₦airaland Forum

Andre Uweh:
I hope you do not mean the UKWA in Abia state.

ChinenyeN:
He probably got his misinformation from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibibio_language . . . or maybe it is legitimate and there is an actual Ibibio-speaking group known as Ukwa and not the same Ukwa that we know of.

I know my Ibibio side. You have Ukwa who are thoroughly mixed with the Ibibio and some claim Ibibio moreso than Igbo. That is why I included them.

DapoBear:
I thought this thread was intended to make up insane stories and crackpot theories? I only stuck with the theme of the OP.

Or was he truly serious in proposing such a theory? An outlandish theory like that is just as plausible as the Yorubas secretly being behind all recent evils that have occurred in mankind's history.

Anyway, I think my point has been made. Carry on.

Who is making up insane stories? The people leading the charge are Yoruba, not Igbo. Makes you wonder about what is their problem. Even the oyibos have not really commented on this issue. Fact in the matter is that Yorubas continue to be envious of the Ndi Igbo. Maybe it is the curse of Awolowo. As Igbo men and women progress, there will always be a Yoruba man trying to bring them down.

Hon. Chinua Achebe and Nobel Prize committee: The brewing and unending cold war

by EMEKA CHIAKWELU

Whenever you have time to visit Nobel Prize website, do click to page for Nobel prize winners for literature. You come to notice that of all the important literature of 20th century and emerging 21st century winners of the prize; that the greatest literature of all time that elucidated and clarified the position of Africans on meeting of the West and Africa is missing. The book is Chinua Achebe's Things fall Apart which is based on the crash of civilizations. To say that Things Fall Apart is just a literature is a sophomoric understatement. The book is a historical analogy and the psychoanalogy of the antecedent and contemporary Africans as they struggle to confront the history, encroachment and interference of an outside culture that left an undeniable and indelible mark on the body, soul and psyche of the African. The meeting brought mixed basket of modernity, exploitation, slavery, colonialism and Christianity - a total transformation of Africa.

The ramification and the osmosis of the great meeting of the cultures is exactly the picture our Honorable Achebe captured and portrayed vividly in Things Fall Apart. The book is bigger than a great story and history because it becomes the first attempt by an African to define what it means to be an African within the context of the introduction of the Western culture without undermining African sense and sensibility. Africa from the prism of history is the great loser but the complete ramification have not fully emerged. It will take centuries to say for sure what the great crashed of civilizations meant to the both parties. The great loser of today might tomorrow inherit the mundane earth.

Let's deal with this without mincing words. Why did the Nobel Award committee deny Chinua Achebe the literature prize? Simple and direct: They are afraid of the truth, the intellectual honesty that the committee is devoted to pursue and propagate have eluded them because the acceptance of the truth and reality comes with a cost and reparation. Reparation and acknowledgment of the truth does not necessarily have to be material or monetary gain but it can come as way of intellectual reparation and the readjustment of the status quo from intellectual guilt. The intellectual gatekeepers of the Nobel committee might see the acknowledgment of this reality abounded by Things Fall Apart as making them vulnerable to those that desire to be atone for the past mistakes and injustices.

Nobel Prize committee has given every Tom, Dick and Harry from all the corners of our globe literature prize. But when they come to Honorable Chinua Achebe they skipped him because Things Fall Apart is not your father's literature, for it is a missive of rugged individualism, pride, heart break and mistreatment written by an African to the world that oppressed them and dislodged them from their humanity.

THE COLD WAR
What is this cold war between these two institutions - Achebe and Nobel? First and foremost Chinua Achebe is an institution, he might be one man but he represents a side of Africa that dare to speak, seek, pursue and ask question that must be asked. So ask he did and when two titans meet for a wrestling match the ground quivers. Chinua Achebe is bigger than Nobel prize because the question or the quest for liberty he tendered cannot be satiated with a Nobel prize. The committee of Nobel prize comprehended that the only way they chose to answer Things Fall Apart‘s question is with mute. For if they award the prize they have accepted the argument of the book. If they deny it with a loud voice then they have acknowledged their vulnerability and insecurity.

