Low Applied Intelligence Is Cause Of Nigeria/Africa Non-Progress
Posted to NVS
I am voting for LOW APPLIED INTELLIGENCE. I think the IQ is same as the rest of the world, but, as I have had occasions to ask on NVS, "what is the point of intelligence if it is not being used intelligently".. All the other factors mentioned in the questionaire, and more besides,can be resolved by a people who are thinking properly.
[B]The people of the country, and the broader Afrikan community, are in a state of intense spiritual, psychological and/or intellectual shock[/B]. The people are in an infantile and fatalistic neurosis, And everyday, they are told the answers (applied intelligence) is with some "leader", "diaspora", "foreigner", "God", anyone but themselves. It seems to be obvious that the systems in place were designed to [U]not[/U] meet the needs or wants of the community, yet time and time again, the people reach out to deter any changing of the system. It is as if [B]there is addiction to a mental childishness that just does not recognise the need to take responsibility[/B], to stop wistfulness (e go better, God dey, I am going to heaven) and get stuck into organising, making and building things.
Some of [B]this is due to cultural and personality dissonance[/B]. Every African person worldwide lives, today, in societies in which they are commercially and mentally in a dominant and hostile external cultural context yet feel that they are historically and socially of a different culture that has strengths of its own.
Two examples in Nigeria. The president is a Mooslim Hausa/Fulani/Kanuri/"Northerner" who must operate his office in English language, feels compelled to wear (occasionally) European suits (symbolic skin), operate his convert religion in Arabic (the language of the Koran) and maintain his ethnic identity in Hausa with the historical culture of its associate world-view. The CBN governor is a Christain, ibo/igbo/"Easterner" who must operate his office and convert in English language, feels very natural in European suits (symbolic skin), and operates his home in Ibo with the historical culture of its associated worldview. How many personalities are these people projecting at any one time? How many personalities and which one is the person talking or trying to do business with them dealing with? AND both of them are trying to apply solutions that other people developed to benefit other societies to resolve the complexities in Nigeria. This is not a personal attack on either. They are highly intelligent and capable people. [B]They just cannot "help it", it is what they were brought up to do[/B].
To my knowledge, the Nigerian/African socio-cultural space (no system is apparent) does not deal with the deep-seated historical and ongoing scars suffered by the collective African psyche from atrocities like Arab or European slavery; European direct and indirect mass murders to establish and maintain colonial influence, from religions and multimedia that spiritually rape and erase the cultural memory in order to externalise the good and godly, from the insecurity of family poverty and disease.
The Jesuits are accredited with a statement to wit: [I]"Give me the child and I will give you the man."[/I] [b]The education system does not meet the unique needs of the African child or society.[/b] The curriculum does appear to consider child psychology in general, and the specific developmental needs of children growing up to live in mutually-antagonistic (and hence inherently self-destructive) multi-national and multi-religious countries. Nigerians/Africans currently [U]exist[/U] in conditions where their adulthood is programmed into a state of perpetual child-like intellectual dependence. We have not consciously applied our intellect to challenge and manage our own realities. All the other factors impact thereafter.
[B]At this point in history, the spirit is broken[/B]. It is as a slave plantation writ large, Kunta Kinte has been flogged by the boss Nigger to say "Toby" when his enemy asks "what is your name?". In caricature of the historical antebellum slavery, people became so neurotic in their self-abasement that they sent their children into breeding by their enemies. Now all the children are minded to be Toby, in speech, in dress, in belief, in front of the mirror, in public, because their mothers and fathers have imprinted Kunta's scars on their memory and because no one feels bold enough, adult and responsible enough, to talk about how or why the scars got there or what to do about the scars, the floggers and the enemies. [B]Children, however, are born curious.[/B]
Showing posts with label society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label society. Show all posts
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Mekunu ati Ofin
Poverty and the rule of law
So one rich farmer invited 5 of his workers for a meal. Thereafter, they felt dizzy and fell asleep, only to wake in great pain and distress. The five returned to the farm, glad that they still have a job to do because they have families to feed. One of the men is unmarried and without child. He will never father any of his own. Cradling his shotgun, the farmer says "There has been an investigation. The case is now closed".
Few social critics, economic analysts, and policy wonks consider the reinforcing effect that the rule of law has on the prevalence of poverty, disease and ignorance around the world. In India, forcibly castrated people cannot get justice from the state because their castrator is powerful enough to rise above the rule of law. The rule of law can oppress nations just as severely as persons. Next door to India, countries are invaded because an invading set of countries are powerful enough to rise above international law.
Perhaps, it is high time that poverty, disease and ignorance are classified as weapons of mass destruction. They certainly destroy the masses of the people even more effectively than even the bullets and bombs of the countless wars. It is estimated there are some 30,000 poverty-related infant deaths daily in Africa. Many children and women die yearly Africa from preventable diseases. Many women and children will live their lives in painful ignorance of basic hygiene, energy production or food preparation techniques. Yet, even as they scratch out such as squalid living within the constraints of the law, the poor must wonder how the hell of their lives can exist alongside the heavenly plenty of their compatriots.
"Surely it is one law for us and another for them" goes the muttering. Disenfranchised people and deficient countries express this same feeling, the basis of which lies in the structure in which their daily affairs are governed. Had the rich Indian not been protected by the governing law in Uttar Predash, he would been properly "dealt with" by the retributive justice of his victims. Their poverty and ignorance prevented their ability to marshal the rule of law to their cause. Totalitarianism, feudalism, unrepresentative democracy and communism are forms of top-down government that accentuate the ability of the powerful to place suppressive binds on their people. The binds are drafted as the rules of law. Not to be disobeyed by the people. At pain of punishment by the ruler of law. In this manner, it becomes a crime to steal even if working your fingers to the bone does not yield sufficient income to feed your family. It becomes treason if you criticise an incompetent, corrupt and akotileta government.
The shotgun quells mutinious ideas in farms across Northern India, just as the bullwhip silenced dissent in slave fields across the New World centuries ago, and structural adjustment policies dampen queries in many struggling households across the "developing" world. The rule of law made it lawful to use the shotgun, the bullwhip and the poverty-policies, and thereby permitted rulers to kill or cripple the prospects of those whose actions produce the wealth of their tormentors. In Africa, people are now becoming immune to destructive laws: it may be time for a severe dose of civil disobedience.
Uttar Pradesh is the largest and most populous state in India. This year, this very poor corner of this most racially bigotted country in the world has been given USD360million by USAid , an aid agency, to implement a population control policy that calls for the sterilisation of 930,000 people. The poverty has been a high level of crimes against humanity and a strong siege mentality among the rich. The government of Uttar has some interesting ideas on how to meet its target of sterilising the poor while parlaying the insecurty of the rich: Anybody who wants a handgun should submit 3 people for sterilisation; 5 people for a shotgun.
So one rich farmer invited 5 of his workers for a meal. Thereafter, they felt dizzy and fell asleep, only to wake in great pain and distress. The five returned to the farm, glad that they still have a job to do because they have families to feed. One of the men is unmarried and without child. He will never father any of his own. Cradling his shotgun, the farmer says "There has been an investigation. The case is now closed".
Few social critics, economic analysts, and policy wonks consider the reinforcing effect that the rule of law has on the prevalence of poverty, disease and ignorance around the world. In India, forcibly castrated people cannot get justice from the state because their castrator is powerful enough to rise above the rule of law. The rule of law can oppress nations just as severely as persons. Next door to India, countries are invaded because an invading set of countries are powerful enough to rise above international law.
Perhaps, it is high time that poverty, disease and ignorance are classified as weapons of mass destruction. They certainly destroy the masses of the people even more effectively than even the bullets and bombs of the countless wars. It is estimated there are some 30,000 poverty-related infant deaths daily in Africa. Many children and women die yearly Africa from preventable diseases. Many women and children will live their lives in painful ignorance of basic hygiene, energy production or food preparation techniques. Yet, even as they scratch out such as squalid living within the constraints of the law, the poor must wonder how the hell of their lives can exist alongside the heavenly plenty of their compatriots.
"Surely it is one law for us and another for them" goes the muttering. Disenfranchised people and deficient countries express this same feeling, the basis of which lies in the structure in which their daily affairs are governed. Had the rich Indian not been protected by the governing law in Uttar Predash, he would been properly "dealt with" by the retributive justice of his victims. Their poverty and ignorance prevented their ability to marshal the rule of law to their cause. Totalitarianism, feudalism, unrepresentative democracy and communism are forms of top-down government that accentuate the ability of the powerful to place suppressive binds on their people. The binds are drafted as the rules of law. Not to be disobeyed by the people. At pain of punishment by the ruler of law. In this manner, it becomes a crime to steal even if working your fingers to the bone does not yield sufficient income to feed your family. It becomes treason if you criticise an incompetent, corrupt and akotileta government.
The shotgun quells mutinious ideas in farms across Northern India, just as the bullwhip silenced dissent in slave fields across the New World centuries ago, and structural adjustment policies dampen queries in many struggling households across the "developing" world. The rule of law made it lawful to use the shotgun, the bullwhip and the poverty-policies, and thereby permitted rulers to kill or cripple the prospects of those whose actions produce the wealth of their tormentors. In Africa, people are now becoming immune to destructive laws: it may be time for a severe dose of civil disobedience.
The "strategic" national "interests" in Ivory Coast vs. France
first published 10-November-2004
It was DAFT of the
Like many other colonial-era African states, IC has no meaningful military strength. There are naval, land or airborne special forces to speak of. The citizens are not militarilised. Now the airforce is shot to bits. That leaves the army, which was the reason
The army had been resisting attacks from insurgents against the regime of President Laurent Gbagbo. The insurgents were at arms because they felt marginalised from economic development. Their candidate for president was disqualified from competing in IC elections on grounds that he is not a citizen of IC. Ivoriens had obviously not heard of globalisation, perhaps because the people were so busy being colomentally assimilated into what Franz Fannon referred to as "black skins, white masks", a phenomenom otherwise known as "coconut": brown-black on the outside, off-white on the inside.
Those from the mainly desert north never forgot or forgave the decision by Houphouët-Boigny to allow
Being illegal emigres did not stop French farmers from privatising and controlling cocoa plantations established under HB. From these plantations,
HB reminded his fellow Ivoriens, time and again, "that their closest and best friend was
Those who perceive
African progressives will need to deal with the facts of France controlling post-independence "french" Africa via CFA anchored by Ivory Coast; and with Britain controlling post-independence "english" Africa via the Commonwealth anchored by Nigeria; and with USA trying to unseat the two EU member states as Africa's new "protector of market access and provider of military assistance". The "great games" played by these three G8 members accounts for much of the stalled progress towards actualisation of cross-border trades in the ECOWAS region, and in Africa as a whole.
But those who think that the Ivory Coast fracas is about rival Ivorien factions squabbling about whom to better service French trading interests, should "smell the cocoa". Cocoa, Coffee and Palm (vegetable) oil are the main exports of Ivory Coast. The journey of cocoa, from bean to consumer, especially reveals the true extent to which African commodities underpin global trade, and exposes the various nations that have strategic interests in the outcome of Ivory Coast vs France.
Links:
http://www.newint.org/issue304/farmer.htm = African cocoa farmer visits Cadbury UK
http://www.icco.org = International Cocoa Association
http://www.icco.org/questions/production.htm = the main cocoa producers
http://countrystudies.us/ivory-coast/78.htm = the legacy of Houphouett-Boigny.
Nigeria: governance, politics and oil revenues.
first published 12-November-2004
________________________________This an excerpt from a letter to my cousin.
Just focus your "findings" on estimates of revenues and expenditure since 1961 or whenever oil was discovered in Niger Delta. Let us assume some USD250BILLION been earned over the past 40 years. Then compare Nigeria's progress over that period with that of:
a) South Korea, which was roughly at the same "development" stage 40 years ago. Adjust for the fact that SK does not have significant crude oil resources, has had military governance, is in a hyper-competitive region, is the leading information technology power.
b) Brazil, which was roughly at the same "development" stage 40 years ago. Adjust for the fact that Brazil, while majority of African descent, has a small but socio-economically dominant "European" population.
c) China or India, which have undergone similar experiences with colonisation and imperialistic trade, yet have largely retained their cultural heritage even as they grafted on hyper-competitive economics.
d) Malaysia or Indonesia, which have significant crude oil or palm oil resources, multi-ethnic strife, rampant corruption, military dictatorships, and yet have largely retained a healhty socio-economic competitiveness.
e) Somalia. Somalia? Yes, Somalia. A north-central African country next door to Kenya and Ethopia. Has had NO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT FOR AT LEAST 13 YEARS while torn apart by multi-ethnic strife. Suffered greatly from international sanctions after its people defeated US special forces sent in to help impose governments similar to those the rest of Africa had EVER had. Somalia is now Africa's most EVENLY developed country.Why? The warlords had to live as far from each other as possible, yet communicate with their troops in the various war-fronts. Effectively, powerful warlords set up feudal governance in their bases of power. Fighters had to be paid so local enterprise was left encouraged and "taxed" to fund the war efforts. Warlords who did not pay their way were usurped. Meanwhile SOMALIAN technicians built transport and telecommunications infrastructure to enable travel and communications across the country and across the borders into Kenya, Ethiopia, etc where the warlords kept their "investments". Today, Somalia has one government. They are entirely self-reliant in technology adaptation. They are wary of the interests serviced by "international aid" or "foreign direct investment", and most importantly, they have self-conviction in their ability to chart their own progress, irrespective of what the "international community" thinks.
Influence on Governance:
Nigeria became heavily centralised under two influences:
a) The discovery of oil caused dissolution of the varying development agendas being pursued in the then-3 regions: Western, Eastern and Northern. Arguments about how to share the "national cake" still divide the country. The divisions have been physical (there are now 30+1 states, and ethnically.
b) The resurgent military with their innumerable coups. The military destroyed the decentralised, and competitive, governments of the 3 regions and imposed a rigidly centralised "command and control" structure. The country is still under this structure. The 30+1 state structure has only put layers of bureaucracy and plenty of opportunities for corruption into the system. The state governments have very limited statutory powers, and are heavily dependent on the centre for funding, resource control or protection.
Influence on Politics:
Oil production is predominantly in the southern Niger Delta region. Some oil-yielding tar sands have been discovered in the northern Lake Chad region, but there are few reports on commercial production in this area. Nigeria used to be a British colony. There is evidence that Britain had advance seismic studies indicating large oil deposits in Southern Nigeria from 1950 onwards. The Westerners led by Obafemi Awolowo and the Eastern region, whose most vocal proponent was Nnamdi Azikwe, were strongly progressive and indicated the need for political and economic independence. Initially, the agitation was for separate nation-states but diplomatic discourse ensured complicity with one Nigerian country. The British made sure that political administration of the newly independent Nigeria was vested in the Northern region.
The first coup was by military officers from the former Eastern region. They were protesting marginalisation of that region from national (read: oil) revenues by the Northern-dominated civilian regime of Ahmadu Bello.
Riots erupted in the former Northern region in protest at killing of Bello and senior Northern military officers. The rioters targeted settlers from the Eastern Region. These events led parts of the Eastern Region to declare the independent nation-state called Biafra. Civil war. The Yoruba people of Western Nigeria were drawn into this war when they were attacked by Biafran forces.
Post civil war, the Northern region has used dominance in national politics to ensure that region has disproportionate access to oil revenues. Their efforts led to the national capital being moved from Lagos in the former Western Region to Abuja, within easy access of the Northern power base. Significant oil revenues have been spent on building Abuja from near-virgin forest to a "federal capital city".
Under the guise of "national quotas" (a form of proportional representation), the over-centralisation of government has also ensured that Northerners gain control of the national budget (70pc of which is funded by oil revenues), government spending (mainly by award of contracts), the civil service (the largest employer in Nigeria), and the military forces.
Political strategies in Nigeria now focus almost entirely on "sharing the national cake" among the powerful scions of Hausa/Fulani (Northern), Igbo/Ibo (Biafra) and Yoruba (Western) regions. Elected politicians do not govern to empower their electorate. There is no need to. Rather, elected politicians govern to appease the powerful members or sponsors of their political parties. This is to ensure that access to government contracts continues on leaving office.
See, USA-style democracy works in Nigeria ;-)!
Hint: Me just keeps current on socio-economic issues and investment opportunities.
Hint 2: By all means, enjoy your holidays. But Do Not Visit Nigeria With Any Intention Of Gathering "Statistics" Or Of Working With Government.
Hint 3: IMF, EU, WB, etc, etc do not have accurate figures. They get most of their information from official figures released by Nigerian government. The many reports are usually guesstimates. But the Nigerian government cannot even ascertain how many Nigerians there are. Why? Consider that the current president will not confirm how many children he has, to Britain's BBC (he does not talk to "lowly" Nigerian journalists) because it is "bad omen to count one's children". This attitude is prevalent in Nigeria and prevents accurate census or other statistical information being gathered. Nonetheless, successive official "census" figures reveal demographics that are globally unique to Nigeria: that the semi-arid North is more densely populated than the tropical South. The political mathematics? Higher population = more National Quota = more allocation of oil revenues. To give such official figures some credibility, government usually quotes the IMF, WB . .
The Strategic Interests in Ivory Coast vs France II
The Strategic Interests in Ivory Coast vs France II
First published 18-November-2004
First published 18-November-2004
The journey of cocoa from plantation to consumer reveals the extent to which African commodities underpin global trade. It also exposes the various nations that have strategic interests in the outcome of Ivory Coast vs France.
Cocoa is grown on large plantations. The crops are intensely farmed, in mono-culture formation and with large use of phosporus fertilizer. Most of the planting, cultivation and harvesting must be done by hand. The plantations use large numbers of labour, many of whom are migrants into IC from neighbouring Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana and Senegal. The conditions of work are atrocious. Workers are badly beaten, poorly paid, and cast out at first sign of illness.
Plantation owners borrow heavily from the international banks based in Abidjan. The loans are collateralised by a promise to deliver the physical crop in the future and to receive cash-flows on delivery. Plantation owners receive some money upfront to use in paying for seed, fertilizer, and other farming inputs. The cocoa farmer gets paid. Not all farms are big plantations. A big planter or a big wholesaler may have supply agreements with owners of small-holdings.
