Kilode1's Posts
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 Politics › Re: Asari Dokubo Leads Port Harcourt Protest: Wants Sovereign National Conference by Kilode1: 10:41pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
I thought his brother GEJ, the one he wanted to defend with his blood said NO SNC. |
| Politics › Re: Let's Have Your Complaints Here by Kilode1: 10:36pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
This should be on the homepage. Read it and consider. https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-848181.0.html#msg9987845 One of the leading voices of our generation weighing in on current issues. |
| Politics › Re: A Country's Frustration - Chimamanda Adichie On Fuel Subsidy (NYT Article) by Kilode1(op): 10:33pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
a government that appears to be indifferent to if not contemptuous of its people. - ChimamandaVery well put. |
| Politics › Re: A Country's Frustration - Chimamanda Adichie On Fuel Subsidy (NYT Article) by Kilode1(op): 10:06pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
She sure does. Very sensible article. |
| Politics › Re: Unnecessary Appointments Made By President Goodluck Jonathan by Kilode1: 7:11pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
norrisman:Sir, Here on Nairaland, there are special Assistants on Benin-Ore road propaganda. They will always lie and spin.  |
| Politics › Re: Unnecessary Appointments Made By President Goodluck Jonathan by Kilode1: 5:19pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
@papabrowne, let me clarify, I'm not saying I expected you to be on the street, Not at all. We all can't be on the streets. But it will be ingenious for someone relatively as informed as you are to deny the core reason why those people were protesting. Your posts in the last few days had been dismissive of their concerns, you are not even close to the worst on here, I singled you out now because I suspect that deep down you are more sensible than the usual government propagandists we have on NL. |
| Politics › Re: Unnecessary Appointments Made By President Goodluck Jonathan by Kilode1: 4:56pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
PapaBrowne:My bro. I've been around. I've said my bit about Fuel subsidy both as Kilode?! Here on NL and as a supporter of #occupynigeria elsewhere. I see you are still spinning the Benin-Ore thing.  My Family got stuck on Benin-Ore in November, months after you drummed and trumpeted the wonderful construction work PDP was doing on that road in March 2011. Anyway they were stuck for over 6hours between Sagamu and Benin, the road is still two lanes and it's the most travelled road for those of us with no money to buy plane tickets. BTW, I'm glad you recognize the suffering of the poor and the need for it, but unfortunately you were too busy when Nigerians, the same Nigerians that supported GEJ in April went on the Streets of Benin, Lagos, Kano and Warri to demand accountability. Many of the civil groups at Ojota under the leadership of Enough is Enough Nigeria were sympathetic toward GEJ in 2010 and again in March 2011, but I've read you dismiss their concerns here on NL in the last few days. You are right. The poor will suffer quite alright, the middle working class will, but the corrupt politicians in Abuja are still holding on tight to their massive allowances, perks and loot. Those people on the street were fighting against that too. Yet this man from Otuoke sent the army to stop their peaceful protests. I'm sure you support that too. I guess that is fair and good, it's all in the spirit of encouraging "private" enterprises |
| Politics › Re: Unnecessary Appointments Made By President Goodluck Jonathan by Kilode1: 3:03pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
PapaBrowne:Mr I-support-Private-enterprise not PDP, How far with that Benin-Ore road thing? Anyway, tell your Private enterprise people that our minimum wage will now buy less of their products o, Fuel costs don chop money. Except your enterprise is oil marketing, we'll have to buy less from you now.  |
| Politics › Re: A Country's Frustration - Chimamanda Adichie On Fuel Subsidy (NYT Article) by Kilode1(op): 2:44pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
Economic arguments are useful, but so are human arguments, which seem alarmingly lost on the Nigerian government.Nwannem nwanyi, may your pen never run dry. |
| Politics › A Country's Frustration - Chimamanda Adichie On Fuel Subsidy (NYT Article) by Kilode1(op): 2:43pm On Jan 17, 2012 |
