XENOPHOBIA: ‘WHO TAUGHT YOU TO HATE YOURSELF?’ -BY MARTINS OLOJA
“Who taught
you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the colour of your
skin? To such extent you bleach, to get like the white man. Who taught you to
hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate
yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to
hate your own kind? Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to so much
so that you don't want to be around each other? No... Before you come asking
Mr. Muhammad does he teach hate, you should ask yourself who taught you to hate
being what God made you. We don't steal, we don't gamble, we don't lie and we
don't cheat.
You can't get into a whiskey bottle without getting
past a government seal. You can't buy a deck of cards without getting past a
government seal. Here the white man makes the whiskey then puts you in jail for
getting drunk. He sells you the cards and the dice and puts you in jail when he
catches you using them.
The most disrespected woman in America, is the black
woman. The most un-protected person in America is the black woman. The most
neglected person in America, is the black woman. And as Muslims, the honourable
Elijah Muhammed teaches us to respect, our women, and to protect our women. And
the only time a Muslim gets real violent, is when someone goes to molest his
woman. We will kill you, for our women I'm making it plain yes, we will kill
you for our women. We believe that if the white man, will do whatever is
necessary, to see that his woman get respect and protection, then you and I
will never be recognized as men. Until we stand up like men and pays the same
penalty over the head of anyone, who puts his filthy hands out, to put it in a
direction of our women....”
-(Malcolm X – May 22, 1962, Los
Angeles speech on black-on black violence).
Contrast this with what is happening in South
Africa…then read the next excerpt on the back race.
Black Man Still In a Dilemma
“This book is about the problems of the black race. I
have tried to find reasons why the black man’s membership of the human family
has never been on the basis of genuine equality and the reasons the black race
is backward. I have examined the black man’s past, his stupidities and
unexplored challenges. I have raised many hard questions, which challenge the
very nature of the black society, its long-standing values, beliefs and
institutions.
My observations and conclusions have relevance to all
black peoples who lived in Africa in the period before the slave trade and
colonialism, the black peoples of the new nations of Africa and those who are
still under foreign domination as well as the blacks in the United States,
South America, the Caribbean and Europe. In short, this book is about black
peoples throughout the world.
The concept of the black personality is becoming
increasingly popular. Culturally, the concept is believed to be deep-seated
desire of the black race to reach out for its past and the peculiar
contributions, which our race had made and may make to world culture and
civilisation. Politically, the concept of black personality connotes the
assertion of equality of black peoples with other races. And the political
aspect of black of black concept has become increasingly important with
attainment of independence by many African countries.
But I believe that concepts like black personality or
Negritude will remain empty slogans unless it helps black peoples to embark on
a candid self-examination of the past, their present and their future. It is
the belief that that black peoples are today leaving the substance for the
shadow that prompted me to write this book.
And in this study, I have come up with the sad
discovery that the much-vaunted black man’s contributions to civilisation are
comparatively negligible. Africa, in particular and the black world, in
general, have contributed very little to modern world and the enrichment to civilisation.
For if truth be known, we are just backward.
This view is bases on an assumption that the different
races of the world came into existence at the same time. Of general
significance is the possibility that our contributions to civilisation may
continue to be insignificant hundreds of years from now unless we critically
and honestly find out why in all the crises of man’s story, our race has always
been the underdog.
We must admit the fact of our backwardness. We must
ignore the liberal white scholars who exaggerate our past contributions to
civilisation.
After all, our black ancestors were as civilised as
some liberal scholars would want us to believe, we must be able to find
unmistakable evidence of their concrete achievements in Africa. For instance,
the English, the Chinese, the Egyptians, or the Japanese, can point to their
ancestors’ great achievements in terms of buildings, works of art and
inventions.
Some writers have attributed our relative backwardness
to black man’s mental inferiority in comparison with Caucasian and other races.
These are to my mind, extreme views. These are theories, which regard the black
race as sub-human and genetically inferior to other races. But after an
elaborate examination of the intelligence test studies, I have come to the
conclusion that there is no genetical intellectual superiority of the white man
over the black man as such. The range of mental groups is the same among all
races and throughout the world. There is abundant evidence of black men who have
clearly excelled the white men in various aspects of human endeavours. Even
then, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that factors like the black
man’s colonial past, the crippling effect of the slave trade to him, nature’s
kindness to him, his isolation, climatic conditions and neo-colonialism in the
new black states of Africa, the Caribbean and South America have, to varying
degrees, conditioned our intellect, our life outlook and our identity. These
factors have adversely affected our creativity and originality.
