Professor of Second Language Acquisition, Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University, United States of America, Professor Uju Anya, has defended her sex preference against some criticism she suffered when she slammed Queen Elizabeth for her alleged contribution to the agony of slavery and horror Igbos went through during the Civil War.
Some had attacked her for being a lesbian, saying it was not part of the culture of the Igbo she is defending.
She, however, does not find this funny, saying, “First of all, I would love to say I am Ada Igbo (the first daughter of Igbo land). They cannot deny me (my heritage) because I am a lesbian. I am a child of Igbo land – I am of an Igbo father, and that is who I am. I don’t disown them; they cannot disown me. I am also a child of Trinidad because my mother is from Trinidad. So, I am African and Caribbean. I have lived in the United States for almost 40 years now; I have been here since 1986. I came here when I was 10 years old, and I am now 46. So, I also consider myself American. I am a very proud mother of two intelligent, loving and kind children biologically and I have one stepson. I am also a professor and academic researcher of language learning and multilingualism.”
The Nigerian-American scholar notes this in an interview with ‘Saturday Punch’ where she also dissociated herself from the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.
She says: “I am being unfairly roped into the issue with IPOB. They are impersonating and using my image and name for pro-IPOB comments. I didn’t say these things. They are harming me and putting me in tremendous pain. I am not involved in Nigerian politics. I have no political candidate that I am supporting and I don’t support IPOB. I am an independent person who expressed my personal pain about the injustice that was done by the British government to my immediate family and my people. I also expressed my pain about the global injustice of the British monarchy at the hand of the Queen in the exploitation, abuse, enslavement, genocide that she caused in many other places besides Igbo land. That is what I want to talk about.”
On the notion that she might have hurt the spirit of Queen Elizabeth with transferred aggression since she was not directly involved in the prosecution of the war, Anya insists that the deceased icon was culpable:
“Absolutely not. Firstly, the Queen was not just merely a figurehead. They like to talk about her as though she were a statue or something like that that they have sitting in the palace. She was not just a figurehead.
They can make the argument that she wasn’t involved in the day-to-day decisions that were made by her government. However, it is very well known that she got briefed every single day about what her government was doing. That is part of the palace proceedings on a daily basis. This briefing is one of the most zealously guarded secrets of Buckingham Palace. Since no one has access to that briefing, nobody can say what the Queen knew or didn’t know. But we know she knew something because she was told every day.”
3 Comments
Let bygone be bygone, UJUAYA. God ALMIGHTY is still on his THRONE. When It’s God’s time, everything will surely be beautiful.
Yes, May be no one can deny you of Igbo heritage now, but in the future, because a Pharaoh may arise that doesn’t recognise lesbians you may be denied. IPOB supporter or not you are clearly propagating what didn’t make room for good efforts to stop the Biafra war at the first instance. Because you were not there or may be a child then you want to fight a lost war in retrospect which is rather unfortunate. Let us look with confidence into the future instead of courting enmity for ourselves.
Are u actually proud to say you are a lesbian base,work and walk freely in America??