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 Issues

OBAMA & CLINTON

It's not gender - memo to my friends
(On the Issue of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Presidential Hopefuls of the Democratic Party)
By Chinyere G. Okafor
See also: http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10057/1324/USA-Not%20Gender.pdf?sequence=1

Posted on USA Africa Dialogue Series, March 06, 2008
See USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Women in this country have not forgotten how women were and are still discriminated against. To many, Mrs. Hillary Clinton is The Gender Hope. Many of my sisters and friends from the African continent and the Diaspora are of the same mind set. They berate me, sometimes using very harsh words, for not having a passion for gender and for what men do to women. I do have a passion for gender and I can prove it but that is not the issue here. However, I must admit that I differ with many of them on the issue of what men do to women. To a large extent in this day and age, a person can do to another person how much that person allows. There are laws and regulations, groups and organizations out there to help. I don't want to forget gender oppression but I don't care much for a fixation on it. It should not control my life or tell me not to scrutinize gendered people. We lose the battle with a fixation on ONLY gender oppression. It is divisive. Men and women have fought together and still do. Men too are oppressed; it depends on many factors such as class, race, ability, not just gender. I have followed and admired the rise of Hillary Clinton and I respect what she stands for, but she confused many of us with her support of the invasion of Iraq at a time that majority of people in this country and the world, including the United Nations, did not support it. Where is the gender opinion that ascribes 'peace' to women? That's it for those who prescribe and ascribe feminine traits! That she appears to be changing now because of politics is more confusing. When we talk about individuals in leadership positions such as the presidency, we need to think about qualities. Women who have risen to the presidency in the world have not done so because of gender - Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain, Golda Meier of Israel, Indira Gandhi of India, and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia to name a few. They inspired leadership and were able to galvanize the support of opposing and/or multiple interest groups. Two years ago when my nephew told me about Barack Obama, I said "what?" When my students began to bring up the same name, I had to pay more attention. Over the years, it had been difficult to get them to appreciate that they are vectors of change, so I was pleased to see that someone has not only got them to appreciate it but also got them to become active agents of political change. This has been seen as unprecedented in US history. What was responsible for this? Barack Obama. To have been able to use his ability as a youth organizer to mobilize people of this country, to me, is one of the greatest feats of this period. It is fundamental to democracy because democracy does not want to leave anybody behind. And YES the speech thing. From JFK to Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. and Mandela, democracy has always relied on inspiring leaders.

On the issue of Management - Management draws from your ability to use your personal resources and the resources that are available to you. America has excellent resources, both human and otherwise, but we need a leader who is able to tap the best without fear. This is the stuff of a Commander-in-Chief. Which of the presidential hopefuls has the charisma to inspire your trust? Which one has shown the ability to draw human and other resources? Which one has risen from 'unknown factor' to the frontline position? To super transparent fund-raiser who has nothing to hide? This leader has the skills for getting this nation out of its economic quandary. He is Barack Obama. From the position of my folks, poor women from the other side of town, I look at people for what they have to offer to my folks and America at this time of depression when many find it difficult to have enough heat in their houses. Who has been in my situation and who has shown the empathy for my situation? Who spoke up for immigrants when all others were afraid? Who is not afraid to look at the enemy in the eye and talk TO him as we did successfully in North Korea? Who is willing to dialogue with enemies at this age that there are too many wars? At this time that America wants peaceful resolution to conflicts rather than war? I personally don't want our men and women to be sent to unwarranted wars? Obama's willingness to dialogue with enemies is appealing. Leaders of the world are mostly young people. Young people are the shakers and movers of this global technological world. In this country, young people are attracted to Obama's youthfulness, sincerity, and passion for changing the old game of hatred and negativity. Young people can relate to Obama. They have not yet been corrupted by negativism. The future belongs to young people and old people who need change to spice up their life. I see Obama as an opportunity to revitalize the polity to greater heights. Without prejudice to those wives who claim their husbands' experience as theirs, may I ask how one determines which of the husband's experience to claim and which one to ignore? If you are the wife of a doctor/surgeon and you claim to be a doctor/surgeon because of that, why won't you claim both the successful surgical operations and the deaths as well? If someone had luncheons and shook hands with presidents, does that make that person a president? No president of the United States had the experience of being president of the US the first time he contested. No Senator had the experience of being a senator before s/he became a senator and yet they claim to do their jobs satisfactorily. I agree that "Obama has interjected freshness and vigor to politics. He has infused innervating enthusiasm and brought the healing balm of unity, breaking all thresholds of divisiveness. That is what America needs now; a stable invigorated expectant and confident polity that will give teeth to their president. The effect of Obamamania is supremely positive and dynamic and it is the catalyst that America needs to carry all the citizens along in these trying times of threatening economic recession and global terrorism. Obama has revolutionized politics in America."

SOME REACTIONS TO THE ABOVE:

Date Sent:

Thursday, March 06, 2008 6:50 PM

From:

Moses Ebe Ochonu <ebe_28@yahoo.com>

To:

USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: IT’S NOT GENDER

Chinyere:

I couldn't have put it better. I don't trust desperate people who would do anything to grab power or whatever it is they are chasing. Clinton's desperation is
frightening. Obama's calm, methodical mien is refreshing. He doesn't mind losing. Clinton has shown that she does. Which tells me that her ego is more
important to her than service.

Obama exemplifies political courage. At a time when 70 percent of Americans were enthusiastically supporting George Bush march to war in Iraq, Obama, a man who had federal office ambitions, took the risky, courageous position of swimming against the tide, opposing a war that most Americans, following Bush's predictions, thought was going to go so well that it would put its critics to shame. That's rare political courage and sagacity. That's the stuff of a person who would rather be right and exercise good judgment than win elections by going with the flow of public opinion.

