DR. JEROME TEELUCKSINGH ON CLR JAMES THE BLACK JACOBIN SOCIOLOGY SERIES

'Uninvited' by Kenyetta A.C. Hinckle

By Biko Agozino

On Sunday, 09/19/16, I heard an artist, Kenyetta Hinckle, open her exhibition on Virginia Tech campus with a talk about her reworking of colonial photographs of topless African women in sexualized poses. She gave them suggestive titles like 'Vendetta', 'Reprisal', 'Witness', 'The Sower' and called the entire series, ‘Uninvited’. These titles remind us of the fact dramatized by Fanon in critique of Freud when he suggested that some women invite rape by fantasizing about it whereas rape is by definition, uninvited or non-consensual, just as there is no such thing as colonization by invitation, despite assumptions that we asked for it. She wondered why people called her little African but scratcher as a child.

Kenyetta Hinckle also exhibited paintings of Tituba, the African Caribbean woman who was accused of being responsible for inducting Salem Massachusetts girls into witchcraft. For some reason, her work was displayed along the ‘Corridor Gallery’ and people kept streaming past during her engaging talk, making it look like a street arts performance.

Her work reminded me of attempts to justify the unjustifiable records of the postcolonial genocidal state. Interestingly, she said that when she was in Nigeria as a visiting professor at the University of Lagos, some of her colleagues told her that the topless photographs came from a time before 'civilization'. I told her how apt that was given that Sigmund Freud saw civilization as a violent exercise in the repression of the instinct for love and death, pleasure and pain. She spoke again to my Africana Philosophy of Nonviolence class on 09/19/2016

When I shared the story of her initial talk on Facebook, an art historian and visual artist challenged my Freudian interpretation as follows: ‘You know, of course, that the Nigerians she spoke to had something entirely different in mind. I hope you also pointed out that they are wrong, and they cannot be wrong and right all at once. As an aside, Biko, have you noticed how the vast majority of younger Nigerians who graduate from Nigerian universities have little grasp of grammar in any language?’ I responded as follows:

‘They are obviously wrong as Cheikh Anta Diop proved long ago with Civilization or Barbarism, with Precolonial Black Africa, and with The African Origin of Civilization. But at the unconscious level, they are also right as Freud would argue. The artist understood that they were suggesting barbarism and she said that she was shocked because as an African American woman, she could be seen in the role of neo-Tarzanism given her effort to cover up the innocence or Dadaism of the women with her African fractal patterns of drawings that looked like thin veils. She also reported that on her trips across Europe, white men were frequently flashing their genitals at her under the assumption that she must be a sex worker and when she complained to her white male professor, he asked what she was wearing as if it was her fault. She said that she was appalled to hear in Nigeria that the police routinely shoot non-violent protesters to death but she was told to hush it because that was the order of things under neocolonialism.

‘Regarding the murder of the English language by Nigerian graduates, I will agree with Martin Luther King Jr. that they can serve even if their grammar is ungrammatical. So like Fela Kuti, Naija musicians, and Chief Zeburudaya, let the creative ones go on adding value with the ginger in the swagger of their grammar. The artist noticed the peculiar grammar of our broken English because everyone kept telling her, 'welcome back', when it was only her first visit. Freud also argued that the repressed keeps returning to futilely challenge the patriarchal authority with infantile dreams of killing the father to marry the mother, trying to repress his own instinct to love and death, and seeking to exploit nature. Fanon said that such Oedipal neurosis was not known in the Caribbean, perhaps because female-headed families were more common, but also maybe because the instinct for imperialism is peculiarly European. Thanks for your usual provocation. You should offer VT an exhibition.’

Then, one of my former students from Trinidad and Tobago and now a Lecturer commented as follows: ‘Oh my how I wish I was at VT right now’. I replied as follows: ‘Thanks, I will report on the discussions for the benefit of your … class. But note that Chief LeRoy Clarke and Shawn Peters, among others, have been offering similar 'pain things' (paintings) about the Caribbean crisis of control-freak societies. I hope that your class is watching them and not only the TV.’

