Rethinking Africa is a forward looking blog dedicated to the exchange of innovative thinking on issues affecting the advancement of African peoples wherever they are. We provide rigorous and insightful analyses on the issues affecting Africans and their vision of the world.
(Born 29 April 1899, Washington, DC, United States)
Pianist and bandleader and one of the preeminent composers of the 20th century
(1. Three masters at work: Duke Ellington Trio, “Fleurette Africaine” {“African flower”} [personnel: Ellington, piano; Charles Mingus, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Sound Makers Studios, New York, US, 17 September 1962)])
(2.Three masters at work: Duke Ellington Trio, “Warm valley” [personnel: Ellington, piano; Mingus, bass; Roach, drums; recording and other details as in“1” above])
(3.Three masters at work: Duke Ellington Trio, “Money jungle” [personnel: Ellington, piano; Mingus, bass; Roach, drums; recording and other details as in “1” above])
However you disguise it, this thing does not change:
The perpetual struggle between Good and Evil.
(TS Eliot, “Choruses from the Rock”, 1934)
In November
2014, I wrote a speculative commentary entitled “Thinking the unthinkable? Can
Boko Haram attack Igboland?” in which I wondered about the possibilities of a
direct attack on Biafra by this north Nigeria-based terrorist amalgam (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/thinking-of-unthinkable-can-boko-haram.html). I
concluded the piece by noting that while Boko Haram possessed the capability to
carry out such an attack (especially considering the expansive links the
organisation has with the Nigeria genocidist military and police) the reason
why such an invasion had not yet occurred was “undoubtedlystrategicrather than
justtactical” (emphasis in the original). Boko Haram has since emerged as the world’s deadliest terrorist
organisation (see Institute for Economics & Peace, “Global Terror Index
2015”, http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2015.pdf, accessed 17 November 2015).
It appears the Muhammadu Buhari islamist regime
in Abuja may have reassessed the strategic considerations raised in that
commentary and authorised a Boko Haram strike in Biafra to go ahead regardless
of the consequences. The Nigerian terrorist attack on the Biafran province of
Uzo-Uwani last Monday, 25 April 2016, was carried out by Boko Haram, not Fulani “herdspeople” or, more
appropriately, Fulani militants, surely
the Haram’s cousins, who are one of the globe’s five most deadly terrorist
groups (see IEP’s study already cited). On the contrary, the Fulani “herdspeople”
and their cows in Uzo-Uwani had been withdrawn the previous day (Sunday the
24th) and headed back north to their homeland to pave the way for the Boko
Haram invasion.
Two hundred (200) Biafran children, women and men asleep were murdered by the
terrorists in this premeditated military-style assault, begun shortly after 4am,
fully armed with AK47 rifles, grenades, generously stacked ammunition and
explosives – attacking homes, churches, schools, shops, markets…
The islamist terrorists attacked Uzo-Uwani with
the same motivation, precision and virulence that an ISIS (less deadly record than Boko Haram [again, see IEP’s study]) terrorist unit would
effect whilst attacking the Charlie Hebdo editorial board meeting in Paris,
France, or attacking a Jewish supermarket in Paris or a rock concert in Paris
or attacking an airport terminal in Brussels, Belgium, or attacking a metro
train in Brussels or attacking a Tunis (Tunisia) hotel full of mostly British tourists…
These latter attacks solicited appropriated responses (particularly invoking natural
law, right of self-defence) from the targeted publics and the blood-soaked regime
in Abuja can be in no doubt that the Igbo are fully conversant with their
rights and responsibilities. Ironically, the two key foreign states that
imposed islamist Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s head of regime in March 2015,
Britain and the United States, have the scourge of islamist terrorism as the
current principal threat to their respective national security as the islamist
genocidist regime in Abuja constitutes an existential threat to Igbo people. Just
as Britain and the United States vow to defeat islamist terrorism, Biafra will
defeat islamist genocidist jihadism.
Savagery I have not been able to publish here any of the
raft of still pictures/videos of the Uzo-Uwani massacre that have been posted
on the internet because of the sheer horror of the carnage. It is indeed
indescribable savagery … revoltingly unspeakable sadistic savagery … The islamist
terrorists were transported to Uzo-Uwani in buses from their bases in the Benue
valley in eastcentral Nigeria, 100-150 miles away north of Biafra, and had
crossed the innumerable military/police checkpoints that envelope all land
route approaches to occupied-Biafra from Nigeria (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/in-wake-of-murder-of-three-possibly.html). In other words,
checkpoints’ genocidist troopers flagged through the terrorists to their
gruesome southbound-mission to Uzo-Uwani at dawn on Monday and later flagged the
murderers through northbound back to their Benue bases soon after mission-accomplishment,
four hours later… In the final scene of this carefully choreographed clockwork orgy
of bloodbath, overseeing/coordinating genocidist troopers positioned in the
region then moved into Uzo-Uwani soon after Boko Haram’s withdrawal at
mid-morning from its murder scene, and began to “patrol” the district.
