naptu2:

1) Achebe did not use the word "enemy". It was some so-called Achebe supporters that used that word.

2) Achebe did not stop the visit. It was Ambassador Dove-Edwin that postponed the visit because of the atmosphere that was created by some so-called Achebe supporters. When they finally met Achebe, they told him why the previous visit was postponed and they all laughed at the silliness of the whole thing.

Awake9ja: With all this bile and bad blood being disseminated by Wole Soyinka since the death of the man who regarded him as a friend till he closed his eyes in death, it has become necessary to question Wole motive. Obviously, he did not learn discretion from his departed "friend". Somebody should please tell him that he belittles himself the more with each Achebe-related explosion. Why bother to explain why he did not attend Chinua Achebe's funeral? How can anyone expect him to be able to attend after the most saddening interview he gave on the eve of Achebe's funeral? Somebody should please, tell Wole Soyinka to shield his sword. Achebe has departed in a blaze of glory leaving him behind to wonder how it all happened. Moreover, this kind of bitterness is injurious to the health.

ldpele: nice one bt dnt get it wrng by saying mode 9 sent ruggedman to retirement. RM ll murder him anyday anytime

Melancholy: Achebe and his supporters made a laugh out of that?! Com'on this ain't what u think, and i guess achebe supporters prompted soyinka in dishing-out this warm essay giving them in the language they understood which no one in a long time can fight back.

Starlett:
Before the promotion of that alternative cause-and-effect however, Dove-Edwin had re-scheduled, and we had a most bracing, optimistic afternoon with Chinua. Yes, our patient was eventually told the cause of the earlier postponement, and he had a good laugh.

http://saharareporters.com/column/village-mourners-association-wole-soyinka

naptu2:

1) Achebe did not use the word "enemy". It was some so-called Achebe supporters that used that word.

2) Achebe did not stop the visit. It was Ambassador Dove-Edwin that postponed the visit because of the atmosphere that was created by some so-called Achebe supporters. When they finally met Achebe, they told him why the previous visit was postponed and they all laughed at the silliness of the whole thing.

naptu2: The leading lights of Nigerian literature (Soyinka, Achebe, J.P Clark, etc) knew each other personally. They often collaborated with each other. Just like in any other human interactions, they had their differences, but they were friends.

This essay is about people who claim to be supporters of one or the other of these writers and feel that they need to attack perceived rivals or opponents of their "heroes" in order to justify their support. So-called supporters of Achebe feel that they need to attack Soyinka, supporters of Soyinka feel that they need to attack Achebe, etc (often there's a hint of bigotry in these attacks). Some also feel that they can profit from dividing these literary giants.

Soyinka is railing against them. These men understood each other. For example, Achebe understood Soyinka and his symbols, that's why he had no problems with the ram gift. It's also one of the reasons why he laughed at those who said that the ram gift was the reason for his accident. Soyinka knew Achebe personally and knew about Achebe's rejection of the title of "Father of African Literature", that's why he said what he said in that interview. Soyinka and J.P Clark are friends (Achebe settled the quarrel that arose after Soyinka's detention), that's why he refused attempts by some internet warriors to re-ignite their quarrel.

Soyinka is warning that these warriors, rather than foster understanding, knowledge and collaboration; are preaching hate and are teaching the younger generation how to hate. They are using people that they do not even know, have never spoken to, as symbols of their hate. They are using people who will never agree with their message of hatred as symbols of hate.

[size=14pt]Soyinka Warns against Instigating Younger Generation[/size]

20 Jun 2013



Shola Oyeyipo

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has condemned acts that are deliberately aimed at negatively influencing the minds of the people to act badly.

Soyinka, in a statement titled: ‘The Village Mourners Association,’ wednesday lampooned whoever that used his privileged position to instigate others to take actions against their conscience.

While recalling that his gesture to honour the late literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe, with a ram gift during his 60th birthday, which he could not attend, was tagged as responsible for the late author of Things Fall Apart’s eventual accident and his categorisation as
Achebe’s ‘enemy’, Soyinka described whoever was responsible for the unfounded rumours as “dangerous.”

“These self-righteous clerics are dangerous beings, especially where they flaunt the credentials of secular learning and gather in caucuses of presumed humanities. From the herd, the mindless Internet fiddlers for whom the landing of a planetary probe, or a medical breakthrough  is simply distraction from fraudulent internet mailing, nothing less is expected.

What menaces the collective health of society is when the deserving highs of intellectual application of the former, become
indistinguishable from the loutish low of the latter,” he noted.

According to him, it was these breed of people continue to sow poison in the minds of the susceptible and that as teachers, they cultivate hatred in the minds of their students.

“I lament your failure to use the opportunity of the passing of a revered writer to turn your younger generation in enlightened
directions. You have chosen instead to coarsen their sensibilities and breed in their minds misunderstanding, suspicion and above all – hate!
“You will have understood by now how I have come to view you as no different from the homicidal clerics who arm youths with kerosene and match, cudgel and knife, a few naira in their beggars’ bowls, and dispatch them to set fire to structures of comradely cohabitation, of reflection, of mind enlargement, and destroy communities of learning.
Your gospel of separatism goes beyond the geographical – in which I have not the slightest interest! – but the humanistic.