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR A Country’s Frustration, Fueled Overnight By CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE Published: January 16, 2012 Lagos, Nigeria ON New Year’s Day, in my ancestral hometown of Abba in Anambra State in eastern Nigeria, my family and I woke up to unbelievable news: the price of petrol had doubled. Overnight, the government had removed what it called the subsidy on fuel, and almost immediately, transport fares exploded and food prices rose astronomically. It used to cost 4,000 naira — about $25 — to fill my petrol tank. Then it cost 10,000 naira. When I stopped to buy okpa, a steam-cooked bean dish, from a street hawker, she said it was no longer 50 naira; it was now 100. “Why?” I asked. “Because of fuel subsidy.” A relative who had traveled to her village for the holidays called me to say that she was stranded there, unable to return to her job in Lagos; she could not afford the bus fare, which had doubled in price. Nigeria, one of the world’s biggest exporters of crude oil, does not have adequate refineries and so it imports most of its petrol. The government claims that it pays a subsidy to importers to keep the prices low, and that these companies defraud the government by inflating their costs. Perhaps that is true, but it is a strange reason for raising prices, as though the government is incapable of policing fraud. Politicians have long discussed ending the subsidy, but no one expected it to happen when and how it did. There was something frightening about the abruptness of such a dramatic change, a sense of lurching, a violent uncertainty that captured the general mood in Nigeria. Nigerians, particularly in the heavily Muslim north, live in fear of violence from the Islamist group Boko Haram. More than a hundred people have been shot to death or killed in bombings in recent weeks. My uncle, who lived most of his adult life in the northern town of Maiduguri, recently moved back east after a Boko Haram bomb exploded mere feet from his bookshop. Now he is struggling to start over, a man past middle age, grasping for hope. I saw him on New Year’s Day. He said he had only barely been able to afford the rent for a new shop in Awka, our state capital, and now he had to deal with the new price of petrol — he will have to spend much more on transportation and, since there is hardly ever any electricity, on the generator to power his shop. “How will I cope?” he asked. Many government officials argued that the price increase would eventually benefit Nigerians, but they were unable to clearly articulate how. They made economic arguments that were abstract at best and nonsensical at worst. Sometimes the arguments conflicted: on one hand, we were told that the government would go bankrupt if it continued to pay the subsidy, and on the other, we were told that the subsidy would still be spent, this time on “infrastructure,” a vague word if ever there was one. Only yesterday, the government announced it would restore some part of the subsidy. Like many Nigerians, I am infuriated — and puzzled — by the actions of a government that appears to be indifferent to if not contemptuous of its people. The idea that in a democracy, the government needs to persuade the majority of its citizens, eludes our leaders, perhaps because of the stubborn legacy of military rule, which ended only in 1998. We civilians, in turn, deeply distrust the government, because of our long experience with corrupt leaders. It is obvious that this price increase, the abruptness of it, the murky justifications for it, the government’s inability to properly engage about it, the destructive consequences it will have for millions in a country where there are few government services, will only further calcify the cynicism of a people who are already very cynical. Yet our leaders did it anyway. The message sent to Nigerians is this: You don’t matter. We don’t value you. Economic arguments are useful, but so are human arguments, which seem alarmingly lost on the Nigerian government. Prices have gone up but salaries remain the same. A driver in Lagos who earns 25,000 naira, about $152 a month, would have had to spend almost three-quarters of his salary on transportation to and from work, and this is before he would have to pay for food and, if he has children, for school fees. In Nigeria we like to say that we can “manage,” but it is almost impossible to see how many people could manage that. We are an oil-producing nation and it is not unreasonable for Nigerians to expect affordable petrol, nor is it unreasonable for Nigerians to expect more from a democratic government. A friend of mine, after calculating how much she would now spend getting to work in Lagos, said, with her eyes alive with rage, “Our senators make $100,000 a month if you count their salaries and allowances. A month! In dollars! They live in government houses and have government cars. And none of them pay for their own petrol.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author, most recently, of “The Thing Around Your Neck,” a collection of short stories. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/opinion/nigerias-latest-frustration.html?_r=3&hp |
| Nairaland General › Re: O Ye My People! by Kilode1: 5:49am On Jan 17, 2012 |
Katsumoto:Haha. Lie I heard you never miss carnival. Wielding your "blade" at hysterical young girls. Oga E lo jawo la'pon ti o yo |
| Politics › Re: Madalla Blast: Detained Suspect Escapes by Kilode1: 5:45am On Jan 17, 2012 |
