Ken Saro-Wiwa on how it was, how it remains & how it could be

by Sokari on January 16, 2012

in Environment,Human Rights,Niger Delta,Nigeria,Social Movements,Uprisings

KSW reminds us of a struggle Nigerians have largely ignored or at best dismissed. The Nigerian media [pre social media] has to take major responsibility for the lack of information and analysis no doubt bullied as usual by military and pseudo military governments including Goodluck Jonathan’s. He reminds us of our right to stand up to oppressive leaders. He reminds of the misery oil has brought to people’s lives and how this has been ignored by multinationals and western governments. He reminds us of the existence of a ‘political cabal’ and an ‘oil cabal’. He reminds of our right to the fruits of our land and our resources and that we as people are part of an ecology system not outside of it.

We know that nothing has changed since this interview in 1995 except today we the people have the media in our hands. We can, if we choose and are prepared to make the effort and the sacrifice, do things differently so people do not have to feel they have no stake in this geospace called Nigeria and therefore have to chip a bit off and create their own space. The Niger Delta IS an Occupy Nigeria issue so far as it is part of Nigeria and so far as it is the source of all Nigeria’s income for the past 55 years. Oil is and has always been central to the Nigerian political economy and one cannot act and speak as if the source of that oil is not central to the oil equation.

There is no such thing as a “Niger Delta” issue that is not a Nigerian issue – to say so is to imply that the region is not part of the country and the people are not Nigerians. To do so is to disconnect the misery oil production has brought to millions of Nigerians from those who have benefited at their expense; from the benefit of free flowing oil including fuel subsidies; from political corruption, government waste, the terrible poverty in the north, south east and west and all the other social and economic ills we have faced as a nation.

This could be an opportunity for Nigerians to finally stand up and support the struggle of all Nigerians not just their own little corner and this works all ways. I hope people will have the imagination and vision to really move beyond the status quo. Because if petrol returns to N65 and political salaries are halved, fraudulent oil marketers are prosecuted but gas flaring and oil spills continue to destroy peoples lives, then we havent moved very far!

Part I

Part II

Video via @zulagroup

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Felt Up

by Mia Nikasimo on January 14, 2012

in Poetry,Queer Politics

Don’t do that in the name of helping me

You felt me up felt me up felt me up felt

That was the first time you felt me up

As I looked on you felt my upper arm up

Again! What happened to my boundaries?

Again! That was the second time again

How would you feel if someone felt up

Your sister so? Felt your sister up felt her

And all in the name of lending a hand.

In you came with all these forms felt up

“Fill these forms”. “Take this”. “Bring those”.

“You will need to bring every document”

You felt me up again. My stomach turns.

And then I remembered why I felt felt up

Again, felt up felt felt me up; stop it, stop!

And then I remembered you felt me up

Again, felt up gelt up felt up, gelt me up

And then I remembered again and again

Is this what action for employment means?

You kept talkingabout me over my shoulders

Don’t patronise me for initiatives taken, mine

If that’s what that feeling up was about, don’t

Don’t resort to gropesome abuse; feeling me up

Your infringements of my boundaries sickens

How would you feel if someone felt your sister

Up like you felt me up. How would you feel?

Don’t feel me up for laughs; don’t feel me up

Don’t feel me up for laughs; don’t feel me up

Don’t feel me up for laughs; don’t don’t don’t

Don’t feel me up for laughs; no, it’s not funny

You are not telling me groping is your remit

Don’t feel me up, don’t patronise me don’t, no!

Get me the job by all means get me a job , any

And while at it respect my boundarirs, stop!

 

 

 

 

Mia Nikasimo (c) January 2012

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Needing This Revolution

by Emmanuel Iduma on January 13, 2012

in Africa ,Literature,Non-Fiction,Poetry,Social Movements,Uprisings,Writing

“La résistance est une forme de collaboration” – Albert Camus

There are no groupings in my head.

I am not being spoken for.

No one will speak for me if I do not speak for myself. Tell this to those who have formed groups and begotten labels in my name: I will join you if only I hear my voice in yours. Not earlier. In this regard, I refuse to be called ‘the Nigerian on the street’ because there are Nigerians OUT OF the street.

If I am on the street it is not because of anybody. It is because of me.