On the basis of these anticipated cashflows, the headquarters of these banks create commodity derivatives such as options, futures, forwards and swaps. Commodity derivatives are financial instruments. They are bought and sold many times over in the commodity exchanges such as CBOT (USA), LIFFE (UK), Marche (France). Commodity derivatives are very, very big business in the international financial markets. Some of the buyers are cocoa processing companies such as Cargill, ADM and Phillip Morris (also a big tobacco processor). Other big buyers are end-users such as the chocolate manufacturers, including Switzerland's Nestle/Rowntree, Lindt and Barry Callebrut; USA's Hershey and Mars; UK's Cadbury, among others.
Buyers usually intend to take delivery of the cocoa. However, nearly 98pc of international trade in commodity derivatives is purely speculative gambling. The speculators buy on expectation of increased prices and sell on expectation of lowered prices. Prices are volatile and change often because the quality and quantity of commodities produced in any one year cannot be predicted in advance. Excess rain during harvesting, excess exposure to sun during drying, crop pests and a thousand other risks may destroy the quality of any year's cocoa crop. Fortunes are made and lost due to the ensuring high price volatility. In order to limit their exposure to potential loss, many speculators and end-users buy insurance instruments or hedge their market positions. Not many international insurance companies and hedge fund investment companies even bother to refer to Ivory Coast in their marketing material. They still earn fortunes off the breaking back of the cocoa farmer.
One such farmer visited Cardbury's processing plants in UK. He learnt that hardly any chocolate sold in the huge UK market for "chocolate" products actually contains cocoa solids. The typical 200g bar contains an average of 0.5g of cocoa solids. There are plans underfoot to replace even that small amount with vegetable fat. The big markets for real cocoa solids are the Swiss-Benelux manufacturers of luxury chocolates. The other big market are the manufacturers of cosmetics such as cocoa butter.
The diminishing market for cocoa solids is a trend that reveals changes in the dymanics of strategic international interests across Africa. Ever since the slave trade, many of the continent's economies have been heavily dependent on exports of commodities. Most of the exports were to then-colonial, later-imperialistic, and now neo-colonial trading partners: countries such as UK/Britain, France, Belgium and USA.
Europe and USA dominate global consumption of goods and services. Their markets are now close to saturation point. Their employees are living from paycheck to paycheck. They have too much of the everyday things they want to buy. They have little spending power left after deductions for bills and credit repayments. As consumption falls, so has competitive advantage in production. USA and many Europe countries can no longer compete with the nascent Asian countries in manufacturing, information technology or agriculture. Even as their incomes fall, they are faced with rising expenditure relating to unemployment support, foreign trade deficits, and domestic social obligations.
The diminishing share of Africa's commodities in world trade is producing less slush funds both for the neo-colonials and for the local akotileta elite who rule the commodity-exporting countries on their behalf. With less slush funds, it is becoming more difficult for the neo-colonials to maintain the heavy military and diplomatic resources needed to provide "assistance" to the ruling akotileta. Scenting the opportunity, previously oppressed people are now rising to challenge years of misrule and corruption.
The disaffection in France is particularly acute. For decades, France sold the concept of "one motherland, many colors". The motherland of course was France. The many colors were not equal. Nonetheless, Africans from Mali to Gabon professed to being "french first before African". Equally, religious brainwashing caused Islam worshippers to think themselves "muslim first before African" and the Christian worshippers to think themselves "christian, full stop". Their combined colomentality continue to waste many initiatives aimed at facilitating a regional market in West Africa.
If nothing else, the recent events in Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan, Nigeria, Congo, Equitorial Guinea and Ivory Coast have helped remove the blight from the eyes of many Africans. By bombing the Ivorien military, France declared war on the country and compromised any "peace-keeping" excuses allowed their deployment by the UN. For its part, the UN has authorised France to use "any means neccessary" to contain the multi-tribal wars raging in IC. There have been six coups attempts herere since 1999. France now fights with its back to the proverbial wall. It is discredited with both government forces and rebel forces.
Just like USA in Iraq, France will almost certainly win a front-end confrontation with IC. However, it may find the cost of administering any subsequent peace exhorbitant. The same costs will apply to any misadventurous neo-colonialists scheming to step into France's soiled boots. The unhappy economics facing Europe and USA is the driving force behind the recent wave of aggressive foreign policy unto countries that fail to protect themselves. France is acting under the auspices of the wretched United Nations. USA and Britain is acting irrespective of the UN.
Eventually, the Africans will win encounters similar to Ivory Coast vs France. Then they still face the challenge of lopsided international markets. They can meet that challenge by building strong regional and continental trade among Africa's 700 million waiting customers.
___________________
Cocoa is grown on large plantations. The crops are intensely farmed, in mono-culture formation and with large use of phosporus fertilizer. Most of the planting, cultivation and harvesting must be done by hand. The plantations use large numbers of labour, many of whom are migrants into IC from neighbouring Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana and Senegal. The conditions of work are atrocious. Workers are badly beaten, poorly paid, and cast out at first sign of illness.
Plantation owners borrow heavily from the international banks based in Abidjan. The loans are collateralised by a promise to deliver the physical crop in the future and to receive cash-flows on delivery. Plantation owners receive some money upfront to use in paying for seed, fertilizer, and other farming inputs. The cocoa farmer gets paid. Not all farms are big plantations. A big planter or a big wholesaler may have supply agreements with owners of small-holdings.
On the basis of these anticipated cashflows, the headquarters of these banks create commodity derivatives such as options, futures, forwards and swaps. Commodity derivatives are financial instruments. They are bought and sold many times over in the commodity exchanges such as CBOT (USA), LIFFE (UK), Marche (France). Commodity derivatives are very, very big business in the international financial markets. Some of the buyers are cocoa processing companies such as Cargill, ADM and Phillip Morris (also a big tobacco processor). Other big buyers are end-users such as the chocolate manufacturers, including Switzerland's Nestle/Rowntree, Lindt and Barry Callebrut; USA's Hershey and Mars; UK's Cadbury, among others.
Buyers usually intend to take delivery of the cocoa. However, nearly 98pc of international trade in commodity derivatives is purely speculative gambling. The speculators buy on expectation of increased prices and sell on expectation of lowered prices. Prices are volatile and change often because the quality and quantity of commodities produced in any one year cannot be predicted in advance. Excess rain during harvesting, excess exposure to sun during drying, crop pests and a thousand other risks may destroy the quality of any year's cocoa crop. Fortunes are made and lost due to the ensuring high price volatility. In order to limit their exposure to potential loss, many speculators and end-users buy insurance instruments or hedge their market positions. Not many international insurance companies and hedge fund investment companies even bother to refer to Ivory Coast in their marketing material. They still earn fortunes off the breaking back of the cocoa farmer.
One such farmer visited Cardbury's processing plants in UK. He learnt that hardly any chocolate sold in the huge UK market for "chocolate" products actually contains cocoa solids. The typical 200g bar contains an average of 0.5g of cocoa solids. There are plans underfoot to replace even that small amount with vegetable fat. The big markets for real cocoa solids are the Swiss-Benelux manufacturers of luxury chocolates. The other big market are the manufacturers of cosmetics such as cocoa butter.
The diminishing market for cocoa solids is a trend that reveals changes in the dymanics of strategic international interests across Africa. Ever since the slave trade, many of the continent's economies have been heavily dependent on exports of commodities. Most of the exports were to then-colonial, later-imperialistic, and now neo-colonial trading partners: countries such as UK/Britain, France, Belgium and USA.
Europe and USA dominate global consumption of goods and services. Their markets are now close to saturation point. Their employees are living from paycheck to paycheck. They have too much of the everyday things they want to buy. They have little spending power left after deductions for bills and credit repayments. As consumption falls, so has competitive advantage in production. USA and many Europe countries can no longer compete with the nascent Asian countries in manufacturing, information technology or agriculture. Even as their incomes fall, they are faced with rising expenditure relating to unemployment support, foreign trade deficits, and domestic social obligations.
The diminishing share of Africa's commodities in world trade is producing less slush funds both for the neo-colonials and for the local akotileta elite who rule the commodity-exporting countries on their behalf. With less slush funds, it is becoming more difficult for the neo-colonials to maintain the heavy military and diplomatic resources needed to provide "assistance" to the ruling akotileta. Scenting the opportunity, previously oppressed people are now rising to challenge years of misrule and corruption.
The disaffection in France is particularly acute. For decades, France sold the concept of "one motherland, many colors". The motherland of course was France. The many colors were not equal. Nonetheless, Africans from Mali to Gabon professed to being "french first before African". Equally, religious brainwashing caused Islam worshippers to think themselves "muslim first before African" and the Christian worshippers to think themselves "christian, full stop". Their combined colomentality continue to waste many initiatives aimed at facilitating a regional market in West Africa.
If nothing else, the recent events in Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan, Nigeria, Congo, Equitorial Guinea and Ivory Coast have helped remove the blight from the eyes of many Africans. By bombing the Ivorien military, France declared war on the country and compromised any "peace-keeping" excuses allowed their deployment by the UN. For its part, the UN has authorised France to use "any means neccessary" to contain the multi-tribal wars raging in IC. There have been six coups attempts herere since 1999. France now fights with its back to the proverbial wall. It is discredited with both government forces and rebel forces.
Just like USA in Iraq, France will almost certainly win a front-end confrontation with IC. However, it may find the cost of administering any subsequent peace exhorbitant. The same costs will apply to any misadventurous neo-colonialists scheming to step into France's soiled boots. The unhappy economics facing Europe and USA is the driving force behind the recent wave of aggressive foreign policy unto countries that fail to protect themselves. France is acting under the auspices of the wretched United Nations. USA and Britain is acting irrespective of the UN.
Eventually, the Africans will win encounters similar to Ivory Coast vs France. Then they still face the challenge of lopsided international markets. They can meet that challenge by building strong regional and continental trade among Africa's 700 million waiting customers.
___________________
Links:
http://www.internationalism.org/wr/262_ivory.htm = France shows its real face
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/ivory-coast.htm = Analysis of the crisis
http://www.newint.org/issue304/farmer.htm = Cocoa farmer from Ivory Coast learns the economics of chocolate production
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/ivor-m09.shtml = USA blocks intervention in Ivory Coast.
http://www.internationalism.org/wr/262_ivory.htm = France shows its real face
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/ivory-coast.htm = Analysis of the crisis
http://www.newint.org/issue304/farmer.htm = Cocoa farmer from Ivory Coast learns the economics of chocolate production
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/ivor-m09.shtml = USA blocks intervention in Ivory Coast.
Eko lati Taiwan:
Taiwan lessons: indigenising education to improve our lives.
Here is an attempt to explore the experiences of Taiwan in building its economy on progressive aspiration, general knowledge, and a strong work ethic. The subject article is about migration; nonetheless it is sufficient for discussing our concerns, which are about economic development.
= = =
Brain drain and gain: the case of Taiwan
Taiwan, like many developing countries, has seen the increasingly competitive global market for high-skilled workers channel many of its best-educated people into jobs overseas. But unlike many countries that have suffered from "brain drain," Taiwan has seen many skilled emigrants return home to boost the country's economic development.
While much of this success can be attributed to circumstances well beyond the sphere of migration policy, such as strong economic growth and relative political stability, several Taiwanese policies can also claim a share of the credit. Crucial among these have been a focus on subsidizing basic, rather than advanced, education, along with an active effort to network with the Taiwanese diaspora and promote its return.
Whether or not migration has created "net gain" for Taiwan cannot be said. What is clear, however, is that the country's experience with skilled emigration has been far more positive than that of many other developing nations. As such, Taiwan's lessons for policy makers are worth closer examination.
Classic 'Brain Drain'
Taiwan once faced a classic case of "brain drain." Despite government restrictions, a total of over 100,000 Taiwanese left to study abroad in the latter half of the 20th century. During the 1970s and 1980s, an estimated 20 perc ent of Taiwanese college graduates went abroad for advanced study, and few of them returned. At the peak of the brain drain in 1979, only eight percent of students who studied abroad returned to Taiwan upon completing their studies. This brain drain generated a great deal of political anxiety in Taiwan, but did not stop the country's economy from growing at a remarkable rate. Furthermore, the brain drain slowed and partially reversed in the 1980s and 1990s. The return rate for students has climbed to 33 percent in recent years. In total, 50,000 migrants returned from abroad between 1985 and 1990. These migrants came home with high levels of education, some of it subsidized by foreign governments and universities, and many also had significant business experience. The expertise they brought fueled a boom in the domestic high-tech sector. Taiwan remains a country of net emigration, but the brain drain is looking more and more like an economic gain.
Although a number of countries have seen slowdowns and reversals of low and/or high-skilled emigration, they have usually followed a radical change in the country's political situation or a marked turnaround in its economic outlook. In contrast, Taiwan's economy had been growing strongly and steadily for decades, and returns of migrants began to increase before the end of martial law and the beginning of democratic elections in the late 1980s. Gradually, Taiwan has evolved from a less-developed to developed country and, while still a nation of net emigration, now hosts a substantial number of guest workers and unauthorized immigrants. This makes its current immigration patterns similar to those of other developed countries.
Setting the Stage: Education Policy
Taiwan's relatively positive experience with high-skilled migration was built on education policies launched in the 1950s, when the country began to invest in public and private education at a rate that far outstripped most countries with similar resources. When considering international migration, the distribution of this investment has been as important as its size. Taiwan's public funding of education has traditionally favored basic education and vocational schools. Only recently, as Taiwan's economy has become more technically sophisticated, have colleges and universities received priority.
In 1961, primary and secondary schools received 80 percent of all public education funds. This focus continued as recently as 1990, when the majority of secondary-school students were in vocational programs. These decades of heavy government investment in basic education have created a heavily subsidized vocational program that channels young people into medium-skilled jobs in Taiwan's booming manufacturing industry. With relatively comfortable, rising wages and secure jobs, such workers have had few incentives to migrate.
However, this structure left students seeking further education with few options but to migrate. Advanced degrees have only recently become a major component of the Taiwanese educational system. In 1991, only 165 doctorate degrees were awarded in engineering, a strikingly low figure for a country where 29 percent of exports were in the high-tech sector and over 10,000 patents were being registered every year.
Students wishing to study abroad could do so only by paying out of pocket or obtaining scholarships from the destination country, and then only after completing two years of military service and passing a qualifying exam. As a result, Taiwanese migrants have usually been upper-class students who have exhausted educational opportunities in Taiwan. Had advanced education been widely available in Taiwan, many of these people most likely would have migrated anyway after completing their studies, since only during the past two decades has the Taiwanese economy offered competitive employment opportunities for the very well educated.
Tapping the Diaspora: The Government as Catalyst
The students who sought education and employment abroad have become Taiwan's interface with the global economy, managing and enhancing the solid manufacturing base promoted by the basic education policy. The involvement of this internationally acquired acumen—through both the physical return of migrants and their participation from overseas—has been promoted by the government itself through policies centered on the Taiwanese diaspora.
Taiwan's industrialization began with low-tech, labor-intensive export manufacturing. Capital and the majority of the technical expertise came from foreign investors. Gradually, as wages and skill levels rose, Taiwanese firms began using technology-intensive manufacturing processes and doing more design in Taiwan. As they did so, they used formal and informal connections to draw on the expertise and business connections of Taiwanese living overseas, and even to recruit them to work in Taiwan. Taiwan's export-oriented industrial sector made the skills of returned migrants easily transferable. These businessmen became heroes of Taiwanese industry and received the popular nickname of "astronauts" because so many "lived in the air" commuting to and from Silicon Valley. By 1987, 20 percent of the executives of large Taiwanese firms were former migrants. This reservoir of technical and managerial expertise—which owed its existence to migration—was an important factor in the Taiwanese economy's rapid development.
The Taiwanese government was quick to recognize the potential of migrants as a resource. Officials used migrant expertise in formulating government policy. The government established the National Youth Council in the early 1970s to connect Taiwanese businesses with skilled migrants. The council tracks migrants in a database, advertises jobs overseas, and provides travel subsidies and temporary job placement to potential returnees. The National Science Council and Ministry of Education have also recruited thousands of migrants as professors and visiting lecturers for the country's growing universities.
The Taiwanese government's most celebrated achievement in migration, however, has been the Hinschu Science-based Industrial Park. Although it was not exclusively aimed at migrants, inspiration for the park came from overseas: one goal was to replicate the dense concentration of creative expertise found in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. The park was started in 1980 when the government provided financial incentives and planned infrastructure for companies relocating to or forming in the area. Subsidized Western-style housing and commercial services were provided to attract Taiwanese living overseas. The government sponsored international conferences on science and technology to give workers in the park more access to the international scientific community.
The park successfully attracted both high-tech companies and returning migrants. Companies in the park employed 102,000 people and generated $28 billion in sales in 2000. Although only 4,108 returned migrants worked in the park that year, 113 of the park's 289 companies were started by US-educated Taiwanese, and 478 of the returnees hold Ph.D.'s, indicating that the returned migrants are better educated than the average worker in the park and wield influence disproportionate to their numbers. Overseas connections are still valued; 70 of the companies also have offices in Silicon Valley and many rotate their personnel between offices. The park is the center of Taiwan's rapidly expanding research and development sector and a major contributor to the country's strong economic growth.
Lessons from Taiwan
It is impossible to know with certainty what role migration has played in Taiwan's development and how public policy affected it. However, relative to many other countries' experiences with high-skilled migration, Taiwan clearly has received greater benefits and paid lesser costs. If Taiwan holds lessons for other countries dealing with "brain drain" and seeking to promote return migration, they are:
Subsidize education only up to the level actually demanded by the national economy.
In contrast to many developing countries, the Taiwanese government did not significantly subsidize advanced education, only to watch their expensively trained graduates leave for jobs abroad with great private rewards. Instead, it focused on providing strong universal basic education and vocational programs as demanded by the domestic labor market. Logic suggests that this policy reduced migration by subsidizing the kinds of education that would lead directly to attractive employment in Taiwan itself, as opposed to subsidizing advanced degree-holders who would be forced to seek jobs abroad. Moreover, this interaction with international migration is only one of many good reasons for developing countries to prioritize strong basic education.
Migration can provide a "brain reserve."
The late development of Taiwanese universities could have caused a shortage of experts as Taiwanese industry rapidly increased in sophistication. Instead, Taiwanese living overseas provided advice from afar and returned to meet the growing demand. Thus, Taiwanese industry received critical expertise, at the moment it was most needed, from people whose advanced education had not been subsidized by Taiwanese taxpayers.
