Author Archives: Olivia Anne Jones

I’m not sure why but it says the media posts exceeded the data, so I’ll just post our works cited here for the time being (our internet crashed when we were doing the project so we had to put a template Works Cited in)

Works Cited

“#BringBackOurGirls: Boko Haram Overruns Town of Chibok in Nigeria.”NBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.

Chothia, Farouk. “Who Are Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists?” BBC News. N.p., 20 May 2014. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.

Smith, David. “Nigeria’s Boko Haram Seizes Hometown of Kidnapped Girls.” The Guardian. N.p., Nov.-Dec. 2014. Web.

I was very excited about this assignment because all of the stories I covered in my blogs were negative articles. To my surprise, it proved to be a very difficult challenge finding a positive article about Nigeria. It took me about twenty minutes total to search through the “unavailable” links or that the stories about a Nigerian living in a different country. Finally, I settled for the only positive article I seemed to be able to find, which covered the news of Nigeria’s Ebola outbreak being contained. Nigeria’s population is the highest in Africa with over 168 million people. With the spread of Ebola becoming out of control in countries like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, panic was starting to take over the people of Nigeria. Onyebuchi Chukwu, the minister of health, explained some of the government’s strategies, stating that “[state governments were urged to institute a communication strategy to ensure mass awareness creation and the sensation for individuals and communities on EVD in a bid to halt the spread of the disease.]” The government also provided incentives for health workers to encourage the treatment of patients. Airport security was increased immensely, and four confirmed cases of EVD had been discharged. This good news prompted the United Nations Population Fund to personally congratulate the Nigerian government, which is a rare sight these days. This is great news for the country and I am personally very impressed with the rapid containment efforts. It definitely changed my mind about the issue, considering most of the media here in America focused on the failed containment efforts of other surrounding countries. Nigeria handled the Ebola crisis ten times more gracefully than even America did (even though our “crisis” was not a crisis at all, in fact it wasn’t even a problem) by reassuring its’ citizens that it won’t be a problem if they just speak up about symptoms and educate themselves. It is interesting to compare how America and Nigeria reacted to the virus. American media jumped on the opportunity to scare people into thinking Ebola was soon to be an American problem. I remember seeing so many outrageous news articles and overhearing people talking about how nervous they were. It seems that Nigeria did the exact opposite, when there actually was a threat present to them. If they hadn’t done that, widespread panic could have caused MAJOR problems in the city, and maybe not specifically from the virus. Nigeria has some issues with gang violence (or so it seems from the recent news) and I could see a panic in a city of so many people causing an outbreak of violence rather than the virus itself.
This semester has opened my eyes to the difference between the reality of Africa and my perception of it. Almost everything we talked about in class about the inaccurate perceptions of Africa and its’ people was how I viewed the continent, and I’m a bit ashamed to say that. My thoughts of Africa weren’t as exaggerated as others; I knew it was a developing country and had large and thriving cities, but the key word in that sentence is DEVELOPING. I believed Africa was where we were in the 90’s, and that is so far from the truth (Especially for Nigeria). Africa is a thriving continent full of diversity. It has large, prosperous cities rivaling that of New York City with rural villages right next door. It has its’ riches and it has its’ poor. Just like America, just like anywhere in the world, you can find diversity in the people and their lifestyles; it is a shame to stereotype such a wide variety of people in a small minded way, but unfortunately it has been almost bred into our culture.

Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/20/us-health-ebola-nigeria-idUSKCN0I90T620141020

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was the leader of Nigeria’s breakaway from the military dictatorship that divided Nigeria into 2 segregated sections that were dictated by religious differences. His actions are believed to have started the Nigerian War, which both helped to liberate the people of Nigeria and what started the perception of Africa as being a place of starvation, neglect, and war.

Ojukwu was born on November 4th, 1933 in Northern Nigeria as the son of one of the richest men in Nigeria, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu. He was a very well educated man, traveling to the UK to earn a Masters Degree in History at Oxford University. His involvement in the military started when he joined the Nigerian military aroun 1958. Considering his educated background, Ojukwu was promoted to Liutenant-Colonel. Out of the 250 officers, Ojukwu was one of only 15 Nigerians to join this rank.

