There Was a Country: A Memoir
Page 32
What you should remember about the time—and, at least, give us some credit for it—is that we did not take what would be considered normal action under such circumstances. In such an instance, all the senior officials involved—politicians as well as in the military—would have been strung up for their part in the war. This is what happened at the end of the Second World War in Germany; it happened in Japan at the end of the campaign in that part of the world. This is the civilized world’s way of doing things. But we did not do even that. We did set up committees to look into cases such as where rebel officers had been members of the Nigerian armed forces, and their loyalty was supposed to be to the federal government. When the war ended, we reabsorbed practically everyone who was in the army. But there were officers at a certain senior level that we insisted had to accept responsibility for their role in the secession. It was the only thing to do. Probably I could have given pardon; however, I was not the one who gave pardon to Ojukwu.
Source: Chinua Achebe Foundation interview: Gowon in conversation with Pini Jason, 2005.
10. I shared my views about reintegration with Transition magazine during the war period, and they reflect the mind-set of a lot of Biafrans following the war:
The Nigerians say, “You come back; we will integrate you.” This is nonsense—we know they will not—there is so much bitterness on both sides. This talk of integration is so much eyewash and is intended for foreign consumption. The point I am making is that it is not so much what the crimes are of the people persecuted—they may have committed crimes, but the point is they have been persecuted, and on a scale that is almost unbelievable. For a month or two the people were in a state of shock, a sort of total paralysis. It is really no use talking of unity; you don’t unite the dead, you only unite the living, and there must be a minimal willingness on the part of those who are to be united.
Source: Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra,” Transition, pp. 31–38.
Gowon Responds
1. Chinua Achebe Foundation interview: Gowon in conversation with Pini Jason, 2005.
Part 4
Nigeria’s Painful Transitions: A Reappraisal
1. Robert I. Rotberg, Nigeria, Elections and Continuing Challenges (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2007).
West Africa, iss. 4321, iss. 4328–31 (London: West Africa Publishing, 2002) reports:
The Nigerian elections are shaping up as a possible contest of ex-military leaders seeking to recycle their personal relevance, and they all appear to have substantial followings among the civilian political elite.
The News, vol. 28 (Lagos: Independent Communications Network, Ltd., 2007): noted:
Nigerian politics is becoming more disappointing by the day. Instead effacing issues and ideology, our leaders are busy fighting among themselves to be in power just to satisfy their bloated ego and retain their loot.
2. Osita G. Afoaku, “The Politics of Democratic Transition in Congo (Zaire): Implications of the Kabila ‘Revolution,’” Journal of Conflict Studies XIX, no. 2 (Fall 1999), published by the Gregg Center for the Study of War and Society, University of New Brunswick; Smith, Genocide and the Europeans, p. 71; interviews and discussions with several African and French historians and intellectuals; Pfister, Apatheid South Africa, pp. 52–53.
3. In a House of Commons speech made on November 11, 1947; cited at http://wais.stanford.edu/Democracy/democracy_DemocracyAndChurchill%28090503%29.html.
4. The data on the scale of corruption in Nigeria is for the forty years since independence, 1960–2000. Daniel Jordan Smith, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), p. 131; Chinua Achebe, “Open Letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo Rejecting the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFR),” October 15, 2004; Virginia Baily and Hoskins, Veronica, eds., Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social, and Cultural Series 42 (2005–2006); Felix Ukah, Anambra Political Crises: Eye-Witness Account (Anambra, Nigeria: Computer-Edge Publishers, 2005).
5. Elie Wiesel, The Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences (New York: Random House Digital, 2011).
State Failure and the Rise of Terrorism
1. “The Failed States Index, 2011,” Foreign Policy (July/August 2011); http://www.foreignpolicy.com/failedstates.
2. Quotation of Professor Robert Rotberg in James J. F. Forest, Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century: International Perspectives. Combating the Sources and Facilitators, Vol. 2 (Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2007), p. 97.
3. Ibid.
4. R. Borum, “Understanding the Terrorist Mind-set,” FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (July 2003), pp. 1–10, and as discussed in Michael A. Bozarth’s PowerPoint presentation, “Genesis of Terrorism: An Exploration of the Causes of Terrorism and of the Conditions That Produce Them,” Department of Psychology, University of Buffalo. Copyright 2006
5. A Hausa term that is loosely translated into English as “Western education is a sin.”
6. Farouk Chothia, “Who Are Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists?” BBC Africa Service, January 11, 2012; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13809501.
AFTER A WAR
1. Chinua Achebe, Collected Poems (New York: Anchor Books, 2004).
Postscript: The Example of Nelson Mandela
1. Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s third-largest oil producer, after Nigeria and Angola. It has the highest per capita income on the African continent and is ranked twenty-eighth in the world. According to the Organization for Economic Development (OECD): “[A] household survey for poverty evaluation (EEH) carried out by Equatorial Guinea in 2006 [found that] 76.8 percent of the population is poor, which translates into a head-of-household poverty ratio of 66.4 percent. This is a very poor ratio for a country where average income per capita was greater than USD 20 000.” The scale of corruption in that country is staggering. This story should be particularly enlightening: Angelique Chrisafis, “France Probes Africa’s Big Spenders,” Mail and Guardian, February 10, 2012, http://mg.co.za/article/2012-02-10-france-probes-africas-big-spenders/.
