We Sweden

Gotta understand, in “the land of the Midnight Sun” :

We (Sweden) must all admit that the brother (Håkan Juholt ) may be feeling very happy & glad that we (Sweden) are not in the Eurozone just now, but it seems to me

that he’s a little overweight

and a little too chubby to be a heavyweight

contender right now, although he sure has a lot of flare

and courage and a lot more political savvy

to be talking like the charismatic Muhammad Ali

Hear ye him, listen to the Swedish Social Democratic lion king roar

in rikssvenska (Standard Swedish – not the Queen’s Swenglish) :

“Jag ska fortsätta dansa som en fjäril och sticka som ett bi”

which translates into Muhammad Ali Ebonics: “ I’m gonna continue to dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee” (Gonna kick ass)

We the Swedish boxing fans would like to hear more Ebonics from Håkan Muhammad Ali Juholt

with his fists swinging to the left and with uppercuts to the Right landing like 2,500 electric volts….

Now that Lady Mona Lisa’s out of the picture, this is all happening in the days of  the  He-male Swedish gladiators.

And now that the table’s turned, in the left corner wearing the red gloves, the Social Democrats’ southpaw Heavyweight Champion

….. and in the right hand corner smiling with soulful eyes that sometimes look a little sad and he doesn’t much look like a pugilist but he packs a mean right punch, in the blue boxer’s shorts, the Moderate party champion Fredrik Reinfeldt!!!!!!!!!!

Brother Juholt will be needing more than just a new Muhammad Ali rhythm and rhymes or just smart political one- liners, to complete new Social Democratic Party lines – a new vision says Lena Hennel a commentator in the Conservative press and that’s what she writes in SvD both yesterday and today that what’s demanded of Mr. Juholt is nothing less than that he “reinvent the wheel”

So what’s next, more Ali rhymes or will he upgrade the boast to “ I’m the Greatest” after the Swedish people go to the polls?

No point in upgrading the boast before the electoral event as that would be counter-productive, since as we all know it is the antithesis of the Swedish spirit to boast – it’s against the law

You meet a shy Björn Borg and ask him “ Do you play tennis?” and he’ll most probably tell you modestly, “ Yes, a little.”

You meet the minimal braggart from West Afrika and in answering the little question “ Do you play tennis?” he’ll probably tell you all he can about African Fractal Theory and Mathematics and that in addition to having five Ph.Ds from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and Stanford,  he speaks Swedish like me and that he also won Wimbledon 5 times and the Grand Slam 11 times. “That’s not cricket”, you’ll probably think, if you’re British, that is.

Cultural differences, you see, no humility like Haile Gebrselassie who like King David, was also once a shepherd boy….

Things could change and change rapidly should we find ourselves facing a “winter of our discontent”,

but today it is Anders Borg and not Håkan Juholt or Muhammad Ali that is the undisputed champion, when taking care of Sweden’s finances counts and as for me, my admiration is for Borg, my sympathy is often with the underdog, in this case Brother Håkan and the Social Democrats who didn’t want to get married to the Euro in the first place.

At the same time as I’m beginning to like Mr. Juholt for his perseverance and fortitude, I am beginning to feel sorry for the other guy who is about to meet his just deserts (nothing to do with the Libyan desert) as he faces Justice for the very first time, and here I’m talking about Saif al-Islam – about Libya, the ICC and Saif al-Islam.

However, I’m not at all feeling sorry for this one, although I do not wish him grievous bodily harm. If you take into consideration the penalty to be suffered in Thailand for a Royal insult , then the goodly advice to Vilks is to keep his art to himself, whether he has iconoclastic urges or not and whether the demons are urging him here in Sweden or in Bangkok, with guys like Taimour Abdulwahab around he ought to be more careful about speaking/ drawing/ or painting his “mind”. To better understand what the seriousness of the situation could be you had better click to find out the kind of equipment Taimour Abdulwahab straps on his back like an ordinary backpack – if need be.

