An ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY FORTH (PART 4) Black, African and Proudly 9ja!

The irony is that, the more the world shrinks and becomes more and more global , the more  ignorance and cultural biases  still prevailing among humanity is astonishingly growing, and at such an alarming rate.

Sarah Palin once described Africa as a ‘vast country’, and this was after her nomination as Republicans vice Presidential flag bearer of the greatest country on earth. If such naivety occurs from a person we would readily assume to know, you can then imagine the level of ignorance in the mind of ‘commoners’.

From realistic comments from friends who are non-Africans, I see there is still a current and widespread perception of Africa as a large dark continent where primitive people still prevail and where scantly cladded tribesmen with bows and arrows for hunting are still rife, even amidst the progress of internet and success of media culture, to many Westerners, Africa is still synonymous to hopelessness and poverty, a region that needs the sympathy and charity of Western aid to survive.

I can go on and on to describe the concept of Africa from a typical Western perspective, this is borne, not out of prejudice but from blatant ignorance and inertia. Don’t be angry if you are black, just be surprised. In spite of the media propaganda about anti-racism et all, it is still ingrained in a white person’s brain that he is superior to Black; God help you if you are Black and African, the Lord is your strength when you are Black, African and Nigerian. I call it ‘Triple jeopardy’.

Contrarily, I come into my land and I notice the wide respect we accord to White skin. An average black man has it ingrained in his psyche that a White person is superior to him, even if he has a Master’s degree holder and the latter has an NVQ1. Hahahaha! Comedy of error.

Without gaining knowledge of the journey back, we shall be trapped. First, we shall be affected with all these apparent biases and instead of doing something to better our lots and correct the disparity with love, we either develop a complex: we accept and live with our ‘inferiority’ or we become angry and respond in such manner that we become far worse than our accusers.

A typical African, in order to survive amidst all these misconceptions, returns either to the abandonment of religion or to the violence of war- or both. We seem unprepared to combine the talk of education and the walk of pragmatism into the emancipation of the mental slavery resident in us. We still rubbish the energy from our root and continue to follow the acute detailed dictates from the West. If Africans don’t discover themselves and still bin their identity and culture, they shall continue to see themselves as second rated citizens. You cannot imitate somebody and expect to be more than him.

In spite of humanity’s advancement, I confess that this racial and cultural ignorance is not often borne out of ill motives, but out of what I call disinterestedness and inertia.  There is a level of ignorance permeating the entire earthly horizon, it is as easy as falling into the wide and fallacious opinions of saying Jamaicans take pots, or that Muslims are terrorists, or that Indians use ‘jazz’, or that white girls are cheap or that all sleet faced Asians are Chinese . For instance, back home, I often wonder at the number of fundamentalist Christians who think Jerusalem is a Christian land filled with churches! All these misconceptions are borne out of our ignorance to read and laziness to venture.

I feel hurt when I am assumed for less than I deserve, but I try not to retaliate. I laugh over the ignorance and try to improve on myself. Martin Luther King once said that the law may not be able to change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. I commend the effort of some Western countries in tackling this anomaly by implementing laws to discourage the opinionating of its ideology, but the workability of these laws in individuals is another topic. John McCain once said something about Vladimir Putin, he said: ‘when I look into his eyes I see 3 letters: K-G-B. McCain has been affected. I don’t wish to get to a stage where I will look into a White man’s face and see 6 letters. R-A-C-I-S-M.

The journey forth thus calls precisely for what is being denied in our world today in order to truly progress. Think of definitions like Big Society, Multiculturalism, Multi-ethnicity, Solidarity etc. The heart might have failed in the workability of these things, but as long as the Heart still breathes there is still hope.

I passionately work towards being influenced by goodness. The British Empire came to my land for money, but without them today, I wouldn't have gotten my Christian faith, I wouldn't have been educated, if for the single fact that I met with Christ, it is enough reason to see the advent of the White man as a journey forth. But when I bin what I already have instead of working to refine it and guarding it jealously, I am then behaving like a child who sees honey and throws away bread. A wise adult would see honey and consume both bread and honey.

As I become a citizen of the world and I see the great hospitality of the British, the deep rooted culture and creativity of Italians, the diligence of Eastern Europeans, the faith and generosity of the Arabs, the discipline of Asians, the magnanimity and zest of the Americans, the sophistication of the French and the pragmatism of Russians. I would like to purchase these ingredients, add the salt and condiments of African passionate energy and vast abilities, mix and cook these together to produce a tasty menu for the advancement of humanity.

An ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY FORTH (PART 3) Go On With One Nigeria

Of the things most difficult for man is cultural integration. Our environments do have a massive impact on our beliefs and our lives.

One of the best experiences produced from the core of my nation is the programme called the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), a compulsory one year integration and service programme undertaken by every university graduate in Nigeria, established after the end of the country’s civil war. It is easy for us to take this scheme for granted, but think about it: how many friendships it has fostered, how great the unity it has advanced, how multitude the prejudices it has banished!

We grow in our individual cultured environments and develop our respective prejudices, fostered by stories from our communities. We make little effort to verify these conceived opinions and we learn to live our lives without adjudicating their veracity.

It was a great opportunity for me experiencing this scheme. It remained one of my best life experiences. I was opportune to interact with individuals from virtually every part of the country and this exposure has informed and reformed my attitude towards the subject and importance of verification. During this time, I met with great men and women from all across the nation and some of whom their friendships have remained relevant in my life, even today.

Not that I did not perceive some of the so-called ills about others and about respective cultures, as  picked up from my environment, as others would definitely have perceived mine, but when we gather a discernment from an experience from the journey back, we are not overly surprised about others weakness ( because we have ours),  the inspirations we gather from their virtues, I see, quite  outweighs the impact of their ills, and it was this I determined to build on, and I have not been let down.

It’s a complex world we live in, but I’ll rather put myself in a position to be affected positively by goodness rather than to be harmed by ills, and the capacity to do this lies in the grace of the journey back. Two things happen otherwise: Without making this journey back I either think it all a bed of roses regarding people and thus unknowingly become ‘conquered’ into their respective ills, that is, if I presume to follow through the perspectives of people’s peripheral goodness; or else, I become opinionated and join the league of the expose in having a more prejudiced judgement and distorted biases when I decide to live on the negative perspective of others. So either way,  I end up thus becoming worse without knowing it, I become so to say, mastered by evil. Give or take, without an adequate journey back, there is no going forth.

There is strength in numbers when we transcend petty bickering. My experience of the NYSC scheme for me did actually become a “Go On with One Nigeria” (GOWON). What I am passionate about and indeed want to build on is my discovery about the communality and uniqueness of Nigerians, the all-round zeal of the Igbos, the creativity from the Niger Deltans, the easy going attitude of the northerners, the intuitiveness of the Yorubas, and the sociability from the middle belts.

Historically, Nigeria as a country is a project borne out of commerce; money was a huge factor in the amalgamation of respective protectorates by the British. It probably would take some experience of the journey back, albeit uncomfortable, to break off the shackles of money and realise the deeper destiny that we truly have in common. Some have already despaired about this, but through projects like the NYSC I see hope.

Now, my personal political conclusion is this: Justice can, or rather should entail concessions and compromise for the sake of the common good and this often is easier realised in the arena of charity and humility, otherwise when forced upon, it becomes far calamitous and drives back the speed of progress.

The civil war is a scandal and is a thing hard to let go off especially by those most affected by it, but without the sacrifice of those who fought and gave their lives, wither or thither, the shackles off money, which is still a work in progress, would have been little come by, and I see that strength is made perfect in weakness, the foundation of our country is laid on the blood, not so much of the ‘victor’ who are alive, but of the ‘vanquished’ who are dead.

On a personal note, the ordeals I went through during the June 12 saga has made me value and esteem the more, the democracy project.  My passionate solidarity is borne out of this ordeal which is a memory I shall not let go of because it has built whatever I have become now and is building that which I will be in the future. I am part of the job, as important as the President, because the struggle takes place not so much in the citadel of Abuja as in the heart of man, and because the evils and corruption of the junta years are not an option for me, I do whatever I can to join in the solidarity for the emancipation of the spirit of man starting from my root.

