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10.09.2015 Feature Article

Howard University Radio WHUR 96.3 Inopportune Trip To South Africa

Howard University Radio WHUR 96.3 Inopportune Trip To South Africa
10.09.2015 LISTEN

Upon hearing that a radio station in the Washington DC metropolitan area otherwise known as the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia) was organizing a trip to South Africa in September, my initial response was how did this happen. Why would a black orientated radio station decide to plan a journey to South Africa so soon after the massacres of other Africans by our South African brothers and sisters?

Immediately, I thought that this must be the brainchild of WMMJ Majic 102.3 a prominent radio broadcast station in the DMV owned by Radio One. Radio One and TV One are both properties of the most esteemed Madam Cathy Hughes one of the matriarchs of American mass media and the expresser of the popular moniker –What is your reality?

Conversely, when I placed a call to Majic 102.3 to inquire about the journey to South Africa, I was informed that WHUR 96.3 radio station is the facilitator of this inopportune trip. It is indeed disappointing that at the same time the United States is engulfed with activism from the Black Lives Matter movement, Howard University (HU) radio station is telling the world in no uncertain terms that Black Lives do not Matter in Africa, with this trip from September 22nd to October 2nd, 2015.

It is one thing hearing from African rulers that Black Lives Don’t Matter but another when Howard University cosigns that message. The prestigious HU is located in Washington DC the hub of diplomatic affairs and international relations/news.

Although Spelman College and Morehouse College might have an issue with part of this characterization, I was forced to ask this question. How could Howard University the citadel of African American academic life and leading institution among the Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) be part of such folly? Maybe the answer might be consigned to the much discussed similar relationships between African Americans and South Africans. The comparable histories of Apartheid and Jim Crow segregation that bedeviled both communities might be the reason behind WHUR 96.3’s trip to South Africa at this most inappropriate time. Maybe it was the similarities between the struggles and narratives of President Mandela of South Africa and his American comrade Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

However, my guess is that WHUR 96.3 never factored in the deaths of fellow Africans who were cut up like animals and burnt to death in the twenty-first century public displays of mass lynching in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal. Instead Howard University radio station saw the opportunity to get folks to South Africa on a tour that includes safaris and fancy hotels. Sadly, when it comes to Africa the animals are more important than the inhabitants especially among most people that have western values. Indeed African Americans have been enveloped by these teachings. For example, there is a lack of realization that if you superimpose pictures of the African Katrina levee breach victims on photos of displaced Africans on the continent it would be difficult for people to tell both Africans apart.

But should we expect any better from our African American cousins when Africans on the continent and around the globe have imbibed the notions of self-hate, unabashed individualism, and a race to the bottom. African Americans are more inclined to appreciate their links to Native Americans and North Africans because subconsciously it gets them closer to whiteness and miles away from their African black roots. It is that very same, I am not a darkie mentality that generated the term “African booty scratcher.” After 22year old Nigerian Emmanuel Ohuabunwa scored the highest grade point average (GPA) 3.98 out of 4.0 at the prestigious John Hopkins University he recanted similar horrific ordeals.

When the neuroscientist and ivy league student was 13years old he encountered African Americans in school for the first time. They bullied him and christened him the African booty scratcher like they had called other African immigrants for years. Paradoxically, our cousins normally turn around with a serious face and ask us why Africans do not like African Americans. The harassments of Africans are not limited to classroom antics or youthful exuberance but encompasses other facets of African immigrant life. Most anecdotal and scientific studies would reveal that African immigrants in the United States suffer the utmost harassments and discriminations in their work places from African Americans.

Interestingly, radio stations like WHUR 96.3 and WMMJ 102.3 contribute to the African American disinterest about Africa. They hardly play African music and don’t have African immigrants or their children as presenters on their stations. When morning radio personalities such as Mr. Russ Parr of the 93.9WKYS FM The Russ Parr morning show mentions Africa, they use it for caricatures. How can your origin and/or heritage be a constant joke to you? Whereas African American radio and television stations from New York to Los Angeles, Washington to Chicago, Detroit to New Orleans shy away from serious African contents, on the continent African media cannot wait to consume African American products and identify with our cousins in the west.

But we still have the great divide between those that were born in the west or those that got to the west first, feeling that they know more than those on the continent or those that got here later. It might explain why with all the African intelligential and expatriates in the DMV region the public school systems in Prince Georges County and Washington DC are still underperforming. There are enough Nigerian and Ghanaian immigrants in the Bowie MD area alone that are products of the best primary and secondary school systems in Africa that can assist in revamping those schools in record time. Yet their accents and origins might be impediments for some. In both school systems African Americans are at the helms of leadership which is the same situation at WHUR 96.3 Howard University radio station.

What do we expect of our children who are in these schools when most 40-50 year African Americans do not know the location of Tanzania on the African map? Why do folks in that age range still ask African immigrants about chasing lions, tigers, and zebras in this age of the internet, google, and YouTube? Can we talk about the fact that Africa has nearly one thousand languages instead of how you smashed off that chick? Can we talk about the fact that we are still discovering tribes in Nigeria that have not been contaminated by western and Arabic eccentricities and interests? We sure can and should talk but radio stations like WHUR 96.3 do not do us any favors when they remain nonchalant about the importance of some Black Lives whereas providing spaces for ill-timed safari escapades.

Nnamdi F. Akwada LGSW, MSW is a Social Justice Activist

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