Eve
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the
launch of phase-I of the Igbo genocide (29 May 2016) by Nigeria and Britain,
the islamist regime in Nigeria has now added “Fulani-‘herdspeople’-and-their
cows” as a crucial component to its death strategy in its campaign to annihilate
Igbo people. A cardinal feature of the strategy is to swap or switch around
murderers from the Boko Haram and Fulani militant adjunct forces at its
disposal under the overarching command of “regular” genocidist military and
police who, in addition, remain free to murder Biafran freedom movement demonstrators
as has been the case since November 2015 (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/onitsha-nigeria-4-th-march2016.html).
Uzo-Uwani duly inaugurated this new strategy
compendium. With the Boko Haram bestialising murder of 200 Igbo ensconced in
their beds and the vandalising destruction of the people’s property and spiritual
and sociocultural institutions, all within a timeframe of just four hours, the islamist
regime must feel highly elated at this initial grisly outcome. But the attack
and outcome are intrinsically cowardly and scream of desperation. Muhammadu
Buhari and all those in this strategy of death must now know that they cannot
destroy Igbo resistance to this longest genocide in recent human history: 3.1
million and more and more over the past 50 years, Igbo have survived and will build an advanced state in this
southwestcentral Africa that will reinforce the crucible of the enormous human
capacity to triumph against evil.
Immediate
As the Igbo formulate appropriate programmes to
ensure self-defence for the people, especially for those who live in the border
regions, there are other urgent steps that they must embark upon, right away,
in response to this “Fulani-‘herdspeople’-and-their-cows” strategy:
1. All Fulani “herdspeople and cows” must now
leave all Biafra territory, east and west of the Oshimili River.
2. Igbo must henceforth boycott all beef and beef
products emanating from the Fulani including, especially, those marketed
throughout Biafra. Repeat: Don’t buy Fulani
beef for either home consumption for self or family or for commercial purposes e.g. in cafés, hotels or restaurants. In the wake of Uzo-Uwani, islamist Fulani beef is
toxic, not fit for purpose. The red-line has been crossed. For every one pound weight
of islamist Fulani beef/beef product purchased by a Biafran, the latter adds approximately
one British-pound sterling equivalent to the islamist Fulani genocidist treasury
that enables the jihadist to purchase the next AK47, the next clutch of
grenades, the next suicide belt, the next cache of explosives, and plan the
next Uzo-Uwani style attack on Biafra. One must never be a party to their own annihilation.
The knock-on effect of this immediate boycott is that the Fulani “herdspeople”
will have no other realistic choice but withdraw their “cows” from Biafra when no longer able to be “sold” for beef/beef products, at
once blowing the cover of the genocidists’advance territorial occupying-positioning for
the envisaged jihadist take-over.
3. All Igbo in the diaspora in Nigeria especially
those living in Lagos/west Nigeria and in the Abuja region must join in this “Don’t buy Fulani beef for either home
consumption for self or family or for commercial purposes e.g. in cafés, hotels or restaurants” immediately. No Igbo person is exempt from participating in this historic response.
4. It is now a challenge to Biafran livestock/animal
husbandry farmers and experts to expand the growth and management of efi-Igbo to offset any loss in beef
availability from this boycott. Given the expected specialist skill availability,
Biafra can establish beef self-sufficiency within five years and embark on
exporting the product to other parts of Africa and the world. In the meantime,
people can turn to sheep, goat, chicken and fish for their protein requirement.
