107th birthday of Akanu Ibiam

(Born 29 November 1906, Unwana, Igboland)

Affable medical doctor, theologian, and principled statesperson who works for 30 years in the Church of Scotland/Presbyterian Church rural medical programme in central Igboland and west of the Ibibio country and who, in 1967, returns to Queen Elizabeth II of England the three insignias of knighthood (OBE, KBE, KCMG) conferred on him by both her and her father (King George VI) in protest to the central role being played by Britain in the perpetration of the Igbo genocide, the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, when Nigeria murders 3.1 million Igbo people, one-quarter of this nation’s population, between 29 May 1966 and 12 January 1970

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Content page of Journal of Asian and African Studies’s special edition on Chinua Achebe

JOURNAL OF ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES

Volume 48 Number 6 December 2013

CONTENTS

Special Issue on Chinua Achebe: The Igbo, Pogrom, Biafra War

and Genocide in Nigeria

Guest Editor: EC Ejiogu

Articles

Chinua Achebe on Biafra: An Elaborate Deconstruction  653

EC Ejiogu

Reading There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra  671

VY Mudimbe

First, There Was A Country; Then There Wasn’t: Reflections on

Achebe’s New Book  683

Biodun Jeyifo

The Achebean Restoration  698

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

A Paradox of International Criminal Justice: The Biafra Genocide  710

Carol Ijeoma Njoku

Biafra and the discourse on the Igbo Genocide  727

Chima J Korieh

On Biafra: Subverting Imposed Code of Silence  741

EC Ejiogu

There Was A Country: Achebe’s Final Work  752

Douglas B Chambers

My Encounters With Chinua Achebe  760

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

216th birthday of Sojourner Truth

(Born ?1797, Rifton, NY, US; dies 26 Nov 1883, Battle Creek, Mich, US)

Leading abolitionist of African American enslavement and campaigner for gender rights and equality whose historic address at the December 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio, entitled “Ain’t I a Woman?”, has been copiously anthologised ever since

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44th anniversary of John Lennon’s decision to return MBE knighthood medal to Queen Elizabeth II over British role in Igbo genocide

(Medal is sent back to Buckingham Palace, 25 November 1969)

Iconic Beetle’s John Lennon sends back the 1965 MBE knighthood medal bestowed on him by Queen Elizabeth II of England over Britain’s role in the Igbo genocide by Nigeria in which 3.1 million Igbo people, one-quarter of this nation’s population, are murdered between 29 May 1966 and 12 January 1970

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

79th birthday of Zeal Onyia

(Born 24 November 1934, Asaba, Igboland)

Masterly trumpeter, composer and public intellectual whose 1958 composition, the effervescent “Egwu Jazz bu Egwu Igbo” (“Jazz is Igbo music”), leads him to research Igbo contribution to the development of jazz, African American classical music, and who receives the highest accolade of his career when none other than Satchmo himself, Louis Armstrong, visiting Lagos, Nigeria, in 1961 and listening to Onyia play at Surulere stadium, inquires in that unmistakeably Popsian voice, “Who is that hip cat?”

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

84th anniversary of Ogu umu nwanyi Igbo or Igbo Women’s War

(Resistance begins 23 November 1929, Aba, Igboland)

With the initial mobilisation of 10,000 women which soon expands to 25,000 and joined by women from the neighbouring Ibibio country, Igbo women in Aba (east Igboland) embark on a 2-month historic resistance against the oppressively expansive stretch of 50 years of the British conquest, paralysing the occupation regime and its institutions in much of the east, central and southern regions of Igboland consequently and losing 50 members of the freedom movement during the campaign, shot by the occupation police

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

76th birthday of Adiele Afigbo

(Born 22 November 1937, Ihube, Igboland)

Dean of Igbo Historical Studies whose seminal books and papers, particularly Warrant Chiefs (1972), Ropes of Sand (1981), Ikenga (1986), The Igbo and their Neighbours (1987), and Groundwork of Igbo History (1991) are foundational texts and references for the study of Igbo history and civilisation

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe