Leadership (Abuja)
Sabella O. Abidde
10 November 2008
book review
Africa is not an easy continent to write about. In or outside of the academe, Africais not easily understood. And indeed, the misconceptions and stereotypes aboutthe continent can be perplexing and discouraging.
Adding to the continent'sdilemma is the fact that there are not too many books that correctly interpret andanalyze the continent's history, politics, global relationships andpsychodynamics in intelligent and dispassionate manner. And quite frankly,there are not too many scholars out there who write and speak as cleverly andas profoundly about the Africa continent as Emma Etuk.
Etuk approached NeverAgain: Africa's Last Stand from many academic disciplines --from history tophilosophy and from economics to political science, religion and Africanstudies. Such interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach enriches andmakes the book easy to read and digest. And indeed, this approach is atestament to the author's intellectual acumen. That said, the book suffers fromthree shortcomings: (1) the tome is copious; (2) interjecting his (author's)religious beliefs sometimes diminishes the book's significance; and (3) themisplacement of the superscripts injures an otherwise well-laid book.
Otherwise, Dr. Emma Etuk writes with ease, with grace,and with a profundity that is singular and resounding. We witness withbrilliance and clarity all through the pages of Never Again: Africa's Last Stand. The breadth and scope of hislatest offering is vast: from pre-colonial to colonial and post-colonialAfrica; and finally, in part four and five, he succinctly analyzed today'sAfrica along with its current concerns, challenges and gain. For him, as withlikeminded scholars and authors, Africa shallrise again. His messages of hope and of possibility cannot be easily dismissed.Even so he cautioned that:
"Africans must be better atunderstanding international politics and the hidden agenda of those whoconstantly claim that they are doing us good while simultaneously they degrade,insult, and humiliate us. Don't we haveany kind of self-pride? We must beshrewd, wise, crafty as a serpent but harmless as a dove. We must also be vigilant as a continent. "The price of liberty," the Biafrans used tosay, "is eternal vigilance" (p.69-70).
Maya Angelou it was who said Africa"is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know wherehe is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how hearrived at his present place." Africa is whereit all began! Whatever challenges that are plaguing Africa has also plaguedother continents. In other words, whatever is happening in Africa has happenedelsewhere. Sadly, not too many people know this historical fact. It istherefore easy, even convenient, for the uninitiated to think of Africa inunsavory terms. Africa will definitely arrive at the Promised Land.
And indeed, as the author repeatedly pointed out,ignoramus like John Gunther, and Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper had described thecontinent in unfavorable and unsavory terms. In his treatise, Emma Etuk positedthat like all great kingdoms and empires and civilizations, the Africancontinent has undergone periods of decline and disintegration; but like thephoenix in the Arabian wilderness, Africa isrising again -- undergoing resurgence.
It is possible that the continent may never again see thelikes of Mali and Ghana empires, theGreat Zimbabwe or even the Pharaonic Egypt. Nevertheless, from Morocco to Ghana,and from Senegal to Namibia and South Africa, there is a new spiritof rebirth and revival at the bay. There is a rebirth across the continent.However, in the estimation of Etuk:
"...in order for the continent of Africato move forward and prosper, there must be a Renaissance, a rebirth orre-awaking of the quest for true knowledge, a cultural movement of the typewhich began in fourteenth-century Italy and spread across northern Europe. Wereally do not need to reinvent the wheel, but, in order to accelerate our speedof development and progress, we can learn lessons from the European Renaissance"(p.318).
There is no illusion on the part of the author. Heunderstands Africa with all its chaos andcalamity and anarchy and contradictions. He understands that Africans have along way before the Promised Land. Along the way, he provides raw and convincingdata, unemotionally analyzes issues, and provides long and short termsolutions. But above all else, Emma Etuk wants us to think of and see Africa, not as the Europeans and others want us to thinkand see it; but as "the miracle that God created," a land with a glorioushistory and a promising future for all Blacks at home and abroad.
I have posited elsewhere that to be an African is aprivilege. The blessings and the pride is boundless. But there are many moremoments when it is irritating being an African. The African continent has beenseverely impacted by several factors: slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism,the Cold War, globalization, self-immolating leadership and by the mental andphysical abuse of Africans by their own leaders. How to wiggle out of thecurrent and residual effects of the aforementioned are some of the challengesyoung Africans will have to contend with in the 21st century.
Etuk is supremely confident that Africashall again reclaim its glory and splendor. And so "NEVER AGAIN shall theAfricans bow their heads to slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism and to anyother kind of social, political, economic, or spiritual degradation, now or inthe future...NEVER AGAIN should the African be brainwashed into despising himselfor herself and believing that he or she is inferior to any other human being onthe face of this earth...." (p. 452).
Every now and then a great book (about Africa)comes along. Roel Van Der Veen's WhatWent Wrong With Africa? (August 2004) isone such book. And now there is NeverAgain: Africa's Last Stand. It is wellwritten and well told; filled with history, history as it should be told:candidly, lucidly and instructively. The author tells it in conversationalmanner that is devoid of gratuitous jargons, embellishments, and hyperbolism. Studentsof history and political science and anyone who has interest in Africa and theThird World will benefit immensely from the accounts and analysis rendered byEtuk.
Furthermore, all those with great interest in Europe'srelationship with Africa will also benefitfrom the books historical interpretation and conclusions. To say this book isrelevant is an understatement. It is; and it ought to be in the private andpublic collection of scholars, commentators, and politicians and in the availof all those with cursory or profound interest in Africa, its politics andglobal interactions.
Etuk, Emma S. (2008).Never Again: Africa's Last Stand. Washington DC: Emida International Publishers.
Mr. Abidde was an adjunct instructor of African Politics at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. He iscurrently a PhD Candidate & SYLFF Fellow at Howard University Washington D.C.
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