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Olaudah Equiano® Profile picture
@RealOlaudah
Sep 24, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
“She was called Phillis, because that was the name of the ship that brought her, and Wheatley, which was the name of the merchant who bought her. She was born in Senegal. In Boston, the slave traders put her up for sale:
-she's seven years old! She will be a good mare! Image
She was felt, naked, by many hands.
At thirteen, she was already writing poems in a language that was not her own. No one believed that she was the author. At the age of twenty, Phillis was questioned by a court of eighteen enlightened men in robes and wigs.
She had to recite texts from Virgil and Milton and some messages from the Bible, and she also had to swear that the poems she had written were not plagiarized. From a chair, she gave her long examination, until the court accepted her:
She was a woman, she was black, she was a slave, but she was a poet. "
Phillis Wheatley., was the first African-American writer to publish a book in the United States.
#BlackHistory
#TransAtlanticSlavery
#BlackLivesMatter
#History

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More from @RealOlaudah

Olaudah Equiano® Profile picture
Dec 17
Dear Aare Afe Babalola SAN, I hope this meets you in the right condition because even though God has granted you grace of wealth and health, you are on a delicate level and must be managed.

🧵
You are highly blessed to have chosen a profession that made you such a great person. With over 6 decades of practice, 37 of it as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the Guinness Books must create a record for longevity of professional calling with distinction. It is not only long but positively eventful. You have made lawyers and senior advocates, judges and Justices and attorneys- general including the present Attorney- General of the Federation.
Such is the beauty of your practice that I spent a good part of 2003 running from Victoria Island to your office at Iddo, Lagos where I got to know Mr. Gboyega Oyewole (now SAN and former Attorney General of Ekiti State by your grace). It was as serious as I was advised to come to Ibadan. When I met you, you were exhausted and you gave me an appointment for another day and ‘T-fare’ as the new generation call it. The day happened to be the eve of Ikorodu Oga Day where I was the chief organiser as Secretary of Ikorodu Oga Development Association then. I still came. And after waiting until around 7:30, I was ushered in and reminding you of the appointment, you simply told me to go to ‘Gboyega’ to start work and I was thankful like a jackpot-winner. But between your office and Adamasingba stadium, something in me told me ‘you don’t need the job; I will bless you on your own lane’. It was a hard knock. I did not go to Oyewole (with all respect to him) although I am still waiting for the promise from the God who has no wrist watch. But He must have His reason(s) for wasting my energy before telling me that.
Read 9 tweets
Olaudah Equiano® Profile picture
Dec 15
Contrary to assertions by some so-called experts who have been prattling all week that Dele Farotimi wrote what he could not logically substantiate in his book Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System, this was a pre-meditated confrontation. Having depleted the legal means to get justice, he wrote to re-litigate the case in the court of public opinion. He seems calculatedly driven by the Yoruba proverb that says no one dies at the same spot they uttered blasphemy. In the time between your speaking and being punished, much can happen to change social dynamics. From the potpourri of events in the past week, Farotimi got what he wanted. One cannot say the same for Afe Babalola who, by now, would have realised that giving a traducer what they want is not the most prudent battle move. My reading is that Farotimi knew Babalola’s peculiar weakness and worked it to advantage. I will get to that momentarily.

🧵
The blowback from this case is another instance that hopefully teaches our elites to rein in their tendency to exploit the warped Nigerian justice system that allows criminal defamation as a legal recourse. Criminal defamation might be legal, but it is unjust. It is a law that exists to regulate the differentials of power and access, one of the many ways rich people further privatise public resources. Since lawmakers are too compromised to expunge the law and law enforcers incapable of the reflexivity that will enlighten them on the stupidity of using state resources to fight an individual over another’s integrity, the best we can do for now is pressure the entitled “big man” not to take that path. In a criminal case, the prosecutor investigates to convict. The Nigerian police, perennially short of resources, spares no expense when sent to prosecute criminal defamation on behalf of another narcissist. Why should the state do that on behalf of an ordinary individual? Babalola, especially, is a man of ample resources, who can afford to fight for his reputation on his own dime.
So, on Friday, Babalola’s legal team held a press conference in Ado Ekiti. Among several things, the lead lawyer Owoseni Ajayi said was: “Those pushing Farotimi are not his friends. By the time they led him to the dungeon, he would realise they were deceiving him. Let me advise his family members to apologise to Aare. Aare Babalola is a builder, not interested in destroying Farotimi.” I was intrigued by what he said it takes for them to call off the police hounds. If someone injured your reputation and that reputation is truly worth the price you placed on it, why would you not be interested in watching them destroyed? Why would Ajayi, so sure of their victory that he boldly asserted that the only possible conclusion to the case is the dungeon, want to settle for the cheap spectacle of Farotimi’s family members with their clasped hands rolling on the floor and begging?
Read 9 tweets
Olaudah Equiano® Profile picture
Dec 9
In the Matter of Dele Farotimi before the Star Chamber

