posted
I'll be teaching my English students the novel "Things Fall Apart" for the next 5 weeks or so (add a couple weeks for the winter vacation). So I guess ideally, I'd love to have someone come talk in January. If this is too short notice and someone would be willing and able to come later in the semester, that would be great too.
Thank you, mailto:Eric.Schreiber@saratogahigh.org
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2447 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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I assume you are not the teacher in question. Correct me if I am wrong.
Why does that teacher need an Igbo speaker for that class? If Things Fall Apart had been written by a Russian would he be asking for a Russian or Igbo speaker?
Posts: 113 | From: USA | Registered: Aug 2001
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No, I am not the teacher. As for why he needs an Igbo speaker, I think that it has more to do with the fact that "Things Fall Apart" is ripe with Igbo proverbs, customs, and so on. You have to have a true Igbo son to explain these things to a non Igbo and some Igbos that lack Igbo way of life either due to non exposure by parents or just share bad luck.
Click on your profile. I've pm'd you. If that doesn't help, then I'll have a go provided they're willing to pay for my flight et al.
Things fall apart is a terrific book and last year BBC Radio 4 had Achebe as a celeb guest reader for sections of the book.
___________________ Awo's political idea was based on the assumption that any town beyond Owo was Igbo or Hausa. Awo was not socialised; he was not a good mixer because he did not have the opportunity, which the secondary school offered. ~TOS Benson, Baba Oba of Lagos Posts: 2644 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Apr 2001
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I think you should invite that professor to this forum, to showcase that class, especially if Ohafia will be involved in it. There are very powerful Biafra/BiafraNigeria imageries that can be drawn from Things Fall Apart. I am sure that paying a small sum to fly Ohafia into Calofornia will be a small price to pay for the wealth of knowledge that he will bring to the class. Feel free to forward this message to the professor.
Posts: 253 | Registered: Mar 2001
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I'd actually recommended a more knowledgeable Igbo chap based in the US in my PM to Ednut. However, I agree that Ednut should make the guy aware of this site. They may go away thinking Ohafia is a variation of Umuofia.
___________________ Awo's political idea was based on the assumption that any town beyond Owo was Igbo or Hausa. Awo was not socialised; he was not a good mixer because he did not have the opportunity, which the secondary school offered. ~TOS Benson, Baba Oba of Lagos Posts: 2644 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Apr 2001
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Just replied your PM. I however don't see the teacher being able to afford your accomodations and flight ticket on his meager pay, from England while Achebe himself is here himself.
Dr. B,
I will email the teacher and tell him about this website but, how do I exclude some of the personal attacks and some of what I perceive as non-Igbo posts on this site from him?
Personal attacks have become a way of life through out the world. I have visited the forums at CNN and ABC. Those forums contain more personal attacks than anything I have seen here. If your professor cannot handle it, then he is un-American.
As for "non-Igbo views," are you talking about the Adamus and Bamideles? If so, just point out to him who those guys are and why they say what they say. That is your role.
Posts: 397 | Registered: May 2001
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There are more personal attacks in Things fall apart than in this board.
If that novel hits the big screen uncut I bet it will have a (18) cert. There was swear words which referred to the genitalia of people's mums and there was violence like Ikemefuna and the white man's messenger who was killed by impulsive Rude Okonkwo.
___________________ Awo's political idea was based on the assumption that any town beyond Owo was Igbo or Hausa. Awo was not socialised; he was not a good mixer because he did not have the opportunity, which the secondary school offered. ~TOS Benson, Baba Oba of Lagos Posts: 2644 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Apr 2001
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Good job! Look at it this way. If your professor visits here, and he needs an example of efulefu, all you have to do is show him exhibit A, Rude Okonkwo, the ogba oso 1 of Nnobi, Idemili. What an irony - Okonkwo is efulefu! LOL!
If he wants to see Achebe's Okonkwo, there are many Okonkwos in the forum; and if he wants Ikemefuna, they are here too. Which one are you? Don't answer. Let him judge for himself.
___________________ Biafra All The Way Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Ednut, how can we be sure that you are not already into the job while trying to find out the reaction of the member of the forum. keep your job to your self, maybe the job is becoming a big load and you need an offload. the state of BIAFRA is the way where double face will not survive. food for thought.
___________________ He likened the second coming of Christ to the realisation of the Biafran dream, stating that at a time people least expect, the much sought Biafra would be a reality..Rev. Fr. Cornelius Ezeiloaku Posts: 622 | From: santiago, chile | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
" They may go away thinking Ohafia is a variation of Umuofia." ~~ Ohafia Udumeze
Perhaps the Ohafia war dance originated from Umuofia. The Ohafia war dancers (OU, Anu Nti, Osetutu, etc) could play the part of Okonkwo's kinsmen.
It won't hurt if Ednut asks the imaginary good professor to make the Things fall apart book into drama. He could hire the Igbo forumites here as actors and actresses. I think the Okonkwo role suits Ednut. The effeminate son of Okonkwo is best suited for Rudolph Okonkwo.
___________________ Forward ever, backward never! Posts: 1874 | From: USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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I suggest you contact the Igbo Studies Association at www.isa.org. They have many specialists in Igbo Literature. You can contact Prof. Ernest Emenyonu at St. Augustine's College which I believe is in Florida or somewhere down south. Igbo literature is Emenyonu's specialty and he has published on Achebe's use of the Igbo language. You can search the college website for his email address.You can also contact the chair of the ISA, Prof. Emma Nnadozie at ennadozi@truman.edu to get Emenyonu's details.
There is an Igbo professor at California State University, Los Angeles who teaches an Igbo class there but I can't recall his name. Suggest a college website search or call and ask for the African Studies program.
Posts: 75 | From: Cambridge, MA | Registered: Dec 2001
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___________________ Awo's political idea was based on the assumption that any town beyond Owo was Igbo or Hausa. Awo was not socialised; he was not a good mixer because he did not have the opportunity, which the secondary school offered. ~TOS Benson, Baba Oba of Lagos Posts: 2644 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Apr 2001
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Many thanks for this. I do have some reservations with Mezu's argument.There a significant number of Igbo women scholars like Ifi Amadiume, Nkeiru Nzegwu, Obioma Nnaemeka and so many more who refuse to play the native informant who has to knock her culture in order to win acceptance from mainstream Western social science. Igboland was not a paradise for women but neither was it hell. These Igbo women scholars I have cited argue that in certain respects, the Igbo woman in pre-colonial society actually enjoyed more political space and personal autonomy than the Igbo woman of the 1990s.We have brainwashed for so long to reject every thing that came before colonial rule and Christianity.
Oyeronke Oyewunmi has made similar arguments in respect of women in Yoruba culture.But's lets talk some more at Amanda's party.
Posts: 75 | From: Cambridge, MA | Registered: Dec 2001
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