Rethinking Africa is a forward looking blog dedicated to the exchange of innovative thinking on issues affecting the advancement of African peoples wherever they are. We provide rigorous and insightful analyses on the issues affecting Africans and their vision of the world.
Friday, 2 March 2012
A love supreme indeed
“A leader… must at all times stand for justice in dealing with the People… should be the symbol of justice… A leader who serves [the] people well will be enshrined in their hearts and minds. This is all the reward [the leader] can expect in his/[her] life-time…” – Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Ahiara Declaration, Ahiara, south Biafra, 1 June 1969
General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s extraordinary service of dedication to the Igbo during the Igbo genocide (29 May 1966-12 January 1970), Africa’s most gruesome and devastating genocide of the 20th century, is his love for his people, for humanity. 3.1 million Igbo people or one-quarter of this nation’s population were murdered by the Nigeria state and its allies during those 44 haunting months of certain death. As the General is laid to rest later on today in his beloved Nnewi, no other than Coltrane’s classic suite, A Love Supreme, sets the panoramic canvass that defines Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s indelible service. Here, the John Coltrane Quartet plays “Psalm”, the fourth and final movement of A Love Supreme – personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums (recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, United States, 9 December 1964).
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is specialist on the state and on genocide & wars in Africa in the post-1966 epoch – beginning with the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-present day, the foundational and most gruesome genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. 3.1 million Igbo or 25 per cent of this nation’s population were murdered by Nigeria and its allies, principally Britain. Africa and the rest of the world largely stood by and watched as the perpetrators enacted this horror most ruthlessly. The world could have stopped this genocide; the world should have stopped this genocide. This genocide inaugurated Africa’s current age of pestilence. During the period, 12 million additional Africans have been murdered in further genocide in Rwanda (1994), Zaïre/DRCongo (variously, since the late 1990s) and Darfur – west of the Sudan – (since 2004) and in other wars in Africa. African peoples have, presently, no other choice but exit/dismantle the extant genocide-state (the bane of their existence & progress) & construct own nation-centred states that serve their interests. He is author of several books & papers on the subject and his new book is entitled The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019).
No comments:
Post a Comment