My June 12 ordeal was unwillingly laid upon me, but this struggle was willingly taken up by others. It is of these heroes, both living and dead, whether of the June 12 saga or the greater ordeal of the civil war, that keeps the spirit and soul of Nigeria going. The labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain: this is indeed a great and worthy prayer.

I wasn’t born during the Nigerian civil war, but I was alive during June 12 crisis and I affirm that without such journey back, without such struggle of the mind, will, soul and intellect, there would have been no democracy for anybody or the masses. This is the journey forth; it is all about freedom and liberation!

We have Principalities, bad ancestors, corrupt institutions and the love of money on whose foundation this glorious country was laid by the British Empire, to contend with, so the struggle still continues. And amidst all the ordeals and calamity that beleaguer our dear nation, I see a positive exodus, a common journey forth towards the emancipation of the mind, spirit and soul of man out of the shackles of slavery.

In God’s eyes, this journey is nothing but positive; only with Him is there actually no Victor and no Vanquished and in Him only can we go on with one Nigeria.

An ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY FORTH (PART 2) The Journey Into Love

Without love, all that we do is worthless.

As we grow, the definition of love often acquires a rebirth and exposes a broader horizon to our journey.

I start this second essay with the depiction of a young girl who is in love. She has her whole mind and heart revolving around this young man, the object of her love. She is prepared to leave whatever she’s got at any inkling for this cupid. She would not imagine a life without him; this would simply be nothing but death. This feeling and desire is what I shall call Eros, and Eros is a very beautiful experience, but that which has got to be managed, otherwise it becomes dangerous.

Many grown-ups are aware of this necessary phase in the life of a young person. The imprudent adult rubbishes and zeroes this experience and leaves the young girl feeling bewildered and more confused. The wise ones guide her along this dangerous but necessary path whatever be the outcome.

Back to our story. Eventually the worst happened: our young girl became heartbroken: the boy leaves her. Her life support was snapped; life seemed nothing but wicked. She felt suicidal; she couldn't go on of her own strength.  I maintain that this is Destiny’s way of calling her unto something greater, even though she knew not, this is her own personal journey back and it becomes eternally fruitful, if she remains faithful and true to her experience.

Then, she could see nothing but misfortune, but in actual fact, painful as it was, the experience was simply an invitation to advance in wisdom, to be detached and to venture more into the more honourable path of true love. To her, life seemed no more to go forward anymore, but for Destiny, it is simply a journey to the truth.

And this depiction of Eros is not limited only to young people; it is as wide and varied. For instance, I once asked a friend what his ultimate motive was .He replied that he hoped to work hard, retire and spend the remaining part of his life fishing. He was passionate about this hobby. I delved into the issues of family, community and suggested if he would be interested in impacting his society, but he would hear nothing of such, his ultimate goal in life is a time for his passion: fishing; I admire a man with a passion which is the starting point (many there are who don’t have future ambitions), but I just couldn’t bring myself to understanding a whole life spent in an inedible fishing pastime in the midst of all opportunities. This sort of passion like that of my friend is as varied, it could be love of music, fashion, food, money etc. While I consider these the starting point, I cannot see it as a destination in itself.

Back to the story of our girl. The experience didn’t break her, she was instead detached by it and understood deeper the sole purpose of love. Years passed and  she got married to a man she loved sincerely and maturely , being no more attached to the frivolity of emotion but to the truthfulness of love. During her married life, something else began to crop up, something unlike the ‘shaky’ love she felt as a girl, a love more gentle, calm and more reasonable, but equally disturbing; that which, however plausible, was not the ultimate (though she thought it was then until she had to face another reality): It was the love for her family, most especially her children who were indeed everything to her. Life without them became unthinkable. This is a kind of love I shall describe as Filial.

The older she grew, the more attached to her children she was, and the more ‘responsible’ for their destiny she became. Then, these children began to leave home; they started graduating from school and getting married. She knew sooner she would have to face the reality of being without them. Even though she had been a faithful wife and a wonderful mother, she discovered that love goes deeper than family ties, that which were now being snapped from her, for good.