If I didn’t have this devilish headache occasioned by so much bad news I’d be joining my Better Half at the Stockholms stadsteater at 18.00 hours to see “ A Streetcar Named Desire”. I’m sure that it’s not going to be anything like Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando – but should be interesting in a Swedish setting with Helena Bergström and Bjorn Bengtsson .The poor boy will now have to refund the First Lady for the ticket, since the headaches are all my fault and I shouldn’t sit so long at the computer. I am now reaching for one more IPREN – the headache seemed to be receding but now it’s coming back again it seems with full apocalyptic force….I can hear the hooves of the horesmen galloping in my head, they are drawing near….so I must end here -

As always,

Sincerely yours,

United With Israel

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UNITY

The state of the country is not the most ideal we could wish for. My premise as an honourable Yoruba man is that ALL Nigerians love Nigeria.

The motto is from one of Aesop’s fables, which concludes with the moral, “United we stand, divided we fall”

Like Manchester United.

Like the European Union.

Like the United States of America.

Like the United States of Nigeria.

As the depletion of the continent’s natural resources continue without any letup, Africa is gradually inching towards a United States of Africa, which some of the die-hard optimists say will be a fait accompli by the year 2017. This is extremely doubtful.

Just like when Mahatma Gandhi was asked, “What do you think of Western civilisation?”

His reply: “ I think it would be a good idea.”

From idea to dream and from dream to reality.

The main financial lubricator of the United States of Africa idea, Colonel El Gaddafi, former king of kings of Africa probably had his sights set on being the United States of Africa’s first George Washington – and perhaps still hold on to his title of king of kings. Why not? Hold both titles concurrently: President and king of kings of the United States of Africa. From dream, to reality even unto death and eternity.

The moral of the tale? Click here

Sweden and Norway were once one country. Today, Norway has all the oil, perhaps to Sweden’s remorse – but who would have known better, then?

We also have the example of North and South Korea, in which North Korea was technologically more developed – until after the war when there was such transfer of technology from Japan and the US – to put the South in the lead.

Up till the first world war parts of Eastern Ghana were a part of Togo which was a German colony.

And, once upon a time there was the Mali Empire and there was the Songhai Empire and there was the Ghana Empire and everybody’s heard of Shaka Zulu and the Zulu Kingdom

But this is about what lessons we may learn from Emeka Ojukwu and the idea of Biafra.

As Fritz Perls said, “ To suffer one’s death and be reborn is not easy”

Nor is it easy to return to an acceptance of being part of Nigeria’s nationhood – after the attempt to separate as a Biafra and yet occupy the most cherished place in the hearts of all Nigerians.

Proclamation of the Republic of Biafra – Biafra Nation

Ojukwu’s speeches

I have just re-read the history of the Biafra war – the facts are well known – the chronology of rapid events are all laid out – including big powers involvement.

In any reassessment of what happened and what could have happened if one had travelled another road ( probably wouldn’t be sitting here in Stockholm right now) one is aware that there is always the difference between acting in the heat of the moment ( the massacres of Igbos in their thousands in the North) and years later, in tranquillity & in retrospect sitting down for quiet reflection & recollection and in Mr. Ojukwu’s case perhaps even penitence at the extreme loss of life suffered by the Igbos.

You are surely not the only one saying, “ Freedom to me is the ultimate value”

The closest that I can come to any criticism of the Biafran leader is based on these two passages from Michael Crowder’s take:

1. “Outside, the idea of regional autonomy , if not secession itself, was gaining ground. In the West there was little positive interest in the maintenance of a unified Nigeria, and there was deep resentment at the fact that because in the past few Yoruba had enlisted in the army troops stationed in Ibadan and Abeokuta were of predominantly Northern origin despite the agreement that only troops indigenous to a region should be stationed there. It seemed therefore that there would be little in Ojukwu’s way if he did secede. He had the wherewithal to do so, for the major portion of Nigeria’s oil resources was located in his region, though significantly mainly in the non-Igbo”minority” areas. At this stage, many of the minority leaders , traumatized by the massacres in the North which had involved some of their own people as well as Igbos, and having no positive alternative before them, supported Ojukwu.

