New Publication

It is likely that you or someone you know may have been or will be (future generations) directly or indirectly affected by issues of exclusion, extremism, radicalisation, terrorism, grooming, addiction and bullying.

Rather than wait to be shocked yet again, the least we can do is to educate ourselves in order to understand and tackle these issues more effectively. The link below takes you to my new publication (TRAPPED?) on the subject.  Dare I say, this resource is the first of its kind that attempts to discuss the above issues in a systematic, comprehensive and interactive way, based on a sound sociological model with a cover and interior content designed for your optimal experience.

I would be grateful if you could engage with it, and forward this message and the link to your friends, schools, media outlets, parents, students, priests, imams, social/youth workers, employers, local and national education authorities etc., that you know anywhere in the world from Johannesburg to London and from California to Jakarta. This is international edition.

Many thanks in advance

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trapped-Empowering-communities-vulnerabilities-radicalisation/dp/1526203316/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463309545&sr=1-4&keywords=jean+pierre+elonga

A note to the conflict negotiator!

When two or more parties are at odds with one another, the urge to live in a more peaceful world dictates that we step in to find a resolution. But sometimes, it also turns into a test of credibility for the fortunate or unfortunate in-between man or woman to the point that the negotiator engages in brokering a deal, any deal, at all cost!

‘Bad compromises are better than long drawn conflicts’ some say! Believe that only if you are not the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. Tasked to resolve the Syrian conflict at some point, the man emerged resolved not to resolve the crisis. For most people, his giving up might have come across as a sign of weakness, but I take the opposite view. Kofi Annan’s example set a new approach to conflict resolution; that which does not seek to resolve a conflict for its own sake or that of the negotiator!

Resolving conflicts should aim to restore the truth of the matter, the un-compromised truth! It can be said that conflict resolution in Africa are yet to adopt this sort of approach and as a result most compromises have in fact compromised people’s aspirations and the truth as found in a people’s culture, beliefs and most importantly legally binding constitutions.

The patterns of behaviour of certain (African) leaders continue to show signs of escalation of already bad situations. They engage into further breaches of basic rights with the hope/knowledge that when the ‘conflict resolution time’ comes, all it will take is to right a few wrong things (free that extra prisoner, open that extra radio station that was shut down) and we will be back to the position we were before!

Yes, you’ve got to start somewhere and half a loaf is better than nothing etc. However, ‘half freedom is not freedom!’ So, on your mark, get set, go and compromise more truths, more laws and more constitutions but remember the bread and butter of conflict resolution lies in the courage you have to seek to restore the truth, only the truth, nothing but the truth (in national conflicts that means sticking to the rule of law and constitutions).

#research4Africa

#research4Africa was the #tag name chosen for the conference arganised by commonwealth scholars for all ‘emergent’ African scholars. It was sponsored and hosted by Sheffield Hallam University. Just like Muna (click here) who has written a piece about it, I would say the ideas that floated about were so interesting that such conversations should be taking place more often.

Three presentations by doctoral students (from Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya) kicked off the day with different assessments of research trends in Africa in their respective fields. The three key note speakers, who for organisational reasons intervened much later, provoked our thinking in more ways than one. For example Dr Brilliant of the University of Hertfordshire, summed up the status of the African diasporan scholar as frustrated, resigned to his/her liminal space attempting to overcome oppressive ideologies where he/she lives (West) and wishes to live (Africa). He recommended a radicalised ethos that would seek ways of working (may be freely) with some willing universities in Africa in order to usher in a new way of thinking.

Dr Alison of UCL and Dr Janet of Oxford touched on ways of collaboration (formal, informal…) which saw participants suggest practical ideas for future collaborative work despite the anticipated challenges that the doctoral students had explored. Some of those challenges were 1) technical (lack of resources…), 2) cultural/quality (lack of motivation to do research, the problems of identity that my friend Muna discusses in her article –Is a diasporan academic a ‘pure’ African? What is the fate of an African scholar whose work would struggle to make it to the prestigious international journal?)