A man who can lay his political career on the line to take such a courageous foreign policy position in the interest of America's strategic interests is infinitely more qualified to be commander-in-chief than someone who is claiming her husband's experience as her own, someone who voted for the disastrous war
in Iraq and the saber-rattling Iran resolution.

Subject:

RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - IT’S NOT GENDER

Urgent New

 
Thanks Chinyere for writing this piece. I'm not going to comment on it. Instead, I am applying to our situation in Germany. Unlike you, we've made history by voting for Angela Merkel and where has it brought us? Nowhere. People are paying more tax (19%), have less in their pockets and there is about 5 % inflation.

Merkel is brilliant, has the so-called experience but is not an effective leader. At least Schröder carried out reforms (AGENDA 2020) which is what is yielding fruits today and people know it and it is always openly discussed. It accounts for the strong economy because he modernised the ancient system left behind by Helmut Köhl. I could go on and on about what has gone wrong here. The latest faux-pas she made was to back that idiot in Hesse, the governor called Roland Koch who claimed that Foreign youths are criminals and should be deported. This was after she had held her so-called Integration convention with representatives from the ethnic minorities living in Germany. Schröder woke up from his sleep and lashed out at both of them. He said they must be blind in one eye because they're looking the wrong way. The real problems are the Skinheads who are getting more and more dangerous. At least in his time he did something about them. What has she done? Nothing. Instead they'r
e using young foreigners and the silenced minority as their scapegoat.

It explains why her party is now sinking and she is struggling with the changes in the parliament. One thing is certain, she is one candidate I will never vote for. I will not vote for her because she's a woman and it makes me feel good to do so. Don't get me wrong the leaders of the Green Party are women and they are okay and they've done a lot for their party. These women told her to stop roaming about the world and start doing the work she is being paid to do!

T
-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:35:09 -0600
> Von: "chinyere.okafor" <chinyere.okafor@wichita.edu>
> An: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
> Betreff: USA Africa Dialogue Series - IT’S NOT GENDER
>

To:

USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE- IT'S NOT GENDER

Urgent New

 

As much as I would have preferred<br>&nbsp;to stay at the side-lines and watch the cross- debates on who would be the better president between Obama and Mrs Clinton.I wish to comment briefly on the analogies that have been made, particularly on the issue of experience- which Mrs. Clinton seems to significantly rests her claim as a better candidate..In all these I think Chinyere's analogy of Mrs Clinton's experience to that of a surgeon's wife claiming credit for her surgeon-husband work, is really over the top- Bill Clinton Is Politician and Hillary Clinton is&nbsp; a politician-so they are in the same profession.<br>Simon<br<br>
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For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

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OBAMA'S SO-CALLED FUNNY NAME  
    
>===== Original Message From "theai@earthlink.net" <theai@earthlink.net> =====
>Why is the name Barack Obama "funny"? What is wrong with being an Afrikan American and what have Afrikan Americans done to any group?
>"Judge me by what I say and what I've done. Don't judge me because I've got a funny name. Don't judge me because I'm African-American and people are concerned about memories of the past," Obama said.
>
>Obama tries to reassure Jewish voters
>By CHRISTOPHER WILLS (Associated Press Writer)
>From Associated Press
>May 22, 2008 9:30 PM EDT
>BOCA RATON, Florida -

Date Sent:

Friday, May 23, 2008 5:11 PM

From:

chinyere.okafor@wichita.edu

To:

USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Didn't I Tell You That Obama Is One Hell Of A Confused Negro!!!

Urgent New

 

Not His but Our Confusion 
     by Chinyere G. Okafor

If Barack is a confused Negro
Then Barack is a tenacious mirror Of the confusion of all of us.

A herculean task you may say
For any mirror in this our world
Of different intents and interests.

Our word that constructs hatred,
And puts labels in shapes and colors,
That clash and slash even by their sound:
Ne-Gro-o, anti-Bla-ack, anti-Semitism, Mis-Ogyny, Mis-And-Rist, Homo-phobia,
Closet-Ed-Muslim, D-S-L-Immigrant.

The color of our Hercules might be black and white all in one as God made him,
But his blood is the same one color that runs in all of us no matter our shape or shade.
So he is human like all of us and can only go as far as we let him if we are not consumed with hatred of self and hatred for others. We are the world. We need to welcome the season for plating Change.

By the way, I think that the name Barack Obama is poetic, It is a proud mountain name that inspires great art, A name that inspires warriors of old to great heights, A name that carries untold anointing form the Creator.
Some people say that the name is like prayer when you say it slow-ly, Many young and young at heart find the name ex-tremely sex-y.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Barack Obama, your name is fun not "funny," fine not "funny."

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TALK OF ASSASINATION  

Date Sent:

Friday, May 23, 2008 5:43 PM

From:

USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

To:

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Obama and Kennedy's Assadination

Urgent New

 

Which way America? 
by Chinyere G. Okafor

Face it America!
We speak peace but action is conflict.
The language is political correctness.

"No negotiation with enemy!
Bomb them to submission!
We are on mission democracy."

The paper is politically correct.
But we the people see the ploy:

"Submission has never been won with war.
Colonization and imperialism prove the point,
That submission plants antagonism and hatred."

It is false bravado to pump the chest,
And tout for fight when we can talk.

Face it America,
Our democracy plays a false note, In the band of bombs and grenades.

It is the aura of the high road,
That subdues evil with strategy.

Aura is negotiation, aura is sense-talk, aura seeks peace without war.
Aura is mature, civilized, and intelligent. In the end, aura is the strong one.

