] Shillington (1989) notes that: “In recent times the word has fallen into disrepute as European colonizers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used it to suit their own racist ideologies. In their view only people of their own culture could be called ‘civilized.’ All other cultures they regarded as ‘uncivilized,’ by which they meant ‘inferior.’” Landsman (2001) points out that: “Civilization XE “Civilization” has almost always been defined in [such] textbooks as something built, written, composed [and] completed by white men. It is always a finished product. While symphonies were art, jazz, with its improvisation, scat singing, and unexpected long solos when the mood came on, was entertainment. Rarely do our students see improvisation as part of culture. And along with this, history is rarely seen as a constantly changing field, with new discoveries being made all the time, discoveries that can change the way events and phenomena from years ago are perceived today.”

    Though confirming Shillington’s point and that of Landsman, Bulliet (2004), with a bit more reservation, notes that: “An uncharitable observer might opine that European Christians happily equated the spread of their faith with the spread of civilization right down to the point when it became evident that their faith was no longer spreading very effectively, and then switched to a different set of civilizational indices: miles of railroad track, factory output, military might, size of empire etc”. The celebrated African political scientist and Africanist, Ali Mazrui XE “Mazrui” (1990), in his magisterial work, Cultural Forces in World Politics, makes a subtle, but profound distinction between the phenomena of culture and that of civilization. “Culture,” he avers, “may be defined as a system of inter-related values, active enough to condition perception, judgment, communication, and behavior in a given society. Civilization XE “Civilization” , in those terms, is a culture which has endured, expanded, innovated, and been elevated to new moral sensibilities.” With that elevation “. . . to new moral sensibilities,” as one of the preconditions for the existence of civilization, Mazrui argues that, “It was presumably the last criterion of ‘moral sensibilities’ which Mahatma Gandhi was implicitly questioning when he queried whether the West had evolved a civilization.”

    Thus, the modern Industrial Revolution in the Western World came to be automatically equated with higher civilization and racial superiority, over and above the non-Western, non-White world. Chamberlain (1974) captured well that Western European equation in relation to Africa.

    He notes that: “When Europeans XE “Europeans” first penetrated into Africa south of the Sahara XE “Great Sahara” XE “Sahara” a number of African communities were in decline. The Atlantic slave trade in the west and the Arab slave trade in the east accounted for some of this, but other African states, like the savannah empires, seem to have declined for purely local reasons . . . If it is true that it was African strength that kept the European on the coast in the past, this may itself be a contributory factor in the timing of the European ‘opening up’ of Africa.” More pertinent to  the issue at hand, however, Chamberlain adds that: Probably, though, this was secondary to another factor, [was] the enormous technological gap which had appeared between European and African civilizations. When the Portuguese first reached the Congo XE “Congo Free State” XE “Congo” in the late fifteenth century they found a powerful and well-organized state. In the sixteenth century cordial relations developed between the two powers. Congolese came to Europe XE “European peninsula” XE “Europe” , Portuguese ‘experts,’ including even printers (8), went to the Congo XE “Congo Free State” XE “Congo” to instruct the inhabitants.

    To be continued