See also: BBC News, “President’s son buys $35m US home,” November 8, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.Uk/2/hi/africa/6129992.stm; “A Murderous Dictator, His Rapper Son and a $700m-a-Year Oil Boom,” The Independent, March 16, 2004, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/a-murderous-dictator-his-rapper-son-and-a-700mayear-oil-boom-6172555.html.
Appendix: Brigadier Banjo’s Broadcast to Mid-West
1. www.dawodu.com/banjo.htm.
INDEX
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.
Abimbola, Wande, 27
Abrahams, Peter, 53
Abubakar, Iya, 27
Aburi Accord (1967), 85–87
Achebe, Augustine (brother), 8, 29, 172, 183, 188
Achebe, Chidi (son), 88–89, 190
Achebe, Chinelo (daughter), 65, 68, 69, 200–201
Achebe, Chinua. See also specific topics
on African literature, 53–61
on Biafran new-nation committees, 143–49
and Biafra war. See Nigeria-Biafra war
children of, 65, 68, 88–89
children’s books of, 9
Christian background of, 7–8, 10–14
on Christianity versus ancestral religion, 11–14
and Christopher Okigbo. See Okigbo, Christopher
on cultural crossroads, 8–10
early stories, publication of, 33
education of, 15–29, 33–35
family background, 7–14
flees after 1966 coup,
67–72
Igbo traditions, early exposure to, 8–10, 12–13, 18–19
Igbo traditions and writing, 39, 55
London, first trip, 37
Man of the People, A, 52, 63, 161
meets Christie Okoli Achebe (wife), 31–32
on moral obligation as writer, 53, 55, 58–59
on Nigeria in present, 243–53
at Nigerian Broadcasting Company (NBC), 33, 35–37, 65, 67, 70
at Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS), 30–31
political activities post-war, 244
on post-war Nigeria, 243–53
siblings, 8
and storytelling, 8–9
as teacher, 29–30
Things Fall Apart, 35–39
transformative books read by, 10, 25
Trouble with Nigeria, The, 74, 249
West African religions, study of, 33–34
as writer, observations on, 34–35, 39, 53–57
Achebe, Christie Okoli (wife)
children of, 65, 68, 88–89
education of, 16, 28
family background, 31–33
flees after 1966 coup, 69
hometown of, 31
on market bombing, 189
meets Chinua, 31–32
school led by, 193
Achebe, Frank (brother), 8, 148–49, 172, 183
Achebe, Grace (sister), 8
Achebe, Ike (son), 68, 69, 181, 184
Achebe, Isaiah Okafo (father)
as Christian evangelist, 7–8, 10–14
education, importance to, 10–11
personality traits of, 10, 12–13
Achebe, Janet Anaenechi Iloegbunam (mother)
and Christianity, 8
illness and death of, 181, 183
personality traits of, 9–10
Achebe, John (brother), 8, 17–20, 188
Achebe, Uche (nephew), 191–92
Achebe, Zinobia (sister), 8–9
Achukwe, Willy, 156
Achuzia, Colonel “Air Raid,” 172–73, 217–18
Action Group, 45–46, 51
Adekunle, Benjamin, 133, 137–38
Afigbo, Adiele, 27
Africa. See West Africa
colonial rule. See British colonial rule
leadership, Mandela as model, 258
African Americans, Nigeria-Biafra war, response to, 103–4
African Continental Bank, 42–43
African culture
denigration by colonizers, 54
elements of, 54
African independence
Azikiwe as father of, 41–43, 45
Ghana, 40–41
Mandela as model leader, 258
Nigeria, 48–51
African literature, 53–61
Achebe on moral obligation, 53, 55, 58–59
creating, elements of, 54–55
Négritude, 163–64
and new writers, 59–61
objectives of, 53
oral tradition. See Igbo traditions; Storytelling
past, great works of, 53
politics of representation in, 55
as protest literature, 58–59
Society of Nigerian Authors (SONA), 57, 63
writers/works, 53, 56–57, 109–15
African Night’s Entertainment, The (Ekwensi), 109
African Writers Series, 112
“After a War,” 254–55
Agbam, Sam, 160–61
Agbamuche, Sam, 135
Agbo people, 150
Aghanya, Colonel Ejike Obumneme, 159
Aguiyi-Ironsi, Major General, 80–82, 121, 123
Ahiara Declaration, 143–49
Ahmadu Bello University, 69
“Air Raid,” 175
Aja-Nwachukwu, Igwe, 27
Ajaokuta Steel Mill, 104