Remember America,
The strong one is not intimidated by hints and wishes of assassination,
For the strong one has a purpose protected by favor of good vocation,
The strong one rides grounds of those favored by the Ultimate Spirit.
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>
Chi, This is rugged verse. Do not let their jaundice affect your style of poetry. I do not like all these staccato words and the fury that underlie the words. it shows girl! After all, he said he excuses her because she was probably fatigued though of course i do not believe she was. But so be it. Sleep over your verse and make it more poetic to reflect your lucidity. H

 SPANKING/WHIPPING and CHILD ABUSE:
 Reflection on the case of the Igbo/Nigerian/African Professor who spanked his children  -
Professor of Business Studies at Alcorn State University and resident in Jackson, Mississippi.

“Is spanking/whipping Child Abuse?” 
by Chinyere G. Okafor
http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10057/1319/On%20spanking.pdf?sequence=1

Published as  In USA Africa Dialogue Series
Oct. 27, 2006. See USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

First, I must acknowledge Reuben Abati for opening up this ‘canker of --’. The exposition of the dilemma of parents from countervailing cultures living in the US and who must, therefore, bring up their children by American code of parenting speaks to many of us here in the US. Should I feel for the gentleman, notable professor, who is presumably trapped in this dilemma? And I mean 'presumably' because I'm not sure that he is a victim of culture clash. I know that I feel for the children living without their mother and undergoing this trauma from their father. Now without both parents, they have to deal with another pain - the prospect of dad going to jail. Speaking as an Igbo woman from Nigeria, one of the more than fifty four countries in Africa, I am in a kind of dilemma too about broad generalizations in the media about African culture, Nigerian culture, Igbo culture, an Igbo person’s behavior as African culture, when it comes to negative issues. If a white American hits his child and inflicts wounds on him, they’ll likely focus on the man’s background when he was a child to find out why he is violent, but not so for an African man. It is culture! When an African man beats his wife, it is explained as African culture. Statistics show that four women die every day in the US from wounds inflicted by their boyfriends or husbands, but this is not attributed to American ‘culture.’ It is called 'domestic violence'. It is not easy to expunge notions of Africa as ugly and dirty that we have internalized from media, books, and isolated examples like this one (the African professor that beat his son), but we have to try. Growing up in Igbo villages and later carrying out research in some as a scholar, I know that wife-beating exists, but it is not sanctioned. It is castigated in satirical songs. It also leads to wife-abandonment. It sometimes leads to vengeance from the wife’s siblings or family. Similarly child abuse is castigated in Nigeria. But there is confusion in perceptions. I was involved in a research project in which we saw great discrepancy between global perspective and the views from different regions of the world. For example, the practice of sending children to hawk commodities have often been described as child abuse, but many market women in Nigeria view the practice as an effective way of keeping the family together – they know when the children return from school for they have to come to the market to help out, acquire skills in the trade, and support family business (not the best, but in the socio-economic circumstances of the women, What is better?). Now to spanking. Women, I mean parents, do spank their children, but not to inflict wound or cause damage. Flogging is not a secret act. It is usually open. The child usually runs and this is expected to be the end of it. There is always someone who will prevent it from happening or rescue the child with “it is enough” (talk of rules of punishment). I’mnot saying that flogging is a great thing, because I’m against any kind of physical, psychological, emotional maltreatment, damage, or oppression. In the case of spanking a child, when does it slip from ‘correction’ (with good intention) to ‘maltreatment’ (‘bad belle’, bad intention, inflicting wound, damaging)? Society expects a mature adult to know the boundaries. Some Americans would not see ‘whooping’ a child’s 'behind' as maltreatment. Some may call it ‘tough love.’ US law also leaves the parent to apply mature judgment on the matter. Many States allow “reasonable and appropriate physical force” “necessary and appropriate to maintain discipline or promote welfare of the child.” I don’t see the difference between the US law on spanking and the notion of spanking in Igbo, Nigerian, and/or African contexts. I have never heard that a father put pepper in his child’s ‘wetin-call’, and even though I’ve now heard it, I know that it is not Igbo or Nigerian culture. I believe that if it is true, we don’t know the whole story. We can't gloss over it with generalizations of 'culture.' We have to ask questions. Why are other Igbo/African men not doing the same thing? It is Igbo culture for a man and his wife to raise children together. Why is the professor’s wife not there? I think that we should credit this man with individuality first, before we jump to that “abused mother’ called “African culture.” What is peculiar about his circumstances or experience that makes him different from other African men in the US? This kind of investigation might be more useful in saving him from possible jail term, and also helping him to work out better skills for managing anger, and maintaining discipline and peace in his family. We are not all abusers and we don’t come from ‘abusing cultures’! Chinyere G. Okafor, PHD Department of Women's Studies Wichita State University

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GENDER
Response to Pius Adesanmi’s “Disappearing Me Softly”
by
Chinyere G. Okafor
http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10057/1322/USA-Pepper%20to%20Injury.pdf?sequence=1
Published in USA Africa Dialogue Series, October 19, 2007. See USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com 

I read Kenneth Harrow’s piece as a reinforcement of the notion that African feminist writing is below standard and has to “grow up” in order to be included in world feminisms. I disagree, but he has every right to hold his opinion. He states that he is in “complete agreement with” Pius Adesanmi’s critique of Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism: A Reader; a critique that questions the exclusion of African women. However, Harrow's view that by excluding African scholars “Gubar and Gilbert are arguing for a standard of excellence grounded in culturally defined notions of quality,” contradicts his agreement. The kind of questions that he poses also contradicts Adesanmi’s argument for inclusion of African scholars. I cite only two of Harrow’s questions: 1. “Is there room within our profession for the non-African theorists’ work to be read in conjunction with African literature?” My simple reply is “yes there is room for the non-African but he should not take up the whole room.” However, I want to augment my reply with a question: Why must the theorists, in his question above, be non-African and the product (literature) be African. He seems to believe that African literature has to be analyzed SOLELY from the thinking produced from non-African (western) theorists? This implies the exclusion of African scholars and theorists. African way of thinking generated from African experience must be included in analyzing African literature and other literatures too! 2. “But are we doing the same by excluding non-African theorists in our readings of African literature, and in our understanding of what constitutes ‘African’?” My reply is also a question: Do they use African theorists to understand what constitutes ‘American’ or the west for that matter? It is true that African critics see the need to view African literature from the basis of African context and critical perspective, but that has never meant exclusion of non-African critical lenses. On the contrary, it is a struggle for the inclusion of Africans in discussing African affairs. In fact, I don’t know any criticism of African literature by Africans or non-Africans that did not include non-African theorists or views. When Harrow said as cited above that “Gubar and Gilbert are arguing for a standard of excellence grounded in culturally defined notions of quality;” what culture is he referring to as the Center from which all others are judged? Is it not the West? Feminist epistemology thrives on querying traditional way of thinking and argues for the