I say this because I must divest myself from every resistance that collaborates. Clearly, there are those who wish that a revolt continues because it creates for them an ‘other’, thereby perpetuating their actions, their desire to stay on. These people wish to look at me and nod their heads, ‘yes, someone is agreeing with me in my irresponsibility.’

I will only speak against irresponsibility not because it is fashionable, not because the Irresponsible are irresponsible, but because behind ME lie ‘years of scorn, thievery, greed, opportunism, political thuggery, untold violence, scammers.’

You see what I mean.

If I am careless, this resistance will be another form of collaboration. I will only succeed in speaking another man’s language.

 

Adebiyi Olusolape knows this. In ‘The Ideal Husband’:

‘Let her add on the name of another man

to the name of an older man

the length is a statement…’

 

And Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in ‘Mr Follow Follow’

‘Some dey follow follow them close sense.’

 

“Poetry makes me stop” – David Gruenewald

Pause and consider what happens I am bent on achievement and not on purpose. What form of satisfaction will I (re)gain when the antagonist has conceded? What is that satisfaction? Will I even be satisfied?

I will stop, right there, when all fists around me are clenched, voices chanting refrains. I will stop and be poetic. It will make no sense to be part of revolution that transforms my country’s economy and not mine.

Poetry makes me stop because in poetry all things become clear.

 

“I write to un-silence, not to speak.” – Hélène Cixous

I will not ask ‘are you listening to me?’

I will ask ‘why are you not listening to me?’

It is not that I am not saying what needs to be said. It is that what I am saying does not come from that point when everything becomes still. I am too much in the noise. I am so much with/in others that I am lost to myself.

All I am saying is that I want to speak because I have been unsilenced. Because I know what that silence is/was. Because I am not an alien to the things I claim to loathe.

 

“Need is the name of my vital discovery…One only needs need to begin to discover.” – Hélène Cixous

I need this revolution.

I must need this revolution.

I am needing this revolution.

My eyes are opening, I am discovering myself. I made the exciting discovery, for instance, that silence can be unseated. That I can un-silence. You might take this for granted; I do not. That I am able to take away years of being considered silent, matterless, absent, a blur? No, I do not take that for granted. This revolution has opened my eyes to things I did not know about myself.

I need this revolution to find myself. I must find myself.


“Me and you no dey for the same category…” – Fela Anikulapo-Kuti


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See, The Nigerian Revolution Has Begun

by Emmanuel Iduma on January 9, 2012

in Africa ,E-Activism,Human Rights,Literature,Non-Fiction,Social Media,Social Movements,Twitter,Writing

You tell me that if I speak I will not be heard. No. I will speak and I will be heard. I am not a writer only by talent. I am a writer because I want to be a witness, a real witness.

You recall Edward Said, “There was something wrong with how I was invented.” Yes, you do. So you understand that I have been out of place for too long. Yet, I am taking the chances of return. When I was invented I was told I was less because I am Nigerian, that I did not have certain opportunities. I will not go to a good school. I will live with the fact of darkness, without electricity. Etc etc. Now I am reinventing my own dialogue, I am taking apart my absence-and-hole-shaped existence. I am filling up the blank spaces. I am writing my story, my essence, my self.

I am a young Nigerian. “Out of Africa always comes something new,” some ancient Roman historian is supposed to have said. Because I am young I am burdened by the New. I know of the past injustices, the failed sunsets. I know of being labelled, being called a money-monger because I am Ibo, a fraudster because I am Nigerian, futureless because I am African. Yet, I am willing to look to the New, I am willing to constructively forget, to walk through the past and leave the past in the past. I am willing to argue into being this newness I speak about. Because being Nigerian is being New.

Don’t think of me as a Facebook protester. I am not. I have gone past updating my status, commenting, posting notes, for the transient reason of being counted amongst a number. I feel embarrassed that you think of me as a young man seeking fame. I am wary of that word. I am wary of being ‘liked’ by a myriad of people who know nothing of my motivations, my aches, my processes. Instead I am conscious that each Facebook activity or blog post contributes to the historical statements I am making. I will not seek cheap fame. I will contribute to real change.

Which is why I will write and write until my hand is blistered and sore. I will write of the Nigeria I am seeing, of the deconstruction of labels. Of possibilities, of equality, of a new youth. I will write of the shaming of the prodigal fathers, whose failure has been that they forget too easily, too quickly, that no injustice will outmanoeuvre human resilience, or collective will.

