"Nigeria, my dear country, I am so ashamed ..." - Eine Stimme aus Afrika, eine gequälte

Eine Philippika - für James Watson? - von einem Nigerianer?

Viele der besten Pressemeldungen auch jetzt zur James Watson-Frage findet man immer wieder auf dem Blog des amerikanischen Journalisten Steve Sailer, auf den auch Steven Pinker mitunter gerne verweist. Nun hat er einen Verweis eingestellt auf den Text eines Nigerianers zur James Watson-Sache. Und dieser ist - fern aller Wissenschaftlichkeit - ein sehr bewegender Text:

James Watson, so der Autor Idang Alibi, ...

"... said what to me looks like a self-evident truth. He told The Sunday Times of London in an interview that in his humble opinion, black people are less intelligent than the White people.

Why are we blacks becoming so reactive, so sensitive to any remarks, no matter how well-meaning, about our failure as a race? Why are we becoming like the Jews who see every accusation as a manifestation of anti-Semitism? I do not know what constitutes intelligence. I leave that to our so-called scholars. But I do know that in terms of organising society for the benefit of the people living in it, we blacks have not shown any intelligence in that direction at all. I am so ashamed of this and sometimes feel that I ought to have belonged to another race.

Nigeria my dear country is a prime example of the inferiority of the black race when compared to other races. Let somebody please tell me whether it is a manifestation of intelligence if a people cannot organise a free, fair and credible election to choose who will lead them. Is it intelligence that we cannot provide simple pipe-borne water for the people? Our public school system has virtually collapsed. Is that a sign of intelligence? Our roads are impassable. ..."

etc. etc. etc.

"... Anywhere in the world today where you have a concentration of black people among other races, the poorest, the least educated, the least achieving, and the most violent group among those races will be the blacks. When indices of underdevelopment are given, black people and countries are sure to occupy the bottom of the ladder. If we are intelligent, why do we not carry first when statistics of development are given?

Look at the African continent. South Africa is the most developed country because of the presence of whites there. This may be an uncomfortable truth for many of us but it exists nevertheless. If the whites had been driven away after independence, we would have seen a steady decline of that country. (...)

Instead of regarding bitter truths expressed by the likes of Watson as a wake-up call for us to engage in sober reflection, we take to the expression of woolly sentiment. For me, this type of reaction is a further evidence of our unintelligence. A man of intelligence recognises genuine criticism against him and takes steps to improve himself in order to prove his critics wrong. But for us blacks, our reaction is to abuse the man who expresses worries about our backwardness.

Other races are deeply worried about us because we are a problem to the world. ..."

Das ist wahrhaftig eine Philippika, die sich gewaschen hat, und die, so möchte man meinen, aus einem gequälten Herzen kommt. Spricht jemand in Europa oder den USA so klagend über sein eigenes Land, über seine eigene Rasse? Und doch sind wir Europäer und Nordamerikaner für viel mehr Unglück und Unrecht in der Welt und ihr Klima verantwortlich als die Afrikaner.

"... Out of a shared sense of humanity, some cannot bear to see how we die in thousands almost every day from clearly preventable diseases and causes. For years now, our people die extremely painful but perfectly preventable deaths from buildings which collapse because they were poorly constructed. How can you tell me we are as intelligent as others when we set traps for ourselves in the name of houses and others do not do so? (...)

As I write this, I do so with great pains in my heart because I know that God has given intelligence in equal measure to all his children irrespective of the colour of their skin. The problem with us black people is that we have refused to use our intelligence to organise ourselves socially and politically. (...)

God himself must be frustrated with his black children. They must be an embarrassment to him. He has given us everything he has given to other of his children; why are his black children not manifesting their own gift?"

Und hier spricht er ebenfalls eine große Wahrheit für Europäer aus:

"I may not know how intelligence is measured but my limited knowledge of intelligence is that it can also be measured by the kind of leaders a people decide to have. ..."

In einem solchen "Intelligenz-Test" würden auch die Deutschen nicht besonders gut abschneiden. Hier seine abschließenden Sätze, sie könnten ganz ebenso an Bewohner der Nordhalbkugel gerichtet sein, vielleicht noch viel mehr an diese als an Afrikaner:

"I am ready for some of our 'patriotic' intellectuals who will write and abuse me for the 'outrage' I have expressed here but I stick to my guns: we lack intelligence and as stated in the Bible, anyone who lacks intelligence should cry unto God who is the custodian of wisdom to bestow some upon him. We should go on our knees today and ask God why we do not appear as intelligent as our other brothers. I am confident God will reveal to us what we must do, and urgently too, to change our terribly unflattering circumstances."

Übersetzt: "... Uns fehlt die Intelligenz und es steht in der Bibel, jeder, dem Intelligenz fehlt, soll zu Gott schreien, der der Hüter der Weisheit ist, damit er ihm welche verleiht. Wir sollten heute auf unsere Knie fallen und Gott fragen, warum es so aussieht, als wären wir nicht so intellgent wie unsere anderen Brüder. Ich habe Vertrauen darin, daß Gott sich uns offenbaren wird, was wir tun müssen, dringend tun müssen, um unsere schrecklichen, nicht zu beschönigenden Lebensumstände zu verbessern."

Eine personale Gottheit vielleicht nicht - aber ungekünstelte Demut macht ganz bestimmt weise. Jeden Menschen. Auch manchen Besserwisser, der glaubt, ausgerechnet durch "Gleichheits-Ideologien" dem Wohl der Menschheit besonders zu dienen.