A man arrested at the Borno State Governor’s Lodge over the deadly Madalla Christmas Day bombing escaped from police custody on Sunday while he was being conveyed to a location in Abaji area of Abuja, Daily Trust learnt yesterday.So, they can't transport a single criminal, but they are quick to send battalions against unarmed peaceful protesters? Police went on a pursuit, firing shot and in the process a stray bullet hit and killed a 28-year-old man named Awwal Inuwa Ashafa, according to residents of the area.Poorly trained. Poorly paid. They can't even fire straight. Yet they are harrasing innocent demonstrators? SMH |
| Nairaland General › Re: O Ye My People! by Kilode1: 5:31am On Jan 17, 2012 |
^ Oga Japospaniard is that your vacation video? |
| Nairaland General › Re: O Ye My People! by Kilode1: 3:52am On Jan 16, 2012 |
Katsumoto, yes charismatic leaders are needed to lead this, but we don't trust the spaniards.  We don't need mercenaries, for now. Dokubo's theatrics notwithstanding. Point is well taken though. I'm sure they're working on it. Katsumoto:This is why we struggle. Join us. We might need your bushido blade. Corrupt Looters have very tough skin. |
| Nairaland General › Re: O Ye My People! by Kilode1: 5:08pm On Jan 10, 2012 |
“#OCCUPYNigeria Atlanta will, on Wed,January 11, protest at the Nigeria Consulate, 8060 Roswell Road, Atlanta, GA 30350. 9am-5pm”  |
| Politics › Re: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Al-Jazeera Interview On Fuel Subsidy Removal by Kilode1: 8:32am On Jan 09, 2012 |
Lujan:Shebi UN, EU, IMF, World Bank, FBI, US Marines, CIA, MOSSAD and KGB supported the Fuel Subsidy Removal?? Abi you never hear the news ? So how are they infiltrating against it again? |
| Politics › Re: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Al-Jazeera Interview On Fuel Subsidy Removal by Kilode1: 4:56am On Jan 09, 2012 |
For instance, the price of transport is set to come down because the transport worker's association has accepted that there was no need to increase the price of bus transport because buses use diesel, not petrol.How many Toyota Hiace for naija dey use diesel?? Hiace is arguably the most popular mass transit vehicle in Nigeria by far. Abeg, Who are these people working for GEJ? |
| Politics › Re: Seun Why Did You Lock This Topic Once I Started Posting The Truth? by Kilode1: 4:48am On Jan 09, 2012 |
GEJ's advisers are probably his worst enemies. . |
| Politics › Re: Nigeria's President Says Terrorists Infiltrated Government - Intelligence by Kilode1: 4:23am On Jan 09, 2012 |
"Some of the them are in the executive arm of government, some of them are in the parliamentary arm of government, while some of them are even in the judiciary," he said. "Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies."The savior from Otuoke has been reduced to a toothless rumor monger. Wey their names now? |
| Politics › Re: 'occupy' Protests Become Major Challenge To Nigerian Government -Huffington Post by Kilode1(op): 3:10am On Jan 09, 2012 |
Most Nigerians harbor well-grounded suspicions that billions of dollars in oil wealth have been salted away in the offshore accounts of current and past leaders. |
| Politics › 'occupy' Protests Become Major Challenge To Nigerian Government -Huffington Post by Kilode1(op): 3:08am On Jan 09, 2012 |
'Occupy' Protests Become Major Challenge To Nigerian Government Michael Bociurkiw | Jan 4, 2012 6:06 PM EST Whether commuting to and from my job to my office in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, or racing down the back roads of the country's parched and neglected North, I would often shake my head in amazement at the lack of any display of discontent from ordinary Nigerians. Power outages that drag on, in some cases, for days; crumbling roads; rampant corruption and rising food costs -- these are common complaints among the tens of millions of Nigerians that have been left behind by the country's oil wealth. My bewilderment came from the knowledge that Nigeria is among the ten largest oil exporters globally, and yet it can hardly manage to power the street lamps in the showcase, man-made capital city of Abuja. Most people live on less than $2 a day; malnutrition and even cases of polio can be found in the northern states. During national elections last year, government workers had to use candles and flashlights to check voters' IDs. "Nigerians will just sit back and tolerate whatever fate that is handed to them," said a driver for an international NGO. "They will say it is God's will -- or they will lean on their extended family members for help." I spent several months in Nigeria last year -- just as the "Arab Spring" was sending convulsions through the precincts of many North African and Middle Eastern power centers. I even travelled to Cairo to see empowered protesters staring down armed riot police in Tahrir Square. Yet even though Nigeria is just a few hours flight from Egypt or Libya, no one believed for a moment that the winds of change would reach Africa's most populous nation. But that all changed on January 1, when the Nigerian Government moved ahead after