Pr. M. Fyle, Ohio State:
In our quest for direction towards healing the rift between Africans
in the diaspora and African Americans, many useful proposals have
been put forward, literally and usefully castigating ourselves for
what we haven't done and need to do. A strong area of concern has
rightly been that Africans should seek to obtain more balanced
information about where African Americans are coming from, the
factors that have influenced their background over the centuries.
Also that African Americans should seek to to do the same about
Africa and the African background. Ogbu Kalu's intervention stated
that "African scholars tend to complain that AAs have absorbed the
white anthropological images of Africa/Africans." While we emphasize
this element, we should also remember that Africans in Africa have
also absorbed much the same indoctrination. This is why it is
difficult for Africans to defend and explain their own background
against that "white anthropological" assault, which continues without
abatement. My concern has been that the urban African middle class
culture blends western and African cultures, but believes that the
African culture in that mix is inferior. The unfortunate factor is
that the African urban elite has not moved from that thinking and it
will take a bulldozer to start shifting them from that attitude. So
we, Africans in the diaspora and those most influential in Africa
itself, need to start thinking about more properly educating
ourselves about our own background, in short seeking balanced
information to enable us to re-valorize our own cultural institutions
before we can more properly complain, more importantly start trying
to influence others about where we are coming from.