Just jiving a little. Please permit me ( all the mistakes are mine)
What says people like Kwame Anthony Appiah and Lewis Ricardo Gordon and Cornel West and the notorious Molefi Asante when they weigh in on this matter or haven't they said anything at all ? (From the sublime to the ridiculous: like, at the time, sour grapes V.S. Naipaul on first getting the news that the Nobel Prize in Literature had been awarded to Wole Soyinka, enquiring about Soyinka, "Has he written anything?")
As pointed out in this magnificent post by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
Exploring the Implications of the Historic Appointment of Wale Adebanwi as first Black African to the Rhodes Professorship in Race Relations at Oxford in the Era of the Rhodes Must Fall Movement at Oxford … the appointment is not a joke. One of the criteria was simply stated as " South of the Sahara – by which I intuit that an African- American appointed to that chair would bring with him his own special baggage and set of determinations ( to right some historic wrongs - so would an African Caribbean
With his background/ blackground, our pioneer Wale Adebanwi is guaranteed to bring with him his critical acumen to the chair. (albeit ( smile) back in 1970, I remember Eboe Hutchful my neighbour at the South Legon chalets complaining aloud about Kofi Busia, that, "he must have left his brains in Oxford!"
In a less politically charged context Shakespeare asked, "What's in a name?" The answer of course is, " plenty". Consider, Hitler, Saddam, Lucifer. Not even your most vicious rottweiler do you name after any of the previously mentioned , to be constantly reminded and to not forget, nor do you name your dog after e.g. Islam's holiest prophet ( sallallahu alayhi wa salaam) and pray to live long or survive in either North and South Kano or Kaduna…
Assuming that the most famous Cecil is Cecil Rhodes and in sum total the emissions from that name is symbolic of what he represents or is supposed to represent in racial terms, tentatively, should no liberated African baby be named after him - and by extension, in these modern, post-colonial days, should only a demon (what Malcolm X used to refer to as the "blue-eyed devil" ) be appointed to man the Cecil Rhodes chair of race relations at Britain's premier University, Oxford?
In my view there is much potency in the name of the chair – the historically charged Rhodes Chair – which brings to very sharp focus what this chair is about : race relations…and of course , the visual impact of the awesome Wale Adebanwi sitting on that chair leaves you the admirer, detractor, or ardent critic in no doubt whatsoever as to which side he is on in these sensitive matters of race relations. (I half remember Dick Gregory saying that if he ever got elected President of America he would paint the White House BLACK
For the very same reasons that some people would like to abolish the name of that famous chair, should the department of Victorian studies be erased or re-named ? Indeed as part of the colonial education for our A levels our special paper was "The British Empire under Queen Victoria" - the Empire on which the sun never sets. In Africa , much praise for David Livingstone explorer and early architect of the empire, named after King David, no doubt ( I'm sure that there are a few chair or stools named after him) - and and thus we also got a smattering of what happened in India (such insights now updated through Under Western Eyes, a smattering of the early history of what started as a penal colony (Australia) – some glimpses of Canada and of course our man in South Africa.
I'm sure that there are other chairs, such as the Jesus of Nazareth Chair, the Rev Dr. King Chair , the Madiba Nelson Mandela Chair, the Chief Obafemi Awolowo Chair or even the Louis Farrakhan or the Benjamin Netanyahu Chair of Race Relations. Maybe you would like to rename all of them? And what about a chair of Tribal Relations? You prefer the word " ethnic"? What about the chair of Black and White relations? (Tell yout mama)
That Bill Clinton studied on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford is often cited in celebration or as testimony to something (you can fill in the missing adjective) and we can take a look at the diverse list of Rhodes scholars, if it means anything...