expansion and in some cases the rejection of monocentric vision including the so called classical cannon that has been used to exclude white women for a long time. I don’t mean that we should lessen standards but that we should continue to question the constitution of that “standard.” This is at the core of feminist thinking.
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HIV/AIDS STATISTICS

Let’s contest the millions with a good fight:
On the exaggeration of statistics on HIV/AIDS victims in Africa
by
Chinyere G. Okafor 

 Posted on USA Africa Dialogue Series, Dec. 15, 2006. See 
See USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com OR
  http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10057/1323/USA-HIV-Statistics.pdf?sequence=1


First, I want to appeal to writers not to make this listerv a terrain for egoistic ‘kantakism.’ I really don’t know the meaning of the word ‘kantakism’ but I heard it in a tirade of ‘agberos’ in Ariara market, Aba, Imo State, Nigeria. I think that ‘agbero’ is often translated as ‘tout.’ While being very artistic, dramatic and witty, agberos can be very garrulous and contentious. I plead that this forum does not degenerate to a level that can turn some people off, because that is what the feeling of ‘kantakism’ can do. I write to plead with us for more restraint.

Having said this, I want to state my opinion on the matter of ‘where exactly are the millions?’ (that has taken up a lot of my computer space). I understand the need to question western-generated statistics, ideas, and experiments on Africans etc. There are issues of their hidden agenda and we’ve read about the subjectivity of some of the most scientifically ‘objective’ research. But this should not relegate the need for action that has been raised and emphasized in recent discussions. Even one person afflicted with HIV/AIDS is enough for a call for action. It spreads through human agency.
The postings on “where exactly are the millions” remind me of the debate in the late eighties and early nineties about the origin of HIV/AIDS. Theories of its origin from African green monkeys and/or western scientific laboratory predominated. But ACTION. The song of the debate was soon drowned by the tragic melody of the cries of victims. I’m not downplaying a debate that I participated in, and I think that it is still relevant just as the debate on statistics. Can we do our own work on the statistics and still pursue strategies that work for the control of the disease? I think so.

My thinking on this issue is facilitated by this market women’s saying: “we telling you say fire burn am, you asking if it burn im goatee?” As long as we have the disease, we should focus our energy on eradicating it. If we succeed in ‘killing’ HIV/AIDS (action), we can all shout WE DON’T HAVE IT. There will be no need for statistics on HIV/AIDS in Africa when it no longer exists in Africa.
So let’s KILL it! Let’s contribute to the fight according to our talents. Generating accurate figures, creating awareness, engaging malpractices, visiting the ‘reality’ (I know a boy who visited an African country with his Nigerian-American mother and took photographs of AIDS orphans. He has raised scholarship money for them). Multi-tasking!

When we succeed, the past/old western-generated statistics will still be there and we can continue to engage them. After all, we are still contesting other data like the number of slaves, women raped and so on.

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WOMEN'S HAIR

Date Sent:

Monday, July 31, 2006 7:45 PM

From:

Toyin Falola <toyin.falola@mail.utexas.edu>

To:

USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Women's hair and women's personality

Urgent New

 

"On the issue of women's hair and women's personality"
by Chinyere G. Okafor
Women's Studies' Department, Wichita State University

There is no need to raise hairs over this matter of ‘hair.’ Men admire women with long hair or society says that long hair is beautiful. We women act like objects and respond to what we think they say or like. I was immediately drawn by Dr. Onwueme’s piece and sighed: ‘It’s high time we begin to talk about it.” Popular culture, as Onwueme said, is definitely a factor here. Many people were shocked by the result of self-esteem survey conducted in 1998, because it showed that African American women were very high on self esteem while Caucasian women were low. This was attributed to the impact of the TV whose female characters were mostly Caucasian; TV that catered mostly to white audiences. The problem now is that American popular culture is global and this is why we should talk about it and do something, because no place is left out.

At the wake of all the controversy surrounding the untimely demise of Nigeria’s former first lady while undergoing cosmetic plastic surgery, I reworked a piece not in her defense as a colleague wrongly said based on her cursory look at the paper, but an article that shows how all of us who point fingers at her are in the same ocean where we drink images of the tall thin long-haired woman. The article mostly looks at traditional beauty standards and how they have continuously been undermined by all of us groomed in the postcolonial or so called modern and now global beauty criteria.

I want to center my thoughts on this matter of ‘women’s hair’ by looking at the female personality presented in traditional African mask expressions. I
need to do this because they represent African ideologies and we are talking about African women. These expressions provide a broader perception of beauty than the one sold by the global network of beauty pageants, magazines, and television. Mask performances, particularly female spirit mask character that represents women, indicate appreciation of women of all sizes, shades, and shapes in African ethnic nations; while Western popular culture represents one image as the ideal; the tall, thin, white (preferably blond) woman. The most popular icon that represents this image is Barbie. No doubt, her image clashes with countervailing images of the female mask.

