The speech of Mr. Harry Brown,
The Christian Missionary to Umuofia,
At the annual dinner of the Royal Colonial Institute on March
31st, 1895
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen. It is with
much honour and felicity that I stand before you today, marking the occasion of
having served my dutiful term as a Missionary in the enigmatic, yet
charismatic, Lower Niger village of Umuofia.
On this ostensibly celebratory evening, I stand
before you with great vacillation, and I know not how to manoeuver nor articulate
the conflicted sentiments surging through me. On one hand I wish to
congratulate the collective British efforts of triumphing in the 'Scramble for
Africa' and institutionalizing in the native populaces the bounties of British
living and civilization. But, on the other hand a tinge of resentment and guilt
infuses and taints the congratulations, for in our victory lies the noticeable
demise of hundreds of intrinsic Nigerian tribes.
When we first commenced our expansionism into
Africa, our fundamental aspirations rested on the unified subjugation of the
native people under British authority, for, of course, their own
well-being. However, what we had not anticipated was the enormity of
the internal fragmentation of societies within the nation and the accompanying
tumults. Let me provide you with a more concrete exemplification of the obscure
ideas I have been assembling:
The people of Umuofia for instance are
constituent of what is called the Igboland—a congregation of self-contained
towns and villages separated by tacit boundaries. The Igbo people form one of
the largest ethnic groups in Africa with nearly fifteen million of the natives
residing in Nigeria and nearly an additional million dispersed in and around
the remainder of Africa.
Despite sharing the same basic culture and
sociopolitical organization, the Igbo people are composed of up to an
astounding two hundred distinct groups! Two hundred distinct groups that we
cannot begin to fathom how to comprehend. The Igbo have their own complex sets
of transcendent beliefs and ideologies that from the British lens appear
absolutely preposterous: the prevailing notions of a preternatural force Chukwu,
lack of a centralized political structure, transparency in communal living, and
a patrilineal emphasis. And what do we do to compensate for our lack of
understanding of the pre prevalent norms of Igboland? We make it our mission to
assault the Igbo people and eradicate the customs at the heart of their living,
to simply impose on them our supreme ideologies.
In the past we have discharged our ideals of
conquest and imperialism with the bestowal of a finer life for those fortunate
enough to be on the receiving end; however, what were to happen if an alien
species were to emerge and declare their mannerisms as superior to those of the
British. Would we succumb to a potent agent of change “for the better”? Would
we abandon our inherent dogmas and willingly adopt those of an alien race?
Would we revere those who establish authority in our nation and annex it as
their own?
No, we would not.
The same goes for the Igbos of Nigeria. The
social and political stratification of Nigerian lives should not be in our
hands but in their own and thus I appeal to you that an aggressive expansionist
policy at the cost of annihilating a nation’s individuality should be a tenet
we reconsider before proceeding with our initiatives in not only Nigeria, but
all of our African colonies.
Hi Shriya, I thought you presented your speech quite well as you used an abundance or rhetoric devices and created a sympathetic and relatable mood for the British audience. This was aided by your description of the Igbo people and the statistics presented, it may have a more intense impact on the audience if aspects of the Igbo culture were brought up. How do you think the British audience would have reacted to a speech like this at the time?
ReplyDeleteHi Karma,
DeleteI do also believe that perhaps weaving in a detailed account of the Igbo people would have enhanced my speech, however keeping in mind the constraint imposed on the length of the blogpost, my primary aim was to curate a piece that would serve as more of a passive aggressive discourse which invoked in the audience not implicit anger towards the orator but more of a receptive attitude. Accordingly, building up to the aim clearly took up more words than I would have liked for it too, which resulted in the brevity regarding too an in depth account on the Igbo.
Thank you for your comment, Karma!
Hey Shriya,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post because you took a similar approach to my speech. You emphasized in the non-aggressive approach and how the Igbo people should be able to speak for themselves therefore speaking for or against colonization. I totally agree with that because I believe the use of force is not right and that respect should go both ways.
Well done!!!!!!!!!
Hello Shriya, this was a very effective blog as you were able to meet the expectations of the blogpost and persuade the audience to prevent the assimilation of the Igbo culture. Something that stood out to me while reading this was when you say: "Would we succumb to a potent agent of change “for the better”? Would we abandon our inherent dogmas and willingly adopt those of an alien race?" To justify, I think this is the case because you were able to persuade the audeicne through the use of rhetoric question to prevent them form the assimilation of the Igbo culture by expressing the significance of change in their culture. overall, you were able to introduce and conclude in a coherent stylistic manner as you were able to drive the overall purpose of this blogpost. Well done! Looking forward for your future blogposts and keep up the good effort! :)
ReplyDelete