A History of ATE

The dates below reflect the days on which parts of this narrative following them were posted to the ATE mailing list.

Mon, 16 Oct 2006

I'm no French speaker, but i believe the translation of the subject of this message means 'The reason for being (in existence)'

In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did

succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.

Mark Twain , The Innocents Abroad, 1869

Welcome, my dear reader, for here fall the first steps into the heart of the very forces that birthed this 'community'. Needless to say, I will be your host and guide through this journey, praising where apt and whenever we find recourse to the present, speaking in strong terms as necessary.

Now, we may or may not be aware that humans first lived in communities devoid of sophistication. For the sake of simplicity, we shall assume that language existed, thus, communication existed. Soon afterwards, signals such as palm fronds to mark bereavement came, and loud noises in a humble attempt at long distance communication, such as gongs and drums in times of danger followed.

The mathematics were formalized and catalogued, science grew, technology approached perfection, the computer got invented, and now computers can also communicate. Whether or not computers will think is left to the reader's judgement.

This is quite a narrow look at how we got to the present, but for our purposes, we can directly insert here that at some point in the Gregorian Calendar, labelled by (1992) a certain fellow with whom this history begins obtained his Doctorate degree from Oregon State University and subsequently joined HP.

By virtue of his exposure to the Internet (then in its infancy, and a bit of a rarity), he heard about The African Forum, a mailing list of mainly Africans abroad (diaspora is a word so often abused in this sense). He joined this mailing list, an not only did he find Africans eager to socialize, he also met a Tiv; a professor based in California .

Being as it was, that the Internet was yet a rarity, and perhaps that South Africans had more exposure to this medium, the African Forum was dominated by South Africans. This did not remain so for long, for with the growth of the group came more Nigerians, and for some reason which we shall not attempt to deduce, discussions on this group degenerated into arguments and disputes about and with regard to identity and race.

The increasing number of Nigerians on this forum represented an increasing exposure of this people to the Internet, and since partaking in the activities on the Africa Forum had become more of an exercise of perseverance than the light-hearted entertainment of reading the writings of people so distant and near at the same time, the natural course was for a breakout. Naijanet was born.

Mon, 23 Nov 2006

Naijanet grew, and like its parent, it fell prey to the same malady, tribalism. The keen reader will recall that in excusing this behaviour, Nigeria is often referred to as a country of over two hundred and fifty tribes.

In this case however, the forming of a new association was not along narrower cultural lines. The name of the new group, Association of Nigerians Abroad (ANA) adequately describes its citizenry.

We should observe that two associations have been mentioned already, and a recurring theme of dispute has been prejudice, leading to racism/tribalism. Why this is so may not be of interest to us, but whether this has to be so can with a good degree of certainty be adjudged to be in the negative.

multiplication is vexation, division is as bad;

the rule of three doth puzzle me, and practice makes me mad.

Anonymous , Elizabethan Manuscript, 1570

ANA was fortunate enough to notably have the presence of at least four Tiv individuals, including the aforementioned professor from California and one of the founders of the present-day Association for Tiv Empowerment.

Like its predecessors, ANA flourished, and was soon large enough to sustain dispute. This time however, the trouble in the air was political in nature.

In the heat of the electoral dispute that was rocking the place, our humble professor whom we have encountered so often in this tale suggested a Tiv only mailing list.

Assisted by Sachia Khasar and Yakubu Tor Agbidye, Professor Mku floated Tivnet in 1996.

...you know that human inventions march from the complex to the simple,

and simplicity is always perfection.

Mark Twain , The Count of Monte Cristo

Tivnet was a beacon of simplicity. There was simply a set of agreed upon guidelines which were used to nominate a moderator (Tyoor). It is plausible to assume that this structure was favoured because this was a group that would be made up of mature and responsible individuals related by tribe and culture.

Fri, 17 Nov 2006

In Tivnet, the tyor was simply expected to present cases of misconduct to the General Assembly for debate, whenever the need arose. This was not a strictly observed guideline, for a case presented itself that stretched the existing Tyoor to his limits.

At the time, Tivnet was hosted on the computers of the University of California by Professor Steve Ugba. A supposedly innocuous mailing list hosted by a professor of the institution would raise no eyebrows in the management, but Professor Ugba was at some point requested to quell rumours pertaining to an illegal organisation being hosted on the University of California 's property. It turned out that someone had said unbecoming things about this professor and the mailing list to UCal authorities, and when it was found out who did this, Tyoor swiftly suspended the culprit from the listserv without recourse to the necessary debate that was supposed to decide his (the culprit) fate.

Amidst the arguments and counter-arguments, Dr Timothy Ijir created a Yahoo Groups account to host Tivnet, and soon the community was at peace again.

Things went on as usual in the real world, and back home in Nigeria , elections were approaching, and as providence would have it, Paul Unongo was campaigning, and a certain Law student at the University of Ibadan , Vembe joined this mailing list, anddecided that this was a suitable audience to whom to air his critical essay on Paul Unongo and his campaign.

A strong argument arose about this essay, and sides were taken. Unfortunately for Vembe, his side of the divide was quite underpopulated. An aggravated Vembe dubbed Tivnet a 'mafia group', and like emergency shutdown procedures follow a grave malfunction in a nuclear station, Vembe was suspended from Tivnet.

Unlike the investigation and repairs that would follow a nuclear station mishap however, a brief uproar ensued, and settled. It was much like a lone horse rider had briefly passed through a small desert at a gallop, raising a bit of dust for some few moments. Tivnet remained.

With further controversy grew the sentiment that a more organised group structure was needed, and when Utyondukyaa Ikper wrote a deeply critical and allegedly controversial article about the Catholic faith and was again automatically suspended by Tyoor, Dr Yakubu Tor-Agbidye wrote a long letter highlighting some issues that needed to be addressed for the sake of Tivnet, and sent this to the General Assembly.

Sat, 6 Jan 2007

First off, an unrelated quote (because it makes the author appear more learned than he truly is).

I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women,

French to men, and German to my horse

Charles V , King of France

1337-1380

In reaction to Dr Yakubu Tor-Agbidye's letter, voices were raided hinting that such a letter was suitable only for an executive committee of Tivnet.

To cut a long story short, two silent months passed and we

(myself, Ajim, Timothy and Adyorough) decided to start another group... because discussions

were not useful on Tivnet anymore. It was just a whole lot of political criticism going on, among other things..

Those were the words of Dr Yakubu Tor-Agbidye as the 'interview' drew to a close.

We had hoped that this new group would focus on dialoguing with officials at home,

would have a constitution, term limit and periodic elections.

"So this is how GTN came into being?"

Actually, after Terfa Vembe's suspension, on account of his critical essay on Paul Unongo,

Dr Timothy Ijir complained about such drastic actions, and perhaps for this reason,Tyoor created

a new mailing list and migrated everyone else except Timothy. Tim's lonely mailing list became

the Global Tiv Network, and subsequently, what we now call Association for Tiv Empowerment.

Fanen Ahua <afanen01@gmail.com>

as recounted by Dr. Yakubu Tor Agbidye

(c) 2006, 2007

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