months of deliberation and removed a long-cherished fuel subsidy that more than doubles the price of fuel and transport fares. The impact has been so great that many ordinary Nigerians can no longer afford to get to work. Over the past few days Nigerians have been taking to the streets in great numbers, in the first mass protests against the relatively new government of Goodluck Jonathan and his powerful PDP ruling party. "The subsidy was the only benefit that we have been getting from the oil wealth and now that is gone," tweeted one angry Nigerian. (Because of the subsUidy Nigerians have the cheapest pump prices in Africa; but many use the petrol to power generators that have been made necessary by shoddy infrastructure). To be sure, there are few parallels between the 'Arab Spring' protests and what is now transpiring in Nigeria. But one significant similarity is the use of social media to share feelings of outrage and to mobilize people. One brief, revolting video of a young man being beaten by Lagos police during a protest went viral as soon as it was posted on YouTube. So paranoid is the government of the situation galloping out of control that it is reportedly considering a move to shut down Blackberry messenger services in the country. The service has been a vital link for protest organizers and supporters. In many cities there are reports of police arrested and beating protesters. Just yesterday indications were that the massive and powerful trade unions will join the protests, a move which could effectively bring the country to a standstill. Even though Nigeria is the continent's biggest oil producer, it imports refined oil. Plans to install refinery capacity have never gotten off the ground, due to corruption and mismanagement. Most Nigerians harbor well-grounded suspicions that billions of dollars in oil wealth have been salted away in the offshore accounts of current and past leaders. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reportedly been pressuring the government to remove the subsidy, which costs the treasury an estimated $8 billion a year. If this is indeed the case, the IMF could be repeating the horrendous mistake of the last 1990s, when pressure on countries like Indonesia to remove subsidies and devalue their currencies triggered the East Asian financial crisis. A general strike has been declared for Monday and on Twitter and Facebook the outrage is palpable. Said one Tweet posted by a Nigerian: "Nigeria is a fool at 51 (years old) and a fool forever. No electricity, no transportation, no fuel, no education, no good governance, no nothing." Even members of the Diaspora are in awe at the growing 'Occupy' protests. "I'd like to see Nigerians truly have a revolution and be willing to die for what they believe in," said Oluwa Uduak, a Nigerian-American lawyer, on her Facebook page. To be sure, Jonathan is not the first president to try to do away with the cherished fuel subsidy -- his predecessors tried but quickly backed down in the face of widespread opposition. Promises to plow the extra $7.5 billion of revenue from the scrapping of the subsidy into health, education and infrastructure have been poorly communicated and met with skepticism by ordinary Nigerians. In order to quell unrest, promises could be made to install additional refineries, which could help to bring down the real cost of fuel. But such actions take months if not years and, with anger past the boiling point, the Jonathan administration may not have the luxury of time to bring about major reforms. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/michael-bociurkiw/nigeria-occupy-protests_b_1183907.html |
| Politics › Re: Why Are There No Subsidy Protests In The SE/SS Oil Producing States? by Kilode1: 11:01pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
Alethia this is the most important point from the Article you posted: The most compelling moral imperative is for the administration of Dr. Jonathan to arrest and prosecute the fraudsters. If this happens, hostility to the subsidy removal would diminish significantlyYou and I, plus every discerning Nigerian should know that a government selected through fraud, corruption and deception can't fight same. There is still honour among thieves. . . . And there lies the Koko of the matter. |
| Politics › Re: Christopher Kolade To Head Subsidy Reinvestment (SURE) Board by Kilode1: 10:25pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
. . Pouring Old wine into new wineskins. Kolade will achieve nothing without the political will to fight runaway public corruption. Same old story, the owners of Nigeria deceiving their captives again. . |
| Politics › Re: A Protester Killed By Police In Ilorin by Kilode1: 10:22pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
Ganys: rati ken:You should not be surprised. That was the same NTA progaganda that made GEJ win the election. They shut out the opposition in April 2011. Nothing new. Even Egypt TV did worse, it's normal, just use twitter and other channels. |
