Comments on naijablog: Binyavanga in trouble..

I'm baffled. It has always seemed clear to me ...

2011-12-08T10:53:36.336+01:00

I'm baffled. It has always seemed clear to me that BW is using irony and sarcasm heavily in that essay, which is why it's so funny.

Yes, you can argue that one should focus on 'writing about Africa' in new ways as opposed to simply slagging off the bad ways in which it is done. But it's a valid piece of work, which made many people sit up and think - and laugh. I'm not sure it's any more or less than that.

Or am I missing something in this post?

In the second post you link to, The Long Harmattan Season, it seems quite bizarre to compare Jade Goody to Binyavanga. The former was being blatantly racist, whereas BW was clearly making a joke AT the cliches of the foreign correspondent. I'm really astounded by the (mis)readings of the piece. I will go back and read it again, to see if I am the one missing the point.

(I can't help but feel that there is a curious point scoring going on here between men with large egos... sorry!)

I must agree that much of the writing generated by...

2009-03-13T17:32:00.000+01:00

I must agree that much of the writing generated by Nworah's embarrassing post has been great. Great comic relief.

Just as an endnote, I thought I'd add another post of his:
http://thelongharmattanseason.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-name-of-son.html

...which seems just chock full of stereotypes about Igbos!

Jeremy, I also partially agree with your deeper point about Binyavanga's How To Write About Africa essay. I've always been more a supporter of his other longer and beautiful and far more sublime work, Discovering Home, which in fact does show how Africa can be written about. You've read it?

Jeremy,I promise to visit your blog everyday as fr...

2007-08-28T14:12:00.000+01:00

Jeremy,I promise to visit your blog everyday as from now on. Can you imagine, i missed all this drama? Chei!
It's not my fault sha, i was busy money-grubbing :)

chi baby,please don't report to his sisters. i kno...

2007-08-25T02:59:00.000+01:00

chi baby,
please don't report to his sisters. i know you can if you so desire.
it is obvious you are close to them, they are your best friends.
"SHOW ME YOUR FRIENDS AND I WILL TELL YOU WHO YOU HER".

@ChiI certainly wished you had spoken like this al...

2007-08-24T19:37:00.000+01:00

@Chi
I certainly wished you had spoken like this all along.

We've all been guilty of hurling personal insults around, Nworah inclusive. But I think you went just a notch too far.

Don't worry, my dear Chi Baby. I take all personal insults with a dose of laughter. I suggest everyone do the same. You inclusive.

Cool. But first two questions:1. If an Igbo had wr...

2007-08-24T00:19:00.000+01:00

Cool. But first two questions:
1. If an Igbo had written a witty, ironic piece attacking people who called Ndigbo “money-grubbing” by creating a caricature of them doing it, would you have been offended?
2. When you wrote the “Italo” comment were you trying to turn the argument on its head or did you just let it slip?
Because if you read your sentence in the context of its preceding passage, it was what it was: an insult. Maybe not deeply thought through but an insult nonetheless – and it wasn’t taken personal, at least not by me.
My point is: intent is everything. Mr. Wainana (so much easier to spell than Wainaina) did not insult the Igbos. If anything, he attacked those who insult them – and the Shona, and the Kikuyu (an old spelling of Gikuyu). And you wrote something about it not mattering if he was Gikuyu; that he did not have respect for his tribe. Oh, come on. I do not think Nworah knew he was Gikuyu when he wrote his ‘apology demand’ post. Nworah’s post was an ill-informed attack, plain and simple. It was a bitter, bridge-burning, attention-seeking piece laced with such venom as to make common-sense arguments impotent. We seem to forget that he based his entire argument on his supposition that the Binj insulted his people and was being a boy-boy to the Oyibo guvnors. Now, Chichi, you have read the “How to write…” article. Was that your conclusion? Are you telling me you would have written instead a boring academic piece titled, “The Misconceptions of the African in the Western Expatriate Writer’s Mind”?
There is a gift we Africans have – and here I risk being accused of another stereotype – and that is the ability, nay, the need, to use humour to heal our wounds. Are you asking that we destroy that? That we sacrifice our sense of humour on the altar of a humourless blogger’s lack of understanding?
What is truth, Chichi? When do we agree that we are wrong? All the comments above said one thing, that Uche’s attack was ill-judged. When you tried to defend him, you said nothing about the fact that he accused the Binj of collecting money from Fidelity Bank; that he insinuated that Ms Adichie was unwise to keep such a pig as a friend; that he attacked Fidelity Bank for spending big money on expatriate facilitators (instead of talented locals like himself?). (And here I cannot resist pointing out the sad thinking that every initiative must be corporate and not individual. By now Uche knows the workshop was planned – and Binyavanga committed for free – long before Fidelity got involved. And thanks, Fidelity Bank, for the time and resources put at our disposal.) Instead you dropped a paragraph-and-a-half of the original piece and wrote on-and-on about how Uche was famous already, how those of us who abused him were fools, how we were all one and the same person holding brief for the Binj.
What is truth? Do you respect the opinion of others? Take a look at every single comment above. Ignore the hazy innuendo and see what every single person – not my alter egos, trust me – said. Even Cecilia, who posted the first comment, was shocked at the venom of the Nworah post after she read the Binj’s article. Nobody is saying that conformity is, or the majority are, correct. But haba, Wetin Uche do no good at all.
At all, at all.
With that, I sign off on the matter. Writer and part-time doctor (ha ha ha ha ha).