To respond to some of these issues in block, I see these issues striking at the heart of the concept of ‘excellence’ not only for potential publishable work by African scholars but also that of the universities in Africa in general. How do African educational institutions define excellence? is a crucial question to be grappling with. In the book entitled ‘Africa through Structuration Theory-ntu’, I offer in chapter 5 a framework for excellence of universities in the DRC and Sub-Saharan Africa. That framework consists of local interactions, professionalism, lifelong learning and quality assurance.

Another thorny issue is the clash of identities. My response is to say that 1) this is not unique to Africans and African diaspora and 2) this can be seen both as a weakness and strength to be exploited in order to advance an agenda. Advancing an agenda is quite crucial and this is where I think the conference needs to look into in order to identify certain inroads. When I say ‘agenda’ I mean defining a mindset, an ontology that will underpin all our activities, enable us to challenge thinking and practices that do not fit into that mindset so that the African scholar does not connive with oppressors (whether in state, family, cultural institutions) but outline a code of African citizenship and leadership that is sound and based on African philosophy. In the second edition of Africa through Structuration Theory-ntu’ to appear in June this year, I outline what I call the methodology of Ubuntu (or methodology of structuration) which can serve as the basis for African identity. Here, a African will be challenged to reconsider whether he/she is at all different from a westerner! Don’t get me wrong, accents, race, food etc. distinctions are there but in terms of identity we need to look further into the sociological foundations of a society.

The ‘Obam’Unna’ conundrum

Mandela once said ‘sometimes, it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation’. Nothing can supplant such timeless wisdom but you kind of wish it read like this instead: ‘sometimes, it falls upon certain individuals to propel a generation to greatness and I am one such individual’. But being modest, Mandela would not have brought himself to make it all about him. But the reality is generations can draw lessons from individuals in the same way that individuals can move generations forward in various ways. Both Mr Obama and Mr Umunna, that I have chosen to write about (hence ObamUmunna), are not generations; they are individuals who, in their current occupations, represent people and you could therefore argue that they are representatives of a generation.

In his second term as US president, Barrack Obama is the first black president to have ever led the world’s richest and most powerful nation. Born in Streatham (London/UK), Chuka Umunna is a rising black star in British politics. Also in his second term as a member of parliament, he has been the labour party’s shadow secretary of state for business, innovation and skills. Mr Umunna is not the first black person in Britain to ever represent a constituency at that level. What is particularly interesting about him is that despite having a real chance of getting elected as the labour party leader following Ed Miliband’s resignation and perhaps go on to become the first black British prime minister, Mr Umunna instead withdrew from the race just days after making the announcement that he was running for the top job. His decision attracted both criticism and praise. He put it down to the increased level of media scrutiny on both him and those closest to him that prompted his U-turn.

We all have difficult decisions to make in life. However, in the light of what I call ‘the Obam’Umunna conundrum’, society and especially the black community needs to approach self-actualisation a little bit differently.

Given a history of oppression, slavery and segregation, it sometimes makes sense to relish the opportunity that black month (in October) provide to celebrate the courage shown in the face of adversity. It is understandable that a people would dig deep to find some of its role models (la crème de la crème) to showcase the bravery and courage to break social, economic, political, and intellectual barriers. Obama is a modern day example. He has ventured where no other black person had gone. Let’s say that becoming an American president is the highest you can go. The generation has finally become great. What next then?

Mr Umunna seems to be my answer to the above question. His withdrawal from the labour leadership race seems to me to be the new frontier to greatness that, not only the chosen few but also the billions or so black and non-black people can aspire. The new greatness is the call for (black) people to stop chasing after socially constructed greatness at the expense of their true self actualisation. Since the wave on independence in the 1960s on the African continent, black history month is a non-event since Africans are running their own affairs. This autonomy is of course debatable given what some see as new forms of colonialism. But Africans are also suppressed by their own leaders. What Mr Umunna represents that should be the focus of events like ‘black history month’ therefore is to provide a voice that enables individuals to be themselves, to fulfil their aspirations even if that means not reaching socially constructed greatness. To let go of power when the time is right according to the law, unlike what we see in some parts of Africa and even reduce the length of one’s stay in power as president Macky Sall of Senegal is doing. So there you go, ObamUmunna is the new paradigm to greatness!

