Dr. Sanders on New York's WNYC Radio: Boko Haram's Abuja and Kano Bombings

http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/new-kidnappings-show-boko-haram-not-fazed-international-threats/

Ambassador Robin Renee Sanders Publishes New Book on Nigeria’s Endangered Cultural Practice – Uli (oo-li)

A FEEEDS BlogSpot

 

Dr. Sanders focuses on African artifacts, sign and symbol systems as a vital form of “communication expressions” important to human cultural communication
 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Africa. The second largest and second most populous Continent in the world. Throughout history, many have been fascinated by the vast array of cultures and cultural practices of this great Continent. Hoping to share valuable insight, appreciation, and awareness of endangered African sign and symbols systems specifically Nigeria’s Uli practice, Ambassador Robin Renee Sanders publishes a new book, titled The Legendary Uli Women of Nigeria.

 

Dr. Sanders, having lived in Africa for several years, was always struck by the ancestral, socio-historical and educational aspects of certain African cultural practices, especially languages, artifacts, and sign and symbol systems from the Ovahimba in Namibia and Pygmies in Congo, to the Horom, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, and Fulani of Nigeria. Her experiences on the Continent made her appreciate each and every culture and “its information systems,” which in the end she called “communication expressions.” “I truly believe that in order to understand and appreciate someone or another nation, one has to begin to respect and learn about their culture or their system – as everything is a system, and a perspective on life and the world we live in together,” states Sanders. “Hence, human cultural communication (one of lectures that I give on FEEEDS® issues), I believe is how nations and people can better understand each other.”

 

The book follows eight extraordinary Nigerian women in the December phase of their lives as they try to preserve the meanings of their endangered sign, symbol, and motif system called Uli. Uli is an acknowledgement of their Igbo history, culture and ancestors. Sanders agrees with others scholars who posit that non-text, non-oral forms of communication expressions such as Nigeria’s Uli, and other sign and symbol systems throughout the world, particularly in Africa, are just as important or “viable” as the written word and their meanings should be respected and preserved. Endangered cultural practices, like Uli, are just as important to protect as endangered languages as a symbiotic relationship exists between the two.

 

The Legendary Uli Women of Nigeria is a uniquely groundbreaking work. It does not discuss, or view African signs and symbols as art or designs for contemporary clothes or jewelry, but stresses that they communicate. It also argues that world signs and symbol systems like Uli should be included as an area of study within the communication and information system academic field, which she recommends be called “communication expressions” since these systems do communicate the socio-historical aspects of a culture.

 

 

For more information on this book, interested parties may log on to www.Xlibris.com for best price;

Visit http://www.ambassadorrobinreneesanders.com for book excerpt.

Also available at www.Amazon.com, and www.barnesandnobel.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Sanders Book: Legendary Uli Women of Nigeria - Available Now in Soft Cover

RSVP! JULY 10, 2-4:30pm: AFRICA FORUM @ GALLUP DC HQ ON ISSUES 4 US-AFRICA LEADERS SUMMIT

  CLICK HERE RSVP TO AFRICA FORUM @ GALLUP HQ http://registration.gallup.com/default.aspx?O=FZC1145AJQ818229RS

      SAVE THE DATE - SPEAKER & TOPICS

 The Africa Forum

July 10, 2014, 2:00 -4:30, Gallup Headquarters 901 F St., Washington, DC

An Africa Forum Event of the FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative, Gallup Poll, The Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa, AllAfrica.com, and Operation Hope

In Partnership with the Ambassadors of Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana, Senegal,& Tanzania

 

The “Africa Forum’s” primary objective is to foster further dialogue and collaboration in advance of the upcoming US-Africa Summit for African Heads of State and Government.

                                          

 

PROGRAM 2:00-4:30 PM

Welcome Remarks: Managing Director Gallup World Poll, Mr. Jon Clifton and His Excellency Ambassador Adefuye, Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S.

 

Panel One – Africa Trade -The US and African Perspectives: The Honorable Florie Liser, U.S. Assistant Trade Representative for Africa;  Mr. Jean-Louis Ekra, President & Chairman Board of Directors, Africa Export-Import Bank;  Her Excellency, Ambassador Dr. Tebelelo Mazile Seretse, Botswana Ambassador to the U.S. Moderator:  Ambassador Robin Sanders, CEO FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative

Special Presentation - Managing Director of Gallup World Poll, Mr. Jon Clifton “African Well Being”

Panel Two – The Future of Africa: Key Sectoral Development & Recommendations:  Power Africa, SMEs/Diaspora Development,& Agriculture: Mr. Rick Angiuoni, US EXIM Bank; Ngozi Bell – Small Business Administration (SBA); Her Excellency and Deputy Dean, Ambassador Faida Mitifu, DRC Ambassador to the U.S.; Her Excellency Liberata Rutageruka Mulamula, Tanzanian Ambassador to the U.S. Moderator: The Honorable Hank Cohen, CEO Cohen & Woods International, Inc.