5. All adult Biafrans in the liberal-democratic
spaces of abode in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and
elsewhere should, as a matter of urgency, compile a dossier of the Uzo-Uwani
savagery and the other murders of Biafrans by the islamist genocidist military since
November 2015 (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/onitsha-nigeria-4-th-march2016.html)and brief their members of
parliament/congresspeople/senators/deputies/prime ministers/presidents… Similarly, these adult Biafrans
should present such dossier to their parish priest/pastor and
district/provincial/regional bishop and archbishop… 6. In the wake of Uzo-Uwani, each
and every Biafran has a personal, individual role to act. The least is: inform
someone, inform everyone. Muhammadu Buhari and his ilk cannot escape the
tribunal to account for the Igbo genocide, this most gruesome genocide in Africa and one of the worst ever recorded across the world. There is no statute of limitations in international
law in the pursuit, arrest, trial, sentencing and punishment of anyone involved
in the perpetuation of the crime of genocide. Reinhold Hanning, 94, is
currently on trial in a German court at Detmold for his role as a guard in an
Auschwitz death during the Jewish genocide between January 1942 and June 1944 (The Telegraph, London, Friday 29 April
2016). Both Nigeria and joint-ally Britain are signatories to the relevant UN
convention on genocide.
7. All adult Biafran woman and man, wherever they
live on the planet, should contribute towards the arduous task to reconstructing
Uzo-Uwani. This task begins today. People should contact community and church
leaders on the ground in Uzo-Uwani and discuss how and where they can support
this enormous rebuilding. No offer for Uzo-Uwani must be made via the quisling
region regime in Enuugwu which failed monstrously to stand firmly by the
people during last Monday’s islamists’ slaughtering of innocents.
(John Coltrane Sextet, “Consequences”, part-IV of the five-part suite Meditations [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, percussion, Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone, tambourine, bells; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; Rashied Ali, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 23 November 1965])
Novelist, university registrar, academic, Africa west region principal pre-college qualifying examination board (WAEC) administrator, one of the leading intellectuals in defence of the people during the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970
(The New York Contemporary Five plays Bill Dixon’s composition, “Trio” [personnel: Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Tchicai, alto saxophone; Don Moore, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, Jazzhus Montmarte, Copenhagen, Denmark, 15 November 1963][note particularly Tchicai’s ethereal solo - first - at this session])
Prodigiously influential tenor saxophonist, one of the leading lights of the instrument in the jazz repertoire underscored so classically with his TheState of the Tenor: Live at the Village Vanguard, Vols. I & II (1985)
(Joe Henderson Trio, “Serenity” [personnel: Henderson, tenor saxophone; Charlie Haden, bass; Al Foster, drums; recorded: live, Genova jazz festival, Villa Imperiale, Italy, 9 July 1987])
Very distinguished tenor saxophonist, composer, bandleader
(Thelonious Monk Quartet, “In walked Bud” [personnel: Monk, piano; Griffin, tenor saxophone; Ahmed Abdul-Malik, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; recorded: live, Five Spot Café, New York, US, 7 August 1958])
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Flora Nwapa Louis Mbanefo Chinua Achebe Christopher Okigbo Michael Echeruo Ifeagwu Eke SJCookey Sam Mbakwe Janet Mokelu Obiora Udechukwu Uche Chukwumerije Kalu Ezera Philip Efiong Kamene Okonjo Ignatius Kogbara Alvan Ikoku Celestine Okwu Benedict Obumselu Donatus Nwoga NUAkpan Adiele Afigbo Michael Okpara Chukwuka Okonjo Akanu Ibiam Bede Okigbo Okoko Ndem Agwu Okpanku Tim Onwuatuegwu Chudi Sokei Pol Ndu Ben Gbulie Boniface Ofokaja Chuks Ihekaibeya Conrad Nwawo Dennis Osadebe Osita Osadebe Eme Awa Chuba Okadigbo Okechukwu Ikejiani Uzo Egonu Winifred Anuku Anthony Modebe Alex Nwokedi Zeal Onyia Chukwuedo Nwokolo Pius Okigbo Godian Ezekwe Felix Oragwu Ogbogu Kalu Kevin Echeruo Emmanuel Obiechina Uche Okeke Chukwuma Azuonye Onuora Nzekwu Chukuemeka Ike Eddie Okonta Cyprian Ekwensi Nkem Nwankwo John Munonye Gabriel Okara Kenneth Onwuka Dike Eni Njoku Okechukwu Mezu William Achukwu Agwuncha Arthur Nwankwo Kalu Nsi Nwafor Orizu ZCObi Anyaogu Elekwachi Ukonu
(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “WRU” {or Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious –Freud} [personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Scott LaFaro, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums; recorded: Atlantic Studios, New York, US, 31 January 1961])
Poet and anthropologist, one of the theorists in the early circle of scholars that embarks on the study and transformation of the epistemology of Igbo Women’s Studies inaugurated in the 1960s-1970s by novelist Flora Nwapa and sociologist Kamene Okonjo, author of Male Daughters, Female Husbands (1987), the seminal text that examines the historic dual-gender complementarity and consequential socioeconomic dynamism of pre-(British)conquest Biafra