| Politics › Re: A Protester Killed By Police In Ilorin by Kilode1: 7:41pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
If people want to view these protests as a regional thing, then the organizers better add demands for a Sovereign National Conference to the top of their list. We cannot sustain the fight over this crippling economic policy if people are going to base their participation on purely Tribal, Ethnic or regional and religious affiliations. The owners of Nigeria are wishing that we will turn this onto a region vs region thing so they can continue the looting |
| Politics › Re: A Protester Killed By Police In Ilorin by Kilode1: 5:52pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
Now they've shed blood over subsidy. .  The Old killing their young. |
| Politics › Re: Where Are Our Celebrities That Supported Jonathan? by Kilode1: 3:09pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
Abike Dabiri-Erewa (@abikedabiri)Let it be on record that Abike Dabiri is against this. |
| Nairaland General › Re: O Ye My People! by Kilode1: 3:03pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
^ Ko si'hun to n bo loke ti Ile ko le gba. Baba kan shakara ni. You can answer the questions The Irunmoles support your noble intentions |
| Politics › Re: And So The Rip Off Ended by Kilode1: 2:40pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
logica:I tire. |
| Nairaland General › Re: O Ye My People! by Kilode1: 2:34pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
^^ Hahahahaha my bros Prof Ola don quiet  Bros pop the question, I support you |
| Nairaland General › Re: O Ye My People! by Kilode1: 1:33pm On Jan 03, 2012 |
[quote author=isale_gan2 link=topic=816612.msg9884007#msg9884007 date=1325561042]The African Holocaust - The Slave Trade by John Henrik Clarke There is a need to look holistically at African history, good and bad. If African people are to be educated to face a new reality on the eve of the twenty first century, we must know about the good times as well as the bad times. We must also know that history has not made Africa and Africans an exceptional case. In the great unfolding of history, Africans have played every role from saint to buffoon and we need to learn how to live with the good as well as the bad. We need to understand the triumphs as well as the tragedies in our history. At the end of what I have been alluding to as the last of the three golden ages in Africa, we entered a period of internal and external tragedy, partly of our making, but mainly imposed on us by foreigners in search of new land, new energy and new resources. We made the terrible mistake of thinking some foreigners could settle our internal "family" disputes. Instead of settling our family disputes, the foreigner turned us, one against the other, and conquered both. This is the great mistake we made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries at the end of Africa's third golden age. It is the greatest mistake we are making right now. This mistake grows out of our misinterpretation of our greatest strength which is our universal humanity. As a people we have always been hospitable to strangers. The weakness in this noble gesture is that we have not been alert enough and suspicious enough to examine the intentions of the stranger that we have invited into our homes. All too often in our history strangers come in as guests and stay as conquerors. This is, at least in part, how and why the slave trade started. You cannot explain the slave trade and vindicate or rationalize the European participation in the slave trade by saying some Africans were in the slave trade and sold slaves to the Europeans. In some instances and in some regions, this was basically true. You cannot excuse the European slave trade by saying that slavery was practiced among the Africans before the Europeans came. In some instances and in some regions, this is also basically true. But the system of internal servitude in Africa that existed in some parts of Africa before the coming of he Europeans and the chattel slavery imposed upon Africa by the Europeans had no direct relationship, one to the other. In the African system of servitude which deserves critical analysis, families were broken up but not a single African was shipped out of Africa. In no way am I trying to say or imply that this system was good. My main point is that it was not the same as the European system. The European slave trade was a three continent industry that brought about a revolution in maritime science, international trade and a system of mercantilism that had not previously existed in world history. No Africans had this kind of international contact or were in a position to establish it at this juncture in history. For more enlightenment on this subject, I invite you to read the following books, Black Mother, The Years of Our African Slave Trade: Precolonial History, 1450–1850, by Basil Davidson, Forced Migration, by Joseph E. Inikore, Christopher Columbus and The African Holocaust, by John Henrik Clarke and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, by Walter