Support diaspora networking and recruitment.
Taiwan began to benefit from its emigrants even before developing to the point where it could attract their return. Taiwanese migrants provided knowledge, business connections, and expertise to both the government and private sector through informal and formal networks. This was particularly powerful in an economy highly oriented toward trade and foreign investment. When Taiwan's economy reached the point where it could employ its high-skilled emigrants, those networks made the return of migrants faster and easier.
Build a critical mass of returnees.
Creative, highly skilled people work and live best when surrounded with similar people. The problem is that highly educated migrants are reluctant to return to places where such people are lacking, so no one person is willing to move first. Taiwan's solution to this coordination failure was to subsidize the formation of a community of well-educated people at the Hinschu Science-based Industrial Park. The result was a critical mass of creative, Western-educated people that attracted more returnees. However, it is critical to note that this measure succeeded only because there was already a positive political and economic outlook and real demand for the returnees' skills.
Clearly, the realities of particular countries can make them particularly well or ill-suited to apply the lessons of the Taiwanese experience. Countries suffering from severe political or economic instability, for example, have little hope of attracting the immediate return of high-skilled emigrants. They can, however, improve their future migration outcomes with well-guided education policies and by actively networking with their nationals abroad. Taiwan's example shows that a diverse range of public policies can shape a country's experience with migration.
Sources:
Chow, Peter. (2001) Social Expenditures in Taiwan. Washington: World Bank.
Luo, Yu-Ling and Wei-Jen Wang. (2002) "High-skill migration and Chinese Taipei's industrial development." In: OECD, International Mobility of the Highly Skilled. Paris, OECD.
Ranis, Gustav. ed. (1992) Taiwan: From Developing to Mature Economy. Boulder, Colo. Westview.
Wu, Kin Bing. (1993) "Science and Technology Education in Taiwan." World Bank Education and Social Policy Discussion Series Paper no. 13.
= = =
SOME LESSONS AND OBSERVATIONS
1. Taiwan is an island-nation with a largely homogenous (majority Chinese culture and people) populatiom; our nation has large settlements of heterogenous populations. Taiwan has economic policies that are coherently pro-Taiwanese people, and based on merchanisation and digitisation, state-sponsored infrastructure, and export-oriented merchantilism; we have anti-people policies that are incoherent (in all spheres), and based on mining rents and favours from primary production, as well as import-oriented consumption.
2. Crucial among these have been a focus on subsidizing basic, rather than advanced, education, along with an active effort to network with the Taiwanese diaspora and promote its return. = =
We have focused on heirarchical (advanced) education rather than on basic vocational and technical traiining. We seem to be happy if the educated ones among us migrate. While abroad, their trouble-making is powerless to influence policy back home.
3. This brain drain generated a great deal of political anxiety in Taiwan, but did not stop the country's economy from growing at a remarkable rate. = =
Our brain drain does not generate political anxiety at home because the politicians have no need for home-grown talent. By hiring foreigners, the policians get two-for-one: (a) Foreigners have the requisite knowledge. (b) Foreigners are also interested in getting "harvested" funds outside the nation, so they are discreet and do not ask "foolish" questions.
4. The expertise they brought fueled a boom in the domestic high-tech sector. = =
Many of our diasporians are NOT influential actors in the high-tech sector. Even when employed in the relevant industries, it is uncommon for them to be in core management / knowledge roles. The uplifting of foreigners in so many of our technical projects, prevents our own development of capabilities in important technologies.
5. Taiwan's industrialization began with low-tech, labor-intensive export manufacturing. Capital and the majority of the technical expertise came from foreign investors. = =
We started with this same industrialization model, but there are subtle yet significant differences. The outstanding majority of Taiwan's “foreign” investors were and remain the Chinese diaspora who found the mainland too restrictive and migrated to Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, USA, EU, Africa, etc. Most of Taiwan's exports is via trading links established with these fellow Chinese across the world. Our nation began its industrialization by seeking to “leapfrog” the technical advancements of other nations with “import-substitution” We imported high-tech, capital-intensive factories. We imported technical advisers who then refused to transfer know-how and refused to let our technicians learn the technologies. We imported foreign capital to pay for the factories and the technicians. Even now, we continue to hear our functionally illiterate politicians promote “foreign direct investment” as the means to our economic progress.
6. ... slowdowns and reversals of low and/or high-skilled emigration, they have usually followed a radical change in the country's political situation or a marked turnaround in its economic outlook. = =
Our policial situation is derived from competitive weakness of our domestic economy. The current crop of political actors are unlikely to lead any radical changes in the economic arena. It is up to private sector businesses to engineer a marked turnaround in economic outlook - by building domestic production capacity that can win consumer favour over from imports.
7. Taiwan's relatively positive experience with high-skilled migration was built on education policies launched in the 1950s, when the country began to invest in public and private education at a rate that far outstripped most countries with similar resources. = =
Even now, much of our meagre national earnings are going toward payment of debt and interest - to the tune of 3 times education spending in (well-off?) regions such as Nigeria. Not only do we spend less per capita on education, we are spending on the wrong type of education.
8. In 1991, only 165 doctorate degrees were awarded in engineering, a strikingly low figure for a country where 29 percent of exports were in the high-tech sector and over 10,000 patents were being registered every year. = =
Avanced degrees are all the rage in our title-cracy education systems. Can't get a job with schools cert? Go to uni! Can't get a job since leaving campus? Go get a Master's! No jobs for M.Sc? Go get a D.Phil or MBA! On one hand, Nigeria is estimated to have the lowest per capital number of engineers in the world. On the other hand, hardly any of those engineers are or can apply what they have learnt. Rather than start businesses that mechanise the work done at roadsides all over our nation, our intellectually-challenged engineers prefer to migrate into overseas to where they settle for flipping burgers or end up in dead end jobs as “vice-president”, “senior consultant”, “assistant director”, etc.
9. ... the government provided financial incentives and planned infrastructure for companies = =
This is what is meant by "government creating an enabling environment" - providing incentives and infrastructure, co-ordinating private sector businesses towards coherent national goals.
10. Subsidize education only up to the level actually demanded by the national economy. = = This is the proper role of subsidies provided by a government. It stimulates and supports demand by the national economy. Our governments are expert only in supporting supply by foreign economies, thereby subsidizing education in those nations that produce the goods we consume.
11. Migration can provide a "brain reserve. Support diaspora networking and recruitment. Build a critical mass of returnees. = =
The nation is yet to efficiently organise its engagement with its economic producers, whether locally resident or in diaspora. Given the paucity of ideas from the local banks and business community, diasporians should take the initiative and push for economic reform by building the private sector and creating knowledge communities. Already, many diasporians send their children back home for a "proper" education. They bring their families home for a “proper” holiday. Why not get together to sponsor more of those "proper" schools, a "proper" health centres and then "proper" housing developments. . . ?
12. Countries suffering from severe political or economic instability, for example, have little hope of attracting the immediate return of high-skilled emigrants. = =
Skilled or not, emigrant or not, economic opportunities come with uncertainty (of risks and returns). Severe political or economic instability equals higher uncertainty, both of risks and returns. We will break this vicious circle only by tackling the twin causes of the instability: the insecurity of the haves and the powerlessness of the have-nots. What they have or have-not is power (knowledge, ability, connections, resources) to make opportunities into rewarding work. If the educated are able to kick-start the reformation process, we will all be better off.
To conclude, it is important to bear in mind that adequate education, health and housing are necessary, but not sufficient, to create a progressive community. These are useful investment instruments, but are not in themselves, productive. To attain economic progress, we need investment in wealth creation and that, for many people, means creating “proper” businesses that provide employment and living wages while meeting a customer's demands for a better life.
Luckily, there are many economic opportunities that demand investing a little capital with lots of intelligence (applied knowledge). Some opportunities will support a substitution of labour intensity for capital intensity, at least in the early stages. This is fine so long as workers receive a living wage and are trained on the job into learning and using higher skill levels. We should aim to pay well; so employees are incentivised to perform diligently. We should aim to make products that can compete with the best imports. In the community of nations, Africa will never get anywhere by following "poverty-alleviation" policies that condemn it to be a "low-cost, low value-added" nation.
Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital.
Copyright (c) ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2005
You may copy, transmit, or otherwise use this document provided the copyright notice is attached
Here is an attempt to explore the experiences of Taiwan in building its economy on progressive aspiration, general knowledge, and a strong work ethic. The subject article is about migration; nonetheless it is sufficient for discussing our concerns, which are about economic development.
= = =
Brain drain and gain: the case of Taiwan
Taiwan, like many developing countries, has seen the increasingly competitive global market for high-skilled workers channel many of its best-educated people into jobs overseas. But unlike many countries that have suffered from "brain drain," Taiwan has seen many skilled emigrants return home to boost the country's economic development.
While much of this success can be attributed to circumstances well beyond the sphere of migration policy, such as strong economic growth and relative political stability, several Taiwanese policies can also claim a share of the credit. Crucial among these have been a focus on subsidizing basic, rather than advanced, education, along with an active effort to network with the Taiwanese diaspora and promote its return.
Whether or not migration has created "net gain" for Taiwan cannot be said. What is clear, however, is that the country's experience with skilled emigration has been far more positive than that of many other developing nations. As such, Taiwan's lessons for policy makers are worth closer examination.
Classic 'Brain Drain'
Taiwan once faced a classic case of "brain drain." Despite government restrictions, a total of over 100,000 Taiwanese left to study abroad in the latter half of the 20th century. During the 1970s and 1980s, an estimated 20 perc ent of Taiwanese college graduates went abroad for advanced study, and few of them returned. At the peak of the brain drain in 1979, only eight percent of students who studied abroad returned to Taiwan upon completing their studies. This brain drain generated a great deal of political anxiety in Taiwan, but did not stop the country's economy from growing at a remarkable rate. Furthermore, the brain drain slowed and partially reversed in the 1980s and 1990s. The return rate for students has climbed to 33 percent in recent years. In total, 50,000 migrants returned from abroad between 1985 and 1990. These migrants came home with high levels of education, some of it subsidized by foreign governments and universities, and many also had significant business experience. The expertise they brought fueled a boom in the domestic high-tech sector. Taiwan remains a country of net emigration, but the brain drain is looking more and more like an economic gain.
Although a number of countries have seen slowdowns and reversals of low and/or high-skilled emigration, they have usually followed a radical change in the country's political situation or a marked turnaround in its economic outlook. In contrast, Taiwan's economy had been growing strongly and steadily for decades, and returns of migrants began to increase before the end of martial law and the beginning of democratic elections in the late 1980s. Gradually, Taiwan has evolved from a less-developed to developed country and, while still a nation of net emigration, now hosts a substantial number of guest workers and unauthorized immigrants. This makes its current immigration patterns similar to those of other developed countries.
Setting the Stage: Education Policy
Taiwan's relatively positive experience with high-skilled migration was built on education policies launched in the 1950s, when the country began to invest in public and private education at a rate that far outstripped most countries with similar resources. When considering international migration, the distribution of this investment has been as important as its size. Taiwan's public funding of education has traditionally favored basic education and vocational schools. Only recently, as Taiwan's economy has become more technically sophisticated, have colleges and universities received priority.
In 1961, primary and secondary schools received 80 percent of all public education funds. This focus continued as recently as 1990, when the majority of secondary-school students were in vocational programs. These decades of heavy government investment in basic education have created a heavily subsidized vocational program that channels young people into medium-skilled jobs in Taiwan's booming manufacturing industry. With relatively comfortable, rising wages and secure jobs, such workers have had few incentives to migrate.
However, this structure left students seeking further education with few options but to migrate. Advanced degrees have only recently become a major component of the Taiwanese educational system. In 1991, only 165 doctorate degrees were awarded in engineering, a strikingly low figure for a country where 29 percent of exports were in the high-tech sector and over 10,000 patents were being registered every year.
Students wishing to study abroad could do so only by paying out of pocket or obtaining scholarships from the destination country, and then only after completing two years of military service and passing a qualifying exam. As a result, Taiwanese migrants have usually been upper-class students who have exhausted educational opportunities in Taiwan. Had advanced education been widely available in Taiwan, many of these people most likely would have migrated anyway after completing their studies, since only during the past two decades has the Taiwanese economy offered competitive employment opportunities for the very well educated.
Tapping the Diaspora: The Government as Catalyst
The students who sought education and employment abroad have become Taiwan's interface with the global economy, managing and enhancing the solid manufacturing base promoted by the basic education policy. The involvement of this internationally acquired acumen—through both the physical return of migrants and their participation from overseas—has been promoted by the government itself through policies centered on the Taiwanese diaspora.
Taiwan's industrialization began with low-tech, labor-intensive export manufacturing. Capital and the majority of the technical expertise came from foreign investors. Gradually, as wages and skill levels rose, Taiwanese firms began using technology-intensive manufacturing processes and doing more design in Taiwan. As they did so, they used formal and informal connections to draw on the expertise and business connections of Taiwanese living overseas, and even to recruit them to work in Taiwan. Taiwan's export-oriented industrial sector made the skills of returned migrants easily transferable. These businessmen became heroes of Taiwanese industry and received the popular nickname of "astronauts" because so many "lived in the air" commuting to and from Silicon Valley. By 1987, 20 percent of the executives of large Taiwanese firms were former migrants. This reservoir of technical and managerial expertise—which owed its existence to migration—was an important factor in the Taiwanese economy's rapid development.
The Taiwanese government was quick to recognize the potential of migrants as a resource. Officials used migrant expertise in formulating government policy. The government established the National Youth Council in the early 1970s to connect Taiwanese businesses with skilled migrants. The council tracks migrants in a database, advertises jobs overseas, and provides travel subsidies and temporary job placement to potential returnees. The National Science Council and Ministry of Education have also recruited thousands of migrants as professors and visiting lecturers for the country's growing universities.
The Taiwanese government's most celebrated achievement in migration, however, has been the Hinschu Science-based Industrial Park. Although it was not exclusively aimed at migrants, inspiration for the park came from overseas: one goal was to replicate the dense concentration of creative expertise found in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. The park was started in 1980 when the government provided financial incentives and planned infrastructure for companies relocating to or forming in the area. Subsidized Western-style housing and commercial services were provided to attract Taiwanese living overseas. The government sponsored international conferences on science and technology to give workers in the park more access to the international scientific community.
The park successfully attracted both high-tech companies and returning migrants. Companies in the park employed 102,000 people and generated $28 billion in sales in 2000. Although only 4,108 returned migrants worked in the park that year, 113 of the park's 289 companies were started by US-educated Taiwanese, and 478 of the returnees hold Ph.D.'s, indicating that the returned migrants are better educated than the average worker in the park and wield influence disproportionate to their numbers. Overseas connections are still valued; 70 of the companies also have offices in Silicon Valley and many rotate their personnel between offices. The park is the center of Taiwan's rapidly expanding research and development sector and a major contributor to the country's strong economic growth.
Lessons from Taiwan
It is impossible to know with certainty what role migration has played in Taiwan's development and how public policy affected it. However, relative to many other countries' experiences with high-skilled migration, Taiwan clearly has received greater benefits and paid lesser costs. If Taiwan holds lessons for other countries dealing with "brain drain" and seeking to promote return migration, they are:
Subsidize education only up to the level actually demanded by the national economy.
In contrast to many developing countries, the Taiwanese government did not significantly subsidize advanced education, only to watch their expensively trained graduates leave for jobs abroad with great private rewards. Instead, it focused on providing strong universal basic education and vocational programs as demanded by the domestic labor market. Logic suggests that this policy reduced migration by subsidizing the kinds of education that would lead directly to attractive employment in Taiwan itself, as opposed to subsidizing advanced degree-holders who would be forced to seek jobs abroad. Moreover, this interaction with international migration is only one of many good reasons for developing countries to prioritize strong basic education.
Migration can provide a "brain reserve."
The late development of Taiwanese universities could have caused a shortage of experts as Taiwanese industry rapidly increased in sophistication. Instead, Taiwanese living overseas provided advice from afar and returned to meet the growing demand. Thus, Taiwanese industry received critical expertise, at the moment it was most needed, from people whose advanced education had not been subsidized by Taiwanese taxpayers.
Support diaspora networking and recruitment.
Taiwan began to benefit from its emigrants even before developing to the point where it could attract their return. Taiwanese migrants provided knowledge, business connections, and expertise to both the government and private sector through informal and formal networks. This was particularly powerful in an economy highly oriented toward trade and foreign investment. When Taiwan's economy reached the point where it could employ its high-skilled emigrants, those networks made the return of migrants faster and easier.
Build a critical mass of returnees.
Creative, highly skilled people work and live best when surrounded with similar people. The problem is that highly educated migrants are reluctant to return to places where such people are lacking, so no one person is willing to move first. Taiwan's solution to this coordination failure was to subsidize the formation of a community of well-educated people at the Hinschu Science-based Industrial Park. The result was a critical mass of creative, Western-educated people that attracted more returnees. However, it is critical to note that this measure succeeded only because there was already a positive political and economic outlook and real demand for the returnees' skills.
Clearly, the realities of particular countries can make them particularly well or ill-suited to apply the lessons of the Taiwanese experience. Countries suffering from severe political or economic instability, for example, have little hope of attracting the immediate return of high-skilled emigrants. They can, however, improve their future migration outcomes with well-guided education policies and by actively networking with their nationals abroad. Taiwan's example shows that a diverse range of public policies can shape a country's experience with migration.
Sources:
Chow, Peter. (2001) Social Expenditures in Taiwan. Washington: World Bank.
Luo, Yu-Ling and Wei-Jen Wang. (2002) "High-skill migration and Chinese Taipei's industrial development." In: OECD, International Mobility of the Highly Skilled. Paris, OECD.
Ranis, Gustav. ed. (1992) Taiwan: From Developing to Mature Economy. Boulder, Colo. Westview.
Wu, Kin Bing. (1993) "Science and Technology Education in Taiwan." World Bank Education and Social Policy Discussion Series Paper no. 13.
= = =
SOME LESSONS AND OBSERVATIONS
1. Taiwan is an island-nation with a largely homogenous (majority Chinese culture and people) populatiom; our nation has large settlements of heterogenous populations. Taiwan has economic policies that are coherently pro-Taiwanese people, and based on merchanisation and digitisation, state-sponsored infrastructure, and export-oriented merchantilism; we have anti-people policies that are incoherent (in all spheres), and based on mining rents and favours from primary production, as well as import-oriented consumption.