Events in life and ageing could force us out from Eros to Filial, but without early practice and constant faith, dedication and commitment, it would be difficult to proceed from Filial unto the next stage. Most fall from the snap of Filial, not back unto Eros- which would be nothing- but further into what I call Principality. Upon reaching the Filial spot, the journey further would be impossible without the Divine.

I once asked a woman what her ultimate motive for hustling so much for her children was. She replied that in the hope that, one day they would be well learned, get good jobs and be able to support her and the family. Plausible, but short sighted and in danger of an aversion unto this Principality that I talk about.

Many there are who after the Filial snap find succour in altruistic deeds like community works, charitable deeds or Godly service. These are very commendable but in danger of an escape from the Agape call, which is the destination of this journey of love because it is where authentic freedom and liberation resides. The novelty of fathoming the inaccessible horizon which is the summit of our journey belongs only to a faith assisted by humility and charity. Agape does not blame Filial and Eros; it journeys with them, without being attached to them.

Agape stems from a detached heart, a detachment from self, from loved ones and from the world, and it is of such that makes a companion of Filial and Eros without being a slave to them. This novelty of love becomes like a horizon which broadens unto infinity. Love becomes purified and everything points to this purity of love. The journey forth is not about us, it simply happens because of us. For instance, we see daily, all around us, those good examples of people who fast, keep long vigils, pay tithes, offerings and stipends, who perform all forms of ascetic practices and altruistic deeds in order to venture towards this liberating path, but this journey to the truth of love is not a guarantee even for them, it belongs entirely to the choice of the Divine. According to Christ: Many would seek to enter through the narrow gate and would not succeed. If such plausible deeds would not succeed therein, what then would become of us who don’t even venture at all?

But my consolation is in this discovery: this power of truth which liberates goes hand in hand with a holy dissatisfaction, it belongs, not to those who visibly make the effort, not even to those who are aware, but to those who know they are not where they should be and passionately long to be where they should without ‘killing’ themselves over it or arrogantly judging the others who venture, albeit not like them. The victory lies in our desire, not in our arrival. Blessed are the poor in Spirit; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

I would like to end this 2^nd of the 7 parts of my essay with a quote from the Little Flower which summarises the summit of this journey of love. She said about herself: “Because my heart is centred on God, it has manifested a more purified; sincere affection farther than it would have done if it had spent itself in selfish and barren loves. All things have come to me because I no longer seek them for myself”.

An ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY FORTH (part 1) Life and the Quest for Power

Some 6 months back I wrote an essay about the journey back. This second essay which I shall put in series concludes the previous.

No pain, no gain; no cross, no crown. The journey forth is an attempt at expounding our conquest when we dare journey back in faith and confidence. It is the residence of mercy, the acquisition of power.

Life is full of mystery. At the micro level, life seems to be going back and forth. ‘Atori l’aye’, life becomes like a yoyo; but when we look at it from an acute macro perspective, when we see the big picture, life is actually, truthfully, realistically moving in one direction, and that is forward only; because the ruler of this world has already been judged, and the more we accustom ourselves to looking at the big picture, the more positive we become and the more we are unaffected by the earthly and ephemeral. But we cannot see the big picture unless we broaden the heart, and we cannot broaden the heart unless we embark on the journey back.

Life moves forward, it journeys in search of truth and truth beckons to visit her. The man who journeys in truth knows that all falsehood shall ultimately be destroyed, and an adept at this journey forth knows that all falsehood has already been destroyed. When we venture back, we definitely return with power; we acquire power, so to say.

Now, this definition of power has the tendency of being viewed from a negative perspective. When we think of power we immediately think of something akin to greed and personal acquisitions, because, just like love - and perhaps more than love- power’s definition has been tarnished. In fact, if love has been wounded in our age, power has been murdered.

Power is the ultimate capacity to influence. When we sincerely journey back, we acquire power, but because the journey back can be tasking, a great multitude ‘cut corners’ to acquire power and here lies the death of power, in my land and in the world in general. We have murdered power by ignoring its route, thus no man is at peace.