Panel Three – Africa Governance – The Positives & Challenges, and What Next?: Dr. Sulayman S. Nyang,  Chairman, Department of African Studies, Howard University; Dr. Ray Gilpin, Academic Dean, Africa Center for Security Studies (ACSS),  His Excellency Cheikh Niang, Senegalese Ambassador to the U.S. Moderator:  Bernadette Paolo, Esq. President, The Africa Society

Special Presentation – Africa’s Youth & Financial Literacy Ambassador Sanders & Ms. Jena Roscoe, Senior VP for Government Affairs, Operation HOPE

Closing Remarks – Managing Director of the Gallup World Poll, Mr. Jon Clifton & Nigerian Ambassador Adefuye 

Boko Haram Continues Unabated; Nigeria's Northeast Sees Emergence of Vigilante Groups

A FEEEDS Series blog spot

FEEEDS Watch List: In Addition to Boko Haram, Now Rise of Vigilante Groups 

Following CEO-FEEEDS June 12, 2014, testimony to the U.S. House of Representative's Sub Committee on Africa, Global Health, Human Rights, and International Organization, the kidnappings and actions by Boko Haram have gone unabated and unchallenged, with 21 people killed in the country capital Abuja June 25; 60 people  kidnapped (married women, girls, and boys) 100 miles from Borno's capital Maiduguri on June 24, June 23 the bombing of the polytechnic university in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city; and, in late May another 20 women kidnapped about 9 kilometers from Chibook -- the original site of the #bringbackourgirls tragedy. However, there is another issue which needs watching on top of the bombings, killings, and kidnappings in Chibook and through the Northeast. The so-called "vigilante groups" which have cropped up in Borno state villages over the last 6-8 months should begin to be on the human rights community watch list as well.

 

Given the security vacuum in Nigeria's Northeast with security forces still very much on the defense in their failed efforts to date to combat Boko Haram, a number of village task force groups have cropped up in Borno State, which go by several names: civilian joint task force, vigilante, or village security or watch groups. Thus, on our collective human rights “watchlist” we should be paying more attention to what these groups are doing, how they are operating, or more importantly the potential for what they might morph into. Yes, we all understand why they have developed – they fulfill a serious security vacuum in their villages, and in the Northeast region. However, we have seen in several cases recently in Africa, how these groups, which start with the goal to seemingly filling a security vacuum, can quickly and easily become a security threat themselves. In the case of the Central Africa Republic (CAR) the emergence of the Christian-led anti-balaka groups, which initially came into being in response to the violent Muslim-led Seleka coup leaders have become in some cases just as violent and uncontrollable as the Seleka groups they wanted ousted from CAR. What is now going on in CAR is considered by some "pre-genocidal" as a combination of Christian-on-Muslim, and Muslim-on-Christian violence continues with little end in sight.

In addition to CAR, another example as to why the Borno vigilante groups should be on our human rights "watch list" is the situation in Libya today. Some of the militia groups that the international community depended on so much in the Libyan crisis have clearly morphed into something else with little-to-no control over them by the weak Central Government in Tripoli. In many cases (not all), they have become fiefdoms unto themselves, controlling their respective enclaves by their rules. Militia elements were used to protect the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and it remains unclear today whether any of them were involved in the attack on the Consulate. Thus, the Libyan militia have added another dimension to an existing stability crisis in the country as they see themselves as power units, sometimes becoming equally as lawless as the leaders or individual (as in the case of Lybia’s Muammar Gaddafi) that initially spurred their creation.

 

Clearly, "vigilante" groups, as the word itself implies, require monitoring and watching, and we need to add the groups in Borno to our watch lists. Although there has been little reporting on them, and the reports so far have not indicated that the negative morphing is happening or has happened, we cannot let their existence go without paying more attention to what they are doing and how they are doing it to avoid the CAR anti-balaka or Libyan militia situations.

Thus, the international community needs to put these new forces or Borno-based vigilante groups on its radar screen to monitor so that they do not become yet another instance of a negative unintended consequence in an already difficult security environment in Northeast Nigeria.