Book Review
Nigeria-Biafra War: A Chronological Construction
M. O. ENE
New Jersey, USA,
Friday, November 30, 2007
Luke Nnaemeka Aneke
The Untold Story of the Nigeria-Biafra War
(ISBN: 1-890430-498 Triumph Publishing, New York, NY 10469, 2007, pp. 756; Price US$29.95)
Available at: www.nigeriabiafrawar.com & signed copies from reedbuck@aol.com
The world and, in particular, Nigeria should be grateful to Dr. Aneke for his painstaking research into the crisis situation in Nigeria in the early 1960…
Obong (General) Philip Effiong (rtd)
Head of State of Biafra (1970)
Whoever proposed that things to be hidden from Africans should be placed between the covers of books is rude and wrong; in any case, he did not know of Dr. Luke Nnaemeka Aneke, Esq. The medical and juris doctor has gone beyond the covers of books, beyond the mountain of literature on Nigeria-Biafra War, and into the 40-year-old documentation of events before, during, and immediately after the Nigeria-Biafra crisis. The fat book, all 766 + 20 pages of pulp, is worth its weight in gold. It has set a new standard in the documentation of the defining period in the 47-year-old British colonial contraption we call Nigeria.
The Untold Story of the Nigeria-Biafra War is a reviewer’s nightmare at first sight. Oh yes, even reviewers want it short and simple! Then you settle down to flip through the pages, and it hit you: This is no ordinary book; it is a documentation of published agency and newspaper reports as the events unfolded, a living resource. This realization immediately raises the question: Why “untold”? The book is composition of told stories, of reports fielded from fields of war and firsthand presentation of the good, the bad, and the evil. In fact, the subtitle captures it better: “A chronological reconstruction of the events of the Nigerian Civil War.” If I were to title the book, I would have preferred: “Nigeria-Biafra War: A Chronological Construction.” This book is a construction of facts from various sources.
Dr. Aneke dedicates the book, for various reasons that he clearly captured, to Major General Philip Effiong, Brigadier Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, and Major General Yakubu Gowon. For anyone who lived during the period under review, Aneke presents the Biafra experience in a bowl from which the Western world saw the crises. A day-by-day documentation, the book reminds those of us who were there of where we were on any given day. Oh yes, we heard the news, the propaganda, the rumors, and the hearsays; this book gives some solid bone to the mush. Those who were not born at the time will have a great opportunity to bounce off all the conflicting stories they have heard on published press reports and make up their own minds. Of course, some reports require a pinch of salt, but they come unadulterated and undistorted. You will know now which to swallow and which to chew and spit out.
The dedication to Tim Onwuatuegwu really got my goat. On my uncontested Nigeria-Biafra War hero, Aneke wrote:
Onwuatuegwu [was] a household name in the mouth of Biafran babies and an undisputed Biafran war machine, dreaded by the enemy. During the war, the mention of the name “Onwuatuegwu” brought comfort and reassurance to the hearts of many troubled and panicked civilians. He survived the war, but he did not survive the peace.
Yes, that got my goat! I met then Colonel Onwuatuegwu for the first and last time over a feast of goat meat at one of the Lokpa communities (Lokpanta, Lokpaukwu, Lokwensu… I am not now sure.) Tim Onwuatuegwu left a lasting impression on me. He was a superstar, the most amiable commander to lead any Biafran army formation. Of all the top army commanders I have heard of or met, the only person that came close was Colonel Nsudo of 53rd Biafran Army Brigade headquartered at Ajalli, Orumba and possibly Colonel Archibong.
In a soon-to-be published book, I learnt about the last moments of Tim Onwuatuegwu. Coming out in June 2008, the book is a truly untold story of a woman who knew a whole lot about Tim Onwuatuegwu, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Arthur Unegebe, Chukwuka, Effiong, Njoku, etc. It is a book to wait for and one which must be read.
But I digress.
Dr. Aneke has presented to the world a book that should grace the shelf of everyone who is a believer in the pen being mightier than the sword. Long after the sound of Shettima silenced, long after the madness of Madison is no more, and long after the boom of bombers has abated, the written words wake us up and make us listen. With foreword by Biafra’s second and last head of state, now late General Philip Efiong, the book marks a definite point in the telling of the Biafran challenge, a renaissance of sorts in the chronicling of the most brutal war on the continent of modern Africa. Biafra happened; there is no denying it. For forty years, many wanted to wake up to be told it never happened. It did, and the story is just beginning to be told. And it must be told so that all our future generations will learn to live life and avoid the snares of ethno-religious enmity.
The book is a goldmine of facts. Every page contains treasures. Take the two known and living villains of the war—in my estimation, that is: Colonels Joe Achuzia (“Air Raid”) and Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle (“Black Scorpion”). On Page 358, we read that the Nigerian government saw it fit to apologize for Adekunle’s behavior (tongue-lashing observers from Sweden, Canada, Britain, Poland, and the United Nations):
We regret that the incident ever occurred,” said Yusufu Gobir, permanent secretary of the ministry of defense.
(New York Times)
Meanwhile, no one complained when Nigeria’s weird warlord of Port Harcourt told the Economist on September 7, 1968 (p. 320):
“I want to see no Red Cross, no Caritas, no World Council of Churches, no Pope, no missionary and no U.N. delegation. I want to prevent even one I[g]bo having even one thing to eat before their capitulation. :::: We shoot at everything that moves. :::: Then we shoot at everything, even things that don’t move.”
(New York Times)
And he walked away from it all unscathed, never called to order, never required by any legitimate organ to atone for his crimes against the peoples of his wife.