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On the condition of Nigeria by Nigerians….

by Sokari on January 9, 2012

in African Women,Elections,Environment,Niger Delta,Nigeria,Uprisings

Three excellent insightful articles by Nigerians on Nigeria with my brief comments.

“People In The Niger Delta Now Recognize That Jonathan Is A Waste Of Time” – Isaac Osuoka

Issac Osuoka is a long time environmental and social justice activist from the Niger Delta and a founding member of the IYC and more recently Social Action. He is someone I have great respect for. Here he is interviewed by Sahara Reporters about the Occupy Nigeria movement and President Jonathan’s standing in Nigeria and significantly in the Niger Delta his home region. His conclusion is that Jonathan is “the worst president that the ruling class ever fostered on Nigeria” He is clueless, inept, passionless and with the mentality of a “local government committee chairman”. Based on two brief conversations with colleagues in Port Harcourt yesterday and following Twitter there seems to be very little protest actions in the region except for in Delta State [Warri and Sapele] or in the south east generally. There could be a number of reasons for this such as the lack of support or consciousness by Nigerians with the 20 year struggle in the region and maybe people dont feel they are part of what is happening. Maybe they dont feel they are part of the country. Maybe they are against the fuel subsidy being removed but dont want to be seen to be critical of the president. These are just suppositions and personally I am disappointed with what appears to be the low level of participation in the Niger Delta core states and hope I am either wrong or this changes over the next few days. UPDATE:  [5.15 GMT+1] Pleased to see I was proved [partially] wrong as total shut down in Port Harcourt:

 

 

 

“IO: The removal of fuel subsidy demonstrates again that the Jonathan presidency does not care a bit about the welfare of Nigerians. Can you imagine the puerile argument that fuel subsidy does not benefit the majority of the Nigerian people? Only those that see benefit in terms of how much you loot can make such a stupid argument. You see, since they know that the figures of how much the government is expending on subsidies is over bloated because of the corruption in the system, and they know the few individuals that have benefited from all the fraud, they have come to associate benefit with whose hands are in the lucre. That is all they see. The loot. That is all they are interested in. From their exalted position, they don’t see the mass of the Nigerian people who are mostly unemployed or have the lowest incomes anywhere in the world. That is why World Bank sponsored economists like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will ask during one of her meetings with the NLC why people were so worried over subsidy removal when about 70 per cent of Nigerians don’t own cars! Continued…

Niyi Osundare on religion and politics in Nigeria

Jeremy Weate of Naija Blog publishes an article on Nigerian Christianity. Osundare is not kind to Nigerians as he exposes the bitter truth of “followship”, how religion is practiced and the cozy relationship between the supposedly secular state and religion. It is not pleasant. But then religious instituions in Nigeria act with impunity no matter how degrading and abusive [see the response of the 'slapping pastor", if the pastors says so then people do follow.

 

In the thinking and preaching of many of these latter-day evangelists, every scoundrel in power in Nigeria is “God-chosen” and must be treated as such. Religion in this country is a dangerous opium; really dangerous opium. And that is why our rulers are encouraging the building of churches and mosques all over the place.

When in December last year the newspapers carried the picture of a kneeling President Jonathan with a ministering Pastor towering above him in prayerful supremacy, we were presented with an image so symbolic of the relationship between the state and religion in Nigeria. No picture could have been more emblematic!

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A List of Small Wonders

by Emmanuel Iduma on January 5, 2012

in Africa ,Literature,Non-Fiction,Writing

First published on The Mantle

I am making a list of small wonders, and it is five months long. In my work as Publisher and Managing Editor of an electronic literary magazine based in Nigeria, I have learned to listen closely for the sound of things to come. It is evident and without doubt that the emergent writer is as talented as any established writer. The difference is not merely skill – opportunity plays an equally important role.

My five-month long list of wonders is a series of conversations with writers who do not have a book published. These writers have been published mainly online, in less-respected journals, and most of them are not paid for their creative writing. The bias of the series – which I have named ‘Gambit’ – is fiction by writers of African descent. The word ‘Gambit’ is used literarily. I consider that the writers who I shall engage with are making opening remarks in obscure places. My intent is to assert that the obscure places (sites, journals, blogs) are as important as famous spaces.