Paul Anyebe was a judge of the High Court of Benue State in north-central Nigeria who had a young son with sticky fingers and a sense of adventure. It was his role as a dad that endangered his job as a judge.

One night around 1983, Anyebe caught his son attempting to steal from his bedroom. In response, Anyebe pulled his gun in an effort to scare the boy. The gun went off, discharging a bullet which hit and seriously injured the boy. The Attorney-General of Benue State decided to prosecute Paul Anyebe for attempted murder. The Penal Code applicable in Benue State at the time had ample provisions for the crime of attempted murder.

The Attorney-General also added a charge of illegal possession of firearms, a federal offence. Unlike the crime of attempted murder, which was a state crime in Benue State, all firearms offences are federal. The Attorney-General of Benue was well within his powers to prosecute for attempted murder but only the Attorney-General of the Federation could prosecute or authorize prosecution for federal offences.
🧵
At the conclusion of the trial, the High Court of Benue State discharged Paul Anyebe on the charge of attempted murder, a state offence, but convicted him on the charge of illegal possession of firearms (a federal offence) for which it sentenced him to three years in prison. The Court of Appeal reduced this sentence to six months in prison or a fine of one hundred Naira. Following this decision and while his appeal was yet to be heard by the Supreme Court, Paul Anyebe was dismissed as a judge.

When the Supreme Court decided Anyebe’s appeal in January 1986, Dahunsi Olugbemi Coker, a Justice of the court, summed up the issue for decision in one sentence: “The short point is whether a State Attorney-General can prosecute an offence created by an Act of the National Assembly.” To this question, the court unanimously responded in the negative. They nullified Anyebe’s trial and ordered the fine paid – one hundred Naira – refunded to him. The Court of Appeal ordered his reinstatement with full benefits.
Adolphus Godwin Karibi-Whyte, one of the justices who decided Anyebe’s appeal at the Supreme Court, said of what the case decided that ”the Attorney-General of a State has no general authority to exercise the powers of the Attorney-General of the Federation to prosecute in respect of Federal offences.”

One effect of this decision is to preclude the prosecution of federal crimes before state courts. A Magistrates Court is a state court. It does not have jurisdiction over federal crimes.
Read 9 tweets
Olaudah Equiano® Profile picture
Dec 8
The Banker and the Maiden: A True Story of Passion and Pain
A true life story 🧵

By the time you are done reading this piece you would have read in a beautiful story style, the case of MISS CHINYE A.M. EZEANAH V. ALHAJI MAHMOUD I. ATTA (2004) 7 NWLR (Pt. 873)468).

“When my love swears that she is made of truth,I do believe her, though I know she lies,That she might think me some untutor’d youth, Unskillful in the world’s false forgeries”-

William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim
When the Banker met the Maiden in the early 1990s, it was love at first sight, at least on the part of the banker. Mahmoud Attah was the Banker. Chinye Ezeanah was the Maiden. Attah was however not just an ordinary banker. He was a super banker. In fact, he was the chairman of one of the biggest banks in Nigeria at the time.

Chinye was as beautiful as she was elegant. She was described by one of the witnesses as ‘fine and charming’. Theirs was a story described by the Supreme Court as a story of so much love and so much pain. But at the time, neither Attah nor Chinye knew that what started as love at first sight would end up in court as a landmark case.

It was not exactly clear when they met. The chairman claimed they met in 1991. Chinye claimed it was in 1993. According to her, it was at her younger sister’s boyfriend’s house that they met and it was in January 1993. The chairman saw the beautiful lady who was ‘fine and charming’ and became besotted. He asked her to be his girlfriend. Chinye refused on that day. The chairman however refused to take no for an answer.

