Monday 17 December 2018

101st birthday of Kenneth Onwuka Dike

(Born 17 December 1917, Oka, Biafra)
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

HISTORIAN, okaa amaludoyen of the Reconstructionary School of African Historical Studies in the aftermath of 400 years of the pan-European enslavement, dispersal, conquest and occupation of the African World: lays the foundation of this restoration of the African as subject and agency in history in the 1956 publication of his classic, Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830-1885; inaugurates a stretch of an encompassing African peoples’ heritage archive and becomes the first African vice-chancellor (president/rector) of the University of Ibadan, and later, May 1966-January 1970, travels the world as one of the envoys of eminent and resolute Biafra resistance intellectuals who campaigns tirelessly against the Igbo genocide (phases I-III) waged by Fulani islamist/jihadist-led Nigeria and its suzerain state Britain, under the premiership of Harold Wilson, in which 3.1 million Igbo people, 25 per cent of this nation’s population, are murdered between 29 May 1966 and 12 January 1970 in this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa.

THE Igbo genocide continues unrelentingly (phase-IV, launched on 13 January 1970) and the genocidists have murdered tens of thousands of additional Igbo during this phase – including the 3000 murdered since October 2015 whilst Nigeria has been run by génocidaire Muhammadu Buhari, a fiendish operative in this campaign since July 1966. Buhari was imposed on Nigeria as head of regime in March 2015 by ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron and ex-US President Barack Hussein Obama, the first African-descent president of the United States in 233 years of the founding of the republic. Professor Dike would be most horrified by Obama’s support of the Igbo genocide.
(Eric Dolphy Quartet, “Softly as in a morning sunrise” [personnel: Dolphy, bass clarinet; Herbie Hancock, piano; Eddie Khan, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, University of Illinoi, 10 March 1963])
*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of African Literature in Defence of History: An essay on Chinua Achebe (2001) and author, with Lakeson Okwuonichaof Why Donald Trump is great for Africa (2018)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe


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