2. Crucial among these have been a focus on subsidizing basic, rather than advanced, education, along with an active effort to network with the Taiwanese diaspora and promote its return. = =
We have focused on heirarchical (advanced) education rather than on basic vocational and technical traiining. We seem to be happy if the educated ones among us migrate. While abroad, their trouble-making is powerless to influence policy back home.
3. This brain drain generated a great deal of political anxiety in Taiwan, but did not stop the country's economy from growing at a remarkable rate. = =
Our brain drain does not generate political anxiety at home because the politicians have no need for home-grown talent. By hiring foreigners, the policians get two-for-one: (a) Foreigners have the requisite knowledge. (b) Foreigners are also interested in getting "harvested" funds outside the nation, so they are discreet and do not ask "foolish" questions.
4. The expertise they brought fueled a boom in the domestic high-tech sector. = =
Many of our diasporians are NOT influential actors in the high-tech sector. Even when employed in the relevant industries, it is uncommon for them to be in core management / knowledge roles. The uplifting of foreigners in so many of our technical projects, prevents our own development of capabilities in important technologies.
5. Taiwan's industrialization began with low-tech, labor-intensive export manufacturing. Capital and the majority of the technical expertise came from foreign investors. = =
We started with this same industrialization model, but there are subtle yet significant differences. The outstanding majority of Taiwan's “foreign” investors were and remain the Chinese diaspora who found the mainland too restrictive and migrated to Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, USA, EU, Africa, etc. Most of Taiwan's exports is via trading links established with these fellow Chinese across the world. Our nation began its industrialization by seeking to “leapfrog” the technical advancements of other nations with “import-substitution” We imported high-tech, capital-intensive factories. We imported technical advisers who then refused to transfer know-how and refused to let our technicians learn the technologies. We imported foreign capital to pay for the factories and the technicians. Even now, we continue to hear our functionally illiterate politicians promote “foreign direct investment” as the means to our economic progress.
6. ... slowdowns and reversals of low and/or high-skilled emigration, they have usually followed a radical change in the country's political situation or a marked turnaround in its economic outlook. = =
Our policial situation is derived from competitive weakness of our domestic economy. The current crop of political actors are unlikely to lead any radical changes in the economic arena. It is up to private sector businesses to engineer a marked turnaround in economic outlook - by building domestic production capacity that can win consumer favour over from imports.
7. Taiwan's relatively positive experience with high-skilled migration was built on education policies launched in the 1950s, when the country began to invest in public and private education at a rate that far outstripped most countries with similar resources. = =
Even now, much of our meagre national earnings are going toward payment of debt and interest - to the tune of 3 times education spending in (well-off?) regions such as Nigeria. Not only do we spend less per capita on education, we are spending on the wrong type of education.
8. In 1991, only 165 doctorate degrees were awarded in engineering, a strikingly low figure for a country where 29 percent of exports were in the high-tech sector and over 10,000 patents were being registered every year. = =
Avanced degrees are all the rage in our title-cracy education systems. Can't get a job with schools cert? Go to uni! Can't get a job since leaving campus? Go get a Master's! No jobs for M.Sc? Go get a D.Phil or MBA! On one hand, Nigeria is estimated to have the lowest per capital number of engineers in the world. On the other hand, hardly any of those engineers are or can apply what they have learnt. Rather than start businesses that mechanise the work done at roadsides all over our nation, our intellectually-challenged engineers prefer to migrate into overseas to where they settle for flipping burgers or end up in dead end jobs as “vice-president”, “senior consultant”, “assistant director”, etc.
9. ... the government provided financial incentives and planned infrastructure for companies = =
This is what is meant by "government creating an enabling environment" - providing incentives and infrastructure, co-ordinating private sector businesses towards coherent national goals.
10. Subsidize education only up to the level actually demanded by the national economy. = = This is the proper role of subsidies provided by a government. It stimulates and supports demand by the national economy. Our governments are expert only in supporting supply by foreign economies, thereby subsidizing education in those nations that produce the goods we consume.
11. Migration can provide a "brain reserve. Support diaspora networking and recruitment. Build a critical mass of returnees. = =
The nation is yet to efficiently organise its engagement with its economic producers, whether locally resident or in diaspora. Given the paucity of ideas from the local banks and business community, diasporians should take the initiative and push for economic reform by building the private sector and creating knowledge communities. Already, many diasporians send their children back home for a "proper" education. They bring their families home for a “proper” holiday. Why not get together to sponsor more of those "proper" schools, a "proper" health centres and then "proper" housing developments. . . ?
12. Countries suffering from severe political or economic instability, for example, have little hope of attracting the immediate return of high-skilled emigrants. = =
Skilled or not, emigrant or not, economic opportunities come with uncertainty (of risks and returns). Severe political or economic instability equals higher uncertainty, both of risks and returns. We will break this vicious circle only by tackling the twin causes of the instability: the insecurity of the haves and the powerlessness of the have-nots. What they have or have-not is power (knowledge, ability, connections, resources) to make opportunities into rewarding work. If the educated are able to kick-start the reformation process, we will all be better off.
To conclude, it is important to bear in mind that adequate education, health and housing are necessary, but not sufficient, to create a progressive community. These are useful investment instruments, but are not in themselves, productive. To attain economic progress, we need investment in wealth creation and that, for many people, means creating “proper” businesses that provide employment and living wages while meeting a customer's demands for a better life.
Luckily, there are many economic opportunities that demand investing a little capital with lots of intelligence (applied knowledge). Some opportunities will support a substitution of labour intensity for capital intensity, at least in the early stages. This is fine so long as workers receive a living wage and are trained on the job into learning and using higher skill levels. We should aim to pay well; so employees are incentivised to perform diligently. We should aim to make products that can compete with the best imports. In the community of nations, Africa will never get anywhere by following "poverty-alleviation" policies that condemn it to be a "low-cost, low value-added" nation.
Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital.
Copyright (c) ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2005
You may copy, transmit, or otherwise use this document provided the copyright notice is attached
Adura Arin-Ajo
The Migrant's Prayer
ADURA B'IRIN LO (THE MIGRANT'S PRAYER)
Dakun, Olorun olugbala, ni ibi gbogbo!
Jeeki mo pada lati dara fun iya ati baba.
Ki mo rin leeroo. Ki wahala mi boosi ore.
Ki mo koo ogbon pupo. Ki mo pawo pupo.
Dakun, emi mi, ni gbogbo ti o nro!
Jeeki mo weeyin wole.
Ki mo jere, ki ere mi yika.
Kaiye ma pami da, ki mo to dele.
Kiile fee iwa afesana.
Dakun jowo, afeesana, tiwa dele!
Pray, mighty God of mine, who is everywhere!
May I return to honour my mother and father.
May I travel safely. May my efforts find favour,
May I learn plenty of knowledge. May my profts be plenty.
Pray, mighty mind of mine, whatever you be!
May I draw succour from my origins.
May I profit, and profit the world around me.
Until I'm home to die, may the world's harms pass by me.
May my people appreciate the curiousities of other cultures.
Pray please, my diaspora relations, welcome my repartriation home!
Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital.
Copyright (c) ALARAN, DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2005
You may copy, transmit, or otherwise use this document provided the copyright notice is attached
ADURA B'IRIN LO (THE MIGRANT'S PRAYER)
Dakun, Olorun olugbala, ni ibi gbogbo!
Jeeki mo pada lati dara fun iya ati baba.
Ki mo rin leeroo. Ki wahala mi boosi ore.
Ki mo koo ogbon pupo. Ki mo pawo pupo.
Dakun, emi mi, ni gbogbo ti o nro!
Jeeki mo weeyin wole.
Ki mo jere, ki ere mi yika.
Kaiye ma pami da, ki mo to dele.
Kiile fee iwa afesana.
Dakun jowo, afeesana, tiwa dele!
Pray, mighty God of mine, who is everywhere!
May I return to honour my mother and father.
May I travel safely. May my efforts find favour,
May I learn plenty of knowledge. May my profts be plenty.
Pray, mighty mind of mine, whatever you be!
May I draw succour from my origins.
May I profit, and profit the world around me.
Until I'm home to die, may the world's harms pass by me.
May my people appreciate the curiousities of other cultures.
Pray please, my diaspora relations, welcome my repartriation home!
Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital.
Copyright (c) ALARAN, DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2005
You may copy, transmit, or otherwise use this document provided the copyright notice is attached
OdaAra ati ilosoke awon Afilusoga
Racism and Rise of the Right
So you know that racism white supremacy is behind the new world order impacting on your economy...
Racism and Rise of the Right
by Sharon Martinas
source: Challenging White Supremacy Workshop
So you know that racism white supremacy is behind the new world order impacting on your economy...
Racism and Rise of the Right
by Sharon Martinas
source: Challenging White Supremacy Workshop
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Toyin Agbetu: jagun labi
E wo arakunrin Toyin Agbetu! Awon ni oga ni aparapo ilosiwaju egbe Afika www.ligali.org.
E wo bi won nshe igbega gbogbo eniyan Afrika to shalaisi ni Maafa!! Won so fun awon Yurugu Elisabeth 1 ti Windsor, iyaafin England, ati Anthony Blair, oga UK pelu awon ara won nipa iwaburuku ti won ti she sile.
Kosi gbagbe. Kosi foriji.
eworan
E wo bi won nshe igbega gbogbo eniyan Afrika to shalaisi ni Maafa!! Won so fun awon Yurugu Elisabeth 1 ti Windsor, iyaafin England, ati Anthony Blair, oga UK pelu awon ara won nipa iwaburuku ti won ti she sile.
Kosi gbagbe. Kosi foriji.
eworan
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Tako Pete Lati Parun Omodekunrin Afrika
Tako Pete Lati Parun Omodekunrin Afrika / Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Afrikan Boys
Eto pataki lati Juwanza Kunjufu ni eko omode Afrika A great lecture on teaching and/or raising (so called) black children.
Books by Kunjufu
Apa 1 / part 1
Kosheishe lati she eto omode ti eni ko feran, ti ko gbega, ti koye eni nipa iwapele, omode na.
You cannot teach a child if you do not love, do not respect, or do not understand the culture of, the child.
Five reasons for differences in test scores
1. Peer group
2. Parental support
3. Student self esteem
4. Culture bias in form of Curriculum/methodology,evaluation design
5. Teacher expectations and bias
Peer:
Schools are more than educational. They are also social. Peer pressure works against because when black students are trying to do well in school, they are said to act 'white'.
Jackie Robinson syndrome of the token 'black; in any 'gifted and talented' set creates a lot of pressure on the single Afrikan child in the programme to be the authority on all 'black' issues.
Afrikan children have been made afraid of competing in academic activity and tending towards athletic competition. This is more so in integrated schools. Do more to promote academic competitions because competition sharpens the skills. Give big trophies to academic winners, not just small certificates. Train academic peer groups with martial arts, so they can get respect for their knowledge and fighting skills.
Peer groups work because they look like each other. Have a central role model programme and bring in Afrikan academic achievers into schools weekly or monthly. Gangs/Music/TV/video games used to infiltrate the peer group. Whose values are leaders of peer groups going to follow? Peer groups determine what kinds of clothes, music, etc.
eworan 1
part 2
Parental Involvement and Support
Involvement is attending PTA meetings, selling raffle tickets. Support is going with your child to academic competitions, to the library, monitoring their peer group, TV viewing, etc. Use the oral tradition to get support. How to market the programme? Call the parents on the phone! 1000 flyers may generate 10 parents, but a personal invitation will generate 100 or more. Give the parents a workshop e.g. on their own development, on parent-child relationships, getting jobs, supporting child achievement, etc. Let the parents decide what the child workshops will be. Then give the child workshop. Emphasise interesting topics and charismatic teachers in order to leverage the oral tradition.
eworan 2
part 3
what works? providing food, childcare, transport in poor neighbourhoods at night, having children perform. Afrikan parents have always trusted the teacher, but in the old days, the teacher was Afrikan. Now it may not. Worse, it may be a teacher black in skin, but white in consciousness.
High achieving homes
1. Parent give child hope and believe in a better tomorrow
2. Parent is consistent with the child
3. Parents compliment the child
4. Parent gives high expectations to the child
5. Parent belives they are the primary educator of the child
2 Stage Programme
stage 1: Establish goals for your child: e.g a) Spirituality b) Afrikan empowerment c)Employer and wealth creator
stage 2: Have a home programme/game plan/strategy for attainment of each goal for each child. The teacher can only give hope and control the process. Only the child can attain.
spirituality: when are the birthdays of the Afrikan heroes? imporatant festivals, cultures, foods?
empowerment: do they understand the processes and types of empowerment and disempolwerment? can they solve word problems with applied mathematics and critical thinking.
wealth: do they understand business methods and applications.
aworan 3
part 3
Help your child establish identity.
Alex Haley asked his relatives "Who am I" and got six different answers: negro, black, African-American, African, American, coloured. You cannot help a child if he does not know who he is.. Chinese have China. Germans have Germany. There is no land for negros, blacks, African-Americans or coloureds. Only Africa and America are lands and so can be identified with.
eworan 3
part 4
Book: Great Negroes Past and Present.
Kunjufu asks "What happened to a people who built pyramids and how live in projects? Who were the first to read and write in hieroglyphics yet can now not read or write" If you start the history of Africans in America in year 1619, they were then in plantations and will end their history in ghettos / prisons. But if you start the African history 4000 or 4 million years ago, they start with the pyramids and end up free (and first in the world).
Content matters. It is not enough to mention names, events and dates. You must connect the past with the present and future. What mistakes were made so they can be corrected.
Difference between who you are: African, Mexican, Irish/European and where you are from: the country of passport.
Self Belief: comes from 1) spirituality, 2) parents, 3) teachers, 4) Ethnicity/Race, 5) Personal talents. Racial identity comes from feeling good about your physical attributes: skin colour, hair, facial features etc. The older children are in USA, the more they have negative body image and self-esteem. This is because we allow others to determine what standards of beauty are. ==link to google video: A Girl Like Me==. Racism is a sign of insecurity. Many African women cannot swim because they are afraid their hair will go 'bad'. The real damage to self-esteem is now being done within the black community: I dont want my child to have 'nappy' hair. Children who have never seen their fathers or mothers with natural hair (father shaves clean, mother fries /attaches long)
Book: Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South. by Kenneth Stampp
eworan 4
part 5
A truly multicultural Curriculum will put an event at the centre, and then enable perspectives from the different ethnicities/races. Africans will say slavery nearly destroyed African families and nationhood. Europeans will say slavery was good for USA.
Some researchers say people with colour think better with right side of the brain associated with music and creativity while people who lack colour think better with left side of the brain associated with analytics, maths. Who then does the teaching style of rote learning affect child education?
There are five ways of communicating ideas in the classroom: 1) written (left brain) and right-brain communication styles of 2) oral, 3) pictures, 4) fine arts and 5) artefacts. Most schools use an exclusively written format for teaching, particularly in left-brain subjects such as math, sciences and engineering.
Teacher Expectations matter more for student achievement (TESA) than any other school-related factor. Teacher expectations of student achievement affected by 5 factors:
1) Race/Ethnicity of child 2) Income of child 3) Gender of child 4) Appearance of child 5) Parental support
TESA measures 1) number of response opportunities given to each child 2) feedback may be used as self-fulfilling prophecy as high-achieving students given multiple opportunities to get the correct answer 3) personal regard and reponsibility: let the child learn rather than spoon-feed it. You either love a child or you don't. What happens if the teacher does not associate with the child?
eworan 5
part 6
What makes effective schools? 1) strong leadership in the principals should be a coach. 2) teacher expectation. In low achieving schools, the lowest point is usually the teacher tea room "You cannot help these children!". 3) time on tasks. Teachers need time to finish tasks. What happens if educational time is taken by excessive testing?
There are 3 different types of adults in the classrooms
1)instructors deal only with subject matter. They deliver it and the students are supposed to take it. High teacher drop-out rates mean that instructors dominate in higher levels of education system.
2) teachers deal with subject matter and learning styles. they mix left and right brain.
3) coaches deal with subject matter, learning styles as well as motivation and self-esteem.
Stop telling young people to get a good education without telling them for what, or telling them to work hard without educating them to work on creating jobs. Do not tell them to get a good job so they can earn money. They know they can earn money in drugs, crime, sport, or entertainment without apparently getting a good education or working hard. Emphasise the development of talents and creating work from harnessing talents.
THERE IS A PAUSE IN THE VIDEO.
4 questions: 1) When did it start? 2) Who is behind the conspiracy? 3) Why is there a conspiracy? 4) What is the conspiracy?
The conspiracy is to destroy black boys, not black men or women. 1.03 boys born for every girl. But 18 years later, there are 1.0 available men for every 1.8 women. The rest are in prison, dead, homosexual (1 in 9 men), institutionalised in hospitals or mental institutions, or in inter-racial marriages.
eworan 6
part 7
What happens in the 4th grade. Black boys may be the best students nationally up to end of 3rd USA grade, but drop to bottom of racial achievement by end of 7th USA grade!!
The three ages of learning: a) 0 - 9 years b) 9 - 13 years c) 13 - 18 years
USA under Reagan spent per capita USD2,300 on age 0-9 education, but USD36,000 on imprisonment.
One key reason for 4th grade fall is lack of father participation. IT TAKES A MAN TO RAISE A MAN. Other contributing factors is downward involvement of parents even as peer pressure increases. 60% of female single-parent homes, no positive father-figures on TV/multimedia, no progressive programmes in church with its female-oriented-white-Jesus misinformation, schools with 85 - 95% early stage female teacher populations. so child looks to peer group for identity.
1 million 'black' men want Michael Jordan's job -> 400,000 will get into junior basketball -> 4,000 into college basketball -> 35 into the NBA -> 7 start a game. The average NBA career is 4 years. A 7-in-a-million chance for a 4 year career! But the conspiracy goes beyond NBA, even schools give more glory to sports teams than academic schools. The why for conspiracy is to stop competition against Yurugu male supremacy.
eworan 7
part 8
Active conspirators and what they stand for:
1) Reagan. 2) Rockefeller at the Trilateral Commission, 3) Casper Weinberger whose military recruits 33% AA and 41% died in Vietnam, yet AA are only 12% of USA population; 4) Godfather: USA can patrol its borders, yet cannot prevent drugs being smuggled into the country and the black community. 5) Media e.g Different Strokes, Webster, Santa Christmas that portrays only a 'white' father can be a good father for 'black' children.