They went on as father and daughter. The chairman became the guardian. The maiden became his ward. With time, Chinye agreed to become his girlfriend. Attah must have been elated. He lavished love and money on the object of his affection. He rented an apartment for her in Maitama, Abuja. At the time when telephone was the exclusive preserve of the rich and a status symbol, the apartment had an installed telephone, courtesy of Alhaji Attah.
To ensure that the love of his life lacked nothing, Attah dedicated a protocol liaison officer of the bank where he was chairman to her. He introduced Chinye to the officer as his fiancée. It was the responsibility of the officer to run errands on behalf of the chairman for the maiden. These errands included sending the maiden money to settle her bills and other sundry assignments.

There was however a small problem. Attah was already married. His family got wind of the relationship between him and Chinye. Naturally they were not happy. Chinye’s family was also not particularly excited. Her mother specifically wanted to know the direction the relationship was going.

It was at this point that Chinye broached the issue of marriage with her lover and benefactor. Attah was however not ready to formally marry her. According to her, “on several occasions I raise it [issue of marriage] he would say he had problems as to his sperm count. He went on telling me that he would encourage me to get a husband and that he would sponsor the marriage.”

With pressure coming from his family, Attah decided to send his love to England for further studies. Of course, Alhaji Attah was not a stranger to Her Majesty’s country. He had a house in London. He also had other businesses there. His last son, at that time, was also in London. This was coupled with the fact that the bank of which he was the chairman also had a branch in the United Kingdom. Chinye therefore left for London, courtesy of her mentor who also visited her often.
Read 10 tweets
Olaudah Equiano® Profile picture
Dec 8
A Journey to Agnostic Theism: Seeking God Amid Confusing Evidence

God isn’t a phantom, nor can He be fully fathomed.

If you ask Richard Swinburne, the British philosopher who has devoted his career to pondering the divine, he would say—with scarcely a pause—that it is far more probable that God exists than not. His compatriot, physicist Stephen Unwin, in his book The Probability of God, even ventures an audacious Bayesian estimate of 67% for the likelihood of God’s existence. Yet their fellow countryman, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, counters this with a starkly different view: in The God Delusion, he rhetorically places the probability as low as 2%. Christopher Hitchens, another British thinker, spent his life passionately arguing along similar skeptical lines.

A thread 🧵
These contrasting positions reveal a decision-theoretic dilemma akin to a cosmic Prisoner’s Dilemma: should we embrace the common belief in God in pursuit of everlasting bliss, or seek skeptical autonomy (freedom to reason independently) and risk eternal damnation? Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century mathematician and philosopher, articulated this tension masterfully in his famous Wager, contending that belief in God is the safest gamble: it offers infinite gain if God truly exists and only finite loss if He does not; while disbelief risks infinite loss or, at best, offers finite gain.

The polarized perspectives on God highlight a profound tension between belief and doubt—between faith and reason—that has intensified in contemporary times due to the advance of science and modernization. This dichotomy has led to increasing secularization in affluent parts of the world, juxtaposed with the persistence and even intensification of religiosity and desecularization elsewhere. Agnostic theism seeks to navigate this tension by affirming the possibility of God’s existence while acknowledging the inscrutability of the divine.

As a layperson (a cradle Christian and fervent adherent in my youth) who has long pondered this matter, particularly to clarify the basis for my Christian faith, I find myself increasingly attracted to—or, at least, curious about—this philosophical position. It maintains a firm belief in God while recognizing ambiguity about His attributes and role in nature. On balance, I believe accessible evidence points strongly toward a transcendent reality and a Supreme Being we call God (my Igbo name—see byline—asserts this very claim). Yet, while affirming this belief, I cannot presume a high level of certainty about the true nature of God, His intentions, or methods—or whether these are accessible to human cognition. Consequently, I have become increasingly uncomfortable with religious dogma, preferring to show intellectual humility in my belief as I revel in—and try to unravel—the wonder of existence. I embrace science as a glimpse into the divine order but recognize its limits in addressing ultimate metaphysical questions.
The late theoretical physicist, Steven Weinberg, once said that science “doesn’t make it impossible to believe in God, but it makes it possible not to believe in God.” I would rephrase this slightly by saying that although science doesn’t make belief in God impossible, it offers natural explanations for phenomena once attributed to divine action, thus diminishing the necessity of invoking the divine while still leaving room for transcendent wonder. By staking out this position, I honor the search for truth—chiefly through science and philosophy—while accepting the profound mystery of being.

