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Mr Abidde's article, "Why Does The Black Community Hate Nigerians?" was good and timely. Being a Nigerian that has continuously lived, worked abroad and travelled to several continents over the last 26 years, I have had a chance to experience the truism of your observation that is both poignant and pertinent. Nigerians are generally known to be very confident and as Marcus Garvey rightly said 'If you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence you have won even before you started.' However, and unfortunately, Nigerians through their overbearing attitudes, at times bring this type of reaction unto themselves. I must say your account does not look at the basis and the wider problem of the fact that Blacks with different experience and background are deeply suspicious of each other instead of being cooperative and supportive, forgetting that there is strength in unity. To illustrate this assertion, I will digress a bit by bringing in the case of Barack Hussein Obama, the media’s anointed “chosen one” in the 2008 race for the presidency into this issue. It would appear that the “Leaders of Black America” appear to be tightly guarding their own lamp oil, and watching Obama with more than a bit of apprehension. As the London Times recently reported, “Civil rights leaders who have dominated black politics for much of the past two decades have pointedly failed to embrace the 45-year-old Illinois senator who is considering a bid to become America’s first black president.” The story quotes the Rev. Jesse Jackson as saying, “Our focus right now is not on who's running, because there are a number of allies running.” Former Calypso singer Harry Belafonte, who is himself a Caribbean descent of Jamaica immigrant parents, chimed in with the warning that America needs “to be careful about Obama,” because “we don’t know what he’s truly about.” This is despite the fact that other blacks before him including Jackson, Powell, e.t.c. had woefully failed in making inroads into American Presidential politics. Instead of supporting Obama they are singing discordant tunes. Why? When you meet other Africans abroad, on an individual basis, you see their immediate deference to Nigerians. You sense the deep respect and/or awe they hold about Nigerians especially abroad, who until the last few years, are often well read, articulate and not afraid to give their opinion which is often typically spiked with "the only way or solution is...!" For one reason or the other, and with the widespread 'export' of "419 scam" and the deleterious association between all and any Scam and Nigerians, these people hold back friendship, understanding and support, instead, they sing stereotyped and negative tunes about Nigerians, citizens of a country that had played and continues to play significant leadership role in the emancipation and stabilization of Africa over the years. I recently had an eye-opening experience when in South Africa, the taxi driver that took us at the airport to the hotel said the society in Cape Town had more respect for the Somalians because they were honest businessmen unlike Nigerians! No sooner had we entered the Hotel than a highly placed white South African citizen who in the early days was in the forefront of the struggle against apartheid, but now a Professor living in Chicago, got talking to us and he told me that Nigerians in the US are generally scammers! He was roundly challenged on patriotic grounds, but frankly, how low can Nigeria and Nigerians descend? My personal observation is that Nigerians may be loud and assertive but they are not generally vulgar. Though they often conduct their activities/arguments in a rambunctious way, it does not detract from their strong intellect, fun and general 'worldliness'. This is immediately threatening to other blacks who are still psychologically fragile as a result of their various experiences from either the colonialism/enslavement mentality or from their culturally subservient disposition, especially to the economically more affluent and influential whites/Asians in their midst. Nigerians do not seem to suffer from that remnant or psychological residue overhanging them. Let us face it, arguably, malaria despite its bad name and present havoc it is wreaking health-wise, has stemmed the length of time the British would have stayed in West Africa and in Nigeria in particular, and that may have changed for ever, the course of Nigerian history and psyche of its people permanently. Recognition is however given to the role of our past politicians in their fight for Nigerian independence though. The mode and type of colonialism that was experienced in East, North, South and central and French Africa was generally not experienced to the same degree and extent in West Africa. The scar of these events in the life of the black race has been deep and scathing. There is no doubt that it takes generations to just reduce this effect, as it is even still noticeable with the blacks in the States today, despite the over 200 years of the ending of slavery. This brings me to the issue of Afro-Caribbean's and Americans or the blacks in Diaspora. They are still living through that experience today. Because Nigerians have not been psychologically shackled with crushing and overbearing colonialism, segregation and enslavement, and given their strong academic background, mental disposition and motivation to succeed, they can compete with anybody even in their chosen country of abode. That is bound to cause some animosity, especially among the native blacks. In a side-by-side comparison of 2000
census data by sociologist John R. Logan at the Mumford Center, State
University of New York at Albany, black immigrants from Africa average
the highest educational attainment of any population group in the
country, including whites and Asians. I would refer you to a supportive article published in Washington Post of March 6th, "In Diversity Push, Top Universities Enrolling More Black Immigrants." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030501296_pf.html It is found that children of black immigrants tend to come from the uppermost classes of their native land and tend to be highly motivated to succeed. The authors also considered that black immigrants posted higher grades and test scores, and that admissions officers were impressed by their work ethic. On the other hand the native black Americans, were saying, "I don't think it's fair that you get affirmative action like we do," "This country was built on my parents' backs, not on your parents' backs. You didn't go through the years of slavery, discrimination or the civil rights movement." If you consider that Nigerians make up almost 25% of the African population and with the increasing wave of their emigration to Europe and Americas, no thanks to the attrition of the burgeoning middle class in Nigeria, along with their very strong inclination to study and succeed, it is therefore not surprising that they are more represented than any other African groups and therefore more likely to face more of this type of encounter. In the UK for example, Somali and Nigerian immigrants to the UK have radically different socio-economic profiles, with the former generally doing worse than the latter. In the middle East, Nigerian doctors in one Health Region I know, practically hold all the head of departmental posts and their absence there would no doubt have led to a severe loss of quality health care. This strong representation of Nigerians in the delivery of health care in the Arab countries is to large extent due to the very good educational tradition left behind by the British, which sadly has been relentlessly eroded due to the increasing neglect of all that is valuable in Nigeria; including Education, by succeeding Nigerian governments for the last 20 years. Is it not Publilius Syrus (100 BC) who said "It is only the ignorant who despise education." I wish our governments would learn from an unknown author who said, "Short-change your education now and you may be short of change the rest of your life." Despite all these setbacks and shortcomings at home, Nigerians are pulling their weight in all spheres and in all unimaginable corners of the world!
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