(Alice Coltrane Quintet, “Blue Nile” [personnel: Coltrane, harp;Joe Henderson, alto flute, Pharoah Sanders, alto flute;Ron Carter, bass;Ben Riley, drums; recorded: Coltrane home studios, Dix Hills, New York, US, 26 January 1970])
Outstanding bassist, composer and bandleader whose music encapsulates all the critical junctures of jazz history and his Jazz Workshop a landmark conservatoire of an age
(Charles Mingus Sextet featuring multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy plays the Billy Strayhorn classic composition, “Take the ‘A’ train” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])
Virtuosic bassist, composer, member of Miles Davis First Great Quintet/Sextet (1955-1963) and subject of salutary, standard compositions by varying artistic colleagues: tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, “Mr P.C.”; tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, “Paul’s Pal”; pianist Tommy Flanagan, “Big Paul”; pianist Red Garland, “Mr P. C. Blues”; drummer Max Roach, “Five for Paul”
(John Coltrane Quartet featuring Paul Chambers, “Walkin’” and “The
theme” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, Wynton Kelly, piano; Chambers, bass; Jimmy Cobb, drums; recorded: live, German television, Düsseldorf, Germany, 28 March 1960]) Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe
[report edited
from the original filed by Ebele Orakpo – HE-E]
A team of
seven Biafran engineering students at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Oka,
Biafra, has successfully built a minibus for their bachelor’s degree
programme. They are Callistus Ezeigwe, Victor Obinani, Chinaza Okoro, Ifeanyi
Ezeanolue, Ogbu Ikenna, Fidelis Ominigbo and Nnamdi Nwobodo, and their project
supervisor is Chinonso Achebe, a professor of mechanical engineering at the
university.
The team,
known as the “Autozik Group”, relied mostly on local materials for the
construction of the bus which took five months. The bus is named “Autobully”,
adapted from the shape of the familiar bullion van. Commenting on the production,
Callistus Ezeigwe, the team’s spokesperson states: “The bus was constructed from
start to finish at the university’s workshop, using all necessary design
software and computer-aided design tools. We constructed the chassis, down to
every single part of the minibus … We made the mini bus using mere hand tools.
This means we did all of the construction and folding with our hands since the
university could not provide us with the ground equipment as used in most automobile
companies.”
(John Coltrane Quartet, “Pursuance”, part-III of the four-part suite of the classic, A Love Supreme [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 9 December 1964])
Even if the Igbo were not subjected to the cataclysmic
genocide of 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, the foundational genocide of
post-(European)conquest Africa in which suzerain Britain and its Nigeria client
state murdered 3.1 million Igbo or one-quarter of this nation’s population, and the current phase of the genocide that the
Muhammadu Buhari regime and its adjunct duo Boko Haram and Fulani militant (erroneously tagged “Fulani herdspeople” in the media in Nigeria) forces are waging in occupied Biafra, they, the Igbo, just like any
other peoples, have a right to declare themselves free from Nigeria or
indeed 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 Hausa-Fulani Arabised-islamist political
establishment, strategic ally of the occupation opposed to African liberation and
progenitor of the prevailing dominant regime forces in Nigeria. No
comparable political forces anywhere else in the South World (Africa, Asia,
Oceania, the Americas), during this epoch, wanted their lands occupied indefinitely
by any of the conqueror pan-European states (Britain, Germany, Belgium, France,
Italy, Portugal, Spain) as this north Nigeria formation. The British aptly “rewarded”
the formation with overseeing power, beginning 1 October 1960, to protect Britain’s
vast economic interests in Nigeria in perpetuity as well as wage a 50-year-old genocide
against one of the most enterprising and progressive nations in Africa. The
catastrophe that is Nigeria becomes hugely intelligible in the context of this
history.
Besides, the compositional aftermath of the
(European)conqueror/conquered/conquest-state of Africa (Nigeria, Chad, Niger,
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, Ibibio, Darfuri, Gĩkũyũ, Herero, Efik, Akan, Bakongo,
Gur, Ijo, Punu, Ovambo, Bamileke... “To be” This right to freedom for a people, for all peoples, isinalienable. As I have demonstrated
severally on this platform, it is the state, any state, that is transient;
definitely, not the people(s) except, of course, they are a target or programmed for genocide by some state(s) or some other agency. No one, no people, therefore, has to offer a
reason for being free, for freedom. So, the rather perfunctory remarks,
“agitating for Biafra”, “Biafra agitators”, often made by some commentators to
highlight the current historic drive of the Biafran 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”.
