Home away from home

Thousands of kilometres

Where hospitality friendly yet strange

Cuisines at variance with home

Consuming unfamiliar meals

To keep body system in function

Homesick, yet home afar

From nowhere comes the bang

Wow! an invitation from whom?

A dinner from home

Is it home in faraway land?

Yeah, like bridal excitement

All guests sat chatting away

Golda, who is Golda

Golda our hostess

Golda offered garri meal

Garri served with eru veggie

Oh, garri my staple meal

Oyi, garri in Addis Ababa

Addis needs garri for staple

Garri in Addis the solution

The piece on the life of one of third world's greatest thinkers Walter Rodney is salutary. His work: 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa' provides a radical insight to the objective realities of the African predicament. Rodney's contemporaries  who provided relevant views of Africa are worthy of emulation. Their articles in the 'Review of African Political Economy' and other Journals made immense contributions to scholarship. However, these generations of scholars are fast leaving the stage; the problem is: who and where are the new generation of scholars to continue with their perspective? I will challenge Rodney's contemporaries still alive to begin to groom new scholars that will be their heirs. Understandably, structural adjustment policies in Africa have wrecked havoc on African universities and the dependency school, but proponents of the latter would have to do more to keep their ideas alive. Walter Rodney's idea is alive and should be a compulsory reading for all Africans at high school and undergraduate levels.

The Darfur crisis in Sudan is one among other evil currents enveloping Africa. While I agree with Mamdani on the similarities of the Darfur crisis with those of Uganda and DRC, the former cannot compared to the latter. The large population of Displaced Persons in Darfur given the very short time frame of Janjaweed operations in the Darfur region requires further interrogation. Mamdani will do well to visit Chad and some other IDPs camp for the Darfur Victims, then a proper understanding of the humanitarian condition will be futher intellectually comprehended.

I read the article written by Joel Bisina (Pambazuka News 167) and it is an interesting and thought provoking insight on the very ugly, sad and degenerating condition of the Nigeria's Niger Delta Region.

There is a marriage of convenience between the Nigerian state and multinational oil companies operating in the Delta areas of the country. This relationship is unhealthy and inimical to the well being of the Delta people and the entire Nigerian people. It is a case of conspiracy with the majority ethnic power elites and a few Niger Delta elites in league with these oil companies to continue to accumulate petrol dollars from the region to the detriment of the people.

Much as this is the pathetic situation of the Niger Delta, several social and economic contradictions are arising which will slow the processes of positive change in the area. The Niger Delta people seem to be very hostile to people from other parts of the country especially other minorities residing and trying to eke a living in the Niger Delta. Niger Deltans need the support of these people and their peers across Nigeria to achieve social justice. It is not a struggle the Deltans can fight to win alone. They must proactively engage other minority groups in the country to push the agenda further.

The conflict in the Niger Delta is not different from those of the Middle Belt region as they both have to do with so called majority ethnic hegemony dominance of minority groups. While majority ethnic groups in Nigeria have aggressively closed their space against the minorities, they are increasingly encroaching on the space of the minority groups. Central to these problems is the law that gives the Federal government complete ownership of the land of Nigeria. With Federal power being controlled by majority ethnic groups, the struggle will be difficult. However, concerted efforts from the minority groups can change the tide. The problem is land ownership; if we can constitutionally wrestle it from the government, nearly all the conflicts in Nigeria would be solved.