FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Great Blog for DOD FAOs!

Add this blog to your regular reference list!  Greta spoke in my Research and Writing class today.  Greta is "the Outreach and Collection Development Manager and a reference librarian at the Naval Postgraduate School's Dudley Knox Library as well as the content manager for the Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL)."  

She was excellent and walked us through the resources available through the NPS library to conduct our research.  She also maintains a blog where she aggregates reports and articles pertinent to anyone interested in foreign and national security affairs.  It's well worth your time to browse through each day.  




http://gretaslinks.blogspot.com/

Grad School Discussion Notes and Summary: Achebe's Things Fall Apart

IMPORTANT NOTE: DON'T CHEAT. DON'T PLAGIARIZE. Notes and Papers are shared here for reference and for studying. Footnote as appropriate.

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 
All Things Achebe--The Complete Notes Collection
DISCLAIMER:  These are my notes that I created from reading the novel and from classroom discussion.  Generally speaking, the chapter by chapter summaries are my own, however, the other parts of the posts are what I hope are an amelioration of the classroom discussion. 


For my Africa History course we are reading a series of novels by Achebe in conjunction with Iliffe's Africans: The History of a Continent.  Thus often our discussion and treatment of Achebe's novels is affected by this.  Iliffe tells the history of the continent primarily as a tale of population (stagnation, decline, rise etc) and of suffering.  He is only sometimes successful; his work needs about 20-30 more pages in charts/maps.  As a new student of African history, I found myself mired in a quagmire of unfamiliar regions, tribes, and languages; a few well-placed charts and maps could have alleviated this.


NOTE TO SELF FOR FUTURE REVIEW:
When I read a book on Africa I ask myself the timeless question: so what?  Every review must answer that question and must answer that question in the context of the role of  a foreign area officer/international relations professional/curious academic/diplomat.



Umuofia-  the village where the story takes place
Mbanta- the village of Okonkwo’s mother
Okonkwo- Central character—the aspiring Big Man
Unoka-  Okonkwo’s lazy father
Ikemefuna- given to Okonkwo to look after
Agbala-  Oracle
Chielo (Ezeani)-  Pristess of the oracle
Ezinma- favorite daughter of Okonkwo
Ekwefi-  1 of 3 of Okonkwo’s wives
Obierika- ozo, voice of reason/questioning, father of Akueke
Uchendu- Okonkwo’s uncle (mother’s side)
Nwoye- Okonkwo’s failure of an eldest son

Chapter 1: Introduces Okonkwo as an aspiring Big Man, fierce warrior and wrestler who threw the Cat. He values: yams, wives, cowries and physical/outward strength. His father Unoka died a debtor and embarrassment. 
Chapter 2: Terror of darkness.  Decisions made by council—this gives them stability.  Ultimate authority/God is the Oracle of the Hills and Cave.  Ikemefuna given to Okonkwo to settle murder dispute with neighboring village.
Chapter 3: Tale of Okonkwo’s hard work to rise from nothing through share-cropping.  It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.  Instructive that Unoka’s advice turned out to be prophetic since Okonkwo does die alone. 
Chapter 4: Okonkwo breaks the week of peace. 
Chapter 5:  We meet Okonkwo’s wives and his favorite daughter Ezinma.  Ani the earth goddess, is the ultimate judge of morality and conduct and fertility.  New Yam Festival.  Okonkwo beats his second wife and tries to shoot her but misses. 
Chapter 6:  Village wrestling match. 
Chapter 7:  Locust come (white settlers are later compared to locusts).  Okonkwo decides to kill Ikemefuna when the Oracle says he must be killed.  His desire not to appear weak is stronger than the pain of killing a son (like) person. 
Chapter 8:  Okonkwo’s depression.  Obierika fields suitors for Akueke.  She goes for 20 bags of cowries.  First talk of whiteman in joking.  This village isn’t down with the woman on top. 
Chapter 9:  Ezinma falls sick but recovers.   Ekwefi’s tale of 9 dead babies and the village belief that babies can be demons that if not buried correctly can keep coming back to be born. 
Chapter 10:  We meet the Egwugwa.   These are masked men that represent (but more deeply than we understand it) the village ancestral spirits and also mete out justice. 
Chapter 11:  Ezinma is taken by Chielo.  Ekwefi follows at a distance and is later joined by Okonkwo—this is the only tenderness we see in the book.
Chapter 12:  Akueke’s wedding ceremony.  Communal cooperation is required for this society to function as shown in the wedding preparations.  After it, she goes to spend 7 market weeks with the suitor’s family.  
Chapter 13:  Okonkwo is banished for 7 years after accidentally killing a teenager during a funeral celebration.  Living is closely connected to ancestral past.
Part II:
Chapter 14:  Okonkwo learns  mother is supreme as he arrives at her village.  The mother protects you but man belongs to the fatherland.  Uchendu has buried 22 children.
Chapter 15:  Story of whitemen massacring Abame for revenge is heard during a visit by Obierika.  Uchendu comments on the isolation of the clans. 
Chapter 16:  Missionaries comes to Umuofia.  Their converts are the dregs of society.  They first come to Mbanta though and sway the heart of Nwoye.  Poetry of new religion.
Chapter 17:  Nwoye is converted (and eventually converts his mother and siblings)  Okonkwo seethes.  More converts are won. 
Chapter 18:  Conflict with missionaries breaks out.  Converts are beaten and ostracized till python-eater randomly dies. 
Chapter 19:  Okonkwo’s last harvest of his exile.  He has big dreams for his return.  Gives a great toast.   Later is said that young people don’t understand how strong is the bond of kinship.  With new religion—a man can leave his father and brothers.
Part III
Chapter 20:  Okonkwo returns to his village where missionaries have taken over and brought their government and a jail even.  The missionaries destroy the unity of the clan in winning converts.  The kinship is what held their society together—in pushing the success of their religion, the two can’t coexist.  Here you could derive the interesting idea of missionaries as the original COINistas!
Chapter 21:  Mr. Brown wins more converts by combining religion and education.  Okonkwo returns to a village that has no place for him. 
Chapter 22:  Convert Enoch kills an ancestral spirit—Actually he just damasks him but to the people he is dead.    Egwugwu burns down the church.  Rev. Smith has replaced Mr Brown.  Rev. Smith is severe.  Foolishness of mutual ignorance. 
Chapter 23:  Egwugwu leadership is tricked and imprisoned, beaten and fined.  District commissioner comments:  we have brought a peaceful administration to you and your people so that you may be happy.  This highlights the central disconnect between whitemen and villagers. 
Chapter 24:  Villages gather and speak of war.  Okonkwo is choked with hate.  Village is hesitant to act.   Commissioner sends people to break up the gathering and Okonkwo decapitates their leader. 
Chapter 25:  They authority comes for Okonkwo.  Okonkwo has committed suicide.  This act is an abomination against the earth and he can’t be buried by his clansmen.  His body will be buried by a dog—it’s evil. 

