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Wole Soyinka and Cults
Among Nigerian Youth
By
Uche Nworah
I attended Okechi Precious Osuala and his lovely bride
Cordelia Ogbu’s wedding in Abuja recently. The groom, a
childhood friend and fellow student at the University of
Uyo (Uniuyo) also invited some other friends from our
university days. Such occasions usually provide a good
opportunity to relive memories of the good old days and
to catch up on each other. The wedding served as a
reunion of sorts for many of us that attended.
During our days, the
University of Uyo didn’t quite fit into your typical
Nigerian ‘Ivy League’ university bill; that exclusive
title was reserved for the University of Ifes, the UNNs
and the University of Ibadans of Nigeria. Uniuyo was a
fairly new university at the time we joined in the late
80s and was later taken over by the federal government
of Nigeria in 1991 leading to the re-branding of its
name from University of Cross River State (Unicross) to
University of Uyo (Uniuyo) to the delight of thousands
of students who felt that a University of Uyo degree
certificate, rather than a University of Cross River
state degree certificate will be more sellable in the
job market.
What Uniuyo lacked in terms of physical structures,
facilities and resources was equally compensated by the
calibre of first class brains we had as lecturers.
Perhaps this may be the reason why Uniuyo graduates
believe that they could hold their own anywhere in the
world. We also did not lack social activities during our
days, if there was any university in Nigeria that
believes and practices the credo of not only going
through the university but also letting the university
go through you, then it must be the University of Uyo.
Little surprise then why visitors from Aba, Eket, Port-Harcourt and Calabar always invaded the university at
weekends in search of fun.
At Okechi’s ‘bachelor eve’ party which was organised by
the Chigbos (Annie and his twin brother Uche) who are
close friends of the groom, it looked something like an
alumni meeting, or rather an old boys and old girls
meeting. It was nice seeing everybody again after all
these years. In the course of the enjoyment, we began to
reminisce about the Uniuyo we used to know long before
cultists overran the university. We remembered Itu road
and all the parties hosted usually with a bottle of
Chevalier brandy by the campus famed ‘Uptown’ crowd or
Itu Road boys. We remembered the Plaza and one of its
famous shop operators—Jerry whose shop was the most
patronised because of his nice guy personae and American
wannabe accent rather than for his fry ups.
We did not forget Mr Vees and Esma restaurants where we
took our dates to impress them. We laughed over our
former chancellor, the Ooni of Ife’s antics with his
entourage during yearly convocation ceremonies. Nnamdi
remembered how I was famously stood up by Ifeoma (not
her real name) who chose instead to attend an Ooni party
while I waited for her at my off-campus residence. As we
laughed and teased each other, the story suddenly moved
towards campus cults. It must have been Esther (not her
real name) who had her hubby in tow that swung the gist
to cult activities and the extent of involvement or
non-involvement of the ‘old boys’ present in nocturnal
activities during our Uniuyo days.
Back then, campus fraternities existed for sure but they
hadn’t started committing the atrocities that later
characterised such organisations after we left. Uniuyo
students did not kill, maim or brutalise fellow
students, the sanctity of the human life still meant a
lot to most of the students. Stories of such atrocities
only filtered into the campus from places like Oko
polytechnic and ASUTECH.
The societies that existed at Uniuyo were mainly of a
social nature such as Rotaract, Jaycees, and Kegites
etc. The other ones such as Wole Soyinka’s National
Association of Seadogs (NAS), Friends of Friends etc
which adopted the name of fraternities refused to be
classified as cults and had much more elaborate and
vigorous recruitment regimes. Back then, any student
that wanted to come up on the social stakes in the
campus had to rely on his brains rather than brawns, the
few students who were known openly to belong to the
so-called cults (Black Axe, Vikings, Buccaneers, Black
Berets etc) were treated as outcasts and considered
weaklings. They were not feared but were instead
demeaned. You got invited to parties on your own merit,
and got dates from female students based on your social
status rather than on your being a member of a secret
cult i.e. how heavy your wallet was, how well you
dressed, the sharpness of your ‘lingo’ etc.
