Black Man's Dilemma

Black art

By Adedayo  Adejobi

There is an increasing sense of objectivity and realism amongst African writers and leaders. A remarkable African writer who is widely regarded as factual and constructive, is the Nigerian called Chief Areoye Oyebola. In his book, Black Man’s Dilemma, published 1976 in Nigeria, he made some of the most realistic and objective analyses of the problems of black Africa and the Negro race to be found anywhere.

According to him, there are three intriguing facts about the black race: They are facts which according to him, most black and “coloured” people and some liberal whites would prefer not to face honestly and squarely. “One of such fact is that no black country has ever made a breakthrough in modernity. The second intriguing fact about the black race is that it was the only race in history which had between 14.6 million and 20 million of its members physically transported as slaves from Africa to completely new area. Equally strange was the active support which the African chiefs and middle class gave to the capturing and transportation of their fellow blacks to America.”

The third perplexing fact, according to Oyebola will undoubtedly arouse the resentment of my black and coloured brothers and sisters. “Relying on the fact that the different races of the world came into existence at the same time, I have come to this sad, but valid conclusion that the black man has made little or no contribution to world civilization, as we have become fully convinced that the much vaunted black civilization of ancient Ghana, Shongai, Mali, Zimabwe, Husa/Fulani, Yoruba, Benin and other areas were quite inferior to the civilization of other races.”

Oyebola regards the writings of Western liberal scholars and black historians on the greatness, glory and achievements of ancient African kingdoms, empires and emirates, as a deliberate morale booster for the dehumanized black race.

In the book, the Author points out that many western liberals are aware of the fact that white countries have a lot to lose if the black man faces the reality of his situation and accepts the fact that he hadn’t a past that he can be proud of: “The whites have a lot to lose if the blacks henceforth work hard to place their membership of the human family on the basis of genuine equality. White experts publish books about our past glory, grandeur and achievements. They’ve got willing disciples among black intelligentsia who have lost the candour of any critical self-searching. The absurd view has been expressed that colonialism and slavery led to the death of black Africa’s cultural heritage. A culture can only die if a whole people can be exterminated as the Romans did in the annihilation of cartage.”

One other problem of the black man, according to Oyebola is that he is today not aware of his basic human weaknesses and problems: “The black Man’s Dilemma is simply about the problems of the black race, one based on ingenuine equality.

Nowhere in Africa can one find the type of heritage I have seen in Europe and Asia. And the intriguing questions persistently crossed my mind are: what efforts were my black ancestors making when such great architectural, technological and scientific achievements were taking place in Europe and Asia? Did my black ancestors achieve any original and durable form of political and social organisation comparable to those written records we see in Europe, Asia, and North Africa?

“My answer to each of the questions raised above is in the negative, and I go further to say that had there not been the 20th century means of communication by sea, air, telephone, radio, television, video, newspapers, internet, the shrinkage of the world as it is, things in the tropical lands would have continued to be as they were during the previous one thousand years. The concorde alone shakes man more to the reality of life than is possible by any other thing. A letter written in Paris and put into the Concorde would arrive Los ngeles destination on a date before it was written. “

The book, a bomb which exploded in 1976 under the sophisticated nostrils of Nigeria’s ivory tower historians saw bows and arrows squatting in all available dark corners against poor Oyebola’s jugular veins.

Oyebola laments that we are incapable of dealing a death blow on the mosquitoes that takes such a big toll on our lives, but he is more hurt still by the fact we cannot invent a machine to pound the yam which only we eat.

“Nothing is more soporific than the tropical climate. You don’t have to bestir yourself too much in tropics. Your land lady hands you a notice to quit your lodging. You can pass the next few nights outside, under the Eko Bridge. You even get more fresh air there than you rented room provided. Whereas to be driven out of your lodging at whatever time of the year anywhere in the high latitudes, you have to think and think fast, on how to get an alternative accommodation, or you get exposed to biting winter or cold and stinging rain or high winds.”

The Author is afire with righteous indignation, and he wonders what we had been doing to have remained so pedestrian as a nation. It is attitudes like Oyebola’s that can fillip our country, Nigeria, from its position of time-honoured stagnation and sterility to one of self-recovery and purposeful march towards acceptable universal human progress.

The Author raises hard questions which challenge the nature of the black society, its long-standing values, beliefs and institutions.
Oyebola is concerned about continuing growing foreign domination, even after independence, and feels there is white conspiracy, imperialistic influence and sabotage at work designed to maintain white supremacy on a neo-colonial basis.
One is particularly impressed by the repeated plea for increased discipline at all levels.

Areoye must be congratulated for his courage to have written Black Man’s Dilemma. There is no doubt that he feels strongly about the well- being of the black man on contemporary earth. In this book, he attempted to say loud and clear what he believes to be the root cause of contemporary Negro situation.

“That the black man is usually seen as somewhat different in a negative way by other races is not new and that he has suffered as a result of misconceptions and outright falsehood is also not debatable. The problem is that the black man sometimes sees himself like others see him.

“From eminent philosophers such as Aristotle and church fathers such as Origen and Nobel laureates such as James Watson, the “problem” has always been how to put us down or at least “define the black man’s place in the scheme of things”. An Egyptian historian Al-Abshibi once wrote that when the black man is hungry he steals and when sated he fornicates.

“Other Arab writers (Al-Farabi and Avicenna) did not think too highly of blacks, despite the clear injunctions of the Islam to treat all people equally. This is probably one of the premises for the oppression of Sudanese blacks today with the active connivance of its central government. But let us take this issue in context. I have lived long in Nigeria and have been around the world a bit also. There is this saying that “no one can make you inferior without your consent”. Without fear of contradiction, I dare say that the black man probably more than any other race on the planet has been the most oppressed and dehumanized. But he has probably contributed to his sorry state to some extent despite the predation and subjugation from outside (European and Arab) the continent.

“Today the mindset of some of the other races - despite the “progress” made in science and the arts is that we are sub-human. The question however is not what others say about us but what we say about ourselves. The abject backwardness of Africa despite its unspeakable riches is a testament to the fact that something is not entirely right with us as a race. Let me say right now that I do not for one moment believe that the black man is in any way inferior to other races but we must also ask ourselves why we tend to be the object of scorn and derision by the rest of the world. When you consider the senseless wars, coups, ethnic and religious clashes that have engulfed the continent over the decades you are bound to ask where we got it all wrong.

“A recent edition of Forbes magazine listed some of the dirtiest capitals in the world and African cities were predominant. Governments on the continent act like a cabal of predators, destroying the common wealth and stealing their nations’ blind while appealing to petty nuances that do not stand to logic and reason. We are not a continent of contented and happy men but more like an overgrown colony of quarreling monkeys. And yet, I think we have the greatest chance to change that view and outlook in our time.

“History teaches us that the black race was first in arts, science, philosophy and an appreciation of the transcendent, irrespective of what current educational and ‘scientific’ nuances suggest. Black history can be traced from ancient civilizations in the interior of Africa to its apogee in the desert of ancient Egypt. “Today, the average black African has no connection to, or appreciation for what he is or what he was unless someone from outside of the continent educates him and this allows for mischief. When the white man says yes, we say yes and when he says no we agree with him.”