Also complicit are passive conspirators: the black women and females who 'raise' their daughters and 'love' their sons. Kathy who will do anything for a man and Willie who does not feel good about himself.
Europeans make up 20% of world population, they are the minority population, yet want to control the affairs of the world. Of the 4.5 billion people alive (at the time of Kunjufu' presentation) 1 billion lived in China, 800 billion African (500 million continental, 160 million in Caribbean and South Americas, 40 million in the USA). The only way a minority can win is by controlling the mind of the majority.
Suicide levels: Euro em. Afro men, Euro women, Afro women
Lifetime: Euro women 77 years, Afro women 75 years, Euro men 66 years, Afro men 64.5 years.
1-in-3 marriages end in divorce because the socio-economic base for marriage has shifted.
In the agricultural age: extended family, in the industrial age: nuclear family, in the digital age: single adults.
eworan 8
part 9
The rumour is that "Some mothers raise their daughters and love their sons". Sons are future husbands and fathers and have to be raised that way. Teach them to cook, wash after themselves, take care of others, about the responsibilities of teenage pregnancy. Mama's Boys become Baby-fathers. They are sons that are not raised properly.
eworan 9
part 10
83% female teachers at the USA elementary grade. 'Black' children make up 17% of student population, and 24% of special needs education, of which 85% are 'black' boys! Do the 'white' female teachers understand the needs of boys in general or 'black' boys in particular?
eworan 10
part 11
Countering the conspiracy at home
1) Be aware of the what, who, why and how of the conspiracy
2) Admit that it affects your family
3) identify Afrikan male role models within or beyond the child's immediate family
4) Contract with the role model on the deliverables of the mentoring relationship
5) Develop fine motor skills in the boys: use of pencils, scissors and other precision skills. Not just trucks and footballs
6) Have a non-sexist household.
7) teach sex education before the age 12 when children start experimenting
8) monitor peer group. Invite them to your house and get to know them.
9) monitor TV/internet/ gaming
10) Listen to your child
Countering the conspiracy in schools
1) Be aware
2) More teachers or drop-in Afrikan role models in the schools
3) More glory to academic than athletic activities
4) More right-brain activities.
5) Blend scout skills with big brother role model into SIMBA (young lion). Simba is a rights-of-passage community action programme which has chapters across USA.
eworan 11
Eto pataki lati Juwanza Kunjufu ni eko omode Afrika A great lecture on teaching and/or raising (so called) black children.
Books by Kunjufu
Apa 1 / part 1
Kosheishe lati she eto omode ti eni ko feran, ti ko gbega, ti koye eni nipa iwapele, omode na.
You cannot teach a child if you do not love, do not respect, or do not understand the culture of, the child.
Five reasons for differences in test scores
1. Peer group
2. Parental support
3. Student self esteem
4. Culture bias in form of Curriculum/methodology,evaluation design
5. Teacher expectations and bias
Peer:
Schools are more than educational. They are also social. Peer pressure works against because when black students are trying to do well in school, they are said to act 'white'.
Jackie Robinson syndrome of the token 'black; in any 'gifted and talented' set creates a lot of pressure on the single Afrikan child in the programme to be the authority on all 'black' issues.
Afrikan children have been made afraid of competing in academic activity and tending towards athletic competition. This is more so in integrated schools. Do more to promote academic competitions because competition sharpens the skills. Give big trophies to academic winners, not just small certificates. Train academic peer groups with martial arts, so they can get respect for their knowledge and fighting skills.
Peer groups work because they look like each other. Have a central role model programme and bring in Afrikan academic achievers into schools weekly or monthly. Gangs/Music/TV/video games used to infiltrate the peer group. Whose values are leaders of peer groups going to follow? Peer groups determine what kinds of clothes, music, etc.
eworan 1
part 2
Parental Involvement and Support
Involvement is attending PTA meetings, selling raffle tickets. Support is going with your child to academic competitions, to the library, monitoring their peer group, TV viewing, etc. Use the oral tradition to get support. How to market the programme? Call the parents on the phone! 1000 flyers may generate 10 parents, but a personal invitation will generate 100 or more. Give the parents a workshop e.g. on their own development, on parent-child relationships, getting jobs, supporting child achievement, etc. Let the parents decide what the child workshops will be. Then give the child workshop. Emphasise interesting topics and charismatic teachers in order to leverage the oral tradition.
eworan 2
part 3
what works? providing food, childcare, transport in poor neighbourhoods at night, having children perform. Afrikan parents have always trusted the teacher, but in the old days, the teacher was Afrikan. Now it may not. Worse, it may be a teacher black in skin, but white in consciousness.
High achieving homes
1. Parent give child hope and believe in a better tomorrow
2. Parent is consistent with the child
3. Parents compliment the child
4. Parent gives high expectations to the child
5. Parent belives they are the primary educator of the child
2 Stage Programme
stage 1: Establish goals for your child: e.g a) Spirituality b) Afrikan empowerment c)Employer and wealth creator
stage 2: Have a home programme/game plan/strategy for attainment of each goal for each child. The teacher can only give hope and control the process. Only the child can attain.
spirituality: when are the birthdays of the Afrikan heroes? imporatant festivals, cultures, foods?
empowerment: do they understand the processes and types of empowerment and disempolwerment? can they solve word problems with applied mathematics and critical thinking.
wealth: do they understand business methods and applications.
aworan 3
part 3
Help your child establish identity.
Alex Haley asked his relatives "Who am I" and got six different answers: negro, black, African-American, African, American, coloured. You cannot help a child if he does not know who he is.. Chinese have China. Germans have Germany. There is no land for negros, blacks, African-Americans or coloureds. Only Africa and America are lands and so can be identified with.
eworan 3
part 4
Book: Great Negroes Past and Present.
Kunjufu asks "What happened to a people who built pyramids and how live in projects? Who were the first to read and write in hieroglyphics yet can now not read or write" If you start the history of Africans in America in year 1619, they were then in plantations and will end their history in ghettos / prisons. But if you start the African history 4000 or 4 million years ago, they start with the pyramids and end up free (and first in the world).
Content matters. It is not enough to mention names, events and dates. You must connect the past with the present and future. What mistakes were made so they can be corrected.
Difference between who you are: African, Mexican, Irish/European and where you are from: the country of passport.
Self Belief: comes from 1) spirituality, 2) parents, 3) teachers, 4) Ethnicity/Race, 5) Personal talents. Racial identity comes from feeling good about your physical attributes: skin colour, hair, facial features etc. The older children are in USA, the more they have negative body image and self-esteem. This is because we allow others to determine what standards of beauty are. ==link to google video: A Girl Like Me==. Racism is a sign of insecurity. Many African women cannot swim because they are afraid their hair will go 'bad'. The real damage to self-esteem is now being done within the black community: I dont want my child to have 'nappy' hair. Children who have never seen their fathers or mothers with natural hair (father shaves clean, mother fries /attaches long)
Book: Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South. by Kenneth Stampp
eworan 4
part 5
A truly multicultural Curriculum will put an event at the centre, and then enable perspectives from the different ethnicities/races. Africans will say slavery nearly destroyed African families and nationhood. Europeans will say slavery was good for USA.
Some researchers say people with colour think better with right side of the brain associated with music and creativity while people who lack colour think better with left side of the brain associated with analytics, maths. Who then does the teaching style of rote learning affect child education?
There are five ways of communicating ideas in the classroom: 1) written (left brain) and right-brain communication styles of 2) oral, 3) pictures, 4) fine arts and 5) artefacts. Most schools use an exclusively written format for teaching, particularly in left-brain subjects such as math, sciences and engineering.
Teacher Expectations matter more for student achievement (TESA) than any other school-related factor. Teacher expectations of student achievement affected by 5 factors:
1) Race/Ethnicity of child 2) Income of child 3) Gender of child 4) Appearance of child 5) Parental support
TESA measures 1) number of response opportunities given to each child 2) feedback may be used as self-fulfilling prophecy as high-achieving students given multiple opportunities to get the correct answer 3) personal regard and reponsibility: let the child learn rather than spoon-feed it. You either love a child or you don't. What happens if the teacher does not associate with the child?
eworan 5
part 6
What makes effective schools? 1) strong leadership in the principals should be a coach. 2) teacher expectation. In low achieving schools, the lowest point is usually the teacher tea room "You cannot help these children!". 3) time on tasks. Teachers need time to finish tasks. What happens if educational time is taken by excessive testing?
There are 3 different types of adults in the classrooms
1)instructors deal only with subject matter. They deliver it and the students are supposed to take it. High teacher drop-out rates mean that instructors dominate in higher levels of education system.
2) teachers deal with subject matter and learning styles. they mix left and right brain.
3) coaches deal with subject matter, learning styles as well as motivation and self-esteem.
Stop telling young people to get a good education without telling them for what, or telling them to work hard without educating them to work on creating jobs. Do not tell them to get a good job so they can earn money. They know they can earn money in drugs, crime, sport, or entertainment without apparently getting a good education or working hard. Emphasise the development of talents and creating work from harnessing talents.
THERE IS A PAUSE IN THE VIDEO.
4 questions: 1) When did it start? 2) Who is behind the conspiracy? 3) Why is there a conspiracy? 4) What is the conspiracy?
The conspiracy is to destroy black boys, not black men or women. 1.03 boys born for every girl. But 18 years later, there are 1.0 available men for every 1.8 women. The rest are in prison, dead, homosexual (1 in 9 men), institutionalised in hospitals or mental institutions, or in inter-racial marriages.
eworan 6
part 7
What happens in the 4th grade. Black boys may be the best students nationally up to end of 3rd USA grade, but drop to bottom of racial achievement by end of 7th USA grade!!
The three ages of learning: a) 0 - 9 years b) 9 - 13 years c) 13 - 18 years
USA under Reagan spent per capita USD2,300 on age 0-9 education, but USD36,000 on imprisonment.
One key reason for 4th grade fall is lack of father participation. IT TAKES A MAN TO RAISE A MAN. Other contributing factors is downward involvement of parents even as peer pressure increases. 60% of female single-parent homes, no positive father-figures on TV/multimedia, no progressive programmes in church with its female-oriented-white-Jesus misinformation, schools with 85 - 95% early stage female teacher populations. so child looks to peer group for identity.
1 million 'black' men want Michael Jordan's job -> 400,000 will get into junior basketball -> 4,000 into college basketball -> 35 into the NBA -> 7 start a game. The average NBA career is 4 years. A 7-in-a-million chance for a 4 year career! But the conspiracy goes beyond NBA, even schools give more glory to sports teams than academic schools. The why for conspiracy is to stop competition against Yurugu male supremacy.
eworan 7
part 8
Active conspirators and what they stand for:
1) Reagan. 2) Rockefeller at the Trilateral Commission, 3) Casper Weinberger whose military recruits 33% AA and 41% died in Vietnam, yet AA are only 12% of USA population; 4) Godfather: USA can patrol its borders, yet cannot prevent drugs being smuggled into the country and the black community. 5) Media e.g Different Strokes, Webster, Santa Christmas that portrays only a 'white' father can be a good father for 'black' children.
Also complicit are passive conspirators: the black women and females who 'raise' their daughters and 'love' their sons. Kathy who will do anything for a man and Willie who does not feel good about himself.
Europeans make up 20% of world population, they are the minority population, yet want to control the affairs of the world. Of the 4.5 billion people alive (at the time of Kunjufu' presentation) 1 billion lived in China, 800 billion African (500 million continental, 160 million in Caribbean and South Americas, 40 million in the USA). The only way a minority can win is by controlling the mind of the majority.
Suicide levels: Euro em. Afro men, Euro women, Afro women
Lifetime: Euro women 77 years, Afro women 75 years, Euro men 66 years, Afro men 64.5 years.
1-in-3 marriages end in divorce because the socio-economic base for marriage has shifted.
In the agricultural age: extended family, in the industrial age: nuclear family, in the digital age: single adults.
eworan 8
part 9
The rumour is that "Some mothers raise their daughters and love their sons". Sons are future husbands and fathers and have to be raised that way. Teach them to cook, wash after themselves, take care of others, about the responsibilities of teenage pregnancy. Mama's Boys become Baby-fathers. They are sons that are not raised properly.
eworan 9
part 10
83% female teachers at the USA elementary grade. 'Black' children make up 17% of student population, and 24% of special needs education, of which 85% are 'black' boys! Do the 'white' female teachers understand the needs of boys in general or 'black' boys in particular?
eworan 10
part 11
Countering the conspiracy at home
1) Be aware of the what, who, why and how of the conspiracy
2) Admit that it affects your family
3) identify Afrikan male role models within or beyond the child's immediate family
4) Contract with the role model on the deliverables of the mentoring relationship
5) Develop fine motor skills in the boys: use of pencils, scissors and other precision skills. Not just trucks and footballs
6) Have a non-sexist household.
7) teach sex education before the age 12 when children start experimenting
8) monitor peer group. Invite them to your house and get to know them.
9) monitor TV/internet/ gaming
10) Listen to your child
Countering the conspiracy in schools
1) Be aware
2) More teachers or drop-in Afrikan role models in the schools
3) More glory to academic than athletic activities
4) More right-brain activities.
5) Blend scout skills with big brother role model into SIMBA (young lion). Simba is a rights-of-passage community action programme which has chapters across USA.
eworan 11
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Yoruba ati Japanese
Ijiyan nla nlo ni agbala Egyptsearch.com ni pa bawo ni ede abi esin Yoruba ati Japanese se parapo.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Relocating to Ile Yoruba and other Africa 3: Top 10 Tips
Relocation Tips
1.Culture – Try to find a cultural society for the area that you are considering relocation to. Regular attendance at meetings and events should give you a flavour of foods, fashions, etc. Read widely from the local and national newspapers. Be prepared to be treated as a 'foreigner'. You are advised to keep negative opinions on culture, religion, or language to yourself.
2.Accommodation – You should visit the country for a stay of at least six months in order to explore the community and experience potential property in reas of interest. In short visits, stay in self – contained rental property in order to assess the dynamics of the property markets.
3.Property – Generally, buying may be better than renting. Property markets are dynamic and many transactions are settled in cash, although mortgages are becoming more available. Estate agents will be able to advise on local markets, schools, amenities and business opportunities. Have a lawyer secure and register your certificate of ownership (equivalent to UK freehold) or review rental agreemenrs. Expect to pay 1 year rental deposit and 1 year rent in advance. Negotiate payments in local currency, so as to reduce your foreign exchange risk.
4.Transport – You should plan for a budget car, preferably of Asian make as they tend to be more durable and less expensive to run in spare parts and servicing costs than European models. American models do not generally do well. 4x4 vehicles suffer very heavy consumption of fuel and spare parts on Africa's uneven roads. Diesel fuel may be scarcer than petrol, but can be used with your diesel generator. Some markets, e.g Nigeria, ban importation of cars that are older than 10 years. It may be less troublesome to buy imported cars locally. Original spare parts are often available from authorised dealers at European price levels.
5.Utilities – You should plan for a small diesel generator, unless you are technically able to install renewable energy sources (a strong business opportunity). Plan to install electric water pump and storage tanks. It is safer and less obstrusive to install tanks underground. You will need electric surge stabilisers and uninterruptible power supply units on your electronic equipment.
6.Freight – Try to avoid freight costs on shipping heavy, disposable or fragile personal effects halfway across the world. Rental properties will usually be unfurnished, but it may be worthwhile to patiently visit local craft shops to source for original items in furniture, crockery, toiletries, and art. Do bring your books, medication supplies, computers and and audio-visual equipment. Retail shops stock the usual global brand products, at European price levels. For warranties, buy from authorised dealers.
7.Bureaucracy – You will need to register for taxation and residency. You may need to register car ownership or to vote, procure insurance or medical cover. Local residents are generally helpful to 'foreigners', although you may have to pay price premiums for your elevated status.
8.Employment – When you relocate to Africa, we expect you to create jobs and investments. Recruitment agencies may have employment positions with multinationals and big local firms. There are opportunities to create businesses in almost every economic or social sector. You will generate strong goodwill from efforts to train and support suppliers, customers and employees. When fairly rewarded, Africans generally have a strong work ethic. They are also sensitive to historical injusticies and contemporary trade inequalities.
9.Family – Africans have retained strong family values. Much leisure time is spent visiting with friends and family. Urban residents may travel long distances over weekends and holidays. Informal netwoeks and extended family provide much of the 'safety net' benefits that have been institutionalied and privately capitalised in other countries.
10.Prepare yourself and your family well in advance. In particular, make arrangements for private education, medical care, and independent essential services (transport, water and electricity). Once these are expensed by your private (and hopefully, profitable) business, you may enjoy well, well.
1.Culture – Try to find a cultural society for the area that you are considering relocation to. Regular attendance at meetings and events should give you a flavour of foods, fashions, etc. Read widely from the local and national newspapers. Be prepared to be treated as a 'foreigner'. You are advised to keep negative opinions on culture, religion, or language to yourself.
2.Accommodation – You should visit the country for a stay of at least six months in order to explore the community and experience potential property in reas of interest. In short visits, stay in self – contained rental property in order to assess the dynamics of the property markets.
3.Property – Generally, buying may be better than renting. Property markets are dynamic and many transactions are settled in cash, although mortgages are becoming more available. Estate agents will be able to advise on local markets, schools, amenities and business opportunities. Have a lawyer secure and register your certificate of ownership (equivalent to UK freehold) or review rental agreemenrs. Expect to pay 1 year rental deposit and 1 year rent in advance. Negotiate payments in local currency, so as to reduce your foreign exchange risk.
4.Transport – You should plan for a budget car, preferably of Asian make as they tend to be more durable and less expensive to run in spare parts and servicing costs than European models. American models do not generally do well. 4x4 vehicles suffer very heavy consumption of fuel and spare parts on Africa's uneven roads. Diesel fuel may be scarcer than petrol, but can be used with your diesel generator. Some markets, e.g Nigeria, ban importation of cars that are older than 10 years. It may be less troublesome to buy imported cars locally. Original spare parts are often available from authorised dealers at European price levels.