This desire for power, the capacity to influence was the reason which propelled the Magi in their long search for Christ, it was the longing of the Queen of Sheba which enhanced her journey to Solomon, and it is what every single earthly and heavenly ruler craves for, rightly or otherwise.  If you cannot influence, of what benefit then is your power? You can use force of course, but force and coercion deplete the source of power the more and ultimately dries and kill it off. Herein lies the death of power: Not keeping to the rules of its path.

Life in fact is full of powerful people who are not aware of their power, and of powerless lots who in fact think they are powerful.  Power in truth was what Christ acquired through His death and Resurrection, or rather that which He has bequeathed us, and thus hope is reborn because, even in our age, real power seems though it is dead, but it lives.

Power comes at a cost, whether you travel in truth or falsely, the difference is that one is sustainable and the other ultimately crumbles. You cannot ‘sit down’ and manage power; if you do you shall ultimately be consumed. Power moves, it moves with the body, heart, mind, intellect, will and memory. If you really want power sustained, most especially: you've

got to learn to let go.

One person would say, ‘I don’t care for this power thing anyway. I am contented the way I am, why should I be that ambitious?’  I reply that you either do not understand what real power consists of or that you are still disillusioned regarding your reason for living. Your essence is made for power, even simple laws of Physics point to that fact.

Another person would say, ‘yes I am in charge, I grasp this concept of power, I am superior.’  I say: good for you, but you still do not know what this power is, because it has nothing to do with you. Even if you know what it is, be careful, for you are threading a very risky ground by deciding to be in charge, you are already in the realm of great temptations and may not last.

We live in an age where power is directly motivated by the material, but acquiring true power demands rising above the material. This rectilinear journey requires an education which is equipped towards enabling the 21^st century man to rise beyond the material, but we don’t seem to be ready.

For every journey back that we make, we acquire the capacity to make 7 journeys forth (and I use 7 figuratively to depict perfection), thus I have decided to divide this essay into 7. This is just one of them and the forthcoming topics shall equally be as diverse as they are provocative. Stay tuned…

My Contribution to a Beautiful Essay on Dance

Nice write up of a universal repute.

Here is my contribution  purely from a personal experience  .

Dance is necessary in our contemporary culture because

1) It is a great source of unification, integration and communality, but if not handled and experienced properly, the experience could be ephemeral or even degenerating.

2) Dance brings joy,  it is somehow an heavenly foretaste, it is synonymous to a song which calls God a God of the dance because life itself is a dance. Nature dances, creativity dances, and as written by Father Peter, if you don't dance, you are dead. Even the whole creation synchronizes and shakes to a particular rhythm.

3) Permit me to compare dance with love. I have come to cherish Eros the base of love, not only as it is understood in our contemporary society, but also as a passion for beauty, for nature, for creation, and i believe this is of necessity a beginning to the proper understanding of the nature of love and as a consequence of God. Those who have experienced agape much have known a lot about Eros.  it is like the many miracles of Christ which is a call to something higher, a higher state, a greater truth. Dance stays at the median position, it can lift up a soul to the sky  and can thrust a soul to the pit. As we live in an essentially materialistic culture in which it is far easier to succumb to gravity we must watch the way we dance. I share my own experience:

4) I watch carefully in the midst of those I would dance, if my dance is capable of cheering people up, attracting people in order to remove their pretenses, foster communality, I dance. If it in a relatively 'enlightened' space, those who have already grown truthfully out from the physical dance into the internal spiritual dance, i simply watch how i dance. But if it is in an already degraded environment, and i observe that my dance would be of utmost incapability of true affection but something that would further the degradation, or something that could even push me beneath,then i don't dance at all. These are just to say; i dance with sense. Like Eros, dance is often necessary, but also dangerous.

5)As asserted in the essay, without good music, there is no dance. I ponder and ask myself where  my passion for music has brought me. When i was a young man, i frown at dull and slow music,i preferred so much the hype type popularly known as 'alujo'. Now growth has journeyed me from a greater focus of the rhythm of the beat to that of the message of the beat. Beat is still necessary for in music, but i have traversed from 'alujo' to 'agidigbo', so has my sense of how, when and where i dance.