Ajayi, Ade, 114
Akintola, Samuel, 64
Akinyele, Theophilus Adeleke, 27
Akpan, N. U., 26, 91
Alale, Phillip, 135
Allen, Walter, 38
Amadi, Elechi, 25, 28
Amharic writings, 53
Anambra State University of Technology (ASUTECH), 112
Anang people, 47, 192
Anber, Paul, 74
Andoni people, 150
Ani (earth goddess), 18
Aniagolu, Justice A. N., 145
Aniebo, I. N. C., 25
Ankrah, Joseph Arthur, 136
Anyaoku, Emeka, 28
Area boys, 69, 248
Arikpo, Okoi, 26
Armah, Ayi Kwei, 112–13
Arusha Declaration, 145–46
Asabe Massacre, 133–35
Ashcroft, Bill, 38
Asika, Ukpabi, 235–36
Awe, Bolanle, 114
Awka (Anambra capital), 31
Awolowo, Obafemi, 45–46, 51, 227
genocide, justification of, 233
Ayida, Allison Akene, 233–34
Azikiwe, Chukwuma, 99
Azikiwe, Nnamdi, 41–43, 45, 52, 72, 91, 119, 152, 163, 248
withdraws support for Biafra, 215–17
Badejo, Victor, 70
Baez, Joan, 139
Balewa, Abubakar Tafawa, 50, 51–52
Balewa, Alhaji Tafewa, 46
Bamana people, 53
Bamgbose, Ayo, 28
Banda, Kamuzu, 258
Banjo, Victor, 109, 129–32, 135–36
broadcast to Mid-West (1967), 259–65
Bank of Biafra, 150
Beattie, Angela, 36–37
Before the Blackout (Soyinka), 52
Beier, Ulli, 115
Bello, Mohammed, 28, 53
Bello, Sir Ahmadu, 46–47, 64, 79
Benin City, 71
Benin kingdom, 2
“Benin Road,” 73
Berlin Conference (1885), 1, 2
Beti, Mongo, 53
“Biafra, 1969,” 141–42
“Biafra: A People Betrayed” (Vonnegut), 106
“Biafra Explains Its Case,” 111
Biafra: Fighting a War Without Guns (documentary film), 153–54
Biafran Organization of Freedom Fighters (BOFF), 159–60
Biafran Research and Production, 156
Biafra secession
declaration of, 91–92, 128
new republic formed. See Republic of Biafra
Nigerian position on, 96–97
and Ojukwu (Emeka), 91–92, 128
supporters of, 91, 97–98
war following. See Nigeria-Biafra war
Biko, Steve, 163, 258
Bisalla, Iliya, 217
Blake, Eugene Carson, 166
Blum, Jeffrey D., 212–13
Boko Haram, 250–51
Bongo, Omar, 98
Brevin, Andrew, 231–32
British colonial rule
administrative functions, excellence of, 36, 43–44
African culture, denigration of, 54
Africans in military, 44
beginning of, 1–2
exports/revenues from Africa, 44, 47
independent Nigeria, indirect rule, 49–52, 124
Indian independence, 40, 48
Brutality of Nations, The (Jacobs), 230
Bureau of External Publicity, 109
Burning Grass (Ekwensi), 109
Cadle, E. A., 28, 114–15
Calabar kingdom, 2
Calabar Massacre, 137–40
Cambridge School Certificate exam, 26
Canada
on Biafran genocide, 231–32
Chinua as Biafran envoy to, 165–66, 222
Canadian Council of Churches, 166
Caritas International, 166, 194
Cawson, Frank, 68
Central School (Nekede), 17–18
Césaire, Aimé, 163, 164
Chike and the River, 9
China, Nigeria-Biafra war, response to, 105, 107
Christianity
in Chinua’s family background, 7–8, 10–14
missionary schools, 20
Christiansen, Per, 185
Chukwuemeka, Vincent, 112
Churchill, Winston, 247
Church Mission Society, 19–20, 75–76
Citadel Press, 176–79, 185
Clark, J. P., 28, 63, 74, 115
Cookey, S. J., 114
Corruption. See Nigeria
Coup of 1966, 63–72
Chinua and family flight, 67–71
Chinua hunted during, 67–68, 70
climate on the street after, 64–66
countercoup, 80–82, 95
Eastern Nigerians, flight to East, 83, 95, 97
Igbo, attacks upon after, 66–67, 69, 76–78, 80–82
in Lagos, failure of, 79–80
leaders of, 65, 79–80
and Man of the People, A, 63–64, 67
military governance following, 80
murders during/after, 64, 67, 68, 70, 71, 79, 81–83
Nigerian military, role in, 78–80
Cozens, A. B., 25
Cricket, 22–23
Cullen, Countee, 164
Currey, James, 112
Damas, Léon Gontran, 163
Dance of the Forest, A (Soyinka), 109
Danjuma, Theophilus Y., 81, 136
“Dead Men’s Path,” 33
Decree 8 (1967), 86–87
Decree No. 34 (1966), 80–81
De Gaulle, Charles, 101–2
Degema people, 150
Delauney, Maurice, 155
Democracy
Igbo ideal of, 246
lack of in Nigeria, 245–48
Dennis Memorial Grammar School (Onitsha), 19–20