Chinua Achebe’s twin-portals of engaging historic witness

Portal-I: Aftermath of pan-European conquest and occupation of the African World

[The European conquest of Africa] may indeed be a complex affair, but one thing is certain: You do not walk in, seize the land, the person, the history of another, and then sit back and compose hymns of praise in his honour. To do that would amount to calling yourself a bandit; and you won’t to do that. So what do you do? You construct very elaborate excuses for your action. You say, for instance, that the man in question is worthless and quite unfit to manage himself or his affairs. If there are valuable things like gold and diamonds which you are carting away from his territory, you proceed to prove that he doesn’t own them in the right sense of the word – that he and they had just happened to be lying around the same place when you arrived. Finally if the worse comes to the worse, you may even be prepared to question whether such as he can be, like you, fully human. From denying the presence of a man standing there before you, you end up questioning his very humanity …[I]n the [European conquest] situation presence was the critical question, the crucial word. Its denial was the keynote of [this conquest’s] ideology. (Chinua Achebe, “African Literature as Restoration of Celebration”, Kunapipi, 12, 2, 1990: 4; emphasis added) 

Portal-II: Aftermath of Igbo genocide, the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970 

[Nigeria’s] wartime cabinet, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals like Obafemi Awolowo and Anthony Enaharo and super-permanent secretaries such as Allison Akene Ayida among others who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to … Obafemi Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: ‘All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder’. It is my impression that … Obafemi Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition of power, for himself in particular and for the advancement of his Yoruba people in general. And let it be said that there is, on the surface, at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations. However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo … at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose – the Nigeria-Biafra War – his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to any length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation – eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations. (Chinua Achebe, There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra [New York: The Penguin, 2012], p. 233; emphasis added)

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FWD: Genocidist commander Yakubu Gowon attacks US for not arming Nigeria during Igbo genocide, Sunday Punch, Lagos, Sunday 30 November 2014

(In the Punch interview, Yakubu Gowon states, “[I]f the US was truly a diplomatic friend to Nigeria, it should do everything possible to keep the corporate existence of Nigeria”.)

Extraordinary! Gowon can’t really be missing this, which the world knows is his: “[C]orporate existence of [génocidaires]”! Whoever wants to be associated with Genocigeria or Crimeigeria not to mention being part of this quagmire of evil?

(Booker Little Sextet, “Man of words” [personnel: Little, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; Don Friedman, piano; Art Davis, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Nola’s Penthouse Studios, New York, 17 March 1961])

Testimony

The Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, perpetrated by Nigeria and its allies, is the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. 3.1 million Igbo people or one-quarter of this nation’s population were murdered during these phases I-III of the crime. Nigeria launched phase-IV of the genocide on 13 January 1970 and it is continuing...

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108th birthday of Akanu Ibiam

(Born 29 November 1906, Unwana, Igboland)

Affable physician, erudite theologian, principled statesperson, 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 against 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

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72nd birthday of Jimi Hendrix

(Born 27 November 1942, Seattle, US)

Arguably the most creative and accomplished guitarist of all time, collaborates with fellow artist Joan Baez in a historic concert at Steve Paul’s Scene, Manhattan, New York, 29 August 1968, where they both perform free in a concert of solidarity with the people of Biafra, being subjected to the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa by Nigeria and close ally Britain and others, with Hendrix additionally offering a personal donation of US$500.00 to Biafra

(Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez in hearty conversation during intermission at the special Biafra concert, New York, 29 August 1968)

(The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Purple haze” [personnel: Hendrix, guitar; Noel Redding, bass; Mitch Mitchell, drums; recorded: De Lane Lea Studios, London, 11 January 1967/Olympic Studios, London 3-5 February 1967])

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FWD: Call for papers – 4th annual international Igbo conference 2015, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Theme: Igbo Womanhood, Womanbeing and Personhood, 17-18 April 2015 (paper submission deadline: 16 January 2015)
 

Igbo womanhood has been central in the conceptualisation of several African feminist theories. African Womanism is influenced by ‘the Igbo concept of Odozi ani, the “rehabilitator”: the person who wants to make amends to ensure that the country supports its people from an environmental, ethical, and judicial viewpoint’. Nego-feminism or a ‘negotiated feminism’ is inspired by the Igbo/African woman’s experience as it is argued that ‘the theology of nearness grounded in the indigenous installs feminism in Africa as a performance and an altruistic act. African women do feminism; feminism is what they do for themselves and for others.’ In this sense Igbo womanhood which has developed within the milieu of Igbo tradition and culture, has been important in the exploration of African women’s experiences, located within local and global discourses.

 One Igbo scholar pronounced that ‘several concepts among the Igbo are identified with woman, for instance, freedom, stability, morality and justice’, yet suggests that there is an inherent paradox of womanbeing. This paradox, it is argued, centres on the differing treatment of wives and mothers by their male counterparts in which mothers are extolled whilst wives are not. Scholars have documented the economic empowerment of Igbo women in pre-colonial and colonial Nigeria, in part facilitated by flexible gender systems within Igbo culture.

 This conference seeks to create a platform through which to engage with various conceptions of Igbo womanhood, vis-à-vis the changing position of Igbo women and the changing practices in Igbo culture. It seeks to explore Igbo traditions in relation to the role and status of women and examine the numerous social and political contributions made by Igbo women.

 This conference invites papers that examine a variety of aspects of Igbo womanhood which include, but are not limited to:

• Igbo Women’s Writing

• Ritual and Female Participation

• Ọgụ ụmụnwanyị or The Igbo Women’s War of 1929

• Igbo Womanbeing and Personhood

• Mammy Water, Female Deities and Masquerades

• ‘Male Daughters’ and ‘Female Husbands’

• Women and Igbo Cosmology

• Male and Female Principles

• Igbo Women and the Ancestors

• Gendered Spaces

• Igbo Women’s Titles

• Widow Practices

• Igbo Women in the Arts and Sciences

• Representations and Participation of Igbo Women in Nollywood

• Historicising the Changing Position of Igbo Women

• Igbo Women and the Family; Ụmụada (Lineage Daughters) and Nwunyedi (Lineage Wives)

• The Politics of Inheritance

• Igbo Women’s Aesthetics

• Motherhood vis-à-vis Womanhood

• Igbo Women in the Diaspora

• Political Participation of Women in the Pre-colonial, Colonial and Post-independence Eras

• Igbo Women in Digital Spaces

• Feminism, Womanism and the Igbo World

 
Please email abstracts of up to 200 words including the paper title, your name (first name followed by surname), current position, institutional affiliation, email address, mailing address and phone number to Dr Louisa Uchum Egbunike: le7@soas.ac.uk no later than 16th January 2015

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217th birthday of Sojourner Truth

(B ?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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45th 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

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