Are Nigerians 'Black' Enough to Talk about Race?

If race is what forms part of the very explanation for why the relationship between Africans and African Americans and between South Africans and Nigerians ‘is so messed up’, then of what use can race be to remedy the situation?

Written by Ẹniọlá Ànúolúwapọ́ Ṣóyẹmí

May 17, 2019

A guide at the Badagry Slavery Museum. Lagos, Nigeria. 2017. PELUMI ANDIKAN

In April 2019, the Zimbabwe-born, South Africa-raised author, Panashe Chigumadzi, wrote an essay, ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking To Nigerians about Race’. In it, she suggested that Nigerians, among others, were not sensitive enough to, and did not think deeply enough about, the racial struggles still facing many other Africans living in countries such as Zimbabwe and South Africa, or indeed within the African diaspora.

Such a callous attitude, she suggested, was bizarre given that while the experience of many Nigerians—particularly those in the country’s upper classes—meant that they did not obviously, or directly, have to deal with such issues as ‘race’, the post-colonial experience was such that, if they thought about it enough, most Nigerians ought to be able to relate to the need for racial struggle and progress. Ultimately, Chigumadzi called for Nigerians to include as part of their responsibility as ‘Giants of Africa’, a deeper understanding of, and support for, racial solidarity.

Chigumadzi’s piece caused me to stir in a way that most commentators, lacking grace and nuance on the issue, have rarely before. But first, let me get my gripes with some of what she writes out of the way.

I am less disappointed by Chigumadzi’s way of seeing Olúmọ Rock than I am of her Nigerian guide who responds, by supposedly laughing ‘apologetically’, to her derisive comment that, in Zimbabwe, ‘you will see Olúmọ Rocks in everybody’s backyard and then you will never waste visitors’ time again with this.’ About what, precisely, is there to apologize?

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About the Author

ẸÀ

Ẹniọlá Ànúolúwapọ́ Ṣóyẹmí

is a Nigerian political theorist. She is a research associate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at University of Oxford, and editor of politics blog, Political Matter.

Websitepoliticalmatter.org Xx.com

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Are Nigerians 'Black' Enough to Talk about Race?