Virginity scholarships in South Africa

Those well versed with biblical stories will be familiar with the irony that a forgiving father would throw a party at the return of the prodigal son (as if to reward a child’s delinquency) while the good kid carried on working hard in the farm…It is good practice nowadays to encourage positive behaviour with praise and material reward. To that extent, the South African mayor might be excused for introducing his virginity scholarship for girls (click here) on grounds that it will regulate sexual activities reduce the spread of HIV in a nation where 1 in 10 people is HIV positive.

In a deeply religious society that sometimes seeks to turn common wisdom on its head by promoting virtues of forgiveness as implied in the story of the prodigal son (daughter), for example, this supposedly moral act called ‘virginity scholarship’ appears like an extra judicial punishment on those who for various reasons either lose their virginity or are HIV positive and therefore ineligible for the scholarship.

There are certain truths that, if considered by the mayor, would not have led to what is turning out to be:

• An attempt to cover up failure of leadership: It is often the case that we shout the loudest when partying with the converted. And therefore a headline grabbing news such as ‘Virginity scholarship’ obscures the real work of those in power whose duty it is to bring all to responsible sexual conduct. So the real party is in getting the last girl and boy, whether infected or not, to a mature/responsible sexual conduct.
• A failure to recognise and protect personal liberties: sexual conduct for people of a legal age, and especially those at the youthful and naturally rebellious age, is a matter of personal liberty that should be protected and not undermined by a conservative ideology that forcibly exploit the poor by linking complete abstinence with material gain. The rich, who can afford to pay their own university fees are, it seems, not concerned which makes HIV look like a problem for girls who are poor only.
• Another failure to understand personal circumstances: it is possible that some people lose their virginity due to rape. It is also the case that you may still be a virgin but HIV positive as a result of having had it passed on by infected parents or through needles etc.,
• A failure to recognise that while attempting to change people’s behaviour through education, to be HIV positive does not mean that you cannot achieve in society and therefore should be denied opportunities. Linked to this is the concern about the integrity and dignity of the people who must prove that they have not had sex at all, (in the same way that you would be asked to prove that you have never drank water) to be worthy of an opportunity of having one’s education paid for.

What is even more worrying is that this is an initiative taken by a man in a society where men who want to marry more than one wife look to girls who are virgin. Without suggesting that this was the intention but these virginity scholarships that depend on the virginity tests for girls and not for boys seem to be a male consolidation of its stranglehold on the female body by using scholarships to curb her sexual activities while the boys are not only let off the hook but no objection would be raised if he wanted to marry more than one woman.

Reducing HIV infection is a noble cause but the method of virginity scholarship is really flawed!

Peacemeal choices?

The African Union (AU) has finally woken up to the realisation that we are headed to another officially recognised genocide in Burundi if nothing gets done. Pending the backing of the United Nations’ Security Council, the AU has just voted overwhelmingly to deploy peace keepers in Burundi whether President Nkurunzinza’s government agrees with it or not.

‘We won’t let another genocide take place in Africa’, the statement read. You can be sure that many nations would go up in arms if anyone suggested that there has not been any other genocide on the continent except for the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Nevertheless, the realisation that no more blood should be shed in the case of Burundi is not only commendable; it rockets us into unchartered territory:

1. That no one can use self-determination to discriminate, corrupt and worse kill on Hitler’s scale and
2. That common principles of human dignity, development and governance must be outlined, agreed upon, adhered to and if necessary imposed upon.

It however begs the question about ‘when should the AU have started flexing their muscle?’ We would argue that this late awakening, however necessary, is a piecemeal intervention that should have begun earlier within a broader understanding of what African democracy should be about.

Climate Change: Cumbria and Kinshasa

Ask a child to ‘Sit still and yet believe that s/he is actually moving at breakneck speed and headed towards a brick wall with maximum impact’ and expect him/her to respond with ‘what, are you having a laugh?’.

Yet, for long now, our response to ongoing effects of climate change has been pretty similar. Yes, we have had the Francis of Asisi, Nobel Prize winners for the environment and numerous concerted actions at local and international levels to raise our awareness of the need to act rapidly to avert a possible inferno that won’t stop giving us a foretaste of its devastating sparks.