The strongest reason that I can think of – some parallel thinking here, is the tsunami of criticism and the avalanche of accusations of vile anti-Semitism – not to mention racism should the chair of Holocaust Studies at Princeton or New York University be named the Adolph Hitler Chair of Race race relations ( Aryan)
You get the drift of the ill-stinking wind that's still blowing
On Friday, 20 January 2017 11:29:18 UTC+1, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: MacDonald Mopho <mij....@gmail.com>
Date: 18 January 2017 at 19:27
Subject: Re: [NaijaPolitics] Re: NigerianID | Re: [africanworldforum] Nigerian scholar named Rhodes Professor at Oxford UniversityFrom Cape Town in South Africa to Oxford University in the UK, there had been several protests against the continuous posthumous honour of Cecil Rhodes who is on history record as one of the worst white racist. His statute was almost pulled down last year by protesters. It may eventually be removed with the ongoing debate to remove it gaining ascendancy. Please read article on link below:https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/09/take-it- down-rhodes-must-fall- campaign-marches-through- oxford I think Oxford University's appointment of a Nigerian Professor to take up the Chair of Rhodes Professorship at this time is done with the intent of making Cecil Rhodes continually relevant in the face of students who are after the removal his statutes and minimising his relevance in a bid to achieve racial transformation and erase his name from the record of those befitting posthumous honour.The reason for appointing an African (a Nigerian) as Rhodes Professor at Oxford University at this time should not be difficult to see and it should have been rejected by the US based Nigerian professor offered the post on grounds of principle. Africans are often perceived by racist whites such as US president elect Donald Trump as a people who are unprincipled and are willing to compromise personal integrity and principles for morally repugnant individual benefits such as this appointment coming at a time when the voices saying "Rhodes Must Fall" are winning the argument. It is not unlikely that no while professor was willing to accept such a controversial chair and they now reached out to a Nigerian Professor.It is not late for the Nigerian professor concerned to down this offer for personal reasons.Knowing the history of Cecil Rhodes and the current protests and debate on Rhodes Must Fall, it was not quite right that President Buhari should congratulate the Nigerian appointed to the post. He really should have been advised to turn it down!Let us seek the path of honour!Thank youMacDonald I J MophoLondon UKOn Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 5:39 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju toyin....@gmail.com [NaijaPolitics] <NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:Wharfsnake,True about Rhodes.Do you think, then, that Africans should not work in that Rhodes professorship?toyinOn 17 January 2017 at 23:03, 'Wharf A. Snake' wharf...@yahoo.com [NigerianID] <NigerianI...@yahoogroups.com > wrote:Nonsense. This is the type of nonsense that Nigerians are good at distributing. May I remind you that Cecil Rhodes was the most racist white man ever.Ejo ni Mushin - PrinceSent from my iPhone
On Jan 10, 2017, at 12:57 AM, 'abiodun KOMOLAFE' via AfricanWorldForum <africanw...@googlegroups.com > wrote:--Nigerian scholar named Rhodes Professor at Oxford University
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Oxford University has announced the appointment of a U.S.-based Nigerian, Wale Adebanwi, to the prestigious Rhodes Professorship in Race Relations in the School of African and Interdisciplinary Area Studies.
The appointment was recently announced in the university gazette.
Mr. Adebanwi who is currently a professor at the University of California, Davis, United States, will also be a Fellow of the St. Anthony's College, Oxford effective July 1.
Oxford University is the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second oldest university in continuous operation. The university has produced 28 Nobel laureates, 27 British Prime Ministers and many foreign heads of state.
The Rhodes Professorship in Race Relations is named for Cecil Rhodes, British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa who served as Prime Minister of Cape Colony from 1890-1896. The professorship was established by the Rhodesian Selection Trust Mining Company in 1954 at Oxford.
Mr. Adebanwi is the first black scholar to be appointed to the endowed Chair since it was created more than 60 years ago. He was preceded by three distinguished scholars.
The new Rhodes Professor was a Bill and Melinda Gates Scholar at Cambridge University. He holds two PhDs, one in political science from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and the other in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, UK.
In September 2014, alongside three other former Gates Scholars, his "amazing success" since graduating from Cambridge was acknowledged by the world's richest man, Bill Gates, who funded his scholarship at Cambridge more than a decade ago. Gates's acknowledgement of Mr. Adebanwi was part of the video message he sent to a gathering of current and former Gate Scholars at Cambridge University during the Gates Cambridge Biennial 2016.
Mr. Adebanwi has published widely in the areas of nationalism and ethnic Studies, media and communication, corruption and politics, democracy and democratization, cultural politics, spatial politics, urban studies, and social theory and social thought. In his most recent book Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning, published in 2016, Mr. Adebanwi focuses his multi-disciplinary scholarship on salient issues in Nigeria's troubled history, examining how debates in the newspaper press shaped the narratives as well as the configuration of power. His influential book, Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency was published by Cambridge University in 2014. His 2012 book Authority Stealing: Anti-corruption War and Democratic Politics in Post-Military Nigeria was selected as one of the three "Best Books on Africa in 2013" by the journal, Foreign Affairs.
The newly-appointed Rhodes Professor is the editor or co-editor of 10 books. He has served as co-editor of Journal of Contemporary African Studies and is currently co-editor of Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. Adebanwi, who was formerly a lecturer in political science at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, is a visiting professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. He has held visiting fellowships at St Anthony's College, Oxford, and the Centre for African Studies in Leiden, The Netherlands, and a Rockefeller fellowship for Academic Writing Residency at its Bellagio Centre, Italy. In 2005, he was a co-winner of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Research grant.
Previously, Mr. Adebanwi served as reporter, writer and columnist for various publications in Nigeria, among them Nigerian Tribune, The Punch and TheNEWS.
abiodun KOMOLAFE, AMNIM+234 803 361 4419 | +234 809 861 4418 | ijeb...@yahoo.co.uk| Skype: KOMO2412 | O20, Okenisa Street, Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State ---------------------------------- Because He lives, the end is not now!Sent from my iPad
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