Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
EVEN IF THE Igbo are not subjected to the cataclysmic genocide of 29 May 1966-present day, this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa in which suzerain state Britain and its Fulani islamist/jihadist-led Nigeria client state have murdered 3.1 million Igbo or 25 per cent of Igbo population (phases I-III, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970) and the dual-genocidists’ additional murder of tens of thousands of Igbo during phase-IV of the genocide (13 January 1970-present day) which includes the current stretch’s blitzkriegesque offensive (since November 2015) that the notorious Muhammadu Buhari regime (imposed in office by ex-US President Barack Hussein Obama, first African-descent president of the United States in 233 years of the founding of the republic, and David Cameron, ex-British prime minister) and its adjunct duo Boko Haram and Fulani militia (erroneously tagged “Fulani herdspeople” in the media in Nigeria) forces (presently, 2 of the world’s 5 deadliest terrorist groups) are waging in occupied Biafra, they, the Igbo, just like any other peoples, have the right to declare themselves free from Nigeria or indeed from any other state in Africa they find themselves domiciled if they so wish.
This was precisely why the Igbo didn’t have to offer some justification for its 30 year-old vanguard role (1930s-October 1960) in formally terminating 76 years of the British conquest and occupation of Nigeria, not even to the north region Fulani islamist/jihadist political establishment, strategic ally of the occupation opposed to African peoples’ liberation and progenitor of the prevailing dominant retrogressive regime forces in Nigeria.
IT MUST be continuously stressed, if need be, that no comparable political forces anywhere else in the South World (Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean, central and south America), during this epoch, wanted their lands occupied indefinitely by any of the rampaging conqueror pan-European states (Britain, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain) as the Fulani islamist/jihadists, this ferociously anti-African peoples’ assemblage. This was why the British aptly “rewarded” them with the responsibility of “overseer”, beginning 1 October 1960, to protect Britain’s vast expropriatory economic interests in Nigeria in perpetuity as well as wage a 53-year-old genocide against the Igbo, one of the most enterprising and transformative peoples in Africa. The glaring catastrophe that is Nigeria becomes hugely intelligible in the context of this history (see Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966, [2019]).
BESIDES, the compositional aftermath of the (European)conqueror/conquered/conquest-state of Africa (Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, the Sudan, the Congo-B, the Congo-K, Guinea-B, Guinea-C, Guinea-E, whatever!) cannot be the basis of the restoration-of-independence for the peoples as this historic right to freedom affirmation rests incontrovertibly on the hitherto conquered constituent African nation or people – Igbo, Bakongo, Wolof, Luo, Wagogo, Buganda, Ibibio, Darfuri, Gĩkũyũ, Herero, Ndebele, Efik, Akan, Bakongo, Gur, Ijo, Punu, Ovambo, Bamileke...
Freedom train; not “agitators”
THIS RIGHT to freedom for a people, for all peoples, is inalienable. As I have demonstrated severally elsewhere (see, for instance, Ekwe-Ekwe, 2019), it is the state, any state, that is transient; definitely, not the people(s) except, of course, they, such as the Igbo, are a target or programmed for genocide by some state/s (Britain and Nigeria in this specific case) or some other agency. No one, no people, therefore, has to offer a reason for being free, for freedom.
So, the rather perfunctory remark, “agitating for Biafra”, “Biafra agitators”, often made by some commentators to highlight the current historic drive of the Biafra freedom movement is, ironically, an assault on the very essence of this freedom. One doesn’t “agitate” for freedom; they, instead, proclaim it: “I am because I am free; I am free because I am”.
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe
Freedom train; not “agitators”
THIS RIGHT to freedom for a people, for all peoples, is inalienable. As I have demonstrated severally elsewhere (see, for instance, Ekwe-Ekwe, 2019), it is the state, any state, that is transient; definitely, not the people(s) except, of course, they, such as the Igbo, are a target or programmed for genocide by some state/s (Britain and Nigeria in this specific case) or some other agency. No one, no people, therefore, has to offer a reason for being free, for freedom.
So, the rather perfunctory remark, “agitating for Biafra”, “Biafra agitators”, often made by some commentators to highlight the current historic drive of the Biafra freedom movement is, ironically, an assault on the very essence of this freedom. One doesn’t “agitate” for freedom; they, instead, proclaim it: “I am because I am free; I am free because I am”.
(Sonny Rollins Trio, “The freedom suite” [personnel: Rollins, tenor saxophone; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Riverside Records, New York, US, 7 March 1958])
******Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019) and co-author, with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why #DonaldTrump is #great for #Africa (2018)