5.Utilities – You should plan for a small diesel generator, unless you are technically able to install renewable energy sources (a strong business opportunity). Plan to install electric water pump and storage tanks. It is safer and less obstrusive to install tanks underground. You will need electric surge stabilisers and uninterruptible power supply units on your electronic equipment.
6.Freight – Try to avoid freight costs on shipping heavy, disposable or fragile personal effects halfway across the world. Rental properties will usually be unfurnished, but it may be worthwhile to patiently visit local craft shops to source for original items in furniture, crockery, toiletries, and art. Do bring your books, medication supplies, computers and and audio-visual equipment. Retail shops stock the usual global brand products, at European price levels. For warranties, buy from authorised dealers.
7.Bureaucracy – You will need to register for taxation and residency. You may need to register car ownership or to vote, procure insurance or medical cover. Local residents are generally helpful to 'foreigners', although you may have to pay price premiums for your elevated status.
8.Employment – When you relocate to Africa, we expect you to create jobs and investments. Recruitment agencies may have employment positions with multinationals and big local firms. There are opportunities to create businesses in almost every economic or social sector. You will generate strong goodwill from efforts to train and support suppliers, customers and employees. When fairly rewarded, Africans generally have a strong work ethic. They are also sensitive to historical injusticies and contemporary trade inequalities.
9.Family – Africans have retained strong family values. Much leisure time is spent visiting with friends and family. Urban residents may travel long distances over weekends and holidays. Informal netwoeks and extended family provide much of the 'safety net' benefits that have been institutionalied and privately capitalised in other countries.
10.Prepare yourself and your family well in advance. In particular, make arrangements for private education, medical care, and independent essential services (transport, water and electricity). Once these are expensed by your private (and hopefully, profitable) business, you may enjoy well, well.
Relocating to Ile Yoruba and other Africa 2
This is part of efforts to help people who want to remigrate to African countries. It is essential to arrange property financing and management support.
Property Investment: UK
We plan to offer a UK property investment service, whereby you sell ownership in UK property to a private single-property investment company in which you and us hold equity shares. You may have the option to rent back the property at market rates from the investment company.
The property is either let and managed to provide income or sold to release remaining capital. The net proceeds are shared as per equity holding.
This service is planned to help reduce uncertainty on your source of resettlement income, and cut dependence on foreign mortgages which tend to be attract higher interest rates than UK.
Property Investment: African country
We plan to offer African country property investment service, whereby you purchase equity share in a private single-property investment company. With your agreement, the company invests in purchase of an owner – occupied residential property. You may have the option to rent the property at market rates from the company.
The company may also let and manage the property so as to provide income. When the property is sold, the net capital proceeds are shared as per equity holding.
This service is planned to assist you in obtaining property for accommodation or investment in the country of destination. The company ensures that the property is built and fitted to standards, and is amenable to sufficient potential of rental income or capital gain. The company will also expense the cost of paying your income or capital into your account.
Property Investment: UK
We plan to offer a UK property investment service, whereby you sell ownership in UK property to a private single-property investment company in which you and us hold equity shares. You may have the option to rent back the property at market rates from the investment company.
The property is either let and managed to provide income or sold to release remaining capital. The net proceeds are shared as per equity holding.
This service is planned to help reduce uncertainty on your source of resettlement income, and cut dependence on foreign mortgages which tend to be attract higher interest rates than UK.
Property Investment: African country
We plan to offer African country property investment service, whereby you purchase equity share in a private single-property investment company. With your agreement, the company invests in purchase of an owner – occupied residential property. You may have the option to rent the property at market rates from the company.
The company may also let and manage the property so as to provide income. When the property is sold, the net capital proceeds are shared as per equity holding.
This service is planned to assist you in obtaining property for accommodation or investment in the country of destination. The company ensures that the property is built and fitted to standards, and is amenable to sufficient potential of rental income or capital gain. The company will also expense the cost of paying your income or capital into your account.
Remigrating to Ile-Yoruba, and other Africa
Relocation, Repatriation, Remigration...
Once you have decided to relocate, you will need all the help you can get with the physical logistics of establishing your new homeland. I am thinking to offer a comprehensive Tokunbo (the foreign traveller returns) Relocation package from UKP 250. Here are the services.
Before you go, we will
Provide you a printed checklist of things that need doing
Introduce you to a Tokunbo Relocation contact in whose state of origin you have chosen to relocate to within the country. State of origin is of strong cultural importance in African countries.
Help with opening an African country bank account, and advice on funds transfer.
Help to book your flight
Help to arrange temporary storage, freight & forwarding of your personal effects.
Help to find a rental or purchase property in the African country, and negotiate with the owner
Help to find a car to purchase, and negotiate with the seller.
Help with health and safety actions for travellers to your country of destination
When you arrive, we will
Arrange a pick-up car and personal guide to meet at the port and take you to hotel accommodation.
Provide a welcome pack, including light refreshment, bottled water, a SIM card (ensure you unlock and bring a mobile phone), telephone top-up for calling family and friends back in the UK about your safe arrival, and a welcome message from your Tokunbo Relocation contact person.
Your Tokunbo contact may help you with:
Transfer from hotel to your next residence
Information or guided tour on local essential services (schools, places of worship, food and fuel, police, fire, hospitals, banks and commercial offices, markets, and internet / post offices).
Help with transport of your personal effects to your own self – contained residence.
After you have settled in your new home, we and yiur Tokunbo contact will
Maintain contact with you to answer questions and help you resettle in your new home.
Help with obtaining your national tax registration.
(Optional) Arrange visits and meetings with other Tokunbo resettlers.
(Optional) Personal introductions to local traditional rulers; schools; bank account opening; medical, fire and police support; and membership of social associations.
(Optional) Help with supply of water and cooking fuel, electricity and internet to your home.
(Optional) Help with obtaining your property registration, tax and insurance.
(Optional) Help with obtaining your driving licence; car registration, licence, insurance, and tax.
(Optional) Help with replenishments of essential medication.
The Tokunbo Relocation Service aims to assist with the physical aspects of moving to your new home. You may also appreciate support with financial, property, employment or bereavement aspects.
Once you have decided to relocate, you will need all the help you can get with the physical logistics of establishing your new homeland. I am thinking to offer a comprehensive Tokunbo (the foreign traveller returns) Relocation package from UKP 250. Here are the services.
Before you go, we will
Provide you a printed checklist of things that need doing
Introduce you to a Tokunbo Relocation contact in whose state of origin you have chosen to relocate to within the country. State of origin is of strong cultural importance in African countries.
Help with opening an African country bank account, and advice on funds transfer.
Help to book your flight
Help to arrange temporary storage, freight & forwarding of your personal effects.
Help to find a rental or purchase property in the African country, and negotiate with the owner
Help to find a car to purchase, and negotiate with the seller.
Help with health and safety actions for travellers to your country of destination
When you arrive, we will
Arrange a pick-up car and personal guide to meet at the port and take you to hotel accommodation.
Provide a welcome pack, including light refreshment, bottled water, a SIM card (ensure you unlock and bring a mobile phone), telephone top-up for calling family and friends back in the UK about your safe arrival, and a welcome message from your Tokunbo Relocation contact person.
Your Tokunbo contact may help you with:
Transfer from hotel to your next residence
Information or guided tour on local essential services (schools, places of worship, food and fuel, police, fire, hospitals, banks and commercial offices, markets, and internet / post offices).
Help with transport of your personal effects to your own self – contained residence.
After you have settled in your new home, we and yiur Tokunbo contact will
Maintain contact with you to answer questions and help you resettle in your new home.
Help with obtaining your national tax registration.
(Optional) Arrange visits and meetings with other Tokunbo resettlers.
(Optional) Personal introductions to local traditional rulers; schools; bank account opening; medical, fire and police support; and membership of social associations.
(Optional) Help with supply of water and cooking fuel, electricity and internet to your home.
(Optional) Help with obtaining your property registration, tax and insurance.
(Optional) Help with obtaining your driving licence; car registration, licence, insurance, and tax.
(Optional) Help with replenishments of essential medication.
The Tokunbo Relocation Service aims to assist with the physical aspects of moving to your new home. You may also appreciate support with financial, property, employment or bereavement aspects.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Yoruba people on wikipedia
This article is a dump of revisions made to the Yoruba page on Wikipedia 25-Sept-2007.
{{Cleanup|date=December 2006}}
{{ethnic group
|group=Yoruba
|image=[[Image:Olusegun Obasanjo (Brasilia 6 September 2005).jpg|80px]] [[Image:KingSunnyAde.jpg|118px]] [[Image:Akinola2.jpg|42px]]
|poptime=Upwards of 30 million (CIA Estimate, 2005 )
|popplace= [[Nigeria]], [[Benin]], [[Ghana]], [[Togo]],[[Brazil]],[[The Caribean]],[[UK]]
|rels= [[Orisha]], [[Christianity]], [[Islam]]
|langs= [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]
|related= Nago, [[Itsekiri]], [[Igala]], [[Nupe]]
}}
The '''Yoruba''' (''Yorùbá'' in Yoruba orthography) are a large ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in Africa; the majority of them speak the [[Yoruba language]] (èdèe Yorùbá; èdè = language). The Yoruba constitute approximately 21 percent of [[Nigeria]]'s total population,[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html CIA World Factbook] and around 30 million individuals throughout the region of [[West Africa]].Joshua Project,. (2007) They share borders with the [[Borgu]] (variously called Bariba and Borgawa) in the northwest, the [[Nupe]] and [[Ebira]] in the north, the [[Ẹsan]] [[Afemai ]] and [[Edo State|Edo]] to the southeast, the [[Igala]] and other related groups to the northeast, and the [[Egun]], [[Fon]], and other [[Gbe languages|Gbe]]-speaking peoples in the southwest. While the majority of the Yoruba live in western Nigeria, there are also substantial indigenous Yoruba communities in [[Benin]], [[Ghana]] and [[Togo]].
The Yoruba are the main ethnic group in the states of [[Ekiti State, Nigeria|Ekiti]], [[Lagos State, Nigeria|Lagos]], [[Ogun State, Nigeria|Ogun]], [[Ondo State, Nigeria|Ondo]], [[Osun State, Nigeria|Osun]], and [[Oyo State, Nigeria|Oyo]], which are subdivisions of Nigeria; they also constitute a sizable proportion of [[Kwara]] and [[Kogi]] states as well as of the [[Benin]].
A significant percentage of Africans enslaved during the Trans Atlantic [[Slave Trade]] in the Americas managed to maintain the Yoruba spiritual religion known as Aborisha. Indeed, the initiation and practise of Aborisha spiritual religion offers a route to all people of African descent, who were victims of slave trade in the Americas or the Carribean, to make claim to Yoruba heritage.
==History==
===General history===
The African peoples who lived in Yorubaland, at least by the 4th Century BCE, were not initially known as the Yoruba, although they shared a common ethnicity and language group. Both archeology and traditional Yoruba oral historians confirm the existence of people in this region for several millennia.
Yoruba spiritual heritage maintain that the Yoruba ethnic groups are a unique people who were originally created at Ile-Ife. Legend holds that the creation was delegated by the supreme spiritual force, Olodumare. The task was to orisha-nla Obatala, may have actually been conducted by orisha Oduduwa, who was assisted by orisha Eshu, the divine messenger. The name "Yoruba" is most likely an adaptation of 'Yo ru ebo', meaning "will venerate (make offerings to the) [[Orisha|Orisha]]". This refers to the Aborisha spiritual religion of the Yoruba prior to invasion and indoctrination by Islamic and Christian influences. Yoruba civilization remains one of the most technologically and artistically advanced people in West Africa to this time.
Some contemporary historians contend that some Yoruba are not indigenous to Yorubaland, but are descendants of immigrants to the region. This version of history contends that Oduduwa was a mortal king, probably from northeast Africa, under whose leadership the Oyo region of Yorubaland was conquered sometime in the 11th century CE and the kingdom of Ife was established. Oduduwa's relatives established kingdoms in the rest of Yorubaland. One of Oduduwa's sons, Oranmiyan, took the throne of Benin and expanded the Oduduwa Dynasty east-wards. Further expansion led to the establishment of the Yoruba in what are now Southwest Nigeria, [[Benin]], and [[Togo]], with Yoruba city-states acknowledging the spiritual heritage primacy of the ancient city of Ile Ife. The southeastern [[Benin Empire]], ruled by a dynasty that traced its ancestry to Ifẹ and Oduduwa but largely populated by the Edo and other related ethnicities, also held considerable sway in the election of nobles and kings in eastern Yorubaland.
Between [[1100]] CE and [[1700]] CE, the Yoruba Kingdom of Ife experienced a [[golden age]]. It was then surpassed by [[the kingdom of Oyo]] as the dominant Yoruba military and political power between [[1700]] CE and [[1900]] CE, The nearby splinter Yoruba kingdom of Benin was also a powerful force between 1300 and 1850 CE. Yoruba civilization also has strong historical exchanges with Nok civilization, which may date to 900 BCE, as with other neighbouring African settlements. The exchanges have been both genetic and cultural.
Most of the city states were controlled by ''[[Oba]]s'' (elected monarchs) and councils made up of Oloye, [[guild]] of noble leaders or chiefs, and [[merchant]]s. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the kingship and the chiefs' council. Some such as Oyo had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others such as the Ijebu city-states, the senatorial councils were supreme and the ''Ọba'' served as a figurehead.
In all cases, Yoruba monarchs were subject to the continuing approval of their constituents, and could be easily compelled to abdicate for demonstrating dictatorial tendencies or incompetence. The order to vacate the throne was usually communicated through a symbolic message or ''aroko'', of [[parrot]]s' eggs delivered by the senators.
The Yoruba eventually established a federation of city-states under the political ascendancy of the city state of Oyo located on the Northern fringes of [[Yorubaland]] in the [[savanna]] plains between the forests of present Southwest Nigeria and the [[Niger]] River. Following a [[Jihad]] led by [[Uthman Dan Fodio]] and a rapid consolidation of the Hausa city states of present northern Nigeria, the [[Fulani]] [[Sokoto Caliphate]] annexed the buffer [[Nupe]] Kingdom and began to press southwards towards the [[Oyo Empire]]. Shortly after, they overran the Yoruba city of [[Ilorin]] and then sacked [[Ọyọ-Ile]], the capital city of the Ọyọ Empire.
Following this, Ọyọ-Ile was abandoned and the Ọyọ retreated south to the present city of Oyo (Oyo Atiba) in a forested region where the calvary of the [[Sokoto Caliphate]] was less effective. Further attempts by the [[Sokoto Caliphate]] to expand southwards were checked by the Yoruba who had rallied to resist under the military leadership of the City State of [[Ibadan]] which rose from the old Oyo empire, and of the Ijebu city-states.
However, the Oyo hegemony had been dealt a mortal blow. The other Yoruba city-states broke free of Oyo dominance, and subsequently became embroiled in a series of internecine wars, from which prisoners feed the slave trade conducted by Arab and European traders. These wars weakened the Yoruba in their opposition to British colonial and military invasions. Military defeat at [[Imagbon]] of Ijebu forces by the British ensured a tentative European settlement in [[Eko||Lagos]] which was gradually expanded by protectorate treaties. Defeat of Yoruba forces at the Battle of Imagbon, by the British military and the protectorate of Lagos, proved decisive in eventual annexation of the rest of Yorubaland and eventually of southern Nigeria and the Cameroons. In 1960, greater Yorubaland became subsumed into the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
===Different names===
Aside from "Yoruba" and its variant "Yariba", this ethnic group was in different times and places known by a variety of other names, including "Yorubo", "Akú", "Okun", "Nago", "Anago" and "Ana" and "Lucumi".
Before the abolition of the slave trade, some Yoruba groups were known among Europeans as ''[[Akú]]'', a name derived from the first words of Yoruba greetings such as ''Ẹ kú àárọ?'' ‘good morning’ and ''Ẹ kú alẹ?'' ‘good evening.’ A variant of this group is also known as the "[[Okun]]", Okun being also a form of "A ku". These are Yorubas found in parts of the states of [[Kogi]] - the "[[Yagba]]", [[Ekiti]] and [[Kabba]].
The terms "[[Nago]]", "[[Anago]]" and "[[Ana]]" derived from the name of a coastal Yoruba sub-group in the present-day Republic of Benin, were also widely used in Spanish and Portuguese documents to describe all speakers of the language. Yoruba in Francophone West Africa are still sometimes known by this ethnonym today.
In [[Cuba]] and Spanish-speaking America, the Yoruba were called "[[Lucumi]]" after the phrase "O luku mi", meaning "my friend" in some dialects. This term is at present used mainly to refer to an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from the traditional [[Yoruba religion]], more often known as [[Santería]]. During the 19th century, the term ''[[Yariba]]'' or ''Yoruba '' came into wider use, first confined to the Ọyọ. The term is often believed to be derived from a [[Hausa]] ethnonym for the populous people to their south, but this has not been substantiated by historians.
As an ethnic description, the word first appeared in a treatise written by the [[Songhai]] scholar [[Ahmed Baba]] (1500s) and is likely to derive from the indigenous ethnonyms [[Oyo|Ọyọ (Oyo)]] or Yagba, two Yoruba-speaking groups along the northern borders of their terrority. However, it is likely that the ethnonym was popularized by [[Hausa]] usage and ethnography written in [[Arabic]] and [[Ajami]]. Under the influence of Bishop [[Samuel Ajayi Crowther]], a Yoruba clergyman, subsequent missionaries extended the term to include all speakers of related dialects.
===Yoruba origin mythology===
The mythology of the origin of the Yoruba, who refer to themselves as "Omo O'odua" (Children of [[Oduduwa]]), revolves around the mythical figure of [[Oduduwa]] or [[Odudua]] . The meaning of the name may be translated as "the spiritual one ("O/Ohun") who created the knowledge ("odu") of character ("iwa")."
There are two variants of the myth of how [[Oduduwa]] became the legendary progenitor of the Yoruba.
====Cosmogonic Origin Mythology====
"Orisa'nla" (The Great Divinity) also known as [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] was the arch-divinity chosen by [[Olodumare]], the supreme deity, to create solid land out of the primordial water that constituted the earth and populating the land with human beings. [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] descended from heaven on a chain, carrying a small snail shell full of earth, palm kernels and a five-toed chicken. He was to empty the content of the snail shell on the water after placing some pieces of iron on it, and then to place the chicken on the earth to spread it over the primordial water.