In this essay, I will make the case for agnostic theism as an intellectually honest and philosophically coherent position, one that rejects the sometimes hubristic claims about divine knowledge made by fideists who favor faith over reason, among them some fervent proselytizers of world religions in Africa.

Debates About God’s Existence
The question of God’s existence has been a perennial focus of human inquiry, producing a rich tapestry of arguments both affirming and denying the divine. Among the most influential are the cosmological arguments, which contend that the universe must have an ultimate cause, conceived of as God. Classical thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas emphasized the necessity of a “first cause” or “unmoved mover” to explain existence itself, in what we might today categorize as cosmological arguments. Aquinas also distinguished between the preambles of faith, which are rational truths accessible through reason (such as the existence of God), and the articles of faith, which transcend reason and must be accepted through belief (such as the Trinity or the Incarnation). The Kalam Cosmological Argument, traced back to the 9th-century Muslim polymath Al-Kindi and more fully developed by the 11th-century Persian philosopher Al-Ghazali, has been revitalized in contemporary discussions by William Lane Craig. This argument posits that since everything that begins to exist has a cause and the universe began to exist, it must necessarily have a transcendent cause, which is God.

Supporting these contentions are the teleological arguments, which point to the apparent design in the universe. From William Paley’s Watchmaker Analogy to contemporary discussions of fine-tuning, proponents like Richard Swinburne argue that the precise conditions necessary for life suggest the hand of a designer. These arguments align closely with the so-called strong anthropic principle (SAP), which posits that the universe’s laws and constants are not merely conducive to life but deliberately configured to ensure it. For teleological proponents, this intentionality points to a designer and a divine purpose underlying existence, although the principle itself does not explicitly claim the existence of God.
Read 9 tweets
Olaudah Equiano® Profile picture
Dec 5
Apparently, Reuben Abati's run-in with accusations of Igbophobia did not start today. Here is a January 2002 right of reply on Reuben's article published in the Guardian Newspaper titled "Obasanjo, Secession and the Secessionists", written by veteran journalist Josh Arinze who escaped Abacha's repression of journalists in the aftermath of the Gwadebe fathom coup, and took political asylum in the United States in 1995.
Enjoy the thread. 🧵
Dear Reuben,
You know who I am, so I’ll cut out the niceties and go straight to the point. I tend to stick to civility, however controversial the issue. But since small
minds have trouble understanding the language of
enlightened discourse, I will make an exception and try to speak to you in a language you can understand.

I’m aware that The (Lagos) Guardian has been on the
Web for a while.  I follow events in Nigeria very closely, but I don’t usually read your column.  There are two reasons for that.  One: the few articles of yours I’ve read in the past were rather heavy on polemics, and offered very little by way of clear-headed analysis.
Two: your prose is quite pedestrian, although I’m sure your friends and relatives wouldn’t tell you that. 

Pardon me for hurting your feelings, Reuben, but you’re not exactly the 1960s generation’s equivalent of Ray Ekpu or Dan Agbese.  And with so many excellent works to read and so little time, I pay very little
attention to second-rate columnists.

However, on December 23, I got an e-mail about a
write-up of yours that appeared in that day’s edition
of The Guardian. If you were craving attention with
that hatchet job you put together, you sure found it, boy. Congratulations.
Well, at first I thought the stuff that appeared on December 23 was the second of a two-part piece, so I sought out and read the first one too, which ran on
December 16.  Then just as I was preparing a response,
the third part of your thesis appeared on December 30.
You said that was the concluding part, but who knows; maybe you’re already at work on Parts 4, 5 and 6.
We’ll see. 

Anyway here, in a nutshell, is what I think of your
series, "Obasanjo, secession and the secessionists":
it’s a pathetic piece of hack writing, brimming with
bigotry and hate.  You have my permission to print that out in bold letters, and use it as a blurb in selling your expertise in demagoguery to the world.
You can also mention that I’m saving the entire write-up, so I can use it in seminars here in the United States as examples of how not to write.

It’s ridiculous enough that the whole article is loaded with errors of fact from top to bottom.  (I will come to those shortly.)  But what places it
beyond the realm of common sense – to say nothing of
redemption – is that it’s infected with ugly old bigotry and Igbophobia.  The stink is too repulsive.
Read 21 tweets

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