Another Facebook friend also commented saying: ‘Interesting perspectives on "civilization" - I was unaware of Freud's comments on the subject. It reminds me of the day, when I was teaching at Ascension High School in Eleme, Nigeria, that one of my students asked about "civilized" countries, making it clear he felt that European countries were civilized and African ones, including Nigeria, of course, were not. I was not terribly surprised by his comments, but disturbed by them, nonetheless. The other students, (5th formers, I believe they were) obviously agreed with him. I began my rebuttal by pointing out the horrors inflicted on others by such Europeans as Hitler and Stalin, people from two of the countries this student thought were civilized. I said that Nigeria was indeed "civilized," that it contained some of the finest (and civilized - in the most positive use of that word) people in the world, and that we have to be careful not to denigrate countries due to a perceived lack of "civilization" nor feel inferior to countries that had no superiority over any African nation.’

And I responded, saying: ‘Thanks for sharing your critical thinking with your Nigerian students. Dr. Assata Zerai also reported that when she was a visiting professor at the University of Ife, undergraduate students kept telling her that we were wicked sinners until the missionaries came to save us. Freud presented his unusual hypotheses in Civilization and its Discontents and also in Moses and Monotheism. But the hypotheses run through his body of work. He believes that the Id is the wild one bent on gratifying all pleasure instincts. But soon the Ego emerges through socialization to check the selfishness of the Id by teaching the little motherfucker that the mother was not accessible to his Eros. Frustrated, the brothers leave home to found their own families where they repress their own sons while still battling with their despotic father with the childish dream of liberation in the form of patricide. Finally the Superego comes in to regulate the instinct for pleasure by imposing the work ethic that makes people sweat for their living when they would rather avoid all work and simply enjoy erotic pleasure (with the exception of the privileged few such as artists and intellectuals who may truly enjoy their work). The trick is to let people believe that by working, they are simply battling with nature and conquering it in order to exploit it.

Thus civilization is an endless exercise in repression of natural instincts of Eros and Nirvana. Herbert Marcuse (Eros and Civilization) subjected Freud to a detailed critique in which he demonstrated that this idea that repression equals civilization runs through Western Philosophy from Plato and Aristotle to Hegel before Nietzsche dissented with his queer sense of morality as immorality. Marx, Lenin, Mao, Du Bois, Diop, Nkrumah, Fanon, Rodney, Cabral, Toyo, Achebe, Davis, hooks, Amadiume, Nzegwu, Collins, Ekwe-Ekwe, and Hall are my model critics of Freud because they revealed that what was mistaken as Eros was mainly the profit motive of greedy capitalists who would not hesitate to kill their fathers or sons to maximize profits. Freud speculated that some of my model critics did not really end repression but actually founded repressive regimes that they brazenly called the dictatorship of the proletariat in their efforts to refuse the 'reality principle' that civilization progresses through repression. Marcuse disagreed with this speculation by Freud and insisted that a non-repressive civilization is possible when we allow our imagination to roam free in the arts and sciences without being bogged down by the 'performance principle' that is prone to aggression in the psychology of Freud. I have critiqued Freud elsewhere on his view that Africans, Aboriginal Australians and Maoris were extremely neurotic for their stringent maintenance of incest taboos compared to Europeans who had no qualms about marrying their first cousins. Today, science has proved that those 'natives' that Freud called barbaric in this context knew what they were doing because inbreeding weakens the genetic pool.

During her presentation to my class, Kenyetta introduced the land of Kentifica which she discovered and mapped as the intersection of globalized Africana homeland and Diaspora with its own handmade musical instruments (as is the norm in Africa), with food shared publicly as performance (common in Africa), with colorful hair designs and textiles covered in African fractal patterns (also common in Africa). She said that she resented being called Oyibo (European) in Nigeria and retorted to her seamstress that she spoke the way she did because some of our people sold others into slavery. I intervened to remind the class that one of the books we were reading for the Introduction to African Studies class was How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney. That book proved that it was not really a slave trade but a class war in which a few African chiefs collaborated with their European class allies to wage war and capture Africans to be enslaved. The rest of our ancestors fought hard to prevent our beloved from being captured and enslaved and the struggle continued through the middle passage to the plantations. We are all survivors meeting one another against the odds.

