THERE WAS A COUNTRY; A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIAFRA - MY REVIEW (Part Two)

By Olowogboyega Olumuyiwa.

 

Chinua Achebe

 Post-independence proved thorny for the fledgling nation as the ideals of a new nation contrasted horribly with political realities. Controversial elections, a disputed census and, the General strike of 1964 a general atmosphere of misrule were the sad post-independence realities. 

The long chain of disappointments eventually led to a Coup d’état on January 15, 1966. The coup was said to be led by a group of junior officers, most of them Igbo. Their ringleader was Major Kaduna ChukwumaNzeogwu. This coup was quickly crushed by Major-General AguiyiIronsi who became the Head of State; his infamous Decree No.34 sealed his fate and led to a counter-coup.

   

The “Igbo Coup” led to a thirst for revenge among the Northern section of Nigeria. This resulted in a “counter-coup” in July 1966, led by soldiers of Northern extraction who installed Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon as Head of state.Sadly, the coup resulted in mass killing of Igbos in many areas In the North. This prompted mass migration of many Igbos back to their home-towns.

According to Achebe, the Igbos were major achievers, the fore runners in the move for independence and an ethnic group hated by the rest of Nigeria… 

"Nigeria’s pathetic attempt to crush these idiosyncrasies rather than celebrate them is one of the fundamental reasons the country has not developed as it should and has emerged as a laughingstock.The ploy in the Nigerian context was simple and crude: get the achievers out and replace them with less qualified individuals from the desired ethnic background so as to gain access to the resources of the state”

Achebe described a “pogrom” with over thirty thousand men, women and children slaughtered, hundreds of houses burnt and destroyed-with no questions asked.

The resulting effect of the aforementioned was a deep dissatisfaction among the Eastern section of the country spearheaded by the Premier of the Eastern region, Lt.Col. Odimegwu Ojukwu. The efforts of the Federal Government to address the Eastern concerns were encapsulated in the “Aburi Accord”.

A growing frustration with the inactions of the federal government led to a feeling Achebe coined as “Nigeria did not belong we”. Thus, on May 30, 1967, Eastern Nigeria was declared an independent state by the name “Republic of Biafra” named after “The Bight of Biafra”- an expanse of water. Naturally, the Federal Government of Nigeria repudiated the secessionist move by Biafra and declared a state of emergency and eventually, war.

 

Of the war, Achebe paints a grim picture and understandably so. From the blockade of aid and relief supplies by the federal government, to the “Asaba massacre”, Achebe paints a gory picture. The Biafrans found themselves under armed and fatally unprepared for a war of such magnitude and soon came under heavy assault. The Federal Government of Nigeria did not help matters by imposing an economic blockade on the Republic of Biafra.

 

Achebe’s deepest emotion is captured when he narrates the death of his close friend, the poet, Christopher Okigbo. He narrates how he broke the news to his family; 

“When I finally got myself home and told my family, my three year old, Ike, screamed: “Daddy, don’t let him die!”

The mood of Achebe’s book is rather pensive. Being an active and useful servant of the Republic of Biafra, it is difficult to detach his sentiments as a former Biafran. Thus, we are provided with an arguably bitter account of the attempt of Eastern Nigeria’s quest for self-determination. His celebration of Biafran victories on the war front while painting victories by the Nigerian side as gory and inhuman has a somewhat shallow ring to it.

 

We can further ask ourselves, how accurate is Achebe’s account, given the fact that it’s coming almost more than 40years after the end of the war? Achebe’s contention of a collective hatred against the Igbos is somewhat spurious and ill-considered. In his words, 

 

“Nigerians will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo. The origin of the national resentment of the Igbo is as old as Nigeria and quite as uncomplicated”.

With some contentions of superiority reminiscent of Hitler’s “Super race”, Achebe further contends,

“The Igbo culture, being receptive to change, individualistic, and highly competitive, gave the Igbo man an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots”

He further posits that the lack of inclusion of the Igbo’s in the Nigerian setup is the root of Nigeria’s failures. In a country like Nigeria fraught with ethnic awareness and intolerance, I find Achebe’s contentions inflammatory.

Perhaps, he has a case in the morality of the Federal government’s economic blockade policy against Biafra. He did not mince words in describing Lt. Col. Gowon’s Chief of Staff, Obafemi Awolowo,

“It is my impression that Chief Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself in particular and for the advancement of the Yoruba people in general….However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbos at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose-the Nigeria-Biafra War-his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length. In the Biafran case it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation”.

It is surprising that a man of Achebe’s genius would make such ad hominem remarks. In an earlier part of the book he describes Awolowo as a “radical” and “an upstart”.

It is conceivable that the failure of the Republic of Biafra connived to make Achebe paranoid and instilled in him a belief that Nigeria as a whole is out for the heads of Igbo people.

Achebe’s emphatic and extreme views and his failure to consider Nigeria as a whole stands as the “Achilles heel” in an otherwise brilliant work. For a self-professed proponent of “One Nigeria”, it is ironic that Achebe writes first as a Biafran, secondly as a Nigerian and lastly as a writer.

 

We can excuse Achebe in the Latin maxim “nemodebetesseiudex in propriacausa”, no man should be a judge in his own case. Could Achebe ever be objective in an account that features him as a key figure? 

This book also beggars the question, for a country on the brink of collapse with deep seated distrust; does not diplomacy suggest that Achebe should have toned down his wild allegations? Should Achebe have developed a “God complex” and presume to know the intents and thoughts of men such as Obafemi Awolowo?

After waiting for such a long period to put his thoughts on paper, does wisdom and common sense not compel us to question the veracity of his claim? An emotional story withheld for later re-telling takes on romantic and slightly skewed proportions.