In these circumstances Gowon’s proclamation on 27^th May 1967 that Nigeria was henceforth to be divided into twelve states was a masterstroke. The new constitutional arrangement had wide appeal. In the first place it divided the North into six states, at one and the same time satisfying minority interests there since they were at last given the status for which they had long been agitating, and, by breaking up the monolithic North, reducing Southern fears of Northern domination. The East was divided into three states, two of which represented minority interests in that region. The Ijo in the new Rivers State, and the Efik, Ibibio and other minority groups in the new South-Eastern State had long resented the political domination of their region by the Igbo and had agitated for separate states. The Federal government now offered them a positive focus for loyalty to the Federation rather than any secessionist ventures by Ojukwu. The Mid-West and West were left intact with the exception of the new Lagos State, excised from the latter.

Three days after Gowon’s dramatic announcement Ojukwu proclaimed the former Eastern Region as the sovereign Republic of Biafra. He had the almost full support of the Igbo population for this act, but the creation of the Rivers State and the South-Eastern State bit deep into his support from the minority areas, the majority of whose people became more interested in a future as members of a federation of Nigeria than in independence in a sovereign Biafra in which they feared they would be dominated by an Igbo majority”

In a nutshell, General Ojukwu’s response to this? :

“It was simply a choice of Biafra or enslavement….”

2. “ By mid 1969 it had become clear that it was only a matter of time before Biafra would fall to the Federal forces. But Ojukwu refused to concede defeat despite the very considerable suffering resistance was inflicting on his people. Only as the Federal troops closed in on his last strongholds in late December did Ojukwu begin to consider abandoning the fight. Finally on 11^th January 1970 Ojukwu and his top advisers fled to the Ivory Coast , leaving the head of the secessionist army, Lt. Col, Phillp Effiong , to broadcast the end of secession.”

I am now taking a look at the last interviews given by Emeka Ojukwu.

A curious news item and I don’t recall the exact fallout in the Nigerian media and the Nigerian forums – or even at the formal political level say at the United Nations when Gaddafi suggested that Nigeria should be split into two – the same Gaddafi that espoused the idea of “ Isratine” and had invited Israel to join the Arab League.

Emeka Ojukwu was asked this question in his last interview

Q: “Muammar Gaddafi had on two occasions in one month called for the splitting of Nigeria. The Senate president described him as a mad man. What’s your take?”

Ojukwu : “No, I would not go as far as calling him a mad man. He is a leader of his people and I respect that fact. If you look through my entire career, you would find that even with a country as close to us as Ghana, at no point have I suggested what type of government they should have, because it is not my business. Having said that, it is clear that whatever Gaddafi thinks, he has every right to his thoughts, but as a political leader, he should note that he has no right to decide for Nigeria what Nigeria should do. So, I say to him, my friend Gaddafi, please shut up. “

The man at the beginning is not always the same man at the end – after all the Biafran leader has had some forty years to reflect on his people and their needs…… so I’m also following up, taking a look at his interviews, because he has been more of a private figure – almost a recluse, but there have been occasional interviews and there’s no one better to represent him and his ideas, than he himself, so here from the lion’s mouth, some of his other interviews

From the past to the utter seriousness of the present: United With Israel

The world goes on. Together, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi ultra-orthodox Islamists of Egypt have garnered 61% of the votes……not to mention the other fringe Islamist parties hanging together for the next round. The Brotherhood ( Hamas’ ideological parents) say that peace with Israel is OK and will continue. That’s what they say today, but who knows what they will be saying tomorrow?

Egypt and the region is due for some CHANGES…..must now look into the analysis of what’s happening over there…..

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“History is a light that illuminates the past, and a key that unlocks the door to the future.” (Runoko Rashidi )

If this pithy saying is to be taken seriously then it behoves us to examine the significance of the life and times of the late Biafran leader, and a re-examination of the whole concept/cause of any so called rebel – a word which has gained in notoriety in various other contexts ( rebel leaders and the moral justifications of their causes are not evenly or reasonably the same) not to mention every other insurgence that has ever taken place elsewhere on the continent since the attempt to establish a Biafra. Since then we have also witnessed the successful birthing of Eritrea and more recently the youngest African nation to join the African Union, the Republic of South Sudan.

