As I said, the "marginalised, impoverished African" is not a 2-dimensional character from a UNHCR fundraising appeal. He has thoughts and opinions and agency.
One thing I can't do is hear you call me a fool, and then agree with you in the name of political correctness.
One thing I can't do is hear you call me a fool, and then agree with you in the name of political correctness.
Journalism will not rescue Nigeria. Journalists will not rescue the people of Northern Nigeria or Nigerians in general.
The people make a conscious decision everyday on the choice between their own lives/future and ethnoreligious dumbassery.
Don't ask us to save the unsavable.
The people make a conscious decision everyday on the choice between their own lives/future and ethnoreligious dumbassery.
Don't ask us to save the unsavable.
The people who rule Northern Nigeria are not gods or mystical creatures. They cannot control minds. Nothing that they inflict on the North is possible without their people's support, cooperation and acquiescence at every level.
If they ever want freedom, they know what to do.
If they ever want freedom, they know what to do.
Also worth pointing out, as my mentor from LBS once told me, that many of us make the fundamental error of relating to the North from an assumed position of superiority and pity. That is the root of the mistaken belief that "they just don't know better."
It's not helpful to view the North through the prism of the suya seller. That guy is just a tiny individual cog in a huge wheel that is much older than Nigeria.
I've said before that there are libraries in Kano and Sokoto that are older than some ethnic groups in Nigeria.
I've said before that there are libraries in Kano and Sokoto that are older than some ethnic groups in Nigeria.
There are people who have studied >1,000 years of their written history that no one else has access to, in addition to all the education we think we have from Oxford and Yale.
THEY. ARE. NOT. STUPID.
Stop making that fundamental error of judgment!
THEY. ARE. NOT. STUPID.
Stop making that fundamental error of judgment!
Northern Nigerian society is structured EXACTLY how they want it - both elite and serf. If you doubt me, go to Kano today and start saying that Shehu Dan Fodio was not an Islamic Robin Hood, but a murderous coloniser.
Your head will be separated from your body inside 5 minutes.
Your head will be separated from your body inside 5 minutes.
The structure of their society suits their elite fine, and the serfs ALSO want it this way - the idea that you will go in with a message of "freedom" to "inspire the downtrodden masses" is ignorant, patronising, pseudo-white saviour nonsense.
They are not victims.
They are not victims.
To say poor people are perfectly capable of being nasty, murderous, mean-spirited assholes, and that they can be all these things intentionally and on purpose is not politically acceptable, I know.
That's why I'm not a politician.
Poor people aren't always victims.
That's why I'm not a politician.
Poor people aren't always victims.