In performance, female masks epitomize societal views of the feminine: communal, moral, good form and features, nurturing, gentle, vigorous, and
dynamic. Feminine personalities are varied and often complex in their mixture of traits, such as gentility and vigour that may appear contradictory in
popular terms, but which are admired in many Nigerian contexts such as in traditional Igbo setting of agbala-nwanyi or the bold assertive woman, who
nonetheless lives side by side with the fagile-looking esekelem-anwu (mosquitoe-like) woman.

Talking about female personalities, what about skin color? Health issues are also implicated in the quest for global image and the ‘right’ colour. We buy skin-lightening lotions; we make the cosmetic industries rich at the expense of our health. Skin-whitening agents such as hydroquinone, mercury, and steroids have very harmful effects. Hydroquinone, for example, inhibits the skin’s production of melanin; an agent that protects the skin from the
damaging effect of the sun. Black skin is noted for its large amount of melanin that is partly responsible for shielding it from sun burn (although the skin can burn in some circumstances), and guarding it ‘against long-tern damage associated with aging – the development of deep wrinkles, rough surface
texture, and age spots (sometimes called liver spots)’. What kind of power drives women with melanin-rich skin to peel it off (this is what
skin-lightening agents do) and endanger their health? Should one find consolation in the readiness of pharmaceuticals and health systems in general
to manage ailments; for those who can afford them?

Eh hen! Talking about hair. It’s not as if our mothers and grandmothers didn’t have ways of managing their hair and looking very beautiful. Elaborately
plaited and woven hair in different designs used to be major beauty enhancers. Plaited hair is beautiful, because of the patterns carved on the scalp showing the lines and shapes of units of plaits, which are hair that are tightly sculptured with threads. The style of the plaits are differentiated by their
suggestive names, such as ‘boys-follow-me’ and kpafinga (referring to the skill of fingers in the production process). The styles display faces to
advantage and are able to withstand rain, heat and harmattan cold weather, without breaking or sagging. Their designs promote confident personality and complement the artistic styles of female attires.

These styles are being replaced by the more expensive, time-consuming, and easily messed-up, chemically processed hair with Caucasian-inspired styles. Some of us argue that straightening the hair with chemicals is more manageable, but this is largely due to the decline of the industry that manages African hair and promotes its unique outlook. A similar situation exists in cosmetic usage where traditional cosmetics are fast disappearing. Cosmetics such as uli and egu used in making designs on the body, eye makeup like odo and otangele, as well as body rubs like uvie and ude-aki, have almost disappeared in the cosmetic apparatus of Nigerian women.

True, the decline in hair plaiting is mutating into a boon in hair scarves, which have become elaborate and stylish with suggestive names such as Yoruba
derived onile gogoro (sky scraper) and Madam-Kofo (named after a Lagos socialite). This trend in fashion can be interpreted as a strong area of
resistance and contribution to preservation of the African style as we continue to search for authentic ways of managing our hair and singing James
Brown’s ‘and black and proud.”

Many of us don’t own businesses that deal with women’s personality and might feel that we can’t help. We can help by talking about it, agreeing and
disagreeing with sisters and brothers. We'll sing about it and write about it. They will hear. We also have to make individual decisions about how we
patronise or don’t patronise popular culture.

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 ADOPTION BY MADONNA

A NOTE ON THE MADONNA ADOPTION SAGA
By Chinyere G. Okafor

Posted on USA Africa Dialogue Series, October 18, 2006
See USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
OR
http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10057/1320/USA-Madonna.pdf?sequence=1

I have read many postings and newspaper articles on Madonna’s fostering with intention to adopt thirteen month old David Banda of Malawi. Like many who have written, I have some anxiety about the situation. I also have some expectations and hope. First the anxiety. I am concerned: That David is not in close proximity with his family. That he will be raised outside his culture and language. That he will grow up in a racist country where he will not be a first class citizen, in spite of having a celebrity mother. About the dramatic change in the child’s life and what the future holds for him. Despite my apprehensions, I like to look at the positive side and hope that all the controversy and threats of court cases have sufficiently sensitized Madonna to the enormous challenges. My field of hope is wide and draws from the following: Madonna already has two children that are well-spaced with four years between them, and David joins the family when the children are old enough to play with a younger brother and not too old to ignore him. As a mother of two, Madonna is not a novice, so David will benefit from her nurturing experience. David’s entry into the family may form a lasting link with orphan-care in Malawi and Africa. David may retain connection with his biological family and may not forget his roots. David may become somebody who will be of tremendous benefit to noble causes. I also worry about the millions of children who are there and in need of love and care. HIV/AIDS has increased the number of orphans in Africa and exacerbated orphan-care management. It is, therefore, important that we analyze adoption processes to ensure that the juvenile’s rights are protected and that everything is in his best interest, especially since many of us are suspicious of celebrity motives. At the same time, let us all try to lend a helping hand to orphan-care. If we can adopt one child and give that child love and care; that’s an enormous gift. If we can adopt by proxy and see a child through school, send whatever we can to orphanages, that will be great. Another celebrity provides for many children in South Africa; that’s wonderful. My point is that we need all hands on deck. Madonna is moved to do her bit in her own way, and she can’t help being a celebrity.


REACTIONS:

Date Sent:

Thursday, October 19, 2006 8:08 PM

From:

"Dr. Valentine Ojo" <valojo@md.metrocast.net>

To:

"chinyere.okafor"

Subject:

FWD: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MADONNA,AND THE MALAWI ADOPTION SAGA

Urgent New

 


I like your style - you are one very smart and intelligent lady, and above
all, very pragmatic.

That is sadly missing in many of our intellectuals - the ability to combine
idealism with pragmatism or reality on the ground.

Please keep it up!