The passing away of this major African player, albeit of the nineteen sixties, has taken place, largely unnoticed and without much commentary in the international media, although Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu remains an icon to many in his heartland and the reasons for his cause BIAFRA are ever on the horizon – except that for now (the present) the rumbustious Boko Haram for instance has not made IGBOS living in the North the main target of their pogroms – in its time, the very last straw that broke the camel’s back and contributed immensely to the declaration of a Biafra secession from the rest of Nigeria : Fast forward : “ On 24^th May ( 1967) “The former Regions were abolished , and Nigeria grouped into a number of territorial areas called provinces.. Nigeria ceases to be what is described as a Federation. It now becomes simply the Republic of Nigeria:” The regional and Federal public services were declared unified and “ every civil servant is now called upon to see his function in any part of Nigeria in which he is serving in the context of the whole country.”

“ The reaction in the North was swift and violent. The new unitary constitution , and in particular its provision for a unitary civil service, was seen as giving the Igbos a special advantage: since they had a huge educated élite as compared with that of the North, Northerners could not compete on equal terms for posts in the civil service and would cease to be masters in their own home. Hundreds of Igbos were killed in riots in Northern towns the following weekend. “…..(another fast forward) : ” The deliberations of this conference were abruptly ended by the news of new massacres of Igbos in the North, this time organised by both civilians and soldiers. Resentment of  the dominant economic position of the Igbos in the North and of their control of  so many administrative and clerical posts in the Region, that had been fired under the Ironsi regime, had not been assuaged by his murder. Thousands of Igbos were massacred and Igbos and other Southerners streamed South, where retaliatory action, particularly in the east, started a movement of Northerners back to their region…Ojukwu  refused to attend meetings in Lagos because of  fears for his safety. He called for all Easterners to return home, and thousands poured out of Lagos which had once had almost as many Igbo inhabitants  as indigenous Yorubas: There was now practically no communicaton between the Federal government and the Eastern Regional government” ( Michael Crowder )

Prior to the outbreak of war, the then Nigerian government under Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa had been conducting a very pro-western foreign policy…..

A relevant question of course is, what was Sweden’s foreign policy position about Biafra?

In the leading Swedish morning papers there were only the following brief reports about his life and his passing from this world unto another:

Dagens Nyheter reports: Biafra Rebel leader dead

In Svenska Dagbladet, the same brief report : Biafra rebel leader dead

The Biafra War was big news in Sweden and especially so since a Swede, Count Carl Gustaf von Rosen was engaged in flying humanitarian missions  – for Biafra – the name of his squadron, Babies of Biafra

Frederick Forsyth a friend and biographer of of Mr. Ojukwu also took up his cause…

The last year of the war in particular was most tragic since it resulted in the death of over one million Biafrans – and in fact during the last few months of the Biafra War the ultimate weapon of war was used : Biafra was starved into surrendering.

In his lifetime Chukwuemeka Ojukwu remained a controversial figure on the national scene – and even given the Yoruba Nation – Igbo people-hood divide, we still have this little niche of  Nigeria’s two major men of letters:

1. Wole Soyinka and Biafra.
2. Quite naturally and to be expected ) : “Things Fall Apart” Chinua Achebe on the Nigerian Civil War
3. Surviving in Biafra: the story of the Nigerian civil war : over …2 million people d-ied….

The Republic of Biafra- Once Upon a Time in Nigeria: My Story of … – Page 1

Ex-paparazzo in Biafra – 12 Jul 1968 – Page 3 ( pictures tell the story on pages 20 ff ….a war of extinction)

This is the Doyen Professor of History Toyin Falola’s story of the war …

Michael Crowder’s succinct chapter 18 entitled “ A Decade of Troubles” on pages 259 – 277 of his classic “ The story of Nigeria”. Chapter 18 introduces the decade with these words.

