Capitalist Nigger - The Road to Success

Book review: Capitalist Nigger – The Road to Success
Author: Chika Onyeani
ISBN: 0-9678460-9-9
Reviewed by: Madibeng Kgwete

Controversial Nigerian Author Chika Onyeani, who is currently based in the United States, knew that the title of his book – Capitalist Nigger – would offend some black people. He also knew that a greater number of Africans would be even more offended by the contents of the book; but he went ahead and published the book whose release was greeted with as much condemnation as ululation.

Onyeani himself concedes in the introduction to his book that his observations are bound to infuriate a lot of his people, the black race. The author correctly predicted that many people will be angry when he questions the intelligence of Africans as compared to others who attained independence at the same time as most African countries.

Wiseman Khuzwayo, writing in the Business Report last year after Onyeani’s keynote address to the annual conference of the Black Management Forum, said the author “is universally regarded as the scourge of the black capitalist and as one who uses every available opportunity to fire off missiles.”

When the Mail & Guardian newspaper asked Onyeani what hampers blacks from progressing economically, the author pointed out: “Inferiority complex. I met a man who says he is from a village somewhere here [in South Africa]. He told me that the people in his village have lost all their stores to the Pakistanis.

“Why is that? It is because we are not willing to put in the same amount of time. It is because the Pakistanis are willing to work hard; they are prepared to work 25 hours a day and eight days a week. Blacks are not willing to work hard. They think that once you have a shop, you have arrived.”

In the book, Onyeani lambasts blacks all over the world for a variety reasons, including their alleged dependence on other races for their survival, for being “economic slaves” and having a “short attention span” in a long list of accusations.

The chapter, “Blacks illusions of success”, is particularly scathing. In it, Onyeani says, amongst other things, that: “The Black race has a very short attention span. When something happens, we holler and kick, organize demonstrations and rallies. In less that the time it takes to say Jack Daniel, we have already forgotten the cause or point of our anger. We are back in bed with our oppressors.”

Onyeani rarely minces his words when condemning the attitudes of African people. “Africans live for today,” he says. “Let tomorrow take care of itself and be damned.”

The author challenges the notion of African independence. “We are a conquered race and it is utterly foolish for us to believe that we are independent. The black race depends on other communities for its culture, its language, its feeding and its clothing.”

Perhaps the greatest condemnation of the black race in Onyeani’s book is reserved for the chapter, “Detour to the Promised Land: Intellectual bankruptcy”. In this chapter, the author opines: “We have a very short burst of energy which easily extinguishes in the face of impediment. We prefer to be parasites of a culture we had no part in creating”.

Onyeani loves controversy. In fact, he seems to adore controversial people. In one of the chapters in the book where he criticizes African scholars, he writes: “You cannot point to any research that they [African scholars] have come up with which has elicited comment which could be regarded as controversial.”

The author claims that Africans are regarded so lowly in Western countries that “no African scholar in America is called upon as an expert on matters affecting Africa in all the major television networks”.

Onyeani’s biggest frustration is Africa’s continuing dependence on other continents for its survival. The frustration is shared by many African leaders and scholars. Many of Onyeani’s critics lament his outright language as opposed to the bottom line of his arguments, which is black inaction in areas that matter the most: the economy and culture.

One of Africa’s most illustrious academics, Dr. Ali Mazrui, has described Capitalist Nigger as “a passionate sense of anger and collective self-reproach.”

Depending on individuals’ reaction to criticism (harsh criticism in the case of Capitalist Nigger), some will find Onyeani’s book to be completely outrageous. Others will share his frustrations and decide to change.