About the artist…

http://www.kachstudio.com/

Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle is an interdisciplinary visual artist, writer and performer. Her practice fluctuates between collaborations and participatory projects with alternative gallery spaces within various communities to projects that are intimate and based upon her private experiences in relationship to historical events and contexts. A term that has become a mantra for her practice is the "Historical Present," as she examines the residue of history and how it affects our contemporary world perspective. Hinkle received her MFA in Art & Critical Studies Creative Writing from CalArts and BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Her work and experimental writing has been exhibited and performed Fore at The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, Project Row Houses in Houston, TX, The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA and The Museum of Art at The University of New Hampshire. Hinkle was the youngest artist to participate in the multi-generational biennial Made in LA 2012. Hinkle’s work has been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Artforum, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post and The New York Times. Hinkle was listed on The Huffington Post’s Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know. She is also the recipient of several fellowships and grants including: The Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Award, The Cultural Center for Innovation’s Investing in Artists Grant, Social Practice in Art (SPart-LA), and The Jacob K. Javits Full Fellowship for Graduate Study. Hinkle is a recent alumna of the US Fulbright Program in which she conducted research at the University of Lagos in Lagos, Nigeria.

Daphne Phillips on the Black Jacobin Sociology of CLR James

Darius Figueira on CLR James: The Black Jacobin Sociology Series

Biko Agozino on the Making of CLR James The Black Jacobin Sociology Series

Symposium on the Igbo of the Southeast Nigeria

Symposium  on the 50th Anniversary of the publication of The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria by Professor V.C. Uchendu, held in Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, May 2, 2016

Details of My New Book on Arthur Nwankwo

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ISBN: 978-2904-53-8 (Paper); 978-2904-54-6 (Hard Cover) First Edition (C) Agozino 2016

Blurb:

This book situates the socio-political thought of Agwuncha Arthur Nwankwo within the paradigm of Africana Studies as a way of encouraging more scholars in the field to pay more attention to contributions from scholars based in Africa. At the same time, scholars in African Studies should radicalize the field by embracing the revolutionary field of Africana Studies to make all the respected African Studies Institute in the world to evolve into Africana Studies Institutes. Nwankwo’s revolutionary theory and praxis are challenging to academic scholars in Africa who appear to be satisfied with quoting theorists from Europe without adequate originality in the development of indigenous knowledge systems for the explanation and transformation of the enduring conditions in Africa. This book differs from the previous tributes to Nwankwo by his admirers in the sense that this is not a tribute but a constructive critique and also because this book goes beyond the theoretical and historical texts of Nwankwo to read his creative writings inter-textually.

Praise for the book:

“… critically incisive study of outstanding intellectuel engagé Agwuncha Arthur Nwankwo by Biko Agozino, one of the most prolific and accomplished scholars of his generation.”  - Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Visiting Professor in Graduate Programme of Constitutional Law, Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil.

"The book is very informative, lucid and analytical. It provides a rigorous analysis of one of Nigeria's and Africa's foremost activist and revolutionary (Arthur Nwankwo) who challenged the oppressive and unjust rule of military and civilian regimes in Nigeria. Furthermore, the book elucidates the complexity of the Nigerian state and the position of the Igbo Nation. The book is compulsory reading for all those interested in both the Nigerian and African project." Professor Akpan Hogan Ekpo, Director General, West African Institute For Financial And Economic Management (WAIFEM), Central Bank of Nigeria Learning Centre and Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

‘This is the first systematic study of the ideas and praxis of Arthur Nwankwo. Biko took a studied and methodical approach to Nwankwo's worldview and political practice in a critical and yet fair minded way. It is an inspiring work in the realm of African political thought which scholars and activists will find useful.’ Professor Abubakar Momoh, Director of the National Electoral Institute, Abuja, and Professor of Political Science, Lagos State University, Lagos.