According to the first variant of the cosmogonist myth, [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] completed this task to the satisfaction of Olodumare and he was then given the task of making the physical body of human beings after which [[Olodumare]] would give them the breath of life. He also completed this task and this is why he has the title of "Obarisa" (King of all Deities).
The other variant of the cosmogonic myth does not credit [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] with the completion of the task. While it concedes he was given the task, it claims that he got drunk before he got to the earth and was thus unable to do the job. [[Olodumare]] got worried when he did not return on time and sent [[Oduduwa]] to investigate. When [[Oduduwa]] found [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] in a drunken state, he took over the task and completed it.
The spot on which he landed and which he redeemed from water to become land is called [[Ile-Ife|Ilė-Ifę]] and is considered the sacred and spiritual home of the Yoruba. [[Olodumare]] later forgave [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] and gave him the responsibility of molding the physical bodies of human beings.
According to [[Idowu]], 1962, the making of land is a symbolic reference to the founding
of the Yoruba kingdoms and this is why Oduduwa is credited with that achievement.
Recently, there have been revisions to the uniqueness of the Yoruba as a divine people in the image of Olodumare, by historians tied to the Islamic and Christian faiths. They detract from the unique creation of Yoruba peoples by the Orisha, and argue that there was a pre-existing civilization at [[Ile-Ife|Ilė-Ifę]] which was invaded by a group from the east. They attribute this invasion to militant immigrants led by [[Oduduwa]]. [[Oduduwa]] and his group had been persecuted on the basis of religious differences and forced out of their homeland. They came to Ilė-Ifę where they subjugated the pre-existing Igbo inhabitants (unrelated to the present [[Igbo]] of Eastern Nigeria) led by Oreluere ([[Obatala|Ọbatala]]).
====After Oduduwa====
Upon the death of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children from [[Ile-Ife|Ilė-Ifę]] to found other kingdoms (Owu, Ketu, Benin, Ila, Sabe, Popo, and Oyo). Each making a mark in the subsequent urbanization and consolidation of Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each kingdom tracing its origin to Ile-Ife.
==Precolonial social organization==
See also [[Oyo Empire#Political structures]]
Though monarchies were fairly common throughout the Yoruba-speaking region, they were not the only approach to government and social organization. The numerous [[Ijebu|Ijebu]] city-states to the west of Oyo and the [[Egba|Ẹgba]] communities, found in the forests below Ọyọ's savannah region, were a notable example. These independent polities often elected an ''Ọba'', though real political, legislative, and judicial powers resided with the ''[[Ogboni]]'', a council of notable elders.
During the internecine wars of the 19th century, the Ijebu forced citizens of more than 150 Ẹgba and Owu communities to migrate to the fortified city of [[Abeokuta]], where each quarter retained its own ''Ogboni'' council of civilian leaders, along with an ''Olorogun'', or council of military leaders, and in some cases its own elected ''Obas'' or ''Baales''. These independent councils then elected their most capable members to join a federal civilian and military council that represented the city as a whole.
Commander [[Frederick Forbes]], a representative of the British Crown writing an account of his visit to the city in an [[1853]] edition of the ''[[Church Military Intelligencer]]'', described Abẹokuta as having "four presidents", and the system of government as having "840 principal rulers or 'House of Lords,' 2800 secondary chiefs or 'House of Commons,' 140 principal military ones and 280 secondary ones." He described Abẹokuta and its system of government as "the most extraordinary [[republic]] in the world."
Gerontocratic leadership councils that guarded against the monopolization of power by a monarch were a proverbial trait of the Ẹgba, according to the eminent Ọyọ historian Reverend [[Samuel Johnson]], but such councils were also well-developed among the northern Okun groups, the eastern [[Ekiti]], and other groups falling under the Yoruba ethnic umbrella.
Even in Ọyọ, the most centralized of the precolonial kingdoms, the ''Alaafin'' consulted on all political decisions with a prime minister (the ''Basọrun'') and the council of leading nobles known as the ''Ọyọ Mesi''.
[[Ibadan]], a city-state and proto-empire founded in the 18th century by a polyglot group of refugees, soldiers, and itinerant traders from Ọyọ and the other Yoruba sub-groups, largely dispensed with the concept of monarchism, preferring to elect both military and civil councils from a pool of eminent citizens. The city became a military republic, with distinguished soldiers wielding political powers through their election by popular acclaim and the respect of their peers. Similar practices were adopted by the [[Ijẹsa]] and other groups, which saw a corresponding rise in the social influence of military adventurers and successful entrepreneurs.
Occupational guilds, social clubs, secret or initiatory societies, and religious units, commonly known as Ẹgbẹ in Yoruba, included the ''[[Parakoyi]]'' (or league of traders) and ''Ẹgbẹ Ọdẹ'' (hunter's guild), and maintained an important role in commerce, social control, and vocational education in Yoruba polities.
There are also examples of other peer organizations in the region. When the Ẹgba resisted the imperial domination of the [[Ọyọ Empire]], a figure named Lisabi is credited with either creating or reviving a covert traditional organization named ''Ẹgbẹ Aro''. This group, originally a farmers' union, was converted to a network of secret militias throughout the Ẹgba forests, and each lodge plotted to overthrow Ọyọ's ''Ajeles'' (appointed administrators) in the late 1700s.
Similarly, covert military resistance leagues like the ''Ekiti Parapọ'' and the ''Ogidi'' alliance were organized during the 19th century wars by often-decentralized communities of the Ekiti, Ijẹṣa, Ìgbómìnà and Okun Yoruba in order to resist various imperial expansionist plans of Ibadan, Nupe, and the Sokoto Caliphate.
The monarchy of any city state was usually limited to a number of royal lineages. A family could be excluded from [[monarch|king]]ship and chieftancy if any family member, servant, or slave belonging to the family committed a crime such as theft, fraud, murder or rape.
In other city-states, the monarchy was open to the election of any free-born male citizen. There are also, in Ileṣa, Ondo, and other Yoruba communities, several traditions of female ''Ọbas'', though these were comparatively rare.
The kings were almost always [[Polygamy|polygamous]] and many had as many as 20 wives and often married royal family members from other towns/city states.
==Yoruba religion and mythology==
[[Image:Eshu-statue.jpg|thumb|100px|right|A statue of the orisha Eshu, Nigeria, c1920.]]
{{main|Yoruba mythology}}
Yoruba religion and mythology is a major influence in [[West Africa]], chiefly in [[Nigeria]], and it has given origin to several [[New World]] religions such as [[Santería]] in [[Cuba]], [[Puerto Rico]] and [[Candomblé]] in [[Brazil]].
[[Itan]] is the term for the sum total of all [[Yoruba mythology|Yoruba myths]], [[song]]s, histories, and other [[Culture|cultural]] components.
After the [[Oyo empire|Ọyọ empire]] collapsed and the region plunged into [[Yoruba Civil War|civil war]]), ethnic Yoruba were among the African people who were enslaved and taken by Jewish/European traders to [[Haiti]],[[Cuba]], [[Puerto Rico]], [[Brazil]], [[Trinidad]] and the rest of the New World (chiefly in the [[19th century]]. The slaves carried their [[Orisha|Orisha]] [[religion|religious beliefs]] with them. These concepts were combined with preexisting [[African]]-based religions, [[Christianity]], [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] mythology, and [[Kardecist Spiritism]] into various New World lineages:
*[[Santería]] ([[Cuba]]) ([[Puerto Rico]])
*[[Oyotunji]] ([[USA]])
*[[Idigene]] ([[Nigeria]])
*Anago ([[Nigeria]])
*[[Candomblé]] ([[Brazil]])
*[[Umbanda]] ([[Brazil]])
*[[Batuque (religion)|Batuque]] ([[Brazil]])
The popularly known [[Vodun]] religion of [[Haiti]] combines the religious beliefs of the many different African ethnic nationalities taken to the island with the structure and liturgy from the Fon-Ewe of present-day [[Benin]] and the Congo-Angolan culture area, but Yoruba-derived religious ideology and deities also play an important role.
Yoruba deities include "[[Oya|Ọya]]" ([[Goddess|wind goddess]]), "[[Ifá]]" ([[divination]] or [[destiny|fate]]), "[[Eleda|Ẹlẹda]]" ([[destiny]]), "[[Ibeji]]" ([[twins]]), "[[Osanyin|Ọsanyin]]" ([[medicine]]s and [[healing]]) and "[[Osun|Ọsun]]" ([[Mother goddess|goddess of fertility]], protector of [[children]] and [[mother]]s), [[Shango|Ṣango]] (God of thunder)
Human beings and other sentient creatures are also assumed to have their own individual deity of destiny, called "[[Ori (Yoruba)|Ori]]", who is venerated through a sculpture symbolically decorated with cowrie shells. Traditionally, dead parents and other ancestors are also believed to possess powers of protection over their descendants. This belief is expressed in worship and sacrifice on the grave or symbol of the ancestor, or as a community in the observance of the Egungun festival where the ancestors are represented as colorfully masquerade of costumed and masked men who represent the ancestral spirits. Dead parents and ancestors are also commonly venerated by pouring libations to the earth and the breaking of kolanuts in their honor at special occasions.
Today, many contemporary Yoruba proclaim to be active [[Christian]]s and [[Muslim]]s, yet retain many of the moral and cultural concepts of the Aborisha.
==Yoruba towns==
The chief Yoruba cities are [[Ibadan]], [[Lagos]], [[Ijebu Ode]] (Ijẹbu Ode), [[Abeokuta]] (Abẹokuta), [[Akure]] (Akurẹ), [[Ilorin]] (Ilọrin), [[Ijebu-Igbo]] (Ijẹbu-Igbo), [[Ogbomoso]] (Ogbomọṣọ), [[Ondo City|Ondo]], [[Ota, Nigeria|Ota]] (Ọta),Ìlá Ọràngún, [[Ado-Ekiti]], [[Shagamu]] (Sagamu), [[Ikenne]] (Ikẹnnẹ), [[Osogbo]] (Osogbo), [[Ilesa]] (Ilesa), [[Oyo]] (Ọyọ), [[Ife]] (Ilé-Ifẹ), Saki,and [[Ago-Iwoye]]
Traditionally the Yoruba organized themselves into networks of related villages, towns, and kingdoms, with most of them headed by an ''Ọba'' [King] or ''Baale'' [a nobleman or mayor]. Kingship is not determined by simple primogeniture, as in most monarchic systems of government. An electoral college of lineage heads is usually charged with selecting a member of one of the royal families, and the selection is usually confirmed by an Ifa divination request. The Ọbas live in palaces usually in the center of the town. Opposite to the king's palace is the ''Ọja Ọba'', the king's market. These markets form an inherent part of Yoruba life. Traditionally the market traders are well organized, have various guilds, and an elected speaker.
==Yoruba Diaspora==
{{see also|Nigerian American}}
There are large Yoruba communities around the world including [[Nigerian American|the United States]]. Of such Diasporic communities include the "[[Egbe Omo Yoruba]]" society. [http://www.yorubanation.org/ "Egbe Omo Yoruba, National Association Of Yoruba descendants in North America"], ''yorubanation.org'', [[19 May]] [[2007]].
==See also==
* [[Yoruba language]]
* [[Yoruba mythology]]
* [[Oyo Empire]]
* [[Samuel Johnson (Nigerian historian)]]
* Dr. [[Obadiah Johnson]]
* Bishop [[Samuel Ajayi Crowther]]
* [[Egba]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://yoruba.org Egbe Isokan Yoruba] - promotes the cultural, social, economic and political welfare of Yoruba.
* [http://abeokuta.org Radio Abeokuta] - promoting the Yoruba culture of Togo, Republic of Benin, and Nigeria, West Africa
* [http://omoyorubany.org Egbe Omo Yoruba, Greater New York] - Egbe Omo Yoruba Association of Yoruba Descendants, Greater New York Chapter
* [http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/Yoruba.html Yoruba Information] - includes brief summary of language, religion, history, and art
* [http://server1.fandm.edu/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/yoru.html World of the Yoruba] - ritual and performance in Yorubaland
* [http://www.africaaction.org/bp/ethall.htm Talking About "Tribe"] - looks at Yoruba identity
* [http://www.postcolonialweb.org/nigeria/yorubaov.html Yoruba Overview] - includes information on colonialism, religion, and myth
* [http://www.molli.org.uk/yoruba/welcome.html Yoruba: Exploring an African Culture] - interactive exhibit about the art and culture of the Yoruba
* [http://oho.org Oduduwa Heritage Organization]- preserve and promote Yoruba culture among the Yorubas who live in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area.
* [http://oroede.sourceforge.net/ Oro ede Yorùbá] - a searchable English to Yorùbá dictionary
[[Category:Yoruba|People]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Nigeria]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Benin]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Togo]]
[[Category:Yoruba people| ]]
[[ar:يوروبا]]
[[de:Yoruba (Volk)]]
[[es:Yoruba]]
[[fa:یوروبا]]
[[ig:Ndi Yoruba]]
[[it:Yoruba (popolo)]]
[[nl:Yoruba (volk)]]
[[pl:Jorubowie]]
[[pt:Iorubás]]
[[ru:Йоруба (народ)]]
[[sr:Јоруба]]
[[fi:Jorubat]]
[[sv:Yoruba (folk)]]
[[tr:Yoruba]]
{{Cleanup|date=December 2006}}
{{ethnic group
|group=Yoruba
|image=[[Image:Olusegun Obasanjo (Brasilia 6 September 2005).jpg|80px]] [[Image:KingSunnyAde.jpg|118px]] [[Image:Akinola2.jpg|42px]]
|poptime=Upwards of 30 million (CIA Estimate, 2005 )
|popplace= [[Nigeria]], [[Benin]], [[Ghana]], [[Togo]],[[Brazil]],[[The Caribean]],[[UK]]
|rels= [[Orisha]], [[Christianity]], [[Islam]]
|langs= [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]
|related= Nago, [[Itsekiri]], [[Igala]], [[Nupe]]
}}
The '''Yoruba''' (''Yorùbá'' in Yoruba orthography) are a large ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in Africa; the majority of them speak the [[Yoruba language]] (èdèe Yorùbá; èdè = language). The Yoruba constitute approximately 21 percent of [[Nigeria]]'s total population,[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html CIA World Factbook] and around 30 million individuals throughout the region of [[West Africa]].Joshua Project,. (2007) They share borders with the [[Borgu]] (variously called Bariba and Borgawa) in the northwest, the [[Nupe]] and [[Ebira]] in the north, the [[Ẹsan]] [[Afemai ]] and [[Edo State|Edo]] to the southeast, the [[Igala]] and other related groups to the northeast, and the [[Egun]], [[Fon]], and other [[Gbe languages|Gbe]]-speaking peoples in the southwest. While the majority of the Yoruba live in western Nigeria, there are also substantial indigenous Yoruba communities in [[Benin]], [[Ghana]] and [[Togo]].
The Yoruba are the main ethnic group in the states of [[Ekiti State, Nigeria|Ekiti]], [[Lagos State, Nigeria|Lagos]], [[Ogun State, Nigeria|Ogun]], [[Ondo State, Nigeria|Ondo]], [[Osun State, Nigeria|Osun]], and [[Oyo State, Nigeria|Oyo]], which are subdivisions of Nigeria; they also constitute a sizable proportion of [[Kwara]] and [[Kogi]] states as well as of the [[Benin]].
A significant percentage of Africans enslaved during the Trans Atlantic [[Slave Trade]] in the Americas managed to maintain the Yoruba spiritual religion known as Aborisha. Indeed, the initiation and practise of Aborisha spiritual religion offers a route to all people of African descent, who were victims of slave trade in the Americas or the Carribean, to make claim to Yoruba heritage.
==History==
===General history===
The African peoples who lived in Yorubaland, at least by the 4th Century BCE, were not initially known as the Yoruba, although they shared a common ethnicity and language group. Both archeology and traditional Yoruba oral historians confirm the existence of people in this region for several millennia.
Yoruba spiritual heritage maintain that the Yoruba ethnic groups are a unique people who were originally created at Ile-Ife. Legend holds that the creation was delegated by the supreme spiritual force, Olodumare. The task was to orisha-nla Obatala, may have actually been conducted by orisha Oduduwa, who was assisted by orisha Eshu, the divine messenger. The name "Yoruba" is most likely an adaptation of 'Yo ru ebo', meaning "will venerate (make offerings to the) [[Orisha|Orisha]]". This refers to the Aborisha spiritual religion of the Yoruba prior to invasion and indoctrination by Islamic and Christian influences. Yoruba civilization remains one of the most technologically and artistically advanced people in West Africa to this time.
Some contemporary historians contend that some Yoruba are not indigenous to Yorubaland, but are descendants of immigrants to the region. This version of history contends that Oduduwa was a mortal king, probably from northeast Africa, under whose leadership the Oyo region of Yorubaland was conquered sometime in the 11th century CE and the kingdom of Ife was established. Oduduwa's relatives established kingdoms in the rest of Yorubaland. One of Oduduwa's sons, Oranmiyan, took the throne of Benin and expanded the Oduduwa Dynasty east-wards. Further expansion led to the establishment of the Yoruba in what are now Southwest Nigeria, [[Benin]], and [[Togo]], with Yoruba city-states acknowledging the spiritual heritage primacy of the ancient city of Ile Ife. The southeastern [[Benin Empire]], ruled by a dynasty that traced its ancestry to Ifẹ and Oduduwa but largely populated by the Edo and other related ethnicities, also held considerable sway in the election of nobles and kings in eastern Yorubaland.
Between [[1100]] CE and [[1700]] CE, the Yoruba Kingdom of Ife experienced a [[golden age]]. It was then surpassed by [[the kingdom of Oyo]] as the dominant Yoruba military and political power between [[1700]] CE and [[1900]] CE, The nearby splinter Yoruba kingdom of Benin was also a powerful force between 1300 and 1850 CE. Yoruba civilization also has strong historical exchanges with Nok civilization, which may date to 900 BCE, as with other neighbouring African settlements. The exchanges have been both genetic and cultural.
Most of the city states were controlled by ''[[Oba]]s'' (elected monarchs) and councils made up of Oloye, [[guild]] of noble leaders or chiefs, and [[merchant]]s. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the kingship and the chiefs' council. Some such as Oyo had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others such as the Ijebu city-states, the senatorial councils were supreme and the ''Ọba'' served as a figurehead.