Those sparks, it would appear, have broken with (the wishful) tradition of being a distant threat that can be felt only if one took a long trip up to the North Pole. Sadly, the sparks have begun to hit home and knock on people’s doors. The examples are many and singling out the drenched parts of an already impoverished DRC’s capital Kinshasa (click here) or the swamped parts of England (click here) does not do justice to the individual stories of desperation in those two countries and elsewhere.

The pertinent issue in the above cases (DRC and England) however is the response by the authorities. While one is proactive with resources on the ground ready to get people back to normality, the other figures out whether already dilapidated roads and rudimentary homes can ever be brought back to their pre-flooding state of dysfunctionality. The differences confirm the belief that ‘while climate change is underwritten by scientific evidence, its effect on us is overwritten by the policy individual nations and the word at large adopt’. The ongoing Paris climate change conference may offer seriously binding targets to make the world ever greener but less democratic (or more dictatorial) regimes will continue to feel the effect of even little storms as a result of mismanagement and lack of adequate infrastructure.

The Paris conference and many other initiatives along the way may just spare us from the ‘apocalyptic annihilation of the human race’ but certain places could continue to be affected more than the others. Caught between science and politics (sometimes of the belly), it could be argued that how hard we get hit in future will certainly depend on how nations are committed to democratic principles that seek the common good above everything else. The question then is: could elections under threat in the DRC (and botched ones in other places) explain why Africa will continue to be hard hit by climate change regardless of what gets done globally?

Pope Francis in Africa: What can (should) you expect!

It is hard to substantiate what a papal visit can achieve but still a worthwhile exercise to undertake so that we can form some idea as to its benefits. What is already known even before the plane carrying Pope Francis touched down on Mandela’s continent is that we are welcoming a much loved, simple and people’s Pope. Africa then gets a chance to showcase its long held traditions of hospitality to their esteemed guest on his first travel to the continent.

Just those simple facts alone are enough to send the hearts of millions racing with excitement. But when the now St. John Paul II once visited the then Zaire, that bubble of excitement soon burst as the country plunged further into the chaos that is now the DRC. Not that it is the Pope’s fault but one struggles to capture the legacy of such a trip.

Excitement and a feeling of hope are certainly needed to a continent and countries that have been hit by extremist terrorist attacks (Kenya), torn to pieces by war (Central African Republic), and stuck in a protracted civil war with regional consequences (Uganda). With that troublesome décor, expect calls for religious tolerance, peace, unity and development that would benefit the poor to hit the ears of those who would not have otherwise listened had the pope said all those things without leaving the Vatican. But the thing is the Pope can say all those things from the Vatican and his message would have reverberated around the world. He does not even have to fly down South to mount an attack on the West for not distributing wealth equally and not caring about the environment. He has already got that under his belt by being already loved by Africans and putting out an encyclical (Laudato Si’) where he weaves a tapestry of climate change and Theology. So, making the financially costly and security risky trip must have much more tangible effects for Africa whether planned or a spontaneous equivalent of the former US speaker of the house of representatives who was reduced to tears as the pope addressed the chamber during his recent trip to Uncle Sam’s country and the aftermath is common knowledge!

Beyond Africa’s cultural hospitality that can be put on display by the Catholic hierarchy and the spiritual rejuvenation/revival that would only benefit a specific denomination, Pope Francis as an influential head of state cannot hand the prospect of changing lives in concrete terms to the fortuitous acts of the Holy Spirit in places where the religious and non-religious hold expectations of him.

To many, Pope Francis is the only man after Nelson Mandela who can walk into your house and tell you to get rid of one or two visible cobwebs in your crib and you thank him for pointing that out. Now, I will refrain from advancing a shopping list of all the things that need fixing here and there. However, it is worth noting that just south of the border from Kenya, there is a movement picking up pace. At the end of his two constitutionally terms of office, Tanzania has been blessed with a newly elected president who is sealing the deal with his people by dramatically cancelling official parties, reducing foreign travels of countless officials to save money and spend it on the needs of the people. What deals will Pope Francis seal with his hosts then: will he address tribalism and corruption issues in Kenya; convince some regional leaders to capitulate and relinquish power; and vow to never take up arms against each other? Or will it just be a matter of mopping up the Roman Catholic household and drafting in new wave of Catholic recruits?