Cultists were so detested at the time that the story of
Jude (not his real name), a man-about-town who was
generally considered to be a ‘happening’ guy in campus
who had arranged with his ‘guys’ (he was rumoured to be
a member of the Vikings) to pour a bucket of shit on
Udeme for refusing his love advances became the story of
the decade in the university. While the very act itself
was distasteful, it however was not as deadly or
dastardly as the later acts of the so-called campus
cultists.
Incidentally, Jude was also at the bachelor’s eve with
his lovely wife. Esther wanted him to tell us if indeed
it was true that he poured shit on Udeme, or arranged to
have it done on his behalf by his friends.
Jude who is now a company executive in Abuja laughed and
wouldn’t bulge; he denied any wrongdoing probably
because of the look of disbelief on his wife’s face.
Eventually the couple left perhaps in a bid to avoid
unearthing other can of worms. I still had this incident
very much on my mind when a friend of mine forwarded a
documentary to me depicting the gory sights that are now
the order of the day in Nigerian universities. Nobel
laureate Wole Soyinka had fronted the documentary.
Since I posted the Wole Soyinka video—Wole
Soyinka on The Menace of Cults in Nigerian Universities—there
have been several comments as to whether we should blame
Wole Soyinka or not for pioneering campus fraternities
in Nigerian universities. Majority of the commentators
chose to blame the Nobel laureate for initiating what
could be considered to be the fore runner of campus
cults in Nigerian universities but I totally disagree.
In blaming the professor, we might as well blame for
example the Wright brothers for inventing the aeroplane
since aeroplanes do go down/crash and take passengers
along leading to death and pain. We may as well blame
Henry Ford for the death of all the passengers that may
have died behind the wheels of a Ford vehicle.
There needs to come a time when young adults should have
to own up and take some responsibility for their
actions. I fail to see the connection between the
National Association of Seadogs founded by Professor
Soyinka which presently concentrates in doing good deeds
across the world, and the mayhem that cult members
unleash on their fellow students in the campuses today.
Young people have a choice, but perhaps they are too
lazy to be bothered to engage their minds with more
creative and enterprising endeavours. I will never
accept the argument of boredom on their parts as the
reason for their opting to chase each other about with
machetes and guns. In our days, we never had enough time
to pursue all the many projects our young minds always
came up with, when we are not completing term papers or
assignments, then we are running campus publications,
promoting campus pageants and musical shows trying to
raise additional income to supplement the little we were
getting from home.
Perhaps times have changed, but still this is not enough
justification for young men and women to waste their
youth pursuing deadly agendas. If today’s youth lack
direction, then society should think about forging
stronger mentor–mentee links between graduates who
have been there, done that and seen it all, and those
still in the university system.
The Wole Soyinka video—Wole
Soyinka on The Menace of Cults in Nigerian Universities—is
coming out at the right time and gives us all the
opportunity to examine not only what has gone wrong with
our youth, but also what has gone wrong with our society
since it appears as if we are not providing engaging
alternatives to the youth, or platforms through which
they could constructively engage their young, active and
restless minds.
December 2007.
http://thelongharmattanseason.blogspot.com/ /
Wole Soyinka on The Menace of Cults n
Nigerian Universities
Uche Nworah is freelance writer, lecturer and brand
strategist. He studied communications arts at the
University of Uyo, Nigeria and graduated with a second
class honours degree (upper division). He also holds an
M.Sc degree in marketing from the University of Nigeria,
Enugu campus and obtained his PGCE (post-graduate
certificate in education) from the University of
Greenwich where he is currently enrolled as a doctoral
candidate. His articles have been published by several
websites and leading Nigerian newspapers. He received
the ChickenBones Journalist of the Year award in 2006
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies. As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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posted 4 December 2007
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