“The difference is in the weapon – in  your case, poison, mind corrosion. The means – Internet, and its wide open, undiscriminating
generosity. That is where you lay spores of poison, and doom future generations to a confinement of human relationships within the darkest corners of the mind,” he said.

He also underscored the needlessness of making the people suffer over the death of someone, stressing that when people “encounter hostility over their sensibilities in dealing with loss in their own way, privately, away from public eye, with or without symbolic public gestures, then we are witnessing the end, not simply of plain civility, but of civilisation, and the enthronement of Fascism.”

“It is not the intolerance and excess of a moment’s excitation, but of a cultivated arrogance and will to imposition, one that attempts to
dictate the private responses of others to shared events,” he lamented.

naptu2: The leading lights of Nigerian literature (Soyinka, Achebe, J.P Clark, etc) knew each other personally. They often collaborated with each other. Just like in any other human interactions, they had their differences, but they were friends.

This essay is about people who claim to be supporters of one or the other of these writers and feel that they need to attack perceived rivals or opponents of their "heroes" in order to justify their support. So-called supporters of Achebe feel that they need to attack Soyinka, supporters of Soyinka feel that they need to attack Achebe, etc (often there's a hint of bigotry in these attacks). Some also feel that they can profit from dividing these literary giants.

Soyinka is railing against them. These men understood each other. For example, Achebe understood Soyinka and his symbols, that's why he had no problems with the ram gift. It's also one of the reasons why he laughed at those who said that the ram gift was the reason for his accident. Soyinka knew Achebe personally and knew about Achebe's rejection of the title of "Father of African Literature", that's why he said what he said in that interview. Soyinka and J.P Clark are friends (Achebe settled the quarrel that arose after Soyinka's detention), that's why he refused attempts by some internet warriors to re-ignite their quarrel.

Soyinka is warning that these warriors, rather than foster understanding, knowledge and collaboration; are preaching hate and are teaching the younger generation how to hate. They are using people that they do not even know, have never spoken to, as symbols of their hate. They are using people who will never agree with their message of hatred as symbols of hate.

Ola Johnson:
Them mark register for CA burial? WS never said CA was jealous of his winning the Nobel Laurete; rather it was CA that said WS shouldn't see himself as the "Asiwaju" of African literature, and WS replied that he had no intention of being the "Ogbuefi" of African literature.
Why on earth should any reasonable person, a professor for that matter, say WS' gift of ram to CA caused his accident?

amakenny: But has WS any excuse for not attending CA's funeral?

DarryOsh:
I beg your pardon! Did you not read the post. Besides, as he stated, some people may choose to mourn differently.

Ola Johnson: The titles Wole Soyinka gives to his essays are so unique. See these titles: "The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis", "The Credo of Being and Nothingness", "Sexual Minority and Legislative Bigotry", "Between Self and System", "The Quest for Dignity in a Dehumanized World", "Myth, Literature and the African World" etc.

Crayola1: I think he should have went regardless. If someone is your friend and colleague you should pay your final respects, damn the naysayers. All these dribbles and essays from Soyinka, seem to make the problem he is rallying against much worse in public opinion.

Crayola1: I think he should have went regardless. If someone is your friend and colleague you should pay your final respects, damn the naysayers. All these dribbles and essays from Soyinka, seem to make the problem he is rallying against much worse in public opinion.

People will talk always, so your damned if you damned if don't so it is what it is.

Crayola1:

Oh my God shut up, you sniveling bastard. You have nothing in your own life to be proud of so you ape others accomplishments. If Soyinka named a new book Untitled your stup1d behind would think its unique too.

Neo-XVI:


My thoughts exactly. It's always much easier to attend a friend's funeral than have to give explanations later.

Then again, even if for some reason he couldn't attend, why bother with all this long story? That only elevates his naysayers and fuels the suspicion of the viewing public.

Neo-XVI:


My thoughts exactly. It's always much easier to attend a friend's funeral than have to give explanations later.

Then again, even if for some reason he couldn't attend, why bother with all this long story? That only elevates his naysayers and fuels the suspicion of the viewing public.

DerideGull: Please for the sake of Igbo people in particular and Biafrans in general, I had to beg anybody who had the ears of Wole Soyinka to tell him to desist from responding to careless innuendos of Internet fiddlers. Wole Soyinka, you should not allow the respect you singlehandedly earned among Ndigbo and Biafrans to go down the drains because of idle talkers dwelling foolishly on Achebe’s issue.

All the meaningful Igbo chaps and Biafrans hold Wole Soyinka, Ayo Ariyo, Tai Solarin and Ijebu Cocoa Farmers/Agbakoya in high esteem that shall last a life time.

Peaceworld: This is why I find Soyinka very funny...he likes using very complex words, like placing his writing above every other being...this is funny to me because a layman will find it very difficult to instantly grasp what he's up to...don't you guys think that defeats the idea behind his writing in the first place? Hmmmm.....

Crayola1:

Oh my God shut up, you sniveling bastard. You have nothing in your own life to be proud of so you ape others accomplishments. If Soyinka named a new book Untitled your stup1d behind would think its unique too.

PointB:


How else can you measure his IQ?

But then you hit a bull-eye. It is one thing to speak, it is another to communicate. Sometimes, WS speaks without truly communicating. Sadly, this is one of such instance, even as the outburst is uncalled for.