The inactive observers who have not comprehend this delicate game of chicken and hen, fail to appreciate the brewing and continuous cold war: Since Honorable Chinua Achebe refused to apologize for the book instead he challenged another great western writer the Conrad's Heart of Darkness dehumanization of Africans. In the paper "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'" he presented at University of Massachusetts in 1977. He reiterated and rebutted the content of the book with clarity and intellectual vim.

"Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civili zation, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refine ment are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality. The book opens on the River Thames, tranquil, resting peacefully "at the decline of day after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks."2 But the actual story will take place on the River Congo, the very antithesis of the Thames. The River Congo is quite decidedly not a River Emeritus. It has rendered no service and enjoys no old-age pension. We are told that "going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginning of the world." Is Conrad saying then that these two rivers are very differ ent, one good, the other bad? Yes, but that is not the real point. It is not the differentness that worries Conrad but the lurking hint of kinship, of common ancestry. For the Thames too "has been one of the dark places of the earth." It conquered its darkness, of course, and is now in daylight and at peace. But if it were to visit its primordial relative, the Congo, it would run the terrible risk of hearing grotesque echoes of its own forgotten darkness, and falling victim to an avenging recrudescence of the mindless frenzy of the first beginnings."

The Nobel Prize Committee and its intellectual hamlet have not forgiven Chinua Achebe for equating his book as the antithesis of Conrad's Heart of darkness. Those that witnessed the event and others misunderstood Things Fall Apart and Chinua Achebe - for all he was exposing were the sins of Heart of Darkness which makes the book fundamentally flawed from African perspective. These ivory tower intellectuals that claimed paragon of excellence have cultivated a mindset that negate anything African and absolutely diverged from the African point of view.

THE GREAT ACHEBE
"Men become might not by what they achieved but for the task they set for themselves"
- Henry Kissinger

What really made Hon. Chinua Achebe the greatest writer of our time is not just about writing one of the most significant book of all time but for the task he set for himself and his people. The great task was to tell the world that in spite of the tribulations and destruction of the African body that the spirit - the African spirit is still vibrant and very much alive. If the thesis of Things Fall Apart can be summon and summarize in one line: Africa is living.

http://www.kwenu.com/publications/chiakwelu/achebe_nobel_cold_war.htm

Obiagu1:
No similar ethnic group speaks differently. If they actually speak an entirely different language (not a dialect), then Eleme is not Ogoni. Period! So the Ogonis should suck it up and move on.

Agreed. If the language is completely different, then they are not part of the same group. I share this view when it comes to all ethnic groups. The same goes for Ikwerre who clearly speak Igbo and the Efik, Ukwa and Annang who clearly speak Ibibio

DapoBear,

Your statements are getting real old. Good job disrupting a thread through, which brought up some legitimate accusations.  Act your age and stop acting like a little girl.

Thank you,
EzeUche the Great

Blazay:
The reason I always say never trust an Igbo or a Yoruba man. The moment on achieves something, the other is ready to pull him or her down. Both tribes should be driven out of Nigeria. Thank God Philiip Emeagwali is able to liberate himself from it all.

What Yoruba man has we Igbos tried to bring down? We give praise to Wole Soyinka. We give praise to Fela? So who have we tried to bring down? Do not try to make such a generalized statement again about the Ndi Igbo.

Environer:
Here is the spin: Yorubas are mad as hell that Emeagwali claims that he won a prize equivalent to the Nobel prize which Soyinka a Yoruba has won. Now they want him to rescind that statement or he goes down. Since Nobel prize or its equivalent by any form or shape, implied or real, must only be won by a Yoruba. Hahahah! Only Chineke/Olodumare/God knows what will happen if Achebe gets a Nobel Prize. And who even knows why Achebe, whose work is far more widely acknowledged than Soyinka's, does not have a Nobel prize yet? Are Yorubas doing some ground work in that one too?Hahahah!

