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Travelogue
Is America God's Own Country? (2)
IN many ways, to this writer’s delight, the present itinerary couldn’t have kicked off at a more opportune moment. For several reasons, some of which are quite sentimental while some are not, the timing could only have been preordained by an unseen hand to make for a full catalog of events for an admirer of a society that seems an epitome of what a modern society could look like.
As a visitor, it is not only important that the fulfillingness of being able to savour of both the sweet and the peculiar can be enriching but that one’s horizon is broadened the more thus that one could write with a direct punch of personal experience.
Surely, there is the apprehension that America is the most expensive place on earth to make babies. Perhaps also there is a plethora of unedifying factors as the now rampant mass shootings of innocent citizens by gun-crazy citizens or the shocking revelation that Internet accessibility up to the present decade in the millennium remains a luxury to a significant fraction of rural folks.
Interestingly, America, ostensibly God's country, is still far behind Europe and parts of Asia, what with the rather uncivilised surface rail system unlike the fast-coasting tubes in those places. Even then, a society that gave inspiration to one of Africa’s most notable civil rights activists, the musical genius, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, to draw world attention to the plight of his countrymen with such discs as, Everything Is Upside down, calls for celebration.
A society where uninterrupted electricity supply is at the disposal of the entire citizenry and drinking water running in the pipes, of the availability of cooking gas without the bother of carrying gas cylinders back and forth, a network of good roads, functional healthcare delivery and education proactively at all levels in spite of the inexcusable strain on low-income class, could only continue to attract a large pool of the best in every area of human endeavour from across the globe.
To the casual observer, this is what makes America a calming relief from a lifetime burden of oppressive culture of gross mismanagement, executive recklessness and pervasive graft characteristic of the prototype African sovereign state . If indeed ancient Greece was the cradle of democracy, there is America, the showpiece of democracy and bastion of capitalism.
Yet, in spite of the bright neon lights and the sheer beauty to be abroad without the hassles and drudgery of everyday life, not minding that the cold hands of winter invariably encircles the night, there is the gnawing temptation to ask, is America really God’s own country? Like happenstance, suddenly breaks the news of the Grand Jury's readiness to deliver the much-awaited verdict in the Michael Brown case.
For whatever reason, even with the air of trepidation that was palpable much as the wintry cold that persisted all day, the announcement did not come until much later in the evening.
As many had foreseen, the killer cop, Darren Wilson, was not indicted. Alas, if the authority concerned anticipated the possibility, there was little in place that evening to deter the extent of the destruction to properties, cars and houses belonging to innocent citizens. It served no useful purpose either that the largely black crowd wreaked untold havoc that night descending with no restraint on the community and the very store where the dead teenager reportedly stole ci******es.
It is far from certain that the wantonness did not stem from the fact that the community was predominantly black. In any case, the strategy did not help matters that the public prosecutor for whatever reasons only thought it wise to make the findings known to the American people and the listening world not until the evening was far spent.
As an analyst noted, the design to release the findings by that hour of the night merely played into the hands of the would-be anarchists many of who merely came to swell the crowd of concerned citizens and were responsible for much of the mayhem and looting that occurred at Ferguson on that memorable day.
The next day was not unlike the previous night. Heavily attended demonstrations persisted through several American cities in protest of what was perceived as the traditional white cop unfair treatment of the people of colour.
It is a plus to the American spirit that demonstrations took place in no less than 170 urban centres across the country. If all this was done to the memory of the slain 18-year-old youth who in a couple of months would have proceeded to the university, it was truly monumental in dimension. Copyright © 2018 Otunba Ade Dandy | All rights reserved.
Searchlight On Our Own Story of Creation by Otunba Ade Dandy
IF there is any African on the continent or the Diaspora that loves to wear a chip on his shoulder whenever the discussion revolves around the place of the Black man in the present world order, you need not look far but that the Nigerian has always chosen freely to educate with fondness whoever cares to listen that he comes from a country blessed beyond ordinary human comprehension. Nigeria, he boastfully submits, is a land flowing with the proverbial milk and honey.