Val Ojo


Subject:

RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MADONNA,AND THE MALAWI ADOPTION SAGA

Urgent New

 

I generally agree with you. However, we are assuming among other things that he is part of an ethnic group that allows him first class citizenship in Malawi, that the proximity of his family has been thus far a benefit to him (he is in an orphanage) etc.....
Thanks for the contribution!
Dike
----- Original Message ----- From: "chinyere.okafor" <chinyere.okafor@wichita.edu>
To: "USAAfricaDialogue" <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 3:09 PM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MADONNA,AND THE MALAWI ADOPTION SAGA

Madonna and child  by Hannah Pool

October 5, 2006 01:37 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/hannah_pool/2006/10/post_485.html

What is it with celebrities and African babies? They just can't leave them alone. According to reports, Madonna is the latest celebrity to do an "Angelina", and adopt a child from the developing world.

If the story is true, the 48-year old singer has adopted a one-year-old boy from Malawi after her first visit to the country. Two words: vanity project.

Madge wants a baby, so she goes to Africa and "saves" one - that way she gets her baby and scores lots of points for doing a good deed too.

I have no problem with philanthropy, I have no problem with western guilt, but I am sick of the idea that adoption by white westerns is the best thing for an African child.

Adoption is a complex beast at the best of times but when you throw race into the mix the waters get even muddier. The impression given is that by adopting an African child Madonna is somehow rescuing him from a life of certain misery. The implication being anything is better than growing up in Africa, even having Madonna as a mother.

Give or take 30 years, the similarities between my own adoption and that of Madonna's new son are spooky.

I was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea at the age of six months by a white couple. My adoptive mother was from the United States, my dad England. Thankfully, they were academics rather than celebrities.

While my father was teaching at the University of Sudan, Khartoum, my mother, Marya visited an orphanage in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. Overwhelmed by a desire to help, she left the orphanage with me.

They were told I had no family. This was a lie, a common one, told to make it more likely I'd be adopted.

Ten years ago I discovered my father was still alive, and I had brothers, a sister and countless aunts and uncles. Two years ago I went back to Eritrea and met my birth father for the first time.

I am what you would call an adoption success story. I love my adoptive family and have been successfully reunited with my birth family.

When I traced my birth family I came face to face with everything I had missed out on. I have grown up in the relative luxury of the west, and unlike my Eritrean family I have not experienced war or famine and yet I still wish I had never been adopted.

Madonna may think she's doing the child a favour, but really this is all about her. The money she will have spent on the adoption and the money she will spend on the child could have gone to help so many more children in Malawi. But of course then she wouldn't have a cute black child to show off.

- - - - - - -
MUSLIM VEIL

Date Sent:

Friday, October 06, 2006 9:26 AM

From:

chinyere.okafor@wichita.edu

To:

Subject:

RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Straw asks Muslim women to remove veil

Urgent New

 

 

Who is afraid of the veil?

I am not a veiled woman although sometimes when the heat of racism is unbearable, I 'play' with the idea of hiding, maybe with a veil so that people do not see my blackness and African hair, so that I would merge with the centered power that I navigate every day in America; a problematic situation that compels me to return to Nigeria where I am neither black nor bad-haired.

I am not a Muslim, so I’m not going to speak to that, but as a Christian, I’ve never imagined that not seeing more than the faces of veiled Reverend Sisters could disrupt my communication with them. And I often communicate with them. I even have a veiled woman in my class and she is very erudite. We hear her very well and her eyes communicate all that we want to see!

If I have the freedom to have breast implants, and to enlarge my buttocks; if I have the freedom to ignore the health hazards in cosmetic surgeries; if I have the freedom to bleach myself white or tan myself black; if I have the freedom to wear clothes that reveal my cleavages; why should I grudge others their freedom not to show their cleavages and their hair for that matter?

Why do you want to see my cleavage anyway; and why do you want to see my legs?
I will show them to who I want, even if that person is just my visage on the mirror.

Chinyere G. Okafor, PhD
Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies
Wichita State University

Date Sent:

Friday, October 06, 2006 11:02 AM

From:

hetty ter haar <hettyterhaar@hotmail.com>

To:

"chinyere.okafor"

Subject:

RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Straw asks Muslim women to remove veil

Urgent New

 

Dear Dr. Okafor,
 
Many thanks for your email - I couldn't agree more with what you say.
Could I suggest that you send it to the Guardian (letters@guardian.co.uk), indicating that it is
for publication?
 
With kind regards,
Hetty ter Haar

PS I assume you send your message to the USAAfricaDialogue website as well.