‘The book Critical, Creative and Centered Scholar-Activism: The Fourth Dimensionalism of Agwuncha Arthur Nwankwo by Professor Agozino presents a brilliant, refreshingly in-depth understanding of the works of the great African intellectual, Arthur Nwankwo. The book provides uncommon insight into the possible motivations and reasoning behind certain beliefs of Dr. Arthur Nwankwo as espoused through some of his published works. Reading through Professor Agozino's work should remind the present and future generation of Africans, that life, to be well lived must be founded on values, principles and moral convictions. Writing the book must clearly have been a sacrificial exercise embarked upon for the sole purpose of bringing what should come to light, to light. Generations to come owe a mountain of debt to professor Agozino for this selfless act.’ Dr. Chika Ezeanya, Assistant Professor of African Business Studies, University of Rwanda, Kigali.

‘It seems safe to say that  CRITICAL, CREATIVE AND CENTRED SCHOLAR ACTIVISM: THE FOURTH DIMENSIONALISM OF AGWUNCHA ARTHUR NWANKWO will be one of the best social science books of the year in Nigeria and may be of the decade. Biko, arguably one of the worlds leading experts on sociology and Africana Studies, made a powerful case for Afrocentricity: "AFROCENTRICITY … DOES NOT START FROM THE PREMISE THAT EUROCENTRICISM IS ALWAYS WRONG BUT FROM THE FACT THAT WHATEVER IS THE FOCUS OF ANY SCHOLARSHIP SHOULD BE PLACED AT THE CENTRE OF SUCH SCHOLARSHIP". By this, Afrocentricity as an approach, is elevated to a global principle with broader human implications.’ Dr. Augustine Obelagu Agu, Retired Senior Social Policy Officer, UNICEF, Independent Policy Consultant, Texas, USA.

‘I enjoyed reading every single line of your work; and I’m quite surprised that you had to produce this solid work in 2 months. That’s an incredible turn out time for an incisive scholarly work of this nature. It’s a big lesson for me who has been playing around endlessly with two manuscripts for years. … Your big brain is, therefore, also partly responsible for the global warming.’ Dr. Ifeanyi Ezeonu, Professor of Sociology, Brock University, Canada. 

About the Author:

Biko Agozino is a Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. He is the author of the following books - Today Na Today (Poetry), 2013; The Debt Penalty (Play), 2010; ADAM: Africana Drug-Free Alternative Medicine, 2006; Counter-Colonial Criminology, 2003; Pan African Issues in Crime and Justice (co-edited), 2004; Nigeria: Democratising a Militarised Civil Society, (co-authored) 2001; Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Migration Research (edited), 2000; and Black Women and the Criminal Justice System, 1997. Also Director-Producer-Editor of Reparative Justice, 30 minutes, color, African Independent Television, Lagos, Nigeria, 2002; Director-Producer of CLR James: The Black Jacobins Sociology Series, 2008; Director-Producer, 'Shouters and the Control Freak Empire', Winner of the Best International Short Documentary, Columbia Gorge Film Festival, USA, 2011. Editor-In-Chief of the African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies, and Series Editor, Ashgate Publishers Interdisciplinary Research Series in Ethnic, Gender and Class Relations. Ph.D. (Edinburgh); MPhil. (Cambridge); B.Sc. First Class Hons (Calabar).

Book Review Editors of Journals who wish to receive review copies and those who wish to order copies and or arrange readings should contact the publishers or the author directly:

Publishers Contact: Fourth Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd, House 8, First Avenue, City Layout, New Haven, Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria. Phone: +2348035511487; +2348055790009; email: chairman@arthurnwankwo.com or Arthur.nwankwo@yahoo.com www.arthurnwankwo.com

 

Author Contact: Dr. Biko Agozino, Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, Virginia Tech, 225 Stanger Street, 562 McBryde Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24073; Phone: 1-540-231-7699 (Office); Fax: 1-540-231-3860. Email: bagozino@gmail.com or agozino@vt.edu blogsite: www.massliteracy.blogspot.com