What with the abundance of oil reserves and largely untapped mineral deposits to buttress such a claim of paradise on earth, the Nigerian views through rose-tinted glasses his country as the giant of Africa. He extols the inherent virtues in his land of origin, her prime position not only as number one in terms of population density but relatively as the pride of a region where the weather is perfect all year round. Notwithstanding that in his breast pocket is a BA/Aero Contractor ticket for the next flight to join the rush for solace and maybe fix up his ward in a school in one of the less endowed neighbouring countries, he wants you to imbibe the dogma hook, line and sinker that Nigeria is the hope of the Blackman and not merely the last fortress against Arabo and lately Chinese unbridled adventurism through sub-Saharan Africa.
The Nigerian would tell you how his country takes the place of preeminence ahead of every other indigenous group as the cradle of mankind. It is where God infused homo sapiens with the breath of life. The Yoruba account of creation may fail the test that Obatala Obatasa it is that descended at the end of a chain from heavenward onto the small patch of sand that the eagle strewed on a tiny portion of the vast expanse of water that originally filled the void now referred to as the planet earth. It is not a laughable matter that our own Nobel laureate was quoted as saying inter alia, “The Ooni of Ife is above all" and "Ife is the cradle of humanity.”
Yet, with the Igbo account that is replete with the juicy claim of being blood relations to the Biblical Jews in spite of repeated repudiation by the latter, the confusion becomes total in the Nigerian story of creation. Of the rather ludicrous chest-thumping by the ethnic nationality that its precursor alighted on the earth straight from the sky like element of raindrop to populate the earth, the Igbo version could as well equally qualify for the orbit of mythologies and of tales told and retold by moonlight.
Appreciatively, for the authentic version of the story of the beginning of the itinerary of the animal man, there is dissent among no less the top hierarchy of scholars against the possibility of the Biblical Eden fitting categorically into the picture of the cradle of man. It is thus not easy to dismiss with the ordinary wave of the hand the African (Nigerian) claim, the more so that ostensibly documented efforts of some of these great world scholar-researchers in circulation accord credence to Mother Africa, and Ile Ife, for instance, as a likely contender for the position of the garden of creation. It is only important if the Nigerian version of creation is not to pass as mere farce that more research work be carried out in order to accord authenticity to the indigenous version of the story of creation.
For now, not in the face of recent findings in the land of the rainbow where there are quite tangible evidences that attempt to substantiate possible evolutionary trend between the primate and the human race is there any archaeological reliability in support of the long disputed honour accorded the Mideast as the spot where Adam actually set out on his initial heaven or self-appointed journey to replenish and populate the earth. (Image/Isola Ade Courtesy Rainforest Café MN)
In the footage on display, priests of African Traditional Religion (ATR) take the stage to offer prayers as Ghana marks her Independence Anniversary. It is instructive that not all African nations accord the traditionalists a place in the scheme of national events/celebrations. In the South West of Nigeria, it is a common practice for especially radio channels to open for business in the new day and also round off the day's activities with prayers offered by all the faiths, including Ifa priests of the traditional Orunmila religious sect.
THE SURVIVAL OF THE AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS PRACTICE
The survival of vintage African traditional approach to the spiritual thresholds of an invisible all-powerful God Eledumare up to the present millennium in the face of the deluge of alien faiths and modes of worship calls for scrutiny. Whatever may be the attraction, it is bewildering that long after the advanced countries of the world have put finishing touches to the demarcation of boundaries on the moon and commenced space-lifting of the human species onto other planets hitherto considered no-go areas, there is continuing veneration of deities of different grades known by various names across language and racial barriers. One of such is Sango, the god of thunder that metes out instant justice to the evil-doer.
A feat that lends credence to such perception that tradition dies hard if homo sapiens still kowtow to inanimate objects and pour libation at the feet of lesser gods and goddesses, to such people that swear by the Bible or the Koran prior to taking public office only to renege on their oath, it runs counter to the understanding that the God of the living neither accommodates heathen intermediary nor brooks a rival. Image/Sango Worshippers/Isola Ade