>===== Original Message From hetty ter haar <hettyterhaar@hotmail.com> =====
>Straw asks Muslim women to remove veil
>Press Association
>Thursday October 5, 2006
>Guardian Unlimited
>
>Commons leader Jack Straw revealed today that he asks Muslim women to remove their veils when they visit his constituency surgery.
>Mr Straw wrote that he now makes sure a female member of staff is with him during his surgeries and, after explaining his position, asks the woman to take the veil off.
>"I explain that this is a country built on freedoms. I defend absolutely the right of any women to wear a headscarf," he said.
>"As for the full veil, wearing it breaks no laws.
>"I go on to say that I think, however, that the conversation would be of greater value if the lady took the covering from her face.
>"Indeed, the value of a meeting, as opposed to a letter or phone call, is so that you can - almost literally - see what the other person means, and not just hear what they say."
>He said he thought it would be "hard going" to make the request, but went on: "I can't recall a single occasion when the lady concerned had refused to lift her veil; and most I ask seem relieved I have done so."
>He said a woman who came to see him last Friday took the veil off "almost as soon as I opened my mouth".
>"We then had a really interesting debate about veil-wearing. It became absolutely clear to me that the husband had played no part in her decision.
>"She explained she had read some books and thought about the issue. She felt more comfortable wearing the veil when out. People bothered her less.
>"'OK,' I said, but did she think that veil-wearing was required by the Koran? I was no expert, but many Muslim scholars said that the full veil was not obligatory at all."
>He said he asked the woman to think about the issue and had done so himself.
>"I thought a lot before raising this matter a year ago, and still more before writing this. But if not me, who?
>"My concerns may be misplaced. But I think there is an issue here."
>Dr Daud Abdullah, from the Muslim Council of Britain, said it was up to individual Muslim women whether or not they wore the veil.
>"This [the veil] does cause some discomfort to non-Muslims, one can understand this," he said.
>"Even within the Muslim community the scholars have different views on this.
>"There are those who believe it is obligatory for the Muslim woman to cover her face.
>"Others say she is not obliged to cover up. It's up to the woman to make the choice.
>"Our view is that if it is going to cause discomfort and that can be avoided then it can be done. The veil over the hair is obligatory."
>Mr Straw's comments will renew the debate about the boundaries of multiculturalism in Britain and the relationship between the majority and minority cultures.
>Two years ago a Muslim schoolgirl lost her high court battle for the right to wear a more conservative style of dress than her school allowed.
>Shabina Begum said she was being denied her "right to education and to manifest her religious beliefs".
>The headteacher and governors of Denbigh High School in Luton, Bedfordshire, said allowing her to wear the long jilbab - which does not include a veil - could cause divisions among pupils.
>Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Date Sent:

Monday, October 09, 2006 4:47 AM

From:

Esther Eghobamien <eeghobam@yahoo.com>

To:

USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Straw asks Muslim women to remove veil

Urgent New

 

<div>Hi Chinyere,</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Greetings from Abuja Nigeria and I do endorse your views on individual rights to choose their mode of dressing. Its still a north south power game on who decides what is appropriate dressing and who's rights do we pander to in discussions of rights to choose.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>My name is Esther---

Date Sent:

Tuesday, October 10, 2006 7:03 AM

From:

Olumide Olaniyan <olumydes@yahoo.co.uk>

To:

USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Straw asks Muslim women to remove veil

Urgent New

Dear Chinyere,

The covering of face and now the discourse on non-covering of face being practiced in  Islam or  not in Christendom, are both outcomes of 'politics of truth'. What we need to ask is why do people veil  or refuse to veil themselves? When do people started veiling, and why should they (dis)continue? Why is it practiced in one religion and not another. Why was it entrenched in some doctrines, and why do some other forces argue against it now? Why do each of us belong and why? Does it give people freedom or take away their freedom? How do people know what veiling does to them, do other people have the right to genuinely complain that a happily veiled person actually socio-psychologically oppress them? Why do veiled persons accept their to veil or reject it? At what point do people say, I am a Moslem and I don't see anything wrong in my veiling, I have a right to dress as I want as far as it does not against the 'Law', will other people also argue for nudity! or why do some say I am a Christian, and veiling is unchristian-like. Why is veiling ok is Islam (in some doctrines) and not so an issue in Christendom (in some doctrine)? ...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Jack Straw has unleashed a storm of prejudice and intensified division

Singling out women who wear the niqab as an obstacle to the social integration of Muslims is absurd and dangerous

Madeleine Bunting
Monday October 9, 2006
The Guardian

It's been quite extraordinary: one man's emotional response to the niqab - the Muslim veil that covers all but the eyes - has snowballed into a perceived titanic clash of cultures in which commentators pompously pronounce on how Muslims are "rejecting the values of liberal democracy".

Jack Straw feels uncomfortable and within a matter of hours, his discomfort is calibrated on news bulletins and websites in terms of an inquisitorial demand: do Muslims in this country want to integrate? How does Straw's "I feel .." spin so rapidly into such grandstanding?

The confusions and sleights of hand are legion, and it's hard to know where to start to unpick this holy mess. Let's begin with its holiness, because this is an element which has been absent from the furore. There are two distinct patterns of niqab-wearing in this country. One group wears the niqab by cultural tradition. Often they are relatively recent migrants, from Somalia or Yemen for example, and for the record it is not a "symbol of oppression" but a symbol of status


 

From: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Abdul Bangura

Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 1:34 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: Gemini
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Straw asks Muslim women to remove veil

 

Good Greetings Mwalima Chinyere G. Okafor, Mwalimu Ayo Obe, et al.:

As a Muslim who attended a Roman Catholic school and served as an Altar Boy in Sierra Leone, studied Judaism under the tutelage of great Rabbis in Italy, read my Torah, Bible and Qur'an each day, and try to keep abreast of discourses dealing with the Abrahamic faiths, the following is my humble take on the issue of the Hijab. If my posting is a bit late, it is because I had been waiting for permission to attach the M.A. Thesis of one of my effulgent graduates, Amy Christianson, a former Christian who converted to Islam after many years of studying the religion and making sure that her parents attend many lectures and prayers with us at American University, so that they can understand what she had decided to do. As soon as Amy gives me the permission, I will send the Thesis via this listserv. I hope that you will find Amy's work to be one of the most definitive on the topic. The first day Amy wore the Hijab, she stopped by my office and stated that she never felt so liberated. I was, to say the least, puzzled, and asked her why. She responded that for once, people were listening attentively to what she was saying  instead of looking at her body.

One of my other effulgent students, Rae Borsetti, is now exploring what she has titled "Modesty as Emancipation: Why Western Feminism Misreads Modesty in
Islam." I will forward this work to the USA-Africa Dialogue when it is done, with her permission, of course.