(John Coltrane Quintet,“To be” [personnel: Coltrane, flute; Pharaoh Sanders, flute, piccolo, tambourine; Alice Coltrane, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Rashied Ali, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 15 February 1967])
First mathematics doctorate in Biafra/southwestcentral Africa, rigorous academic and public intellectual, aptly described by theoretical physicist Alexander Obiefoka Animalu as the “foremost African mathematical genius of the 20th century”
(JohnColtrane Quartet, “Equinox” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Steve Davis, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: Atlantic Studios, New York, US, 26 October 1960])
Percipient bassist and academic, enjoys an expansive recording portfolio as leader and with other artists including, pointedly, collaborative work with multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy on the latter’s Out to Lunch (1964) and Iron Man (1963) and the duo’s classic interpretation of “Alone Together” (1963)
(Eric Dolphy Duo, “Alone together” [personnel: Dolphy, bass clarinet; Davis, double bass; recorded: Fuel Records, New York, US, {May?June?July?} 1963])
As the milestones (below) show, the European World-conqueror/conquest state in Africa, right from the outset, in the wake of the notorious November 1884-February 1885 Berlin conference, is at once an occupying and genocide state. The lead conqueror-powers – Belgium, Germany, Britain and France, in that chronological order, would directly or indirectly (e.g., French military brigade based and operating in Rwanda, 1994) perpetrate genocide in which millions of constituent peoples in Africa are murdered in designated countries in eastcentral, south and southwestcentral regions of the continent they occupy or quasi-occupy during the course of 138 years (1878-2016). In the cases of Nigeria, Rwanda, the Sudan, and Democratic Republic of the Congo, beginning with Nigeria’s inaugural launch of the Igbo genocide on 29 May 1966, the African/African-Arabised-islamist “inheritors” of this conquest-genocide state (latter variant applicable especially to Nigeria
and the Sudan), or the “boys” of their respective Europe-based suzerain “massas”, essentially take over as the primary-agent executors of genocide in contemporary Africa.
Haunting milestones
(1) 1878-1908: King Leopold II-led Belgian monarchy/state-organised genocide of constituent peoples in the Congo basin of central Africa (2,442,240 sq km landmass, 80 times the size of Belgium) – 13 million African constituent peoples murdered (see, especially, multiple research by historian and linguist Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem– particularly his Histoire générale du Congo: De l'héritage ancien à la République Démocratique [Paris: Duculot, 1998], p. 344)
(2) 1904-1907: German state-organised genocide of Herero people in Namibia – 65,000 out of 80,000 Herero murdered or 80 per cent of the total Herero population wiped out
(3) 1904-1907: German state-organised genocide of Nama people in Namibia – 10,000 Nama were murdered or 50 per cent of the Nama population destroyed (4) 29 May 1966-12 January 1970 (phases I-III): Nigeria state-organised genocide of Igbo people, foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, supported, centrally, by Britain (diplomatically, politically, militarily) – 3.1 million Igbo or one-quarter of this nation’s population murdered, representing highest number in genocide fatality of a constituent nation or people in Africa during these past 138 years
(5) 13 January 1970-Present Day (phase-IV): Nigeria state-organised/Boko Haram/Fulani Militia genocide of Igbo people (the duo Nigeria genocidist state allies here, actively since early 2000s)– tens of thousands of Igbo murdered (Boko
Haram is presently deadliest
terrorist group in the world– has murdered more people in southwestcentral Africa than those murdered by ISIS in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere, according to the New York’s Institute
for Economics & Peace study, “Global Terror Index 2015”, November 2015; Fulani Militia, or so-called Fulani herdspeople as often tagged in the media in Nigeria, is also a subject of focus in this study)
(6) 1994: Rwanda state-organised genocide of Tutsi people, with a French military brigade stationed in the country during the period implicated in the perpetration of this crime – 800,000 Tutsi murdered
(7) Since mid-1990s: Democratic Republic of the Congo/contiguous states/proxy states-facilitated/organised genocide of African constituent peoples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – 8 million constituent African peoples murdered
(8) 2003-2oo6: The Sudan state-organised genocide of Darfuri people – 300,000 Darfuri murdered
(9) Since 2006: The Sudan state-organised genocide of African constituent peoples in the south of the country (NubaMountains, South