BOOK - IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO NAME A CHILD

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That night in November 2008, when President-elect Barack Obama stood to address the world on his victory as the first African American to win the US Presidency, he was standing against the backdrop of hundreds of years of a racist belief that blacks are inferior to whites. It did not begin with Dr. James Watson. It began when the decision was made to go to Africa for slaves to provide free labor for the development of the new world. This notion of blacks as inferior to their white counterpart reached its apogee when European governments led by Great Britain embarked on a vigorous campaign to promote the virtues of colonialism by denigrating the natives of the colonies and claiming that the savages needed to be civilized by the ‘white man’.

Even today, months since his inauguration as President of the United States, some whites in America continue to believe that Barack Obama is not American enough to occupy the White House. So insidious is their attitude towards him that they would reject health care reform to their own detriment so it does not benefit others that they hate. ..

The first step towards denouncing this notion of black inferiority to whites begins at birth. This is why it takes a village to name a child....

About the Author

Chinazor Onianwah was born in Bamenda, Cameroon to a Nigerian father, Chike Onianwah and a Cameroonian mother, Agnes Onianwah on May 5, 1963. He lived his early life at Ibusa, Nigeria, with his grandparents Obi Odita Onianwah and Obi Ogolibuoku Onianwah (both deceased).

Chinazor was four years old in 1967 when the Nigerian civil war reached Ibusa. His grandmother took him and his older brother, Christopher, into the bushes where they remained until the war ended in 1970. They joined the rest of their siblings in Lagos and resumed their education.

At the age of nine, Chinazor watched his father frequently pound a finger on the typewriter for hours, and then his father will pull a paper out of the typewriter. Soon enough he gathers these papers and read them. Then he starts all over to type with one finger. This could go on for days. Eventually the stacks of paper would be put in an envelope and he will take the envelope somewhere in the city and a few days later, he will bring home boxes of a magazine.

This ritual took place on a monthly basis. One day, Chinazor summoned enough courage to pick up a copy of the magazine. The name on the masthead was ‘Africa Travel Trade Journal’, he opened it and his father did not object. They were both having a conversation with their eyes; so far, he did not sense any objection as he read one of the pages. It said right beneath his Father’s name, ‘Editor-in-Chief/Publisher. The lead story was about four years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the black American civil rights leader. The cover read ‘A Requiem for Martin Luther King Jr., America’s Prophet’. He stuffed a few of the magazines in his school bag and looked at his father, his eyes seemed to say no, “Read one at a time, they are all the same copy,” he said.

Chinazor Onianwah graduated from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in 1986 and worked as a Reporter/Researcher with Newswatch Magazine, Nigeria’s premier weekly news magazine. In 1987, he enrolled at Howard University in Washington DC, USA, for further studies in journalism but the burgeoning Internet was a stronger draw to study. He obtained his Microsoft System Engineering Certificate in 1995 and started Total Webcasting Inc., a web developing company that catered to Churches and non-profit organizations. From 1998 thru 2002, the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington DC contracted his company to set up their information technology and train its staff. His work at the Embassy of Nigeria revealed to him that many of the economic development occurring in Africa was not been reported in the US media. As a result, he launched a weekly 30-minute news program ‘Emerging Markets Report’ that was simulcast on the internet and a local radio station in Washington DC. However, the ad revenue generated could not keep up with the cost of airtime. After a six-month run, the program was cancelled.

Chinazor has since returned to his first love, providing editorial and production services for nonprofit organizations’ monthlies and periodicals. He lives with his wife and children in Washington DC where he runs a publishing company, Scripts, Graphics N Things Inc.