Here goes my humble take:

The Catholic Church and the broader Christian tradition have long taken the view that sex is moral only for the purpose of procreation. Even within the context of marriage, birth control, oral sex, and every other manifestation of sex for pleasure have been tabooed. This negative view of sexuality, caught up in the institutionalized patriarchy, created a pervasive view of women's bodies within the Western world as shameful, sinful, and unclean. Women are taught that having sexual desires of their own made them dirty and that, by extension, when engaged in sexual activity, they should passively receive sex. It is no surprise, then, that so many Western women were completely unaware of their anatomy and their abilities to orgasm until feminists in the West began to broadcast a message of sexual liberation and called upon women to reclaim their own bodies and to be comfortable with their own sexual wants and needs.

This is not necessarily true in Islam. Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) sexual stamina was celebrated in Islamic teaching, and the Qur'an instructs both partners that they must satisfy each other, and that doing this is a religious act. Thus, in Islam, a woman's level of sexual liberation can be defined as her comfort in making her own choices about her sexuality and seeking her own personal pleasure. Thus, while there are restrictions on when and with whom sex is appropriate in Islam, it is tenable that women in Islamic societies have historically had a greater degree of sexual liberation than their Western sisters within the contexts of their relationships.

As a result of the ways that Western women were and are oppressed, they are inclined to see "modesty" displayed by Muslim women and especially the wearing of the Hijab as the same misogyny that predominated (and to a large degree still predominates) Western culture. This is because many Western women feel the need to reclaim their bodies and sexualities by wearing less, but Muslim women may see themselves as reclaiming their bodies and sexualities through their modesty. Thus, it behooves the serious scholar on this issue to examine the historical and social contexts of modesty in both Western and Islamic cultures to create an understanding of why women of each culture choose to express themselves they way they do. Comparing the scriptures and historical documents from each cultures and interviewing modern women of both perspectives, thus, become imperative.

Ramadan Karim!

In Peace Always,
Karim/  http://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/facultybiographies/bangura.htm

- - - - - - - - - -

Date Sent:

Saturday, October 07, 2006 3:25 PM

From:

Gemini <sodun@multilinks.com>

To:

USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Straw asks Muslim women to remove veil

Urgent New

 

Chinyere Okafor, the issue is not the scarf, which some Muslim women use to cover their hair and neck, but the covering of the entire face. It has nothing to do with breasts, buttocks or anything of that nature, but whether people feel comfortable talking to a person in front of them whose face they can't see - whose face is deliberately concealed. Straw didn't say he was afraid of it, he said that it was not helping community relations. It is good that some feel perfectly comfortable interacting with veiled (NB veiled, not scarfed) women, but it is unreasonable not to recognise that many do not.

I'm not aware that nuns or Reverend Sisters cover their faces. I'm not a Roman Catholic, but I understand that those nuns who don't wish to be seen, don't interact at all, but remain in closed orders, so there is no basis for the comparison with Christianity.

Ayo Obe

chinyere.okafor wrote: 

I appreciate people reacting or responding to issues and expressing their 
ideas, and I want to plead that people do not degenerate to insults or 
unbecoming language in this dignified forum. Let me just say that I did not 
address anybody in particular in my text; I expressed my opinion creatively 
and this is a credit to the text that inspired me. My piece is not about 
personalities please. And here is another inspired piece:
 
Communication, visual or audio, is welcome.
Radio, words clothed and veiled, is welcome.
Interaction with voices and ideas is welcome. 
Television, its visual dimension, is welcome.
Even music without words creates understanding.
 
The point is not really what we non-face-coverers are comfortable with. It 
should not be ‘all about us,’ but about creating bridges of understanding. 
Turning the mirror on us to see how those Others see us, as I tried to do in 
my earlier piece, is helpful. If we do this, maybe we can begin to appreciate 
different notions of bondage/freedom, and continue to build bridges.
 Chinyere G. Okafor, Wichita State University
- - - - - - - - - -

Greetings Friends,

Along these same lines, some may be interested to listen to the interview on NPR with a British journalist, a self-identified feminist, who converted to Islam. The interview is at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6066537

Anene Ejikeme

- - - - - - - - - -

Date Sent:

Friday, October 13, 2006 7:34 AM

From:

joses yoroms <ganiyoroms@yahoo.com>

To:

Cc:

Subject:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Higher education minister backs university's Muslim veil ban

Urgent New

 

Good to know what is happening around th world. But excuse me. Why would a moslem woman in western world feel the air of liberalism to put on hijab yet a westerner who finds himslf in th moslem world would it difficult to go naked in the name of liberalism?
Also, may I know why the western world has decided to open itself up to the extent that it has lost its tradition and now is being intimidated by non western values and culture. Maybe the west would have to show the world that it has culture too or else it would be
intimidatd by the cultured Islamic world.We all grow from nature as naked but developed a technology of covering ourselves as human beings. Unfortunately the west is leading th world back to nakedness and gayism in the name of liberalism . The west has bastard christian culture and making westernisation as chritian culture. It is difficult for a true christian to raise his head up and be proud of westernisation. So, if Moslem can intimidate the west with their culture so that they can begin another western rennaisnace, what is bad about it. Well think about this thing.

To see more talks and postings, go to <http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/handle/10057/1225>


RACIAL BIGOTRY
HERO’S Ash Wednesday by Chinyere Okafor
(Inspired by  "Heroes from the margins: Stories of athletes who challenged racism at Hitler's Olympics -
Jesse Owens, Marty Glickman, Charlotte Epstein, Lillian Copeland)

    The accolade that you got for yourself is not what matters.
    The trophy that decorate your house is not what matters.
    In the end:
    What matters is the MEMORY of YOU in our hearts.
    People remember who made a difference.
    Who stood up for human dignity,
    Who ignored the general flow and risked being
    berated, shunned, and labeled “unpopular.”
    Who stood up at crisis time, even at great cost.
    People remember THE HERO.
   The world needs YOU at this time. 

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