It’s called turning the argument, not just on its ...

2007-08-23T18:04:00.000+01:00

It’s called turning the argument, not just on its head, but sending it back to source. Since stereotyping in whatever context is acceptable, I see no reason why it should all of a sudden become unpleasant to those who didn’t deem it so at the outset. The satire/sarcasm which I have been told to accept has been lost on you.

Now you know why a number of people, like Uche Nworah, myself and any self respecting Igbo person is or should be incensed about being stereotyped as ‘money grubbers’. The same also goes for the white writers that are being stereotyped in this article as lazy, bogus and unwilling to research on how to write about Africa.

“Stereotypes are devices for saving a biased person the trouble of learning”

I now rest my case, unless goaded into another response. I will ignore the personal insults; I have dished out enough myself and I don’t want my points to be engulfed in tales of disdain. To all those offended, it wasn’t personal. Well it was, but not anymore.

Chi Baby

@Chinyere kalu, sometimes I wonder how ignorant we...

2007-08-23T01:28:00.000+01:00

@Chinyere kalu, sometimes I wonder how ignorant we are in that nation, I am afraid to think about it. Here you are complaining about a "stereotype" and then you say something like that? your whole point in the discussion has just been lost. It is clear that you lack a sense of reasoning, you are educated no doubt but unfortunately not enough to argue or debate sensibly.

Chinyere or whatever you call yourself, I must say...

2007-08-22T15:58:00.000+01:00

Chinyere or whatever you call yourself, I must say I was disappointed when I read your posts.

To say your last sentence to Warri Boy was uncalled for and immature is a gross understatement. It went on to show the high levels of hypocrisy we Nigerians indulge ourselves in.

Here you are fighting for a man who called for an apology from someone who he alleged had made a nasty statement about his people and it didn’t take long for you to blurt out yours as well or let me say ‘It’s okay for you to make such statements about other people but it’s not okay for you to receive them’? Hypocrisy in the highest order!

You laugh your brains out when you listen to our comedians make fun of different tribes and you take offense at a simple satire? I can bet that you wouldn’t find anything wrong if it was the Yoruba or Hausa tribe that was mentioned. After all to you, the Niger Delta girls are in Italy ‘providing a service’.

As a woman…I am disappointed
As an Igbo….I am extremely disappointed

Jeremy, I think you should exercise your moderator...

2007-08-22T12:05:00.000+01:00

Jeremy, I think you should exercise your moderator's right now by moderating Madam Kalu out of existence. Her last sentence was uncalled for, especially from a woman. You don't have to publish every comment surely?

Chichi, you don't know when to stop, do you?Read y...

2007-08-22T08:39:00.000+01:00

Chichi, you don't know when to stop, do you?
Read your last sentence again?

It is alleged, or so bitchy(?) claims, that she at...

2007-08-21T18:25:00.000+01:00

It is alleged, or so bitchy(?) claims, that she attended the workshop together with Shylle, Ayotunde Girl, Omo Alagbede and Angry Warri Boy. Is someone having a laugh? From the drivel that I have read so far from all of them, they could only have been there for one reason – either to serve the participants with snacks or maybe man the gates.