It is instructive however, that Achebe provides practical solutions to Nigeria’s myriad problems. The simple yet complex way of choosing our leaders has been fingered by Achebe as the solution to Nigeria’s problems. Free and fair elections and a set of rules to make corruption a stern offence.

 

Achebe’s work stirs up questions and it is advisable that before coming to a conclusion, Achebe’s work should be juxtaposed with other accounts of the civil war.

 

The writer is on twitter @moscomoet

THERE WAS A COUNTRY; A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIAFRA - MY REVIEW (Part One)

By Olowogboyega Olumuyiwa.

Chinua Achebe is at best a shadowy figure to many Nigerians of this present generation, popular and successful author, "rejecter-in-chief" of two national awards. He is notably known for his Magnum Opus, "Things Fall Apart". Achebe is quite rightly a figure to reckon with in Africa, and indeed the world.

 

Recent uproar about his new book "There was a country; A personal History of Biafra" prompted me to hunt down and read this literary "hot coal". Needless to say, the book made the hunt well worth it. In this book, Chinua Achebe bares his mind in a forthright albeit, simple manner, the language and form of this work is as simple as always.

 

Achebe starts off his book by acquainting us with his family.We're introduced to his father's Uncle, Udoh, "a very generous and tolerant man". He received the first batch of English missionaries in His compound, eventually paving the way for his nephew, Chinua Achebe's father, to associate with the Missionaries. Achebe's father received an education and became one of the early Christian converts.

Despite receiving the foreign religion, Achebe's father still held a deep and profound respect for his "heathen" Uncle. On a few occasions, he tried to convert him to Christianity, "Uncle Udoh"; a proud traditionalist would have no part in this. This religious "tension" between his father and Uncle Udoh would influence the young Chinua Achebe's views on religion in his formative years.

Achebe's mother is the "Strong silent type", educated up to Primary level (unusual for women in those days), a competent helpmeet for her catechist/teacher husband.

We're taken through the author's early life and education, his Primary Education at St. Philip's Central School where he judged himself as being a "hardworking pupil". He provides an illustration of an event

"On a hot and humid day during the wet season, our Geography teacher decided to move our entire class to the cool shade of a large mango tree. After setting up a blackboard he proceeded to give the class a lesson on Geography of Great Britain. The Village "madman" came by, and after standing and listening to the teacher's lesson for a short while, walked up to him, snatched the chalk from his hand, wiped the blackboard, and proceeded to give us an extended lesson on Ogidi, my hometown…..

Looking back, it is instructive, in my estimation, that it was this so called madman whose clarity of perspective first identified the incongruity of our situation"

The young Achebe sat for an entrance examination into Government College,Umuahia.  He was offered a full scholarship to this newly established School.

It was at Government College he met Chike Momah, Ben Uzochukwu and a man who would become one of his long-time and closest friends, Christopher Okigbo who he calls an "extraordinary person", "energetic and so fearless".

Achebe's good fortune persists when the colonial government announced its intention to start a University College in West Africa. After coming first in yet another entrance examination, Chinua Achebe received a "major scholarship" to study medicine at University College, Ibadan. He studied alongside a crop of remarkable Nigerians; Gamaliel Onosode, Flora Nwapa, Igwe Aja Nwachukwu amongst others.

The author points out that his decision to study medicine was purely based on external pressures, and his decision to switch allegiance to the Faculty of Arts would come with a dire price; the loss of his Scholarship.

It is important to note at this point, that the author starts to provide an insight into the country that was once functional, effective and administratively capable. He tells us that after his graduation from University College, he had no worries about unemployment that plagues every young Nigerian graduate of this present age…

"The system was so well organized that as we left University most of us were instantly absorbed into Civil Service, academia, business or industry. We trusted-I did, anyway-the country and its rulers to provide this preparatory education and then a job to serve the nation. I was not disappointed. I went home to my village at the end of the holiday and visited a secondary school within my district, called the Merchants of Light, in Oba, near Ogidi. I asked the principal to give me a job as an English teacher. And he did!"

The young Chinua Achebe later joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and was privileged to rise through the ranks and in time he was appointed "Director of external broadcasting". Joining the Broadcasting service at that time helped the young author hone his writing skills and it was at this time he wrote his Magnum Opus, "Things Fall Apart". In his own words… "I was conscripted by the story, and I was writing it at all times…it felt like a sentence, an imprisonment of creativity. 

   

After the standard fare of rejection from publishers, Achebe's book got into the hands of Alan Hill and Donald McRae, executives of Heinemann. Under their guidance, Heinemann published Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" to mixed reviews with kind words from the Observer and Time and Tide.

  

Achebe soon takes us down Nigeria's road to Independence, he contends that in the period between the '40's and the '50's, there was a silent anticipation in Nigeria, a sense, nay, an expectation of great things to come. This feeling was further heightened when Nigeria's neighbours Ghana, gained her Independence in 1957, as friendly but competitive neighbours, this further heightened the sense of expectation among Nigerians.

   

We are further introduced to someone Achebe calls the "Father of African Independence", popularly known as "Zik", NnamdiAzikiwe, a prominent political figure of that period and the founder of the newspaper, "The West African Pilot", a newspaper that would gain credence by speaking the mind of its masses as well as for its clear and simple written manner.

   

Worthy of Achebe's mention is also Herbert Macualey, the "father of Nigerian nationalism" and the first President of the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) founded in 1922.

   

Awolowo is also singled out as an erudite lawyer, learned but considered "radical and a bit of an upstart".

In Nigeria's race towards Independence, these three played pivotal roles.

(To be continued...)

The writer is on twitter @moscomoet