I think the reason why Chinua Achebe has not received the Nobel Prize in Literature is due to the fact that he had spoken out against Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness. He stated that the novel is racist, while many Europeans adore that book of Africa. The fact that Chinua Achebe equated his book as a response to Heart of Darkness has not won him many fans in the elite literary circles of Europe. That is the main reason why I feel he has not been awarded the Nobel Prize in Lierature.

DapoBear,

Yoruba conspiracy? The writing is on the wall. Who else is trying to bring the man down, but Yoruba names? I do not see any Igbo names, nor do I see any Hausa names either. Only the usual Yoruba names, so tell us how we are suppose to view this?

Yorubas already see the Igbos as rivals, even though we do not even care about you all. We only care about business and other entrepreneurial endeavors. Yet, your people continue to hate on us.

If you lived in Nigeria, you would know that it is the Igbo man who is blamed for every social ill in this country, not you Yorubas.

Environer:
Why is SAHARA reporters (SR) a Yoruba cyber media, not talking about how Ribadu suddenly declared Tinubu a saint after accusing him of corruption? Why is SR not talking about Kenny Martins and his billion loot? What about Bodunde Adeyanju? Are those no-go areas? What is SR's interest in Emeagwali who has not committed any offense and has therefore not being charged in the USA-the land of law?

Charge him with what? He has not broken any laws. What laws have this man broke? I do not know of any law from any legal system that would warrant such attention for this man. Nigerians (Yorubas) need to get their priorities straight.

Environer:
Emanated from the US by Nigerians in the US. Most oyibos do not know who the freaking hell is Emeagwali. The Yorubas in the US are the ones pushing the agenda. Emeagwali knows this too but he is not interested in taking up issues with anyone. Both Sahara Reporters and Next are Yoruba-owned. That is a red flag.

Thank you! I am an Igbo in the U.S. and you do not hear this man's name being seen in a bad light amongst the Igbo community. Actually, he has come to many Igbo events in the U.S. and always gets a standing ovation. So I do not know what this guy is saying that it is Nigerians (ALL) who are trying to bring this man down. They are only coming from ONE community and that is the YORUBA community.

rhymz:
As much as I do not agree that the Yorubas or any other tribe for that matter is in any campaign of calumny against Emeagwali, I strongly believe the writer of that lengthy article on Saharareport did it in bad taste. His motive was very clear, demystify him and make him talk, at least. However, Emeagwali cares less, he knows his capabilities and achievements, whether anyone likes it or not he is way above the IQ levels of his detractors even they know it. The man is in a battle with the system no doubt and that is why he has delibrately chosen to defy it by self-promoting himself in a very unorthodox manner. Still, it does not take away the man's contributions to his field and his genius, why these profs obsessed themselves with the man, knowing exactly that it is a deliberate antics by the man to antagonize the system that wont recognize him is what I cant understand. . .The man is an inspiration and a genius unlike the perception of that article that tries to downplay the man's achievements by calling it modest, modest indeed, how many Nigerians or blacks ve won it since then?

Very nice statement!

Obiagu1:
@ Environer

Don’t mind those hateful, jealous and envious Yorubas. Before independence, with equal opportunity for everyone, Igbos were on top. Now years after the Civil War and with gradual normalization of the society, Igbos are crawling back to the top. It’s a matter of time, be it sport, education, commerce, industry, anything.

One thing they should know is that that forcing factor that propelled them to the top is gradually losing its steam – it can’t last forever. Natural factors are what last forever.

They will see more Emeagwalis, be it overhyped or genuine, they will forever emerge to their disgust, but what can they do? NOTHING!

Gbam!

Instead of attacking this man, they should be going after looting politicians. Sad how some blacks will try to bring a fellow black man down who is trying to do good in this world.