“When Nigeria became an independent member of the international community there was considerable optimism about its future both within the country and outside, particularly among the Western powers. Independence had been achieved through patient negotiation between Nigerian leaders and their colonial masters , not by violent revolution. The three governing parties of the regions – the N.P.C. In the North , the N.C. N.C. in the East, and the Action Group in the West – all formally espoused Western-style parliamentary democracy. At the Federal level the N.P.C and the N.C.N.C despite the considerable differences in their political philosophies, had agreed to form a coalition government while the Action Group provided the “loyal opposition”. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe , the only politician with real popularity outside his region of origin, agreed to take on the purely ceremonial post of Governor- General and became “Father of the Nation”, The Prime Minister , Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa , was well known for his political moderation, a factor which particularly appealed to the Western powers, with whose economies Nigeria was still closely integrated. Unlike the majority of African states Nigeria had a viable , diversified economy with great potential for development given the size of its market and the existence of substantial oil resources. Despite declarations of socialist intent, all three governing parties were committed to the capitalist economic system.

Even given the tensions that had preceded independence, Nigeria appeared in its first year of sovereign nationhood a sea of tranquillity compared with the Congo. Yet within less than seven years it was to be plunged into a thirty month long civil war. Civilian rule was to be discredited and military rule which replaced it was to prove unable to hold the country together.

At first in the early years of independence, the constitution seemed, after all its limitations, able to contain the various strains to which it was subjected. As one Nigerian newspaper put it succinctly: “Nigerians seemed to have perfected the art of walking on the brink of disaster without falling in.” Indeed it was with the complete breakdown of law and order in the Western Region in late 1965 that the military finally overthrew the government and suspended the constitution.”

This set in motion a chain of events leading to the Biafra war…..

At the start of the war I was part of a student body which had an equal number of Yoruba and Igbo students and a few Hausa and Fulani students from Northern Nigeria. Some evenings I listened to recordings of General Ojukwu’s broadcasts.  At a certain point we were signing petitions for Soyinka to be released from prison. Today, I wish that I could convey my condolences and heartfelt sympathies to Kenneth Ofodile (we were dating two Sierra Leonean sisters at the time – and he eventually married his, Winifred Olu Fowler, before the end of the war).

By a series of coincidences, on a flight from London I found myself getting off the plane at Port Harcourt airport and being ushered into a Jeep which was driven under armed escort and as an honoured  guest of  Solomon X one of the Ikemba’s close relatives – all the way to Umuahia where I stayed for two wonderful weeks in February – March 1983 ( a long story which I skip over for the time being and reserve for another occasion). To date, I’m familiar with the Biafra part of Nigeria, the more Christianised part of Eastern Nigeria where I worked, 1981 to 1984

It was Umuahia that was the centre of the Biafra struggle and the IKEMBA is a man who I will continue to hold in very high regard, his intention was a reaction to the circumstances that prevailed then and to some extent has continued to prevail since. In many interviews that he granted after the failed Biafra adventure, he has pointed out what many other commentators have also pointed out, that we must visit the very “ the very foundations “ of Nigeria, that Nigeria is a Lugardist experiment – that is, an amalgamation of many peoples, languages, competing ethnicities, religions,  into a seemingly often malfunctioning inchoate, political and national entity welded together as the vast nation called the Federal Republic of NIGERIA , Africa’s most populous nation.

Freedom and in unity are ideals to be worked for sure – but I also believe that if someone wants a divorce, that should be automatic and granted instantaneously.  I have always thought and continue to believe that an appropriately worked out  federal constitutional umbrella should be able to take care of the multifarious diversities of any composite nation – by granting much needed regional autonomy within a national/ federal framework, but this has often proved to be more feasible in theory and in fiction, than achievable as living harmonious fact in reality. The crux of the matter is that the location of some country’s natural resources is not evenly distributed nor is the revenue allocation always equitable/ fair. – the Niger Delta crisis is an instance of this disproportion, mismanagement and misuse of a country’s resources, by ignoring the plight of the people from whose ancestral areas the oil wealth flows. The Delta accounts for more than 75 % of the national revenues and the Delta continues to be mired in environmental degradation. Ultimately they too would much prefer to declare the Delta a new Kuwait and utilise those resources at least to their own benefit….and the rest of Nigeria?

In Honour of Emeka

Here is one of many eulogies : General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu

More eulogies

He is sadly missed, and will not be forgotten.

May Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s soul rest in perfect eternal peace.

Somebody please say AMEN.