DISCUSSION TOPICS/THOUGHTS/OBSERVATIONS:
- Achebe himself was mission educated.


- This novel was originally published in 1958, two years before Nigeria gained their independence.
- The story takes place in the late 1800’s.
- Bride price:  contractual agreement:  “If you’re keeping my wife, you must pay me back my bride price.”  This is said because the women provides labor (and children’s labor). 
- Okonkwo is the biggest proponent of tradition and he breaks the most serious one.  On the flip side, he is also an extreme version of their society.    Their society dies and so must Okonkwo.
- There’s a conflict in this book between “chi” (destiny) and societal laws.
-  The novel is also a statement about the Igbo view of life:  Life is suffering; it’s inherently severe. 
-  Igbo culture is primed to accept practices that promote a decrease in infant mortality.
-  When examining these novels and African history, it’s important to compare cultures of similar time periods (19th century to 19th century).
-  There’s an interesting dichotomy between Europe and Africa with regard to marriage.  In Europe there’s a dowry—in Africa there’s a bride price.  In Africa women produce something of value (through their labor and through labor itself), in Europe they don’t (to the same degree at least).
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- What does this novel show the role of religion to be in their society?
-  They live in a fragile system—what holds this system together in the 1st place?
- What is the role of the individual within the cultural context?  What are the cleavages?
- How is inequality portrayed—how does the system/authority structure work? 
*Arrow of God can be read as an extension of TFA.  This book is about the indirect rule efforts by the British.  


http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-achebe-writes-i-read-so-should-you.html

Grad School Discussion Notes and Summary: Achebe's Arrow of God

IMPORTANT NOTE: DON'T CHEAT. DON'T PLAGIARIZE. Notes and Papers are shared here for reference and for studying. Footnote as appropriate.

DISCLAIMER:  These are my notes that I created from reading the novel and from classroom discussion.  Generally speaking, the chapter by chapter summaries are my own, however, the other parts of the posts are what I hope are an amelioration of the classroom discussion. 

As my career continues to evolve (some might choose another verb) so must the content of this blog. As I pursue my Master's Degree in National Security Affairs, my interests and focus have shifted. When a course is applicable to the FAO community or to African Affairs I will include my notes and thoughts here. Doing so is as much for me as for my readers--it helps me to better organize my thoughts and to more easily search across a range of courses that I will take over the next year and a half.



BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here.
All Things Achebe--The Complete Notes Collection
ARROW OF GOD NOTES:
   I was first struck by how funny this novel was. I guffawed several times while reading it. It takes a remarkable writer to do this with humor, especially across cultures.

