A diversion from the Nigerian politics. Check out Daudi Were of Mentalacrobatics: Who Owns the African Blogosphere. The writer starts his piece by drawing a powerful analogy between land ownership during colonial time and the owning the African blogosphere. Excerpts:
Colonialists would often turn up at an African community and ask, “Who does that land belong to?†pointing to the vast fields around the village. Many times the reply from the villagers would be, “It does not belong to anyone.†The colonialists would then promptly set about fencing and craving up the land amongst themselves, which would enrage the Africans, which, in turn, would confuse the colonialists as, after all, they had been told that this land did not belong to anyone.
These exchanges highlight the differences in the cultures involved and the different understandings of what initially looks like a very simple situation…In my opinion the internet is a space through which discussion takes place and blogs are the tool through which we utilise that space for discussion. In other words this space we have carved on the internet is our land and bloggers are the occupiers of that land. Like our ancestors I believe that this land does not belong to any of us, it belongs to all of us.
Why is this important? Read the full article.
When I make generalizations, generally I make an ass of myself.
I loved this bit in that post:
“I hope that having disagreements and differences of opinion does not mean we can not sit down together at the end of the debate and appreciate each other.”
My generalization as a white American is Africans get this idea better than Americans.
September 15, 2007 at 2:38 am
Glad that you picked this up as well Imnakoya as it was very well written by Daudi and it needed to be said by someone with clout in the Sphere.
There is a link to a very interesting 170-page research paper on the history of property rights and land use in Nigeria between 1854 to 1914. Find the following paragraph in my September 14th post:
*For detailed information about the history of property rights in 19th Century Nigeria see “The Emergance (or Not) of Property Rights in Land: Southern Nigeria, 1854 to 1914†by James Fenske. Yale University Dept. of Economics has a download of the 170 page document (PDF) at the following URL:
Drop me a line when you can find some free time which I understand is becoming increasingly scarce for you…:-)
September 15, 2007 at 10:37 am