Adichie was quoted in NVS as saying “I have had so much fun and don’t just want this to finish. I love the energy that we have spent in this workshop and the fact that I have met young writers who have so much zeal and ambition that makes me satisfied and sure that the future of Nigeria in the literary scene is assured,” God help us if she was referring to any of them!

@Warri Boy - Are you signing off because you can’t afford to pay your Internet Café bills? Or are you scared because this girl is about to kick your behind from pillar to post. You call yourself a part-time doctor? lol.(Wetin person no go hear) If only your pockets and your brains were as big as your mouth, I would have given you a run for your money, or maybe reported you to your sisters that are providing a 'service' in Italy!

Satire

Angry Warri boy is going to take a deep breath. An...

2007-08-21T11:56:00.000+01:00

Angry Warri boy is going to take a deep breath. Angry Warri boy is not going to get angry. Why is angry Warri boy referring to himself in the third person? Because Chi-chi Kalu is driving him insane!
Did any of you read her full comments as posted on the long-blah-blah page?
I dunno what to say.
And she quotes an entire paragraph of the Binj's piece?
To show what?
That it was offensive?
Of course it was. That was the point, wasn't it?
With people like this we have to follow every statement with a because and a why.
I know Jeremy disagrees with the way Binj did it but let me ask Uche this: How would you, o master of satire - have written a satirical piece about the media stereotyping of Africa and Africans?
Don't you still get it? Did you even read the 2nd half of Jeremy's original post? It seems that all attempts to shove the truth down your throat are doomed from the start... So I'm going to feed it to you in small-small bits.
Uche... Go... and learn... how to ... read again... They still sell Ilesanmi and Mcmillian readers... at Tejuosho bend-down bookshop.
Can you imagine the guy. I thought he was going to keep his Chichi (FFK-esque) gaurd-dog leashed tightly on his blog page o. Instead he lets her loose here too. I actually impressed her too, Jeremy, to the point where she accused me of being everyone else... Multiple personality. That's why angry Warri boy is going to sign off on this matter here. Chichi, Don't make me angry... You wouldn't like me when I'm angry... HULK SMASH! GRR!

Chinyere Kalu, if she's not a transgendered versio...

2007-08-21T11:46:00.000+01:00

Chinyere Kalu, if she's not a transgendered version of Uche Nworah, is his Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity. The man is important enough to have one o, don't you think. I mean, he has appeared on CNN, and BBC. I wonder what he wants those Niger Delta militants, or Baghdad bomb blast victims, who have also appeared on CNN at one time or the other, to say sha o

This Binyavanga post has me howling with laughter!...

2007-08-21T11:11:00.000+01:00

This Binyavanga post has me howling with laughter! i think it shows us (oops, hope i'm not stereotyping, clearly the "F-word" that started this whole thing) in our best light, highly intelligent humourous people enjoying a good debate. Even Chinyere Kalu (who must surely be Uche Nworahs publicist, or one of our shadier Nigerian journalists given his propensity for getting facts wrong). At what point ,Jeremy will you cry uncle? Discovering Naijablog is one of the best things that's happened to me this year.

As posted on Uche Nworah’s site“The foolish and th...

2007-08-21T07:35:00.000+01:00

As posted on Uche Nworah’s site

“The foolish and the uneducated have little use for freedom.”

Most of the replies to Uche’s post (and they could all be coming from one source) indicate a level of monotonous pettiness that has now become the order of the day ever since some uneducated Nigerians discovered the use of the Internet. Uche has spotted a something erroneous with someone’s bigoted opinion about members of his tribe, and he is not allowed to pass judgement on his own blog! Unreal!

An impostor regrettably named “Angry Warri Boy” feels that the only way he could face up to Uche’s views is to serve cheap insults and in the process offer nothing more than expose his own prejudice. He then backs himself up by posting under other names and dropping anonymous comments. Anyway, let me forcefully invite myself to your audacious “insult-trading” world. My name is Chinyere Kalu, I am Igbo (No apologies), and yes I am offended by the article that Uche’s post attends to!

Anyway, “goody-two-shoes” claims to be a member of some faceless writers’ workshop in Lagos. I am assuming that he also purports to be a writer, well I can tell him this for free - Nigeria will never be indebted to you and/or your esteemed knowledge on the subject. You only serve as a reminder to many others that free education (UPN in your case) can sometimes be wasted on certain individuals. To cut you some slack, and absolve you from a lot of blame – Nigerian education has undoubtedly failed you.