Rodney. Like most world tragedies the Atlantic slave trade, or the European slave trade, started slowly, almost accidentally. At first the Europeans did not visit the coast of West Africa looking for slaves; they were searching for a route to Asia for the spices and the sweets they had heard about because they needed something to supplement the dull European food of that day. In general they needed new energy, new land and new resources. Plagues, famines and internal wars had left Europe partly exhausted and partly under-populated. In the years between the first European entry into West Africa from about 1438 to the year of Christopher Columbus' alleged discovery of America in 1492, there were no slaves of consequence taken out of Africa because there was no special work outside of Africa for slaves to do. The creation of the plantation system in the Americas and the Caribbean Islands set in motion a way of life for Europeans that they had not previously enjoyed. This way of life and the exploitation of the resources of the Americas and the Caribbean Islands, after the destruction of the nations and civilizations of the people referred to as "Indians," renewed the economic energy of Europe and gave Europeans the ability to move to the center stage of what they refer to as world progress. This was done mainly at the expense of African people who are still not thoroughly aware of their impact on every aspect of world history. Education for a new reality in the African world, must train African people to understand the nature of their contribution to the different aspects of world history, past and present, and the possibilities of their future contribution. If slavery was the African people's holocaust, we should not be ashamed of saying so. We should have no hesitation in using the word "holocaust" because no one people has a monopoly on the word and I know of no law that gives a people the right to copyright a word as though it is their exclusive ownership. In relationship to this subject I have previously said that slavery was already an old institution before the European slave trade. However, the European slave trade in Africa is the best known and best recorded in the history of the world and also, in my opinion, the most tragic. The neglected tragedy of this system is that it did not have to occur at all. Had the European entered into a genuine partnership with the Africans instead of reducing them to slaves there would have been more goods and services to be had, both for the Europeans and the Africans, through contract labor. The European slave trade in Africa was started and reached its crescendo between 1400 to 1600. This was also a turning point in the history of the world. Europe was emerging from the lethargy of the Middle Ages. Europeans were regaining their confidence, manifesting a new form of nationalism and extending that nationalism into racism. The African had goods and services that the European needed, and the European had the basic technology that the African needed. Had the African needs and the European needs been considered on an equal basis, there could have been an honest exchange between African and European and the European could still have had labor in large numbers without the slave trade and the massive murder that occurred in the slave trade. This idea, only a dream in the minds of a few men, could have changed the world for the better had it been seriously considered. Slavery is taught as though it is something that victimized only African people. Slavery is an old institution. It is as old as human need and greed. It grew out of a weakness in the human character and the need to cover-up that weakness by dominating other people. In teaching about slavery, the one thing African people seem not to know is that for most of their existence on this earth they have been a sovereign people, free of slavery. The period of their enslavement is the best known and the best documented in history in comparison to other slave periods in history. When other people were the victims it was comparatively short. Feudalism in Europe, a form of European enslavement of Europeans, no matter what you call it, lasted much longer. This is why a holistic view of history is needed in order to understand this particular part of history that relates to a single people. This is where so-called Black Studies Programs missed both the objective and the subject in the study of slavery. In evaluating the African slave trade, there was another "Middle Passage" often neglected by most scholars—the Arab slave trade. It is often forgotten that the Arab slave trade in East Africa and the slave trade from North Africa into Inner West Africa was protracted and ruthless. Sometimes the Arabs from the north who were Moslem enslaved Africans in the south who were also Moslems, thereby violating one of the most basic customs of their faith—that no Moslem should enslave another Moslem. There is a small library of books on this subject that most scholars have chosen not to read, thereby making the Arab slave trade the