On the other side of the crisis, Page 222, Colonel Achuzia makes an ugly confession:
Yes, I have shot at several [Biafran soldiers] on the spot. No one can stand up to bullets flying at him on the basis of good intensions alone. There must be military discipline. If a man must be killed so that others will fight, we have to do it; look at what is at stake. If they capture Biafra, all Biafran senior officers would be given summary court martial and shot. They would round up all the leading citizens and shoot them. As for the common people. Look at the massacres of Easterners in northern Nigeria in 1966.
(New York Times)
What a treasure of a quote: An army officer confesses to killing his own soldiers to drive the fear of death into others! And he rose to become the chief scribe of Ohanaeze Ndiigbo, the elitist, self-appointed leaders of the Igbo race.
Dr. Aneke ruffles feathers with the facts he presented, but there is no way this is about him or what he has to say about the era; it is about the war as seen mainly from the newsrooms of The New York Times. There is no way anyone can do a complete review of the book. Where do you start? Who will ever forget “the youth, identified as Bruce Mayrock of Old Westbury, L. I. New York,” who on May 30, 1969 (Biafra’s second anniversary), self-immolated at the UN headquarters in protest against the “genocide in Biafra.” (Page 481) Bruce’s sister Rachel Mayrock described him as being “very strong on Biafra.”
The book is a mine of facts: from Dr. Nnamdi (Zik) Azikiwe’s defection and his castigation of “puny” leadership of Biafra to Adekunle’s foulmouthed emissions; from the poetry of Dr. Michael Echeruo to Professor F.A.O. Udekwu explanation of “”Shellshock” (page 522) and Dr. Okoye’s explanation of “kwashiorkor;” and from the murderous mayhem of Nigeria's 3rd Marine Commando under Adekunle and Obasanjo to Gowon inexplicable anti-missionaries antics. And today he (Gowon) is a praying minister of God, while Obasanjo professes born-again Christianity! How could we forget Biafran children evacuated to Gabon and how they came back. Did they all return? What about the Swedish nobleman man and his daredevil Biafran Air force! The role of Sao Tome jumps off the pages. Oh, ever heard how Gowon paid back Pope Paul VI for his support of Biafra?
The book has everything on which to hinge future documentations. In fact, any future story on Biafra that does not lift a line or two from this book will be deemed suspect. The book is that deep. It is simply an elephant seen by several blind men: You "see" and say what you feel. Fact is: You feel something.
There is so much in the book you just don’t read it, you devour it. From Zik’s flip-flop through relief from Haile Selasie’s Ethiopia, diplomatic recognitions, and the postwar anti-Vatican sentiments, the book brings back memories long repressed in the crevices of the soul. You read about the little girl from Perth Amboy, New Jersey who went on to meet the Pope on behalf of Biafra. You will read about the role of every one that mattered, from the principal actors to De Gaule, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Omar Bongo, Kenneth David Kaunda, Ted Kennedy, Richard Nixon, etc. You also read that January 10, 1970 was not the first time General Odumegwu-Ojukwu handed over power to General Effiong!
On the flip side, the book is too dependent on reports from The New York Times. There is smattering of other news agency (Reuters, Associated Press, Canada Press, Times of London, etc.) but The New York Times dominates the presentation. Conspicuously missing from the chronicle is a befitting report on the famous so-called "Abagana Ambush." This is a defining moment of Biafra’s successful campaigns. The operation is so legendary its absence is inexcusable.
I understand Aneke not editing the news reports, but the “Ibo,” “Igbo,” and “Igbos” spellings should have been ‘harmonized’ to the correct [Igbo]. Also, the late adoption of “General” for Odumegwu-Ojukwu, long after Gowon moved up to “Major General” and then to “General,” should have been toned down a wee bit. Then again, where does one stop in trying to rearrange the work of others; it is better to present facts as they are, or they will become suspect. There are a few typos that should have been caught: “Faguyi” for “Fajuyi” and “Wale” for “Wole” (Soyinka) are too obvious.
No one can quarrel with the book. It is just not possible because you cannot fight facts. At US$29.95, the book is a steal, a giveaway; featherweight books on Biafra sell for a lot more. This is heavyweight, literarily and symbolically; it has set a chronological compass for future books on Biafra. Future authors can dispute accuracy and particularities, but no one can quarrel with the chronological constructions... forget “reconstruction" for now. The book has set a structure, a framework for an eventual, accurate, and blow-by-blow documentation of the Nigeria-Biafra crises. This will happen when we match the accounts of Daily Times and New Nigerian with those of such Biafran publications as Biafran Sun and Geneva-based Markpress documentations. A tall order, yes, but Dr. Aneke’s painstaking presentation has cracked the door of impossibility open; henceforth, impossibility is nothing.
In the Epilogue, Aneke speaks for many in hoping that Nigeria avoids another trek down the road to another civil war. He is right: With what is happening all over the world, with ragtag armies holding superpowers to task with all sorts of strategies, there will never be another Biafra! The Niger Delta nightmare is just siesta down the road to a devilish disaster, if Nigerian politicians do not get it right and soon.
Here is hoping that someone will someday complement the great efforts of Dr. Aneke with a compilation of the reports of Nigerian and Biafran dailies as well as other non-Western news reports. Coupled with recollections from personal memoirs, including one in the cooking from yours sincerely, the story of Biafra will someday and somehow be told. Dr. Aneke has contributed immensely to the chronicling of the bloodiest war in modern Africa. His effort will be appreciated by generations yet unborn. He has weaved a solid basket frame. Everything else is embellishment.
####
Dr. M. O. Ene, a published author and prolific writer, is a founding member of Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, which is dedicated to the promotion of books with Afrocentric themes. His publications include “KOLANUT – Food of the Gods” and the following novels: Jaundiced Justice (2000), Blighted Blues (2005), and Nnénna: My Daughter, My Mother”(2007).
© Copyright, MOE, Friday, November 30, 2007