Ojogbon Globalization

This is a reading of the third and final part of the paper, “You can’t go Home no More”: Africans in America in the Age of Globalization, from the Draft of Chapter 2 in West African migrations : transnational and global pathways in a new century, edited by Mojúbàolú Oluf́únké Okome and Olufemi Vaughan, published by Palgrave Macmillan, NY 2012, pp. 15-40 Home, Identity and Identity Politics – an Introduction• Àjò ò lè dùn k’ónílé má re’lé (no matter how enjoyable the journey might be, one is bound to return home).• Ilé l’àbò ìsinmi oko – Home is the resting place for those returning from the farm (labor). You labor abroad and rest at home.There are many clichés about home – Home is where the heart is, for instance. However, since this is a contribution to a project on Transnational Africa and Globalization foregrounding how personal experiences, professional interests, and scholarship shaped experiences of Diaspora and Transnationality, I feel the necessity to return to Nigeria fro...

I was on “The Takeaway” on Friday, March 30, to speak about equality for African women in the workforce: African Women and the #MeToo Revolution . What challenges    do African women face? Wh at opportunities are available to them?  Tremendous progress has been made but much remains to be done.  It's a short clip that begins with a story about women in the Lesotho military fighting for, and getting the right to become pregnant due to their winning a lawsuit.  The #MeToo phenomenon has not taken off because of the lack of legal protections for women who speak out about sexual harassment and abuse. There are also considerable social constraints to speaking about sexual trauma. Until those barriers are removed, there'll be little airing of trauma and pain in public. I like it that The Takeaway featured African women journalists telling the stories that matter to them and to women in the African continent. I didn't like the photo that accompanied th...