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Recently watched  CARYL PHILLIPS interviewed by Razia Iqbal on BBC :Talking Books

– and since Phillips touches on issues of race, loyalty, identity, even football in this interview, I also got to re-thinking about famous Black Britons and about Sweden ( not too many famous Black Swedes or Swedes of a darker ancestry on the Swedish planet yet) and of course – inevitably – I got to thinking about that vexing “a negro is a negro to me“ kind of problematique recently posed by an SD spokes-lady, in one of her unguarded moments.

This is the sort of attitude that Africa does not encounter when approached by China, and it must be said that it’s to their advantage – to the extent that China has made a lot of progress in Africa, without firing a shot or colonizing anybody. And mind you, only a few Africans speak Chinese. In this space age, some a them (jackass of all trades and master of none) instead of digging Li Po or getting on with learning Chinese, are still trying to figure out whether the mysteries they believe in may be encoded in a hieroglyphics which could be to their personal advantage

You got it : it’s different strokes for different folks.

“Criticism is as inevitable as breathing” and comparisons do also inevitably come to mind, although it is unfair to compare dear Sweden which St Bartholomew aside, had neither great colonies nor an Empire to compare with that of Great Britain under Queen Victoria or even later. Wherefore it can be rightly said that generally speaking Sweden and Swedes do not suffer from having a “colonial complex” and therefore, undaunted by grammatical inhibitions or the fear of the occasional malapropism,  speak Swenglish swimmingly, like Jimmie B (Åke’s son. )

It’s a national characteristic. Swenglish, a distinct Germanic language with it’s own vocabulary, loaning heavily from the good old Brits and leaning lightly on the American variety,  especially when the oddball believes that he is talking to an American Negro, from Chicago

Nor does injustice or unfairness come into the picture when you want to compare famous Black Swedes with the famous African-Americans in US history. We (Sweden) still have a long way to go before we can start boasting like Muhammad Ali…..

There’s an on-going discussion about a so called love-hate relationship between Swedes and the US:

and I intend to chip in since I love so much that is the US and so much that is Sweden.

All of which brings me to the word empathy –and it’s more than just a word.

Caryl Phillips was asked about 911 (he relocated from the UK and has been living in New York the past twenty years) – and it would be rewarding to listen to what this articulate individual has to say in response to the question. Suffice it to say that there are many people on planet earth who love America – and all the jazz – but claim that they do not like some of the US’s foreign policies and their implementation and believe it or not – according to John Bolton ( latest programme Frost over the world) foreign policy is very much a missing ingredient in the Republican’s selection process as to who is going to face Obama in the battle for the White House.

Of course there too some people, perhaps that SD lady among them, may think that it should not be won by a so called “ Negro” because it’s called the WHITE House after all….

About empathy, you do not have on your facebook wall a picture of a car ramming into a whole group of Black people who you laughingly call Negroes and then say “ a negro is a negro to me”

When you do so, then your diabolical meaning is crystal clear.

“is your heart made out of stone, or is it lime,  or is it just solid rock ?”

Empathy should also include empathy about the fate or the plight of your landsman – a national of Sweden. In my view, this empathy should also enter into policy considerations especially in education as well as sports, culture, music etc., with a view to building up and strengthening the next generation of immigrants, and their children – they too have great contributions to make to Moder Svea in the near future.

Kwame Anthony Appiah’s “ In My Father’s House” aimed at demonstrating that thought itself is not racial…..

Kwame Anthony Appiah on race . You could check out what he says about  race-ism.

Judaism is  clear

I asked the Pa Google, the info chief, “What do our Christian brothers say about racism?”

It’s basically a matter of practising what you preach. Or what Jesus preached. Or what Peter, Paul and Mary preached.

More importantly – something that I wanted to point out at the very beginning is what our Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has said on the matter of racism, since most Swedes (Christians & atheists alike) have a lot of confidence in him – more confidence in him than in any other politician on the Swedish blue horizon and therefore look up to him.

Alexandra Pascalidou is one of my favourite Swedes. She occupies higher moral ground and writes with such clarity and forthrightness about whatever it is she is burning for. I read her column entitled “Borg – Sweden’s new Superstar” in Friday’s Stockholm Metro – and in a column between what she was writing was this little item : “Fredrik Reinfeldt’s interview on racism in Sydsvenska Dagbladet. Everyone should read it!”