I wanted to leave ethnic sentiment out of this, but I have noticed 90% of the people who are attacking this man's record is YORUBA. My oh my, what a coincidence. So of course we Igbos will defend him like we did Chinua Achebe, when some of you tried to attack that man as well.

Abagworo:
About 3 of our staff are from the same Local Government in Northern Crossriver but speak different languages.That place is unbelievable.

I just found some research, in which there are over 50 languages spoken in Cross River State. That is AMAZING! And they are distinct languages. This is not including the different dialects.

excanny:
Delta Igbo has finally made it to the office of the Delta gubernatorial seat for 90 days.

Igbos are always getting ripped off when it comes to politics. This is unbelievable.

Environer:
Not sure why. But Cross River, especially its northern part that is not coastal is very very diverse too.

Do not get me started on Cross River state. It confused me. How can so many different groups live in one area in which their languages can be so different? That is truly like a Tower of Babel. No wonder the Bantu people originated from that region. It is like the Mecca of many African languages.

DapoBear:
A lot of the stuff I post here is just for fun and amusement, but I think most of us know when playtime is over and it is time to talk seriously.

It is always fun disrupting a thread that deals nothing with my people or region. Now you know we Igbos feel when our threads are destroyed by your fellow Yoruba brethren.

Anyway, carry on in your debate. Interesting read so far.

I always wondered why the coastal region seem to be the most diverse region in the Southeast. Can someone explain why you have all these small ethnic groups and sub-clans. It doesn't make sense. Is it, because of European involvement in the region for centuries?

Let his gentle soul rest in peace.

DapoBear:
^--- Guys, please refrain from being baited into responding to this guy, I don't want this thread to degenerate into something it shouldn't be about. I'd rather understand some of these dynamics within Yorubaland that I didn't understand before.

Great job not falling into my trap. Hopefully, you brethren will heed your words. However, I seriously doubt that, because the Yoruba titans on the Politics section will not allow my post go unanswered. lol

I laugh at the feudalistic cultures that make up Nigeria. My ancestors must have been farseeing in our democratic principles.

Environer:
I am Igbo. My community is bounded by communities in Akwa Ibom state (AKS) on two sides. I have lived in Rivers and Aks most of my life though. Own a home in Eleme, like hundres if not thousands of other Igbos do there.

Do you speak the Ibibio language. I am an Aro Igbo of mixed blood. My mother is from Ikot Ekpene. So I take it that you have some knowledge about my people then.

DapoBear:
Hrm. Still, let us remember that division in Yorubaland has pretty much preceded all of our defeats. We have other enemies in this land and cannot afford to succumb to infighting. Next few years will be critical in our history; we have to keep our eyes on the prize.

And who are these so called enemies of the Yoruba that are in your land?

Environer:
Ekoi is different from Ibibio. FACT.

I take it you are not Ibibio though. . . lol

Environer:
How is Ekoi same as Ibibio even from your post? They are not. Ekois speak ejagham which is 100% different from Ibibio.

Idem mfo? Ame kan speak Ibibio?

Do I hear my people being mentioned?

You will get beat if you ever call an Ibibio person an Efik. lol Do not ever make that mistake.

These etok ayin speaking about things they know nothing about. Ekoi are not Ibibios. Only Annang, Ukwa and Efik.

chyz1:
So Afikpo, Ezza, and Ezillo are weak? Do you know that it is like afganistan in ebonyi state now to the point no reporters go there to report the war thats going on. And its been like that for a while. Send a group of Onitsha, Awka, and Nnewi boys down to Abia and see if they don't take it over.This kidnapping must stop.

Trust me I know what is happening in Ebonyi State. Those people were always raided by the Aro. However, times has changed. Now they fight amongst themselves.

On a side note, Afikpo Igbo is so hard to comprehend.

Dawgpound:
As strong as u Abians are how come kidnappers are living large in your domain then?

Because they are Abians themselves. Well they are Ngwa. But they learned it from the people in Rivers State. People need to stop acting like all of Abia is up in flames.

Only the southern part of Abia.