Whatever would be the outcome of this papal visit, no one can dispute the fact that this Pope can almost do nothing and his smile alone will awaken something in people that no other human possible can. So, let miracles that leave nothing to chances happen!

 

Give in to fear and live like a dangling bat!

In normal circumstances, we want to maintain our equilibrium by having our feet on the ground. Such stability is needed for us to do all the normal things we enjoy or perhaps take for granted like: work, rest, drive, wine and dine, sell and shop, bank, fly, play and cheer, chat and laugh etc.,

That is until someone deliberately chucks hailstones on or steers a hurricane towards you in an attempt to disrupt your sense of normality. Acts of bullying, domestic violence, slavery, dictatorship and terrorism all aim to achieve one thing: to get you to dangle like a bat in fear. Then comes Mr Antoine Leiris who after losing his wife and being left alone with a one year old son in the wake of the Paris attacks, has decided to defy such imposition of fear. Instead of letting the stranglehold of fear to dictate his life, he has in quite a remarkable way decided to reclaim his normality in honour of his wife but also in defiance to a bat-like regime that requires not only him but the entire society to live in fear and hatred.

That said, we know that point-blank defiance (often accompanied with the deployment of military force) is only a starting point in a long process that requires us to use our most powerful weapon (education according to Nelson Mandela) to change attitudes. Reclaiming the ground of normality through education will also require more than spreading the values that need to be adopted but also making a convincing case about why we have to adopt some virtues such as tolerance among many others.

Facing tomorrow’s menace: ‘I hear YOU, do You hear ME?’

We are able to name the enemy we face as evidence can lead us to master minders of this and that terrorist attack however much the perpetrators would want to cover their tracks. The enemy’s ability to blend with innocent crowds makes the task of targeting them even harder and with that comes the challenge of gathering the intelligence that would unmistakeably point us to the right direction. But that is just a decent man and woman’s attempt to hunt down yesterday’s menace, hold him/her accountable and hopefully prevent similar actions in the future.

Focussed on the above mission, it is likely that the world would take its eyes off tomorrow’s menace. Following Paris attacks that left 129 people dead, most if not all nations were quick to send messages of condolences to the French president François Hollande and all French citizens. One even read ‘…my country will do everything it can to help in the fight against terrorism’. Supposing that message came from the North Korean leader, you would be excused to smile when noticing the irony in such a message given the state of fear to which his people are subjected.

This brings us to consider some African countries where all the French values of ‘liberté, égalité et fraternité’ are being trampled upon as countries’ constitutions are being torn to pieces to serve the interests of a few, those who dare express themselves are being locked up, free and fair elections are being deliberately jeopardised contributing to recurrent cycles of violence, poverty, miscarriages of justice, corruption, and cronyism. Dressed up in glittering suits while walking down the red carpet and rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful, some of these apparent allies (African leaders) against yesterday’s threat are in fact tomorrow’s menace to everything a free, democratic and wealthy society that we all aspire.

It therefore needs to be said that when the Cameroonians, Burundians, Congolese (DRC), Congolese (Brazzaville), to name just those few, changed their Facebook profiles in solidarity with France and the victims of the recent terrorist attacks, it was also a call for France (and the rest of the world) to stand shoulder to shoulder with them in upholding the values of liberty, equality and fraternity in their countries. That is if you believe, as is the case here, that oppressive regimes are as bad as Boko Haram, Al Shahab and all the other terrorist cells; and that corrupt governments are directly responsible for further national/regional instabilities, mass migration and a simmering hatred towards anyone rightly or wrongly thought to be responsible for personal misfortune!

“Thanks for the condolences but this is your last term of office”             

“ thanks for the message but here are the sanctions we are putting in place for lack of press freedom in your country”

“we appreciate your condolences but your assets will be seized until you prove to us how you earned them” are the sort of responses that Africans expect and not a complicit silence or vague tough talking without actions or even blatant endorsement!