Let’s take you seriously for one minute, and I know this might sound unfeasible. In your low-impact haste to make yourself heard, you failed the simplest of tasks. You failed to read accurately the article that you ‘appear’ to criticise. It was a botched effort and I sincerely want to believe that someone didn’t read Uche’s post to you. Either way, make yet another effort to get it read to you again!

At no point did Uche refer to Wainaina (not Wainana as your response states) as a SHE. He even posted a picture of Wainaina for crying out loud! And unless you ‘bat the other way’, its pretty apparent that Wainaina is a guy! So that was a cheap shot, not that you will know one if it smacked you full in the face, just like you wouldn’t know a well written article if one rolled over you. God help your writer’s group. What is it? A meeting of the brainless?

Now to your other ‘points’ – speaking to you as one Nigerian to another – how loutish. You state that Wainaina is also from Gikiyu (kikiyu), so what? Is your head so far up your backside that you can’t seem to see how dim-witted that observation is? Since he has such a weak opinion about his people, he could have left it at that. You seem to ‘think’ that his people would ignore his remarks just because he is one of them. How clever. And then you go on to write about “false-fidelity-bank-I-love Adichie-sensibilities”. Was that your infantile way of exposing yourself as a bigot? Your juvenile behaviour doesn’t stop there. You also remind us that you hated literature while in school because of the ‘likes’ of Uche. Was that the real reason? Judging from your submission, I think that the reason why you couldn’t ‘crack’ the subject runs much deeper than that. I will suggest you try the mirror therapy yourself, and see what stares back at you. “An uneducated person is like an unpolished mirror”

You ask the writer to go back to Secondary school and take a comprehension lesson, another regrettable but expected comment. Well that is rich coming from a yob like you. You sign off by reminding the writer that ‘our’ people will not let him get away with rubbish. Was that meant to be a threat?

I wouldn’t bother commenting on your next post, and the anonymous ones that follow. They all reinforce my conviction that intellectual midgets like you should be kept away from the use of the internet. You said you were discussing Uche on your blog, and you also talk about his 15 minutes of fame? Pity! Uche lest you haven’t noticed, has appeared on CNN and the BBC. The closest you will get to any of these news outlets is thru your neighbour’s TV Set!

And to Ayotunde Girl, who could be Warri Boy in disguise. Spitting venomous bitterness? Being Childish? Are we all reading the same post? Or are you a paid up member of Warri Boy’s fictitious writer’s group? How untrained. And what exactly was your point?

None!

Another reason why Yar’adua must address the educational needs of our people with intense exigency. The likes of Ayotunde Girl may have escaped, but he owes it to every Nigerian not to fill our surroundings with her type!

And then there is Shylle, a wannabe comedian. You had me in stitches! You must be a very funny person, as witty as “The Binj” – NOT!
‘Brown-nosing’ Binj wouldn’t get you anywhere; trying being your own person, I am sure your ‘brain’ can do more. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life as a cheerleader and watch your superior brain deteriorate? But then again, maybe you should not be allowed to make your mind up.

“Your African characters may include naked warriors, loyal servants, diviners and seers, ancient wise men living in hermitic splendour. Or corrupt politicians, inept polygamous travel-guides, and prostitutes you have slept with. The Loyal Servant always behaves like a seven-year-old and needs a firm hand; he is scared of snakes, good with children, and always involving you in his complex domestic dramas. The Ancient Wise Man always comes from a noble tribe (not the money-grubbing tribes like the Gikuyu, the Igbo or the Shona). He has rheumy eyes and is close to the Earth. The Modern African is a fat man who steals and works in the visa office, refusing to give work permits to qualified Westerners who really care about Africa. He is an enemy of development, always using his government job to make it difficult for pragmatic and good-hearted expats to set up NGOs or Legal Conservation Areas. Or he is an Oxford-educated intellectual turned serial-killing politician in a Savile Row suit. He is a cannibal who likes Cristal champagne, and his mother is a rich witch-doctor who really runs the country.”

Mr Oguro, abeg now! We dey work 25 hours a day! Ma...

2007-08-20T22:46:00.000+01:00

Mr Oguro, abeg now! We dey work 25 hours a day! Make we steal some few minutes relax now? Your comment even long pass my own sef!

Anyway, I've just been insulted on the Nworah blog by his "attorney." She called me a "wannabe comedian." Thank God say I get sense of humor pass all of dem!

Having been labeled a comedian (God bless my humorous soul!), I should perhaps splash some more ridicule on my dear Uche and his advocate cum supporter cum fan cum worshiper, (and perhaps a secret lover too!)

Perhaps as the intelligent Chinyere(Chi baby!) has insinuated, maybe she's also the same person as Mr Uche, who after 18 comments still can't say anything on his own blog! Kai! Instead a faceless barrister has stepped into his defense. Fishy fishy, I dare say. Chi baby and Uche even sound the same, don't they? Well, like minds...

Simply put, Chinyere is just as obtuse as her oga is. After such comments, they still can't relax and properly digest the article they've mis-interpreted. I still maintain: some people shouldn't be allowed to read at all, let alone write.

At least until they can comprehend.

... ah! una no dey tire? so so big grammar, big wo...

2007-08-20T20:53:00.000+01:00

... ah! una no dey tire? so so big grammar, big words, una too like beer parlour arguments ... you all seem to like showing the world that you think, read and dissect..yawn.. whilst you are all showing off your educated minds, have you asked how many man hours you are burning? what happened to work ethic and productive debates ??? I can't believe that grown men and women can waste so much time waffling about some bloke's random comment. I read the east africans article in passing sometime ago ...bloody good I thought ... leave it at that!! please dear brothers and sisters squabble about something more productive not some prickly nna boy's comments. [I'm igbo as well so no tired ethnic barbs my way please..]

Chineke! Naijablog is destroying Nigerian producti...

2007-08-20T14:07:00.000+01:00

Chineke! Naijablog is destroying Nigerian productivity.

Fifty bleedin' comments??

:)

from the anon after Bitchy. Of course not. As you...

2007-08-20T13:20:00.000+01:00

from the anon after Bitchy. Of course not. As you rightly said, that would be indeed an absurd proposition. I was merely noting the fact that I heard about Chimamanda's Orange nomination, the workshop and host of other things through this blog and others.

I fail to see how saying that would lead to your conclusion, unless you are trying to start a fight that is not there.

D

To the Anonymous who commented after Bitchy:I hope...

2007-08-20T13:12:00.000+01:00

To the Anonymous who commented after Bitchy:

I hope you are not implying that Ms. Adichie won the Orange Prize simply because Jeremy used his blog "to encourage" his readers to vote for her? That would be an absurd proposition. Just so you know.

Chicken Bones Journalist of the Year or Chicken BR...

2007-08-20T12:02:00.000+01:00

Chicken Bones Journalist of the Year or Chicken BRAINS Journalist of the Year?

My piece is OUT: :-)))How NOT To Write About Binya...

2007-08-20T11:57:00.000+01:00

My piece is OUT: :-)))

How NOT To Write About Binyavanga!

http://omoalagbede.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-not-to-write-about-binyavanga.html

Warri Boy, get off the net and go back to work. I ...

2007-08-20T11:13:00.000+01:00

Warri Boy, get off the net and go back to work. I will report you.

Oguro was right, some of us here don't have jobs. In our extreme joblessness, we're able to find links like this - http://www.nathanielturner.com/fidelitybankandbinyavangawainaina.htm

It seems Mr. Nworah has aired his grievance on an even bigger platform - the website of the Chicken Bones journal, from which he derived his title as "an award-winning internet columnist"

Teeheehee!

Not you too! It's so clear that Binya was being sa...

2007-08-20T11:09:00.000+01:00

Not you too! It's so clear that Binya was being sarcastic, or if you prefer, ironic. He was writing a much-needed piss-take on the ways in which Africa is so often (re)presented by foreign writers (I, myself, I confess, am one) in cliche and generalisation.

That said, you raise an interesting question about whether this is the best way for someone like BW to be spending his time. Perhaps not. Although I think one strong piece, published in a British publication (and therefore read by many foreigners), can't be such a bad thing. What I found odd, however, was the rest of that Granta issue. The first introductory chapter, by John Ryles (a highly respected East Africanist) seems, in certain ways, to do exactly what BW rallies against. Did Granta's eds not notice?