The Blessed Virgin and The Secular Age

We live in an entirely secularized world. The Christian world, armed with the power of faith in Christ was able to conquer the lie of the Gentiles manifested through various polytheist and hedonistic practices. But in our days , pagan practices has made an aggressive comeback. As Luigi Guissani puts it: what we have in our age is not a bad Christianity -that would have been nothing- but an unchristian, dechristianized world.

Christianity through many trials was able to christianize the pagan days, and now, albeit subtle , Christian feasts are being paganized once more.

In the dichotomy between church and state, let it be clear that the Church (which is the bulwark of truth) has got her new year, just as the Moslems have got their new year (Hijrah). I do not consider it a coincidence that the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God was set on the 1st of Jan which is the beginning of the general secular year. Thus, as children of God, it is imperative to consecrate ourselves under the mantle of our mother to lead us through the year if Christianity is to reclaim what it has lost to secularity. Mary is the terrestrial paradise, the true world through which God decided to come into our ephemeral world; this valley of tears in which humanity has been banished . So, as we still have got to journey on,let us consecrate ourselves to the bright Morning Star which is Mary to lead us forth through the year that we experience. It is in the nothingness of Mary that we shall transverse the nothiness of this age if we are to arrive into the somethiness, the truth of God. It is through this Ark of the Covenant that we shall travel safely and engage the secularity of our age without being harmed, for she is like a Tower of David that protects her children. When we journey this widely publicized new year with Mary, we shall see more and more about what the actual truth is about the beginning of the year and we shall thread each day of the year far safer and more blessed into the true year of The Lord .Happy solemnity of Mary the Mother of God and Happy new year to us who are as yet in this world but not part of the world.

The Cheese and The Pandora 's Box

Who opened the Pandora's box? Who moved the cheese?

When you live in a capitalist society, you've got to join the rat race of work and business to survive. Nothing is wrong with that, what is wrong is that the balance of making money and living real life has shifted towards money to the detriment of life .

Gone are days when having more children give parents more prestige. Have more than 3 nowadays and you'll be looked at as irresponsible.

Majority of the so-called middle class  have got to go out to join in the rat race for resources that are barely sufficient for the family.

Children's education is more and more being reduced to purely academical status.

I'm so sorry for the young of today, what have they not seen, all in the glorification of media: social media, mass media, web media,public media. Media media media, a tool for the glorification of pornography, violence & drugs.

And the leaders whoever they are seem to be loosing: harmful drugs are being declassified ,ages of consent are being lowered, even the choice of celibacy for priests & religious may soon become optional.

Today talks about abstinence have been muted, you only hear of safe sex, birth control or child prevention.

Authority stealing has been stylishly nurtured and given names which seem to lessen its impact :'defraudment', 'misappropriation ' , 'maladministration', 'nepotism', 'mitigation '- as Fela would say.

The rich simply shrug their shoulders towards the bewilderment of the poor because the poor themselves are over-desperate.

I'm sorry for that man who needs job but hasn't the right connection. Or one who feels he's entitled to success all because he's got integrity and has read almost all the motivational books .

Out there in the business world, shit happens, a lot there are who couldn't change them and end up joining them. Ask Obama .

Women disregard men of marriageable age because of cash, and cashless men would close their eyes to marriage until they 'do something' towards their cash status.

Unmarried women abound because cashless men are in excess, cashless men are in excess because the rich shrug their shoulders on the bewilderment of the poor , the rich do this because they are afraid of the 'desperation of the poor '. Resources are scarce because the rich are afraid. 

The Pandora box is opened by I know not  by who. The evils therein are like the Red Sea. Plunge in with confidence in your skills and ability and you shall die like Pharaoh and his men, refuse to plunge because of your narrow ideology and you shall be left back in Egypt.

Take the plunge in faith and prayers and you shall arrive at a safe harbour.

And except by a special mercy of God , those who live in cities and depend only on shallow faith and tepid prayers may also be at risk. Who opened the box, who moved the cheese? I don't know, but we all have a responsibility towards surviving this hullabaloo .