During this time, Nigeria became independent from the United Kingdom. The newly independent country was divided by its’ different ethnic and religious inhabitants; the Hausa and Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the south-west, Ijaws in the south and Igbo in the south-east. In 1966, a group of Igbo rebels led a coup that resulted in the killing of 30 northern political leaders, including Nigeria’s Prime Minister. No political figures in the south were harmed. The north retaliated 8 months later, killing almost 30,000 Igbo. These events intensified the tension between the ethnic groups of Nigeria. After attempting to create a confederation of regions, federal and eastern governments failed to come up with a solution to help the rising conflicts between the ethnic parties. Finally the Eastern region, led by its military governor Ojukwu, announced that they were seceding from Nigeria to form the Republic of Biafra. Unfortunately, this area of Nigeria was a primary source of oil for the country as a whole which created difficulties.

On July of 1967, the federal government of the rest of Nigeria launched its first attack of “police measures” on the Republic of Biafra, which was well equipped to retaliate. Unfortunately, this fighting went on non-stop for 3 years, resulting in a large number of civilian deaths and famine. Images of The Republic of Biafra’s civilians travelled across the globe, creating the perpetuated stereotype that Africa as a whole is a place of genocide and starvation.

Critics of Ojukwu say that he is the reason Africa is still portrayed as a continent of suffering and starvation, which frustrates the millions of people who live there today. Others say that he was a revolutionary leader who emancipated the Igbo. Regardless of the opinion, he is a true revolutionary figure that stood up to take charge of a crumbling section of Nigeria.

Sources:
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2101162,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Odumegwu_Ojukwu

There are many similarities and differences between the colonization of North America and Africa. The first similarity between these two are the countries who were colonizing these lands. Britain, France, Germany, the Dutch and Spain were the main players in the colonization process. These European powers were in search for economic, political, and social power through the colonization of these continents. The nearly untouched raw materials and space these new lands provided enticed countries to completely take over. Though their motives for colonization were similar, there were different outcomes within the process of imperialism for North American and African natives.

Within both continents, the European powers did not fight with each other so much as they fought with the native people of the lands. In North America, most of the Native Americans were wiped out by disease brought over by European settlers. Relations between these settlers and the remaining Native American population was peaceful at first; the Native Americans helped the new settlers become acclimated to the land and learn how to grow crops like corn. Unfortunately when famine struck the European settlers, they raided the Indian tribes. This sparked a war between the two, but the fight was far from fair as Native American populations were dwindling due to illness. After the American Revolution from Europe, Americans forced most of the Native Americans to designated reservations, resulting in the Trail of Tears. While still devastating, this was different from the way European power fought to take over Africa. The Berlin Act was a treaty that monitored the conduct of European imperialist competition, but never included African political participation. The treaties signed with African political power was interpreted very differently by the two participants. Europeans meant them as a signing away of their power over their country, while Africans thought it was no more than a friendly alliance. When they realized they had been tricked in a way, they sought to resist the invasion of European colonists. Unfortunately, African military consisted of guerrilla warfare, which was hardly a competing force for the post-industrialized European countries. After finally succumbing to European power, African countries participated in establishing colonial state systems. This consisted of the European powers appointing native, indirect rule. These powers organized their colonies by designating native governments who indirectly established the European government in the colonies. The difference between North American and African colonization is that in North America, they pushed the native people out. In Africa, the dominated the native people, controlling them for their own needs. Similarly, though, European powers did this by exploiting the fact that these continents at the time were still pre-industrial, while Europe was post-industrial. They then exploited the raw materials and trade system set in place by the natives.

One of the principles that frustrates me the most about America is our need to impose our beliefs and systems on countries that we perceive as being “less” than us. It is the most narcissistic perspective and is the reason many of these countries hate us. After researching imperialism and colonialism, I was reminded that these principles have been set in place long before America came to existence. This is the reason parts of the Middle East have come to despise what we stand for, and in a way they have a right. Though we may have helped, we immediately tried to impose our way of life on theirs. No one in their right mind is going to embrace someone else’s culture with open arms. These ethnocentric beliefs shed light on an ugly side of humanity: the intolerance and distain for differences in other ways of life.

Sources: http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-colonization-of-africa.html

http://www.history.com/topics/thirteen-colonies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States#European_exploration_and_colonization

http://royalnavalmuseum.org/visit_see_victory_cfexhibition_eastafrica.htm