best kept secret in history—although it is not a secret at all. Of the many books and documents that I have read on the subject, Slavery in the Arab World by Murray Gordon, 1987, and The African Slave Trade From the 15th to the 19th Century, in The General History of Africa: Studies and Documents 2, UNESCO,1979. I find the most informative the UNESCO book, especially the chapter, "The Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean." Like most strangers to Africa the Arabs entered Africa, allegedly, as friends. The Africans who are curious and uncritical about new people, new religions and cultures treated the Arabs as well as they treated other strangers. The Arabs were not always kind in their spread of Islam in Africa. In fact, they were usually ruthless and often disrespectful of societies and cultures that existed in Africa before they arrived. In North Africa the two wars of Arab conquest that came in the seventh and tenth centuries, the first being religious and military, broke the back of Roman influence in the area and replaced the corrupt Roman regimes. At first the Arabs were welcomed in North Africa as a replacement for the ruthless Romans. When the North Africans and Berbers discovered that the Arabs were also ruthless, although in a different way, it was too late because the Arabs now had the military upper hand. Another aspect of Arab conquest, generally neglected, is the spread of Arab influence in East Africa through accommodation and intimate conquest. Many times the Arabs moved down the coast of East Africa rendering the service of the much needed East African coastal trade. Soon after this, Arabs began to marry or cohabit with African women. This in turn resulted in a generation of African-looking Arabs. These Arab half-breeds facilitated the spread of the trade inland at a time when the Arab face was held in suspicion in this part of Africa. In the fierce competition in the West African slave trade, the Portuguese were driven from West Africa around to East Africa. The Arab slave trade, moving from north to east met the Portuguese slave trade moving up from the south. These two slave trades complemented each other and culminated with the establishment of one of the largest slave trading forts, in the history of the world, on the Island of Zanzibar. This event is well documented in any good history of East Africa, including the Cambridge History of East Africa, and The Cambridge History of Africa. Basil Davidson's A History of East and Central Africa to the late 19th Century, and certain chapters on East Africa in his Lost Cities of Africa is a popularization of the subject. There are two old but valuable books on the subject, East Africa and Its Invaders by Reginald Coupland, and the chapters on East Africa in the book, The Colonization of Africa by Alien Races, by Sir Harry Johnston. While the East African drama of slavery was unfolding with the Arabs and later with the Portuguese as the protagonists, the larger drama in West Africa was changing the course of history. The Africans, all along the coast of West Africa were being subjected to a form of humiliation never before known, in quite the same way, in their history or human history. The collecting of Africans, sometimes prisoners of war from other Africans, the movement of Africans from the hinterlands to the coast, where very often seven out of ten lost their lives, were forms of unrecorded genocide. This is one of the numerous missing statistics in the attempt to estimate the number of Africans who died in the slave trade within Africa, the number of those who died in the slave dungeons waiting for shipment to the Americas, and the number of those who died on the journey to the Americas. The precise figures will never be known. Good estimations in this case are the best that we have. There are a number of books describing the tragic living conditions in the slave forts and dungeons along the coast of West Africa. Books written by Europeans tend to tone down the tragedy. Books written by African scholars tend to be academic and objective to the point of being noncommittal to the tragedy of slavery. The following is a brief description of some of the conditions in these slave dungeons. In the early slave trade the forts sometimes contained between three hundred to five hundred captives. During the eighteenth century most forts had been adapted to the larger scale slave trade and they held many hundreds more. There were sections for the female captives and sections for the male captives. There were smaller and more tortuous dungeons for the rebellious and unruly captives. The conditions within and around these slave holding castles were great tragic horror stories. Within the castles there were no beds, no drinking water, no installed toilet facilities, and no means of day by day sanitary maintenance. The apartments of the slave traders and captains were directly above the main holding dungeons. And they lived there in luxury and were unmindful of the misery and degradation one or two floors below. These conditions