One Saturday In August
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
By nine-fifteen there was full house. And when some of the preliminaries were over, several delegates to make opening statements were each invited to the podium. A delegate from West Africa spoke. Another from East Africa spoke. Another from North Africa spoke. Another from Southern Africa spoke. Another from Asia spoke. Another from the Middle East. Down the list the conference came. The official delegates having spoken, there was a short coffee break.
Then three special delegates were each invited to the podium. The first was Dr. Frederick Carl-Moses. His introducer acknowledged that he was one of those fine African gentlemen that HUREF was deeply proud to identify with. There was a rousing applause and the man with a slight limp strolled pensively to the podium. Then a hush fell upon the audience. He surveyed the audience, his eyes rolled momentarily down to the corps of journalists below the platform and then settled on his notes. He heaved a sigh and thanked Ms. Jackie Anderson.
‘You’ve hoisted me so high on the flagpole, Ms. Anderson. Now, you’d better give me some wind to flutter and flap in glee.’
Laughter crawled through the audience. Then he began to speak.
GOOD PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, I GREET YOU!
I traveled many miles away from home, from the Republic of Uodama sometime ago to receive treatment after being a prisoner of conscience. I was to return home about two months later. The two months did not come. The two months have not come. The two months will not come, perhaps not so soon. Sometimes when the time of positive action is dictated not by a natural course but by the whims and caprices of men, great dangers get unleashed.
In any case, the story of my forbidden return has lost its freshness. Perhaps it is now stale and pungent. But simply put, it was because I was planning to overthrow a provisional administration, which, for all intents and purposes, respected me and several enlightened sons and daughters of Uodama, reassuring me and several sons and daughters of Uodama that the course of the political process initiated before the Adona coup could be resumed, and that I would be featured in no small way.
That was the administration, it was said, I was bent on overthrowing.
To increase the insult to my integrity, an editorial titled ‘Rising to the New Challenge’ was published, condemning all we have meant, all we are bound to achieve.
This is no trail of begging sympathies, however heartwarming such sympathies may be. Rather, it is to sketch the perimeters of the greatest tragedy the Third World—and in particular Africa— faces today.
The greatest tragedy Africans and the rest of the Third World face today is not the avalanche of ballistics, even as dangerous and deadly as they seem. The tragedy is the avalanche of misconceptions and misinterpretations dumped consistently and persistently, covertly and overtly in that region of the world. We are victimized perpetually by the ‘infotoxic’ waste dumped by many in the foreign media who have signed a contract with bigotry to dragoon us into obeisance, into unqualified servitude.
The subject of this Conference couldn’t be more appropriate: THIRD WORLD POLITICS: EMANCIPATION A
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Drawing from the college days of his not-so-quiet student activism, K-Moses Nagbe evokes memories of political activism in the 1970s. His world of fiction continues to be set in the Republic of Uodama, a fictitious West African country, which he often describes as 'the country of a little over one million people set among its West African neighbors like an irritating bone stuck amongst some teeth.' In that country, several enlightened sons and daughters are fired up. They want to see social justice. They want to see economic equality. They want to see political fair play. Sometime later, the reality crawls home: In politics, there are always more forces to fight than those that meet the eye. One Saturday in August is a drama of sorts, which pits theory against practice, the ideal against the real, the young against the old, the best against the worst. In the book, neither cruelty nor kindness rests with one color or creed. Yet, Nagbe implies that an amalgam of color and creed working together will redeem the world or make it a little more reassuring place to live and prosper.
About the Author
K-MOSES NAGBE, whose experiences have been spiced by both the rural and the urban aspects of life, always acknowledges his father's role in all this. The father, E. Mombo Nagbe, completed the University of Liberia and returned with his family to his hometown (Sasstown, eastern Liberia) where he served in several capacities, working in education, in politics, and with the Church.
In Liberia, West Africa, Nagbe studied at the Sasstown Government School, the Sinoe High School, the University of Liberia, and the Louis A. Grimes School of Law; in America, he studied at the Glassboro (Rowan) State University, New Jersey.
Nagbe takes important interest in rhetoric/linguistics, literature, law, media studies, and education.
In Africa, Nagbe has taught at the University of Liberia, the Don Bosco Polytechnic, the Samford Dennis High School, the Monrovia College, and the College of West Africa. Presently, he resides in America, where he continues to teach and write.
His list of books and articles includes Sun at Midnight, Wings for the Next Day, A Scream in the Storm, Nuggets of the African Novel (With Notes on the Liberian Literary Heritage), 'Developing Media Content in Liberia,' 'How Literature Is Important to National Development,' 'The Delights and Dangers of Democracy,' 'The Politics of Popular Values,' and 'Liberia: Land of the Magic God.'