79th birthday of Grant Green

(Born 6 June 1935, St Louis, Missouri, US)

Guitarist, composer, prolific recorder including, especially, Solid, Idle Moments, Matador, Green Street

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

82nd birthday of Oliver Nelson

(Born 4 June 1932, St Louis, Missouri, US)

Bandleader, prolific arranger and producer, composer, especially the classic The Blues and the Abstract Truth (February 1961), featuring multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Bill Evans, baritone saxophonist George Barrow, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Roy Haynes

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

69th birthday of Anthony Braxton

(Born 4 June 1945, Chicago, US)

One of the most prolific composers of his generation with music stretching in multiform genres that he collectively captions “creative music”, multiinstrumentalist, philosopher, academic, chess player

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

Igbo across the world march for freedom, Friday 30 May 2014 – 47th anniversary of the formal declaration of Biafran independence, in response to the Igbo genocide (phases I-II) launched by Nigeria, 29 May 1966

1. On this 30th day of May, Biafran flags irrepressibly guard the cenotaph atop the majestic hills overlooking Enuugwu, Biafran capital, dedicated to the 3.1 million Igbo children, women and men murdered in the genocide and the courageous fighters of the resistance who fell during the period. This is  shortly after the breathtaking memoralising ceremony organised by Nnamdi Kanu, director of Radio Biafra, and the team of indefatigable broadcasters.

 2. On this 30th day of May, Igbo freedom march for Biafra in Malmö, Sweden (follow on link) – as  in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Germany, Britain, Brazil, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Iviore, Ireland, Japan, Morocco, the Czech Republic, Italy, Australia, China, the US, Congo Republic, Congo Democratic Republic, Jamaica, Holland, Malaysia, Israel, Mexico, Pakistan, India, Qatar, Benin Republic, 
Sénégal, Igboland ... across the world ... this list goes on and on and on. The world can’t have failed to take notice. This march for freedom is unstoppable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IhiBgqxllH4

3. On this 30th day of May, Igbo freedom march in Rome, Italy ... This freedom march is unstoppable https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cI4dlGiSSzM

4. On this 30th day of May, Igbo worldwide insist: Freedom march, Padova, Italy ...  (follow on link) … 44 years on, the Igbo are back ... What a future beckons ... Watch the Igbo child in the frame – energetic, full of life – yes,  in contrast to 1966...1967...1968...1969...1970... Igbo survival is surely a gift to the Igbo and the rest of humanity. No one should ever take it for granted. Defend it. Live it. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=333046176844208&set=vb.100004164843835&type=2&theater

5. On this 30th day of May, Great Ghettoman, Great freedom artist, Great Biafran freedom artist, performs in concert https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PYMj3tPE4eo

6. On this 3oth day of May, this ecstatic manifestation of freedom in Taiwan https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=702375666477138&fref=nf

7. On this 30th day of May, the Igbo marchers in Norway https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1457197474524263&set=vb.100007020734507&type=2&theater

8. On this 30th day of May, the march in Hamburg, Germany https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1446858295562469&set=o.222919287822515&type=2&theater

9. On this 30th day of May, 54 seconds of reminiscences … https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=635410849845431&set=o.222919287822515&type=2&theater

10. On this 30th day of May, Igbo march in Brussels, Belgium http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2F5eW4VfNxfB0&h=QAQELAJQB

11. On this day of 30 May, Igbo freedom marchers in Trafalgar Square, London, England https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152140583427688&set=o.222919287822515&type=2&theater

12. On this 30th day of May, the Igbo march in India insistently … Destination: Biafra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6C7Up75tI 

13. On this 3oth day of May, Biafran freedom rally in Dakar, Sénégal https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1427540757509226&set=vb.100007599452964&type=2&theater 

 14. On this 30th day of May, Igbo freedom marchers in Hounslow, near London’s Heathrow airport, England https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=634769386599793&set=o.222919287822515&type=2&theater

15. On this 30th day of May, Igbo freedom marchers in Tokyo, Japan https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=673626482672816&set=o.222919287822515&type=2&theater 

16. Finally, a snapshot on this historic day of 30 May 2014, Igbo march worldwide – for the restoration of Biafran sovereignty https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2VJj3YUtTUo

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

110th birthday of Charles R Drew

(Born 3 June 1904, Washington, DC, US)

Physician, academic, distinguished researcher in medical sciences, directing, soon after his doctorate degree in Columbia University Medical School in 1940 (first African American, had earlier on in 1933 received his MD and Master of Surgery degrees at McGill University), the special New York-based blood transfusion service for Britain, set up in response to the acute blood supply shortages in the country, for both civilian and military, during these early months of the Second World War, named after the Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, California

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Enduring shadows cast across Africa by the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-present day

(Three shadows project insistently across the African landscape, indelible reminder to the peoples of the world of the 3.1 million Igbo children, women and men, one-quarter this nation’s population, which dual-genocidist states Nigeria and Britain murdered during the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970 – the foundational genocide of post-{European}conquest Africa [illustration from paintings on the rock by San people, southern Africa, 1500-3000 years ago])

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

TO UNDERSTAND the politics of the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-present day, is to have an invaluable insight into the salient features and constitutive indices of politics across Africa in the past 50 years. 

Africans elsewhere, including those on the continent and in the diaspora, particularly in the Americas and Europe, remained largely silent on the gruesome events in Nigeria but did not foresee the grave consequences of such indifference as subsequent genocides in Rwanda, Darfur, Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan (latter three in the Sudan) and Zaïre/Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in other wars and conflicts in every geographical region of Africa during the epoch have demonstrated catastrophically, resulting in the additional murder of 12 million Africans:  Liberia, Mali, Libya, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, southern Guinea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo (5 million murdered here since mid-1990s), Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Nigeria – where the dual-genocidists have continued their campaign of the Igbo genocide most unrelentingly, most ruthlessly, as they have now have the Boko Haram terrorist organisation as additional asset in that ghastly assemblage of annihilative forces of theirs now 48 years old. The haunting killing fields have indeed stretched, almost inexorably, from Igboland, Biafra, to the rest of Africa…

Igbo freedom

The Igbo will be free, their independence fully restored. There is no question about it. Neither Britain nor Nigeria can prevent this outcome, despite these 48 years of pulverising assault on Igbo people. Nigeria, for all intents and purposes, collapsed into inconsequence, irretrievably so, when it embarked on the Igbo genocide during that mid-morning of Sunday 29 May 1966. As for Britain, a British prime minister will, much sooner than most are prepared to contemplate presently, inevitably admit to an eagerly awaiting world audience that Britain has been living a lie as some “civilised” country since 29 May 1966. This is the same time frame of the past 48 years it has spent carrying out the gruesome genocide to destroy Igbo people, one of Africa’s most talented and enterprising peoples, which is its formulated pathway to control the lives and fortunes of African peoples indefinitely. 

GENOCIDE is a crime against humanity and both Britain and Nigeria surely know the consequences of their execution of the Igbo genocide.

(John Coltrane Sextet, “Out of this world” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Donald Garrett, clarinet, bass; Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: live at Penthouse Jazz Club, Seattle, US, 30 September 1965])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of Readings from Reading: Essays on African History, Genocide, Literature (2011)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

179th birthday of James Beale Africanus Horton

(Born 1 June 1835, Gloucester, Sierra Leone)

Physician, first Igbo and African graduate of University of Edinburgh Medical School (August 1859), prolific author of the sciences and history, visionary of the restoration of African independence and transformation of African fortunes in the world, distinguished officer of the British army medical corps, banker

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe