By Prince Justice Jadesola Faloye
The evil propaganda of Igbo imperialism against Yoruba civilization provokes me to rescind my initial decision to keep out of the political discourse generated by Prof Wole Soyinka’s literary suicide bomb of calling the peaceful Obidient movement a fascist movement. This is coming from a person that held a television station at gunpoint protesting electoral malpractices when he was a youth compared to Obidients youth that have done nothing so far but talk, despite brutal voter suppression by APC thugs. Nevertheless, I was not surprised by Prof Soyinka misinformation since as an undergraduate, I read Platos Republic that taught me that unlike Philosopher kings that stick to their truths, poets (Yoruba Alagbes) befriend oppressors to fund their art, so I had learnt to ignore him by the Eighties when he won the Nobel Prize, the ultimate prize of the Western military industrial complex. However, I have been provoked to join the discourse by the publication in APC newspaper, the Nation, reporting that a fathom group, Think Yoruba First labelled Obidients response to Prof Soyinka fascist comment as an attack on Yoruba civilization by so called Igbo imperialism.
First and foremost, there are only two civilizations in Nigeria and across Africa – Original indigenous African and Afroasiatic/Afro-Arabic civilizations. The Original African civilization is composed of Niger Congo ethnolinguistic groups like Yoruba, Igbo, Congo, Zulu etc that share the same genetic and cultural origins based on Ifa-Afa-Iha-Fa-Efa that spread from Ife all the way to South Africa. The Afroasiatic/Afro-Arabic civilization composed of former Indigenous African groups that have been Arabize in different waves of Afro-Arabic or Amharic Greek imperialism. So claiming that Igbos are advancing cultural imperialism against their Ifa-Afa-Iha-Fa-Efa civilization motherland is ignorant. Unlike Fulani imperialism based on Arabization and Islamization, would Igbos cultural imperialism be based on Ifa-Afa-Iha-Fa-Efa or Christianity that they share with Yorubas?
Wole Soyinka, a professor of the colonial language, is rather the epitome of coloniality and not a liberator of Yoruba civilization. The 1900s Global Black Movement was divided into two – the London based English speaking Africans that pushed for political independence and the Paris based Romance (Latin, French and Portuguese) speaking Africans led by the likes of Leopold Senghor of Senegal and Abdias Nascimento of Brazil that pushed for cultural independence. The Black Race can’t forget how in the Sixties, Soyinka pilloried the cultural revolutionary movement for proclaiming the Original African civilization known as Negritude, stating ‘a Tiger doesn’t proclaim it’s Tigritude, it pounces’. He was either ignorant of coloniality or was protecting it. Ultimately, Soyinkas claim to fame is the proclamation and romantization of English, Our Massas language and civilization. ‘He speak Oyinbo pass Englishman’ as Fela sang in Colonial Mentality, which earned Soyinka the highest award of the Western slaving civilization.
I was born in London during the Civil Rights era, which was why father named me Justice, and as a Black Diasporan had a dismissive view of our Masters Anglo Saxon language and civilization. Prof Soyinka is the opposite because he puts the Western civilization on a pedestal. Not only English language but fraternities at the foundation of Anglo Saxon supremacy, like the Pyrates Sea Dogs used by the English Queen I Elizabeth in mid 1500s through the likes of Sir John Hawkins to waylay and steal Yoruba slaves carried by Iberian Catholic ships. Soyinka was at the forefront of my father’s generation that tied speaking English to intelligence, which led to the social trend of parents preventing their children from speaking ‘vernacular’, otherwise they won’t win Oyinbo Prizes. With English language, fraternities and wine, Soyinka is a pillar of coloniality, not Yoruba Original African civilization. As a kid returning to Nigeria, I appreciated the works of Ola Rotimi that educated me of my African origins im simple English, unlike Soyinka that encoded it in complex English that 95% of Englishmen couldn’t understand without a dictionary. He was everything I guided against when writing my books. Though the West recognized him, I doubt you will find Soyinkas books on the list of 100 most influential liberating Black books.
Not only through his literary works, Soyinka also politically cuddles our oppressors. First, the colonists, to become a leading figure of the Neocolonist guard with his Nobel Prize, then later with military regimes, drinking fine European wine in Dodan Barracks and Aso Rock. There are even allegations that he was indirectly sponsored by the CIA. Though there can never be any proof but it is standard practice to financially and politically empower poets and academia to lead public discourse for colonial agenda. Our Masters Voice. As poets always need someone to sponsor their art, which compromises their truth, he gained a new patron, Tinubu to sponsor him when their paths joined in NADECO. Luckily Tinubu became Lagos Governor to continue free posh wines and hotels. Then when the West wanted a regime change from President Jonathan, the wine drinking spree spread to Port Harcourt, and he didn’t label the Sai Buharists as fascists but even joined in the literary suicide bombing by calling the first lady Shepopotamus. He never criticized the Buhari regime dismal performance and the arresting our economic and political freedom.
Therefore it would be expecting too much from the poet to turn against his patron, Tinubu that declared it was his turn, Emilokan. It appeared fascist and anarchistic to Soyinka for the youth movement to reject the heirarchial advancement of Tinubu in the status quo of corrupt governance. When it became clear that Tinubu was going to lose the election, Soyinka conveniently went into foreign obscurity, only to return after the rigged election. Prof Soyinka would have spared himself the embarrassment of coming to label the Obidient Movement, and as Plato stated to miseducate and mislead the Nigeria Youth.
Contrary to APC propaganda that the Obidient Movement is an Igbo imperialist scheme, it was Soyinkas peers like General Obasanjo, Papa Adebanjo and the rest of the conscientious Afenifere that groomed and backed Peter Obi to power in the spirit of Justice and Equity through the rotational presidency. Infact Adebanjo and Afenifere were strategically crystallizing an Original African civilizational powerbase with the South and Middlebelt Leadership Forum. Soyinka labelled General Obasanjo as our own James Bond, Agent Double Zero Negro, the head of the military wing of the neocolonial guards while Prof Soyinka himself leads the civil society wing. However, General Obasanjo appears to have decided to take a higher moral ground for nation building at the end of his 3rd twenty nine year Obaluaye cycle, to recompense his generations past mistakes, and to leave behind a Nigeria with a balanced two civilizational powerbase structure. Unfortunately, Prof Soyinkas Oliver Twist wants more of the oppressors cake, and made pronouncements that have only served to further widen the Pan Tribalistic divide between Yoruba and Igbo, a byproduct of coloniality of power and knowledge sources to distract us from civilizationism.
The same tribalism used to derail the Nigerian Youth Movement of the Thirties/Forties, whereby in 1959 Nnamidi Azikwe, an indigenous African shunned the prospect of aligning with his fellow indigenous African, Obafemi Awolowo, to bring about the consolidation of the Original African civilization. Instead he aligned with the Northern Afroasiatic civilization that wisely consolidated their powerbase till date. This is being repeated to thwart the Obidient Youth Movement of the 2020s, whereby this time around Tinubu, with the backing of the Afroasiatic North divide and rule policy, breaches the civilizational agreement of rotational presidency of Peter Obi.
Interestingly, Prof Soyinka opined that the vociferous nonviolent movement would have been acceptable if it was revolutionary, but he believed and supported the status quo of a corrupt neocolonial guards. He probably regards Peter Obi as also a member of the neocolonial political class, but the Revolutionary youth movement only choose to support Obi because he was regarded as a better choice of the class, and the last of the class to be used before resorting to armed revolution.
The Obidient Movement fervour is not guided by Peter Obi that is just a vehicle, but by the universe and the Orisas. Unlike the superficial African spiritual arts that Soyinkas generation pushes to entertain the master, utilitarian African spiritual science shows that this is a new Shango movement that comes every 84yrs like the orbit of Uranus, the last being the 1938 Nigerian Youth Movement and powered by Oya, the Revolutionary change agent, blows approximately every 250yrs like Pluto’s orbit, the last one being the late 1700s revolutions of USA, French and especially the Haitian Ogun Revolution that brought the beginning of the end of African Trans-Atlantic slavery. Now is the beginning of the end of Neocolonist political systems. Most important is the 2000yr change in global consciousness from the Might is Right to Right is Might mantra, known as the Age of Shango/Amadiora/Justice and innovation.
At the end of the day, Nigerian Youth must correctly identify their opinion leaders, and not fall into the trap of coloniality that the likes of Prof Soyinkas with their poetic licenses to arrest our economic and political development. If they want, let them label us fascists, we will liberate ourselves from this neocolonial corrupt system by ALL MEANS NECESSARY. May Olodunmare deploy Shango the essence of Justice, Oya the essence of revolutionary change and Obaluaye, the essence of structure, to aid us. ASE! ISE!