were forced upon a people who had never done European people any harm or had ever allied themselves with the enemies of the Europeans in any way. The Europeans who forced this condition upon African people professed to believe in a loving God who was no respecter of kith, kin and geographical boundaries in the dispensing of his mercy and understanding to all human beings. In their action toward the Africans that would last for more than three hundred years, the Europeans were saying that Africans had no soul or humanity, no culture or civilization worthy of respect, and that they were outside of the grace of God. The long journey across the sea was another tragic story of misery. Figuratively, the slave ship was a floating city of prisoners presided over by a crew of ruffians gathered from the human scum of Europe. The period of the European slave trade in Africa is best known to us because it is the best-documented. However, the documentation is often confusing because it was created by people who were trying to justify the slave trade. Most people, especially Europeans who created most of the documents on the slave trade, write about the subject with the intent to make the victim of slavery feel guilty and to vindicate the perpetrators of this inhuman trade. There is probably more dishonesty related to the interpretation of this subject than any other subject known to mankind. The African slave trade, like African history, is often written about, but rarely if ever understood. This misunderstanding probably grows out of the fact that we nearly always start the study of the African slave trade in the wrong place. The germ, the motive, the rationale for the European aspect of the African slave trade started in the minds of the Europeans in the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. And this slave trade could not have started at all had there been no market for it. The slave trade started when the Europeans began to expand into the broader world. And the market for slaves was created by Europeans for European reasons. The story of the European slave trade in Africa is essentially the story of the consequences of the second rise of Europe. The peopling of the so-called new world by African people in the Americas and the Caribbean Islands was an enterprise of monumental proportions. This act would change the status of Europe and the world forever, and the Africans brought to the new world would be transformed into a new kind of people, neither wholly African nor wholly American. They would not easily adapt to their new condition though they gave their slave master, in some cases, the impression that they were doing so. They did not easily give up their African way of life, in spite of the attempt to destroy and outlaw it. This was the basis of massive slave revolts throughout the Caribbean Islands, South America, especially Brazil, and the more than two hundred and fifty slave revolts recorded in the United States. Every attempt was made through the church and through oppression to deny that Africans hid a revolutionary heritage. There is documentary proof that Africans fought on the shores of Africa to keep from getting on the slave ships. After being forced on the slave ships they continued the fight. Some fought to keep from being taken off the slave ships. Many, many more continued the fight once they got here. In parts of South America, and on some islands in the Caribbean where the slaves outnumbered the Europeans, some Africans bypassed the auction block, fled into the hills and the forests and never became slaves at all. Some of these Africans who escaped slavery were called Maroons. The best books on the subject are, The Maroons, by Mavis Campbell, Maroon Societies, by Richard Price, and The Haitian Maroons, and Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James. The drama of African survival in what is called the new world went beyond drama itself. In conditions that defied human imagination, for a protracted period lasting over three hundred years, Africans, using various techniques, pretenses, and acts of both submission and rebellion, went beyond survival and prevailed in order to live and still be a people in spite of the massive effort to destroy every aspect of their humanity. Part of what kept them alive, away from home, is that they would not give up their African culture in spite of being consistently pressured to do so. Many Africans, away from home, depending on the prevailing conditions that could change any day or any moment, had to become two persons in a single body. Some went beyond schizophrenia and changed their personality to suit the prevailing situation in order to survive so that the next generation could prevail. http://www.africawithin.com/clarke/part30f10.htm[/quote]Iba to baba Henrik Clarke! Because we have to tell our own stories. Embellished or not. .no one else can. |
| Nairaland General › Re: O Ye My People! by Kilode1: 12:33am On Jan 03, 2012 |
Katsumoto:SMH Omode Ko'mo Ogun o n pe l'efo |
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