Dutifully, like a faithful citizen I did just that, although I’m not sure exactly which interview is being referred to.

If all of the above is a little nerve-wrecking then listen to this, and it’s my ole buddy Kwatei Jones-Quartey there on the guitar in Harlem country girl . I hope that he will be in Stockholm with Olu Dara, one of these days……

Keeping track :

Conversations with Caryl Phillips

Conversations with Caryl Phillips – Caryl Phillips, Renée …

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“Because man originated in Africa, the genetic diversity in Africa is much greater than in Asia or Europe, which were first settled only 30,000 years ago.”

http://www.africandna.com/

This is  one approach:

RESPECT

There’s so much that could be said but which I’m not going to say, although it looks as if some people really don’t know what time it is.

Re – the Sweden Democrat who said “a negro is a negro to me.”

I must point out from the start, that that observation – and the various ways it lays itself open to interpretation, is not in the spirit of Joe Frans and the Swedish Martin Luther King awards

Negro and what it used to mean, is not a joking matter.

Other people’s sensitivity is not to be joked with.

Indeed, a Negro is a Negro is a Negro.

Once upon a time the word Negro was synonymous with being inferior, being less than human etc. and associated with the unholy concept of another race.

Respect . Please.

Times have changed.

So if today, someone does not want to be called a Negro or to be referred to as the town fool, what’s the problem?

Reminds me of this item during the last presidential campaign in the US of A:

Obama insults Palin

Here’s something else, it’s from the chapter entitled “I got the blues” by Alan Lomax, to be found on page 485-6 of “Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel” Edited by Alan Dundes :

“ Natchez interrupted sharply. “ You

see the main point is that word they

have down here – “ Kill a nigger, hire

another one.” All these things, everything we’ve

talked about, all these blues and everything, come under

that one word. Fact of the business , back not long ago,

a Negro didn’t mean no more to a white man than a mule”

“Didn’t mean as much,” said Leroy.

“A black man,” Natchez went on, “ to what they looked at,

was just a black face. I knew a man (they call him Mister White)

had a plantation about fifty or sixty miles square and he didn’t

even want a Negro to come through his place. The government highway

ran through his land you know? What they call a pike, a main highway

where everybody had to go, but he built a special road, ran all around the place

and when you got there it was a sign said “ NEGRO TURN”. You had to

turn off the highway and go all around his plantation.”

“ I knew him, knew him well,” Leroy muttered.

“ And this Mister White had all white fences around his place. The trees ,

he painted them white as high as he could reach. All his cattle, his sheeps,

goats, hogs, cows, mules, hosses and everything on his place was white.

Anytime one of his animals have a black calf or a black goat -

whatsoever it was – Mister White give it to the niggers. Even down to the chickens.

He had all white chickens, too. And when a chicken would hatch off some black

chickens, he’d say, “ Take those chickens out and find a nigger and give ‘em to him..

Get rid of ‘em. I won’t have no nigger chickens on this plantation!”

“I’ve seed all that too,” said Leroy.

“And you know the time a Negro and a white man was standing’ by a railroad crossin’?

They was talkin’, you know. The white man was tellin’ the Negro what he wanted him to do.

So along came another Negro drivin’ a wagon with a white mule hitched to it. Well, the railin’

was kinda high at this crossin’ and the wheels got caught and the wagon stopped. This Negro who was drivin’ begin to holler at the mule.  “Get up !” he says. “Get along there.”

“So the white man holler up there and asked him, say,

“Hey you, don’t you know that’s a white mule you talkin’ to?”

“ Yassuh, boss,” the Negro tell him, “ Get up Mister Mule!”

( Of course much laughter , skip a short paragraph to )

……… “ And how about that Prince Albert tobacco?” gasped Natchez , when he could speak again.

“ I’ve heard of that ,” said Leroy.

“ You know you couldn’t go into one of these here little country stores and say,

“ Gimme a can of Prince Albert” ?

Not with that white man on the can.”