          I thought this work illustrated well the role of religion in society. For the Igbo there was no separation of religion from society—they were one and the same. It’s perhaps fitting that while the administration doesn’t quite get this (Clarke doesn’t even understand that a Chief Priest is not the same as a medicine man) , the missionaries do, ultimately manipulating the villages to connect Christianity to their harvest.

         Achebe does a superb job humanizing Ezeulu in the story, so that the reader forgets that he is truly half-spirit. This makes Ulu’s command to stay the course of revenge near the conclusion all the more shocking. There is no option for Ezeulu to do anything else. At the other end of the spectrum, the reader witnesses the death of the Umuaro society in their necessary drive to survive by finding a way to harvest.  Similarly, it would have meant the death of Ezeulu (at least culturally) had he accepted the Chief position since his society isn’t structured to be ruled (with the exception of the quasi-king that first had to pay everyone debts). Instead Ezeulu chooses the path of self-destruction.

         From the British colonial perspective, Achebe shows the tension of indirect rule and their priorities.  Clarke and Captain Winterbottom discuss all the money spent on native courts (that they natives won’t use) and the void of funding for infrastructure like roads. This is important because one could argue that it is these roads that enable the homogenization of the Igbo people and subjugate a shared identity onto them.


Ezeulu- Chief Priest of Ulu
Matefi- Ezeulu’s senior wife
Ugoye- Ezeulu’s younger wife
Okuata- Ezeulu’s wife that is dead
Edogo- Eldest son of Ezeulu, and Okuata
Obika- son of Ezeulu (drunk and troublesome and handsome) and Ugoye
Nwafo- youngest son of Ezeulu (his favorite) and Ugoye
Obiageli- daughter of Ezeulu (sister of Nwafo) and Ugoye
Ojiugo- daughter of Ezeulu and Matefi
Akueke- daughter of Ezeulu and Okuata
Oduche- Ezeulu’s son

CHAPTER 1
Ezeulu (Chief Priest of Ulu) introduction as he looks to the sky for the new moon (which he must announce). Ezeulu’s announcements control the harvest seasons, most importantly the New Yam Feast. Edogo carves ancestral masks. Ezeulu is bitter about division among the six villages because he spoke the truth to the white man and testified against his people about land dispute with Okperi. Obika beats up and humiliates Akueke husband who had been beating her. Oduche is training with the whites per Ezeulu’s instructions.

CHAPTER 2
6 Villages come together and call for war against the Okperi (led by Nwaka). Akukalia is killed when Umuaro messengers lose their temper. War ensues with retaliatory killings. Then the whiteman intervenes and judges the land to belong to Okperi. He also breaks all their guns.

CHAPTER 3
Captain Winterbottom is introduced and Tony Clark as his assistant. He recounts their version of the Umuaro-Okperi wars which are different from reality. Captain Winterbottom believe in the value of native institutions but is forced to enforce indirect rule. Ibos never developed a system of central authority.

CHAPTER 4
Enmity of Nwaka and Ezeulu is revealed. Oduche was given to learn the ways of the whiteman’s church. Oduche put a python in a box, which Ezeulu finds and frees; scandal ensues. Ezidemelli (Nwaka’s friend and python priest) asks what he will do to purify his home.

CHAPTER 5
Winterbottom doesn’t believe indirect rule is effective but most obey his superiors. “Great tragedy of British colonial administration was that the man on the spot (who knew his African) and knew what he was talking about found himself being constantly overruled by starry-eyed fellows at headquarters. Ibos detest kings, but Ikedi makes himself one as a puppet of the administration—he’s very corrupt.

CHAPTER 6
Akueke’s inlaws come for her and promise not to let husband beat her—Ezeulu agrees to this.

CHAPTER 7
Purification day for the six villages. Ugoye has the most ivory of Ezeulu’s wives. Nwaka’s wives has most ivory. Ezeulu does the purification dance. Women gossip.

CHAPTER 8
Mr. Wright needs unpaid labor to finish his road and gets it from the Umuaro. Obika is late (because he was drunk) to the road work party and gets whipped. In the ensuing controversy Moses acts as an intermediary. Ezeulu tries to get to the bottom of what happens and his sons show no remorse. The death that will kill a man begins as an appetite.

CHAPTER 9
Akuebe visits Ezeulu to talk about Obika and the lack of respect of the youth in general.
Pride of Umuaro that they never see one party as right and the other as wrong.

CHAPTER 10
Background on Capt W (including his soldiering in Cameroon) and how his wife ran off with someone else. Capt W expresses disgruntlement at the bureaucracy and their flawed administrative appointments. Capt W and Clarke dine. Clarke and Wright are friends and no one ever investigates whipping. Capt W intends to make Ezeulu paramount chief. Idea of institutions vs. Infrastructures is addressed with administration spending all the money on native courts but not enough on roads. Most Africans aren’t using the courts either (or at least willingly).