In all cases, Yoruba monarchs were subject to the continuing approval of their constituents, and could be easily compelled to abdicate for demonstrating dictatorial tendencies or incompetence. The order to vacate the throne was usually communicated through a symbolic message or ''aroko'', of [[parrot]]s' eggs delivered by the senators.
The Yoruba eventually established a federation of city-states under the political ascendancy of the city state of Oyo located on the Northern fringes of [[Yorubaland]] in the [[savanna]] plains between the forests of present Southwest Nigeria and the [[Niger]] River. Following a [[Jihad]] led by [[Uthman Dan Fodio]] and a rapid consolidation of the Hausa city states of present northern Nigeria, the [[Fulani]] [[Sokoto Caliphate]] annexed the buffer [[Nupe]] Kingdom and began to press southwards towards the [[Oyo Empire]]. Shortly after, they overran the Yoruba city of [[Ilorin]] and then sacked [[Ọyọ-Ile]], the capital city of the Ọyọ Empire.
Following this, Ọyọ-Ile was abandoned and the Ọyọ retreated south to the present city of Oyo (Oyo Atiba) in a forested region where the calvary of the [[Sokoto Caliphate]] was less effective. Further attempts by the [[Sokoto Caliphate]] to expand southwards were checked by the Yoruba who had rallied to resist under the military leadership of the City State of [[Ibadan]] which rose from the old Oyo empire, and of the Ijebu city-states.
However, the Oyo hegemony had been dealt a mortal blow. The other Yoruba city-states broke free of Oyo dominance, and subsequently became embroiled in a series of internecine wars, from which prisoners feed the slave trade conducted by Arab and European traders. These wars weakened the Yoruba in their opposition to British colonial and military invasions. Military defeat at [[Imagbon]] of Ijebu forces by the British ensured a tentative European settlement in [[Eko||Lagos]] which was gradually expanded by protectorate treaties. Defeat of Yoruba forces at the Battle of Imagbon, by the British military and the protectorate of Lagos, proved decisive in eventual annexation of the rest of Yorubaland and eventually of southern Nigeria and the Cameroons. In 1960, greater Yorubaland became subsumed into the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
===Different names===
Aside from "Yoruba" and its variant "Yariba", this ethnic group was in different times and places known by a variety of other names, including "Yorubo", "Akú", "Okun", "Nago", "Anago" and "Ana" and "Lucumi".
Before the abolition of the slave trade, some Yoruba groups were known among Europeans as ''[[Akú]]'', a name derived from the first words of Yoruba greetings such as ''Ẹ kú àárọ?'' ‘good morning’ and ''Ẹ kú alẹ?'' ‘good evening.’ A variant of this group is also known as the "[[Okun]]", Okun being also a form of "A ku". These are Yorubas found in parts of the states of [[Kogi]] - the "[[Yagba]]", [[Ekiti]] and [[Kabba]].
The terms "[[Nago]]", "[[Anago]]" and "[[Ana]]" derived from the name of a coastal Yoruba sub-group in the present-day Republic of Benin, were also widely used in Spanish and Portuguese documents to describe all speakers of the language. Yoruba in Francophone West Africa are still sometimes known by this ethnonym today.
In [[Cuba]] and Spanish-speaking America, the Yoruba were called "[[Lucumi]]" after the phrase "O luku mi", meaning "my friend" in some dialects. This term is at present used mainly to refer to an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from the traditional [[Yoruba religion]], more often known as [[Santería]]. During the 19th century, the term ''[[Yariba]]'' or ''Yoruba '' came into wider use, first confined to the Ọyọ. The term is often believed to be derived from a [[Hausa]] ethnonym for the populous people to their south, but this has not been substantiated by historians.
As an ethnic description, the word first appeared in a treatise written by the [[Songhai]] scholar [[Ahmed Baba]] (1500s) and is likely to derive from the indigenous ethnonyms [[Oyo|Ọyọ (Oyo)]] or Yagba, two Yoruba-speaking groups along the northern borders of their terrority. However, it is likely that the ethnonym was popularized by [[Hausa]] usage and ethnography written in [[Arabic]] and [[Ajami]]. Under the influence of Bishop [[Samuel Ajayi Crowther]], a Yoruba clergyman, subsequent missionaries extended the term to include all speakers of related dialects.
===Yoruba origin mythology===
The mythology of the origin of the Yoruba, who refer to themselves as "Omo O'odua" (Children of [[Oduduwa]]), revolves around the mythical figure of [[Oduduwa]] or [[Odudua]] . The meaning of the name may be translated as "the spiritual one ("O/Ohun") who created the knowledge ("odu") of character ("iwa")."
There are two variants of the myth of how [[Oduduwa]] became the legendary progenitor of the Yoruba.
====Cosmogonic Origin Mythology====
"Orisa'nla" (The Great Divinity) also known as [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] was the arch-divinity chosen by [[Olodumare]], the supreme deity, to create solid land out of the primordial water that constituted the earth and populating the land with human beings. [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] descended from heaven on a chain, carrying a small snail shell full of earth, palm kernels and a five-toed chicken. He was to empty the content of the snail shell on the water after placing some pieces of iron on it, and then to place the chicken on the earth to spread it over the primordial water.
According to the first variant of the cosmogonist myth, [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] completed this task to the satisfaction of Olodumare and he was then given the task of making the physical body of human beings after which [[Olodumare]] would give them the breath of life. He also completed this task and this is why he has the title of "Obarisa" (King of all Deities).
The other variant of the cosmogonic myth does not credit [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] with the completion of the task. While it concedes he was given the task, it claims that he got drunk before he got to the earth and was thus unable to do the job. [[Olodumare]] got worried when he did not return on time and sent [[Oduduwa]] to investigate. When [[Oduduwa]] found [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] in a drunken state, he took over the task and completed it.
The spot on which he landed and which he redeemed from water to become land is called [[Ile-Ife|Ilė-Ifę]] and is considered the sacred and spiritual home of the Yoruba. [[Olodumare]] later forgave [[Obatala|Ọbatala]] and gave him the responsibility of molding the physical bodies of human beings.
According to [[Idowu]], 1962, the making of land is a symbolic reference to the founding
of the Yoruba kingdoms and this is why Oduduwa is credited with that achievement.
Recently, there have been revisions to the uniqueness of the Yoruba as a divine people in the image of Olodumare, by historians tied to the Islamic and Christian faiths. They detract from the unique creation of Yoruba peoples by the Orisha, and argue that there was a pre-existing civilization at [[Ile-Ife|Ilė-Ifę]] which was invaded by a group from the east. They attribute this invasion to militant immigrants led by [[Oduduwa]]. [[Oduduwa]] and his group had been persecuted on the basis of religious differences and forced out of their homeland. They came to Ilė-Ifę where they subjugated the pre-existing Igbo inhabitants (unrelated to the present [[Igbo]] of Eastern Nigeria) led by Oreluere ([[Obatala|Ọbatala]]).
====After Oduduwa====
Upon the death of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children from [[Ile-Ife|Ilė-Ifę]] to found other kingdoms (Owu, Ketu, Benin, Ila, Sabe, Popo, and Oyo). Each making a mark in the subsequent urbanization and consolidation of Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each kingdom tracing its origin to Ile-Ife.
==Precolonial social organization==
See also [[Oyo Empire#Political structures]]
Though monarchies were fairly common throughout the Yoruba-speaking region, they were not the only approach to government and social organization. The numerous [[Ijebu|Ijebu]] city-states to the west of Oyo and the [[Egba|Ẹgba]] communities, found in the forests below Ọyọ's savannah region, were a notable example. These independent polities often elected an ''Ọba'', though real political, legislative, and judicial powers resided with the ''[[Ogboni]]'', a council of notable elders.
During the internecine wars of the 19th century, the Ijebu forced citizens of more than 150 Ẹgba and Owu communities to migrate to the fortified city of [[Abeokuta]], where each quarter retained its own ''Ogboni'' council of civilian leaders, along with an ''Olorogun'', or council of military leaders, and in some cases its own elected ''Obas'' or ''Baales''. These independent councils then elected their most capable members to join a federal civilian and military council that represented the city as a whole.
Commander [[Frederick Forbes]], a representative of the British Crown writing an account of his visit to the city in an [[1853]] edition of the ''[[Church Military Intelligencer]]'', described Abẹokuta as having "four presidents", and the system of government as having "840 principal rulers or 'House of Lords,' 2800 secondary chiefs or 'House of Commons,' 140 principal military ones and 280 secondary ones." He described Abẹokuta and its system of government as "the most extraordinary [[republic]] in the world."
Gerontocratic leadership councils that guarded against the monopolization of power by a monarch were a proverbial trait of the Ẹgba, according to the eminent Ọyọ historian Reverend [[Samuel Johnson]], but such councils were also well-developed among the northern Okun groups, the eastern [[Ekiti]], and other groups falling under the Yoruba ethnic umbrella.
Even in Ọyọ, the most centralized of the precolonial kingdoms, the ''Alaafin'' consulted on all political decisions with a prime minister (the ''Basọrun'') and the council of leading nobles known as the ''Ọyọ Mesi''.
[[Ibadan]], a city-state and proto-empire founded in the 18th century by a polyglot group of refugees, soldiers, and itinerant traders from Ọyọ and the other Yoruba sub-groups, largely dispensed with the concept of monarchism, preferring to elect both military and civil councils from a pool of eminent citizens. The city became a military republic, with distinguished soldiers wielding political powers through their election by popular acclaim and the respect of their peers. Similar practices were adopted by the [[Ijẹsa]] and other groups, which saw a corresponding rise in the social influence of military adventurers and successful entrepreneurs.
Occupational guilds, social clubs, secret or initiatory societies, and religious units, commonly known as Ẹgbẹ in Yoruba, included the ''[[Parakoyi]]'' (or league of traders) and ''Ẹgbẹ Ọdẹ'' (hunter's guild), and maintained an important role in commerce, social control, and vocational education in Yoruba polities.
There are also examples of other peer organizations in the region. When the Ẹgba resisted the imperial domination of the [[Ọyọ Empire]], a figure named Lisabi is credited with either creating or reviving a covert traditional organization named ''Ẹgbẹ Aro''. This group, originally a farmers' union, was converted to a network of secret militias throughout the Ẹgba forests, and each lodge plotted to overthrow Ọyọ's ''Ajeles'' (appointed administrators) in the late 1700s.
Similarly, covert military resistance leagues like the ''Ekiti Parapọ'' and the ''Ogidi'' alliance were organized during the 19th century wars by often-decentralized communities of the Ekiti, Ijẹṣa, Ìgbómìnà and Okun Yoruba in order to resist various imperial expansionist plans of Ibadan, Nupe, and the Sokoto Caliphate.
The monarchy of any city state was usually limited to a number of royal lineages. A family could be excluded from [[monarch|king]]ship and chieftancy if any family member, servant, or slave belonging to the family committed a crime such as theft, fraud, murder or rape.
In other city-states, the monarchy was open to the election of any free-born male citizen. There are also, in Ileṣa, Ondo, and other Yoruba communities, several traditions of female ''Ọbas'', though these were comparatively rare.
The kings were almost always [[Polygamy|polygamous]] and many had as many as 20 wives and often married royal family members from other towns/city states.
==Yoruba religion and mythology==
[[Image:Eshu-statue.jpg|thumb|100px|right|A statue of the orisha Eshu, Nigeria, c1920.]]
{{main|Yoruba mythology}}
Yoruba religion and mythology is a major influence in [[West Africa]], chiefly in [[Nigeria]], and it has given origin to several [[New World]] religions such as [[Santería]] in [[Cuba]], [[Puerto Rico]] and [[Candomblé]] in [[Brazil]].
[[Itan]] is the term for the sum total of all [[Yoruba mythology|Yoruba myths]], [[song]]s, histories, and other [[Culture|cultural]] components.
After the [[Oyo empire|Ọyọ empire]] collapsed and the region plunged into [[Yoruba Civil War|civil war]]), ethnic Yoruba were among the African people who were enslaved and taken by Jewish/European traders to [[Haiti]],[[Cuba]], [[Puerto Rico]], [[Brazil]], [[Trinidad]] and the rest of the New World (chiefly in the [[19th century]]. The slaves carried their [[Orisha|Orisha]] [[religion|religious beliefs]] with them. These concepts were combined with preexisting [[African]]-based religions, [[Christianity]], [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] mythology, and [[Kardecist Spiritism]] into various New World lineages:
*[[Santería]] ([[Cuba]]) ([[Puerto Rico]])
*[[Oyotunji]] ([[USA]])
*[[Idigene]] ([[Nigeria]])
*Anago ([[Nigeria]])
*[[Candomblé]] ([[Brazil]])
*[[Umbanda]] ([[Brazil]])
*[[Batuque (religion)|Batuque]] ([[Brazil]])
The popularly known [[Vodun]] religion of [[Haiti]] combines the religious beliefs of the many different African ethnic nationalities taken to the island with the structure and liturgy from the Fon-Ewe of present-day [[Benin]] and the Congo-Angolan culture area, but Yoruba-derived religious ideology and deities also play an important role.
Yoruba deities include "[[Oya|Ọya]]" ([[Goddess|wind goddess]]), "[[Ifá]]" ([[divination]] or [[destiny|fate]]), "[[Eleda|Ẹlẹda]]" ([[destiny]]), "[[Ibeji]]" ([[twins]]), "[[Osanyin|Ọsanyin]]" ([[medicine]]s and [[healing]]) and "[[Osun|Ọsun]]" ([[Mother goddess|goddess of fertility]], protector of [[children]] and [[mother]]s), [[Shango|Ṣango]] (God of thunder)
Human beings and other sentient creatures are also assumed to have their own individual deity of destiny, called "[[Ori (Yoruba)|Ori]]", who is venerated through a sculpture symbolically decorated with cowrie shells. Traditionally, dead parents and other ancestors are also believed to possess powers of protection over their descendants. This belief is expressed in worship and sacrifice on the grave or symbol of the ancestor, or as a community in the observance of the Egungun festival where the ancestors are represented as colorfully masquerade of costumed and masked men who represent the ancestral spirits. Dead parents and ancestors are also commonly venerated by pouring libations to the earth and the breaking of kolanuts in their honor at special occasions.
Today, many contemporary Yoruba proclaim to be active [[Christian]]s and [[Muslim]]s, yet retain many of the moral and cultural concepts of the Aborisha.
==Yoruba towns==
The chief Yoruba cities are [[Ibadan]], [[Lagos]], [[Ijebu Ode]] (Ijẹbu Ode), [[Abeokuta]] (Abẹokuta), [[Akure]] (Akurẹ), [[Ilorin]] (Ilọrin), [[Ijebu-Igbo]] (Ijẹbu-Igbo), [[Ogbomoso]] (Ogbomọṣọ), [[Ondo City|Ondo]], [[Ota, Nigeria|Ota]] (Ọta),Ìlá Ọràngún, [[Ado-Ekiti]], [[Shagamu]] (Sagamu), [[Ikenne]] (Ikẹnnẹ), [[Osogbo]] (Osogbo), [[Ilesa]] (Ilesa), [[Oyo]] (Ọyọ), [[Ife]] (Ilé-Ifẹ), Saki,and [[Ago-Iwoye]]
Traditionally the Yoruba organized themselves into networks of related villages, towns, and kingdoms, with most of them headed by an ''Ọba'' [King] or ''Baale'' [a nobleman or mayor]. Kingship is not determined by simple primogeniture, as in most monarchic systems of government. An electoral college of lineage heads is usually charged with selecting a member of one of the royal families, and the selection is usually confirmed by an Ifa divination request. The Ọbas live in palaces usually in the center of the town. Opposite to the king's palace is the ''Ọja Ọba'', the king's market. These markets form an inherent part of Yoruba life. Traditionally the market traders are well organized, have various guilds, and an elected speaker.
==Yoruba Diaspora==
{{see also|Nigerian American}}
There are large Yoruba communities around the world including [[Nigerian American|the United States]]. Of such Diasporic communities include the "[[Egbe Omo Yoruba]]" society. [http://www.yorubanation.org/ "Egbe Omo Yoruba, National Association Of Yoruba descendants in North America"], ''yorubanation.org'', [[19 May]] [[2007]].
==See also==
* [[Yoruba language]]
* [[Yoruba mythology]]
* [[Oyo Empire]]
* [[Samuel Johnson (Nigerian historian)]]
* Dr. [[Obadiah Johnson]]
* Bishop [[Samuel Ajayi Crowther]]
* [[Egba]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://yoruba.org Egbe Isokan Yoruba] - promotes the cultural, social, economic and political welfare of Yoruba.
* [http://abeokuta.org Radio Abeokuta] - promoting the Yoruba culture of Togo, Republic of Benin, and Nigeria, West Africa
* [http://omoyorubany.org Egbe Omo Yoruba, Greater New York] - Egbe Omo Yoruba Association of Yoruba Descendants, Greater New York Chapter
* [http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/Yoruba.html Yoruba Information] - includes brief summary of language, religion, history, and art
* [http://server1.fandm.edu/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/yoru.html World of the Yoruba] - ritual and performance in Yorubaland
* [http://www.africaaction.org/bp/ethall.htm Talking About "Tribe"] - looks at Yoruba identity
* [http://www.postcolonialweb.org/nigeria/yorubaov.html Yoruba Overview] - includes information on colonialism, religion, and myth
* [http://www.molli.org.uk/yoruba/welcome.html Yoruba: Exploring an African Culture] - interactive exhibit about the art and culture of the Yoruba
* [http://oho.org Oduduwa Heritage Organization]- preserve and promote Yoruba culture among the Yorubas who live in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area.
* [http://oroede.sourceforge.net/ Oro ede Yorùbá] - a searchable English to Yorùbá dictionary
[[Category:Yoruba|People]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Nigeria]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Benin]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Togo]]
[[Category:Yoruba people| ]]
[[ar:يوروبا]]
[[de:Yoruba (Volk)]]
[[es:Yoruba]]
[[fa:یوروبا]]
[[ig:Ndi Yoruba]]
[[it:Yoruba (popolo)]]
[[nl:Yoruba (volk)]]
[[pl:Jorubowie]]
[[pt:Iorubás]]
[[ru:Йоруба (народ)]]
[[sr:Јоруба]]
[[fi:Jorubat]]
[[sv:Yoruba (folk)]]
[[tr:Yoruba]]
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