“What would you say? “

“ Gimme a can of Mister Prince Albert!”

This is Sweden. The year 2011, going to 2012…

In Sweden the word “Negro” does not exist in the Swedish Language. The old Swedish/German word for Negro is “neger” and is dangerously close to sounding like the all- purpose expletive “Nigger” which is still out of favour, and so the neger word which in Swedish means “Negro”, has been dropped from popular Swedish usage. Not politically correct. Not in the Church of Sweden either.

In Stockholm, the skinheads / Swedish Skins used to travel by tube in their own country as far as Rissne – and as the saying goes, discretion is the better part of valour, so from that safe distance they would point like their greatest hero King Karl XII pointing towards Russia, so too the skinheads would go as far as Rissne and from there would point in the direction of the invandrartät neighbourhoods of Rinkeby, Tensta, Hjulsta where there are great concentrations of darker-skinned people from Arabia, Africa and Asia, and say “ There lives the Svartskalle !” – but of course, wisely, they have never invaded those areas, probably for fear of reprisals….

You don’t go around in Trench town or Soweto, calling people Negro or the other word…that would be bad for trade with post-Apartheid South Africa. And please bear that in mind, those of you who want to divide the world in two – the White – and the non-White and remember that ours is an export-driven economy.

We had better start by sorting out who is a human being and who isn’t and what our role is in the world of human affairs. Although this is mostly centred on the evolution of race-conscious in the US, I recommend the transcript of the discussion between James Baldwin and Margaret Mead, published as “ A Rap on Race.”

Of course I would have liked to have witnessed a discussion of race between Annika Rydh of Älmhult, and Bob Dylan or the late  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, or James Baldwin, or Malcolm X – or Nina Simone or Nelson Mandela for that matter or with Sister Angela Davis or the late Eldridge Cleaver, or Brother Ishmael Reed…or Lewis Ricardo Gordon or Kwame Anthony Appiah better still between President Barack Obama and the SD’s Jimmie Åkesson….as I doubt that one of the more distinguished such as Sister Condi would deign to condescend to such a brief encounter

Or maybe,  Annika Rydh of  Älmhult  would prefer to tango with Brother Cornel West, a real Christian?

I guess that she  was trying to make some sort of human distinction between her probable Caucasian self and any so called “Negro” which by the way is spelled Negro – with the capital letter N

Not that I’m about to play the dozens or the dirty dozens with an innocent SD like her. I’m not hurt or angry nor do I feel challenged by either her ignorance or a misplaced intention in her preference for the old word, Negro. I should just like to set the record straight, that’s all, so that she doesn’t make a mortal mistake in an environment in which a misuse of the word could prove to be  fatal  or cause the loss of  life and  limb.  I can’t for a moment imagine Messrs Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson or her distinguished self standing up in an Ethiopian Court of Law and referring to their interlocutors as

“Negroes” or addressing the Chief Justice of Addis-Ababa in the land of the Ethiops, as a “negro” – or  telling him plain and simple, ” a negro is a negro to me” -  and What do you mean by that?!  That could only make matters worse. In such circumstances I guess that she’d have to simply go on harbouring such an antiquated word as Negro secretly concealed in her bosom, and not out and into the open. Reminds me of the secretary of the Board of Education in Barbados being denied entry to one of Stockholm’s places of entertainment – by one of the club’s bouncers on the grounds that his boss did not admit “Negroes”.

Well, there are no Negroes here. I assure you.

In my view the word “Negro” belongs to history and not to contemporary usage and the historic abuse and suffering that accompanied the evolution of the black man from being called nigger and Negro, through Afro-American, to Black, to African-American, should not be trivialised or ridiculed by the deliberate use of the word as a racist, or to ridicule or downgrade anyone’s self-image. So why not call people by the names that they would prefer to be called – African  or Black – or no colour at all?

She says that “There is the red race, the yellow race, and then there’s me, who is of the white race. A negro is a negro.”

I don’t believe in the existence of races , but if according to her, there is ”red”, “yellow”, “white” race then , why not add “black” – race – black – like before the Almighty said, and there was light?

Let me  introduce to you,

The definitive guide to Equality in Sweden

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