CHAPTER 11
Ezeulu visits Akuebe where a man is sick. Ezeulu asks him what the man did to deserve the sickness. Obika and Okuata wed. The medicine man keeps the chicken from the ceremony (which he isn’t supposed to do). Ezeulu hopes Obika is a changed man.

CHAPTER 12
Edogo talks to Akuebe and feigns disinterest in being chosen to succeed his father. Oduche gets in fight with Obija about the python. Ezeulu says that Oduche is a sacrifice from the people to Akuebe. Capt W sends messengers to tell Ezeulu to come see him. Ezeulu says no, I will send my son Edogo. No one however great can win judgment against a clan.

CHAPTER 13
Ezeulu calls all the village leaders to talk about being summoned. Nwaka jabs at him over his ‘friendship’ with the whiteman. Ezeulu is unaffected (at least outwardly) by it. Capt W sends for Ezeulu to be arrested and falls ill. Guards come to arrest Ezeulu but they miss him because he already left to come in. The eat, take a bribe and leave. Ezeulu arrives at headquarters and everyone things he cast a spell to make Capt W sick. He likes this.

CHAPTER 14
Obika returns home and Ezeulu has a vision in prison. He starts to plot his revenge. Ezeulu’s family comes to visit him. He’s offered the position of Chief and refuses it. The advantages of getting in with the whiteman early are discussed. Clarkes calls him a ‘witch doctor” highlighting the levels of misunderstanding culturally.

CHAPTER 15
Ezeulu is in prison 32 days and his reputation soars as he still refuses the offer. He’s then released. Capt W and Clarke get a message from the administration stating that they reserved the adverse report on indirect rule but any change in policy will have to come from the governor. They are directed to maintain the status quo but not appoint any new chiefs.

CHAPTER 16
Ezeulu returns home, enjoying the suffering and plotting his revenge. He reconsiders his revenge due to all the nice people coming to visit him. Ezeulu is told by Ulu that he can’t reconsider, he’s an arrow of god against Idemelli and the python god. Ezeulu remarks that he is half man and half spirit. He wonders if his boy is also an arrow.

CHAPTER 17
Life returns to normal in the village. A new ancestral mask is introduced. Obika slaughters the ram in the ceremony and Edogo carvest he mask.


CHAPTER 18
Feast of New Yam approaches and Ezeulu plots his revenge. He’s questioned by lots of people for delaying the announcement. He rebukes them. The elders come and ask him to ask Ulu how they can appease him so that they can have their yam harvest. Ulu says no. Ezeulu is despised by his people Goodcountry says if they give church a yam they can harvest their fields and he will protect them from Ulu. The best way to deal with whiteman is to know him (so they send their kids to his school).

CHAPTER 19
People are starving. Ezeulu is shunned and lonely. Obika has a fever but goes to dance in a burial ceremony and dies. Ezeulu is ruined. People go to Goodcountry so they can harvest.

DISCUSSION THOUGHTS:

-Humor that the English think they understand the people, but they still don’t despite prolonged presence…parallels to our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan

- Advantages of living near the infrastructure

- In direct rule seeks lighter hand by default…goal is more to maintain a status quo of peace

- Comments on missionary role by Capt W?

- Influence of infrastructure on Igbo…shifting from a language group to an identity

- with regards to religion, subtleties in the region…a priest chief is not necessarily a medicine man. Religion is the same as the society…there’s no delineation as in Western culture.

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-achebe-writes-i-read-so-should-you.html

Monday, January 16, 2012

How to become a diplomat 101

For my Intro to International Relations Class, we are reading Force and Statecraft by Lauren, Craig and George.  The following is my paraphrase of their paraphrase from Callieres's 1716 On the Manner of Negotiating with Princes regarding diplomacy:
 Diplomats should be carefully educated in the lessons of history and trained in diplomatic skills and techniques, and should know exactly the state of the military forces both on land and sea.


This itself is a good argument for why one can't directly access into the FAO community.  The fleet experienced gained can prove critical when posted overseas in situations where that knowledge will be needed..

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

FUUO's Top Posts of 2011

I know I am a little late to the game for Top 2011 lists but I moved to Monterey in the month of December and am just now settling in to graduate studies at NPS (Naval Postgraduate School).


Following are the most popular posts from the past year (totaling over 10,000 pageviews!):



Good post on 2012 Elections in Africa

Good post on 2012 Elections in Africa from someone whose blog I follower regularly.  In his post he mentions elections in Zimbabwe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Mali and Angola.  His twitter feed is also consistently useful: @goingsubsaharan

http://goingsubsaharan.blogspot.com/2012/01/2012-african-elections.html