FATHERS OF NIGERIA: abacha praise singers

"The stories of abacha praise singers has a familiar ring to its discords. I have lived in Africa. I traveled in and out of Nigeria when the blood of the Biafrian war was damp on the ground.  Years have passed and both the country Nigeria, and I have grown, and changed.  But in the core of governments like Nigeria a seed of vile corruption has birthed unimaginable evil, and thousands and thousands of people have died from its bites, and the beauty and power of  Ancestors have fallen into a deep ponderous silence.  Africa has an enormous amount of resources and its people have internalized the worst of Europeans's spirit and become Christians and Muslims. 

A lot of African people come to the United States looking down on African-Americans with contempt and supremacy.  They claim an allegiance and attachment to their particular indigenous roots, but posture like French or British aristocracy.  The same elements that have corrupted their spirit-mind corrupted our spirit-mind in America.  The wisdom to connect through our ancestors escapes our new methodology.  We, as Africans, want to separate ourselves into groups within a People.  We have lost our one connection that ties us together, and decided it is better to have a horizontal relationship with the Creator, and disconnect from the vertical relationship that ties to the Mysterious Relationship that distinguished us for centuries upon centuries in the Land of the Blacks (Bilad as Sudan).  Walking as if our steps are prayers, listening with our ears attuned to the unseen voices that know us, looking at the world seeing into worlds, and possessing an eye in league with the Bowl of Perception set between the invisible and the visible worlds, and speaking with power into the Bowl of Perception, the Void of the Unknown, and the Tenets of Strength, and Family Structure are the missing elements within the African of today. 

So I ask, "Who are we alive?"" - Gregory E. Woods, (Dawn Wolf) Keeper of Stories

Saint Abacha? R.I.P. Lamidi Adedibu

You probably learned of the news just like I did the other day that retired generals Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalam Abubakar, who all ruled Nigeria while in uniform, not only absolved their late “brother-in-arms”, Sanni Abacha, of corruption, but also poured encomiums on him on the 10th anniversary of his demise. And if you are at least 30 years old, you probably are angry that your sensibilities were insulted by your former rulers since you are old enough to remember a little bit about Sanni Abacha.

For the benefit of readers who might have missed the “three musketeers”’ comments, let me re-cap some.

Buhari: “All the allegations leveled against the personality of the late Gen. Sanni Abacha will remain allegations. It is 10 years now. Things should be over by now."

Babangida: "It is not true that he looted public treasury, I knew who Abacha was because I was close to him."

Abubakar: “It is quite unfortunate and unfair to accuse the family of the late Sanni Abacha of looting public funds...” By Abiodun Ladepo