For instance, the social effects of colonialism have
degraded and dehumanised the black peoples. The great historical wrong done to
blacks through the slave trade and colonialism constitutes an important
explanation for our backwardness.
But the strange thing about our race is that other
races have, in the past, been similarly enslaved and colonised. But these other
races broke the shackles of slavery and domination, reached great heights and
in many cases excelled their oppressors in contribution to civilisation.
But the black man has, for too long, looked for
scapegoats for his many problems. He has, therefore, become his own worst
enemy. It means our salvation as a race depends on our ability to honestly and
candidly examine our limitations and weaknesses. We must find out why we have,
for centuries remained poor imitators of the Caucasian race. The present great
pride in our cultural heritage is significant only if it helps us to reshape
towards new goals and purposes.
Pride in our past is meaningful only if it becomes a
source of strength for great achievements in science and technology by some of
the free black nations of the world. Pride in our past is meaningful if it
enables, at least, a black nation to make an original breakthrough to
modernity. Nkrumah’s Ghana, Guinea, Tanzania, Guyana, and Nigeria since July,
1975 coup, had sought or have been seeking original solutions to their problems
of development. They have thinking and progressive leaders, but these are so
few in relation to many black states that are helpless and have no sense of
direction.
Civilisation is a heritage of mankind. It is not a
native of any region. It is not an exclusive contribution of any race. May
races have contributed to civilisation through contacts. But unless the black
race makes its own significant contributions to civilisation, our race will
continue to be pitied or at best merely tolerated like all beggars. We will
continue to be world’s underdog. To make it, the black man needs a hurricane of
change known as revolution. He needs a complete mental revolution. But it
appears to me that a great majority of the back middle class are not ready for
this. Here lies the black man’s dilemma....”
(This is a Preface to the 1976 edition of Areoye Oyebola’s
book, a classic, titled, ‘BLACK MAN’S DILEMMA’, which is relevant at this time
when Africa’s fate is being discussed in the context of a clash of the two
titans, Nigeria and South Africa at this moment.
AS KANO BEGINS FREE AND
COMPULSORY EDUCATION
Something not so prominent but quite significant
happened in Kano last week and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, a law
professor, witnessed and praised the initiative. It was the launch of free and
compulsory basic and secondary education in Kano State, amidst widespread and
devastating effects of Boko Haram insurgency in northern region. I was there
for a two-day summit on the free-and compulsory education policy that will
somewhat be the fundamental objective and directive principle of state policy
of the second term of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s second term in office.
I was privileged to be there. I took copious notes and I saw some obvious
danger signals between the north and the south that the Buhari administration
has to begin to address. I will give details of the challenge later. But read
this excerpt from the Vice President’s keynote on the occasion. It is
instructive about what all governors in the core north should copy instead of
lamenting about the effects of Boko Haram and posing with criminals for
meretricious photo opportunities in Katsina state, for instance.
‘…One of the expected critical outcomes of our efforts
to expand access to basic education is the attainment of Mr. President’s
commitment to lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next
decade.
Indeed, it is our conviction that the inclusive
prosperity we seek requires a commitment to inclusive education. This means
addressing class, regional and gender-based disparities in access to
education…. Kano lies at the centre of that plan because Kano itself is at the
centre of the region that has been historically considered a zone of
educational disadvantage. Kano has always been reputed as a place of learning
and this landmark policy pronouncement on free and compulsory education will
not only draw the over 1 million out-of-school children in the State from the
streets into classrooms, it also sets a hugely important precedent for other
States to follow. We believe that as the most populous State in the North, Kano
is eminently positioned to trigger an educational revolution across the
region.
I am especially gratified to see that your policy of
free and compulsory education specifically and unambiguously includes “the girl
child.” Economic growth is simply impossible when a critical half of our
population is denied the opportunities for empowerment. Indeed, the most
prosperous societies on the planet are places where gender is no obstacle to
gaining an education and boys and girls enjoy equal access to knowledge….’
Let’s encourage northern states to integrate the
Almajiri education programme with the conventional education system for
national integration too.
We will continue this conversation.
Note: This article was first published in The Guardian
of Sunday August 18, 2019, on “Inside Stuff with MARTINS OLOJA”. Used by
permission.
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