Tag Archives: Racism

Racism in India: And “Yannick passed away…” by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

“You’re standing at a zoo, and looking at a caged animal, admiring it, scrutinizing every aspect of it, observing its walk, its skin. Now imagine you’re that caged animal and people are gawking at you like you’re an alien, like you don’t belong. That is how black citizens of African nations say they feel in India, they aren’t caged but they might as well be.” – Sarakshi Rai.

Yannick before and afterA few days ago in Greater Noida, some Hausa boys were allegedly beaten up by an Indian mob, while the reverse was published in the media (that Indians were beaten up by the Hausa boys). Whereas, the reality was that an Indian boy, with rich but uneducated father, snapped pictures of a Hausa boy and was asked to delete same but would not budge. He called his father and that led to the Hausa boys being attacked. This event led to sabotage on public facilities that fed the Africans (including but not limited to the disruption of power supply); this, ultimately leading to the ejection of Africans, who had to resort to emergent searching for new shelter, with its attendant challenges.

Sometimes, it is a wonder what globalization, in the sense of globetrotting (let’s content ourselves with singly Continue reading Racism in India: And “Yannick passed away…” by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

The First Time Fear: The France Crisis On Facebook- Jesujoba Ojelabi

First off, I would like to say that this is simply my perspective. If you do not agree with it, it’s alright and I would in fact appreciate a lucid comment detailing why.

 In the little time I have spent on earth as a member of the Homo sapiens species, I have come to learn a number of things about Humanity. Firstly is her diversity in similarity, a concept more scientifically referred to as “Variation”. Variation itself is a facet of science that in itself has earned enough attention to be studied on its own and names like Jean Lamarck and Charles Darwin are some that come to mind when this aspect of science is mentioned. The resultant effect of variation in Human beings is quite amazing: Two people can be born of the same parents and still be so antagonistic in character and physique. While variation can be a good thing, most especially in the advancement of our species, it also sometimes has some side effects which can be almost as nasty as its benefits. The fact that two people tend to see the same thing differently sometimes is the basis of some scientific advancements and at the same time, it has also been the basis of some disagreements that has eventually transcended into very disastrous wars and terrorist activities.

Continue reading The First Time Fear: The France Crisis On Facebook- Jesujoba Ojelabi

“NOW THAT BOTHA MUST BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY” by Yemi Czar

bothaI write this piece to quickly draw our critical consciousness to this “infamous”, yet significant, speech of P.W Botha, the erstwhile President of the apartheid South Africa, which a friend drew my attention to in the course of the week (even in the overwhelming ambiance of my grudges against Nigerian leaders, but gratifying reluctance in discussing them), after reading one of his email’s entitled “Now That Botha Must Be Taken Seriously (or whatever that means)!”. For the sake of emphasis, I decided to retain the title.

The reason for bringing up this speech anyway is to enable us have a rethink of the horrifying events that have plagued our nation Nigeria, and by extension Africa – corruption, civil unrests and wars, leadership crisis, kidnappings here and there, consumerism and underdevelopment, and more recently, terrorism – since independence. These horrible events, we must recall, have for a while now been attracting blatant reactions from sensitive and oversensitive people to an extent that even the silence of phlegmatic individuals has become the din that prevents us from hearing ourselves anymore. Therefore, at this critical time, existential questions demand immediate answers as they continue to gaze at us shamefully and a need for us as Blacks to reconsider Botha’s chauvinistic and supposed malign speech. This speech, of course, seems the only formula that couched, thoroughly and fittingly, our rhetoric of confusion, most especially at this moment when our entire socio-political realities continue to draw hoots of derision and despair from us, thus, making us all becoming improvised, nay, accidental social critics of Continue reading “NOW THAT BOTHA MUST BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY” by Yemi Czar