The art of writing fiction thrives on validation. I often take with levity statements by successful novelists who claim they paid no attention to validation from publishers and readers. The truth about fiction, and writing, is that writers pay attention to encouragement, and it is doubtful that a writer whose talent is not praised will keep writing for long. To this end, I expect that ‘Gambit’ will provide some form of validation for the writers; a very modest validation, that is.
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Haiti January 12, 2010 revisited – where disaster is profitable for some.

by Sokari on January 4, 2012

in Earthquake,Haiti,Refugees,sexual violence,USA

I have had two visits to Haiti in the past 12 months, for a month in November/December 2010 and a week in October/November 2011. Nearly a year apart in time but with very little improvement. Ah yes, a three mile stretch of the road to President Martelly residence is now paved and parts of the market area in Petion-Ville has been torn down presumably for “urban renewal” otherwise known as poor people removal. So it comes as no great surprise to learn that the largest receipient of Haitian earthquake funds is the US government followed closely by International NGOs.

One. The largest single recipient of US earthquake money was the US government. The same holds true for donations by other countries.

Right after the earthquake, the US allocated $379 million in aid and sent in 5000 troops. The Associated Press discovered that of the $379 million in initial US money promised for Haiti, most was not really money going directly, or in some cases even indirectly, to Haiti. They documented in January 2010 that thirty three cents of each of these US dollars for Haiti was actually given directly back to the US to reimburse ourselves for sending in our military. Forty two cents of each dollar went to private and public non-governmental organizations like Save the Children, the UN World Food Program and the Pan American Health Organization. Hardly any went directly to Haitians or their government.

The Save the Children compound lies directly opposite SOPUDEP free school for poor children through grade school. The school is so oversubscribed they now run morning and late afternoon sessions and every day cook for over 400 children. The women who cook start work soaking beans at 4am in the morning. For most of the children this is their meal of the day. Prior to the earthquake, as far as STC were concerned, SOPUDEP might well have been on another planet. Post earthquake a small offer of funds was made which was refused – what you just discovered we are here and now you want to put me on your list? A gift of school supplies for the children was accepted.
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Anything but Black –

by Sokari on January 3, 2012

in African History,Black America,Black Feminism,Caribbean,Haiti,Queer Politics,Racism

Documentary series explores the complexities of racism and colourism in Central and South America!

“Who do you think you’re kidding – you ARE Black”, “You aren’t really Black”, “You’re mixed race / half caste / mestizo / mulato”, “Actually you’re white”. Reminds me of the “UnAfrican” conversation, an essentialist notion of blackness where people are arbitrary excluded and included. Like the boundaries created by recolonisation in the form of religion as it meets with gender, sexual orientation, class, race, war on terror, nationhood and the MARKET.

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So what…

by Sokari on January 1, 2012

in Music

Miles Davis – recorded 1959 with John Coltrane, “Cannonball” Adderley, Bill
Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb.

 

Happy New Year to Everyone!

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Zimbabwe to Egypt: Reflections from Tahrir Square: Part 2

by Rumbidzai Dube on December 31, 2011

in Africa ,Social Justice Links,Zimbabwe

2012 is here. 2011 is gone and oh what an interesting year it was. One that gave birth to a spring of consciousness; birthed the Arab Spring in which Tunisia and Egypt successfully toppled their presidents although all evidence on the ground indicates that the struggle to topple the regimes that these individual leaders had established is far from over. In 2011 the African continent saw rising movements of citizens, disgruntled by their circumstances with massive protests seen in Swaziland, Uganda, DRC, and Sudan among others. Beyond the African borders, 2011 birthed the Occupy Wall Street movement against a capitalist world order in which the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer.

When I wrote the first part of this blog post, I was standing right in the middle of Tahrir square, like a sponge soaking in the air of revolution. I bore witness to a historic movement of grassroots masses who came together driven by their quest for a new political and economic dispensation.

Today I am standing 5297 kilometres away from Egypt, Cairo and Tahrir Square, in Harare, living the realities of a repressive regime devoid of respect for political freedoms and civil liberties. At the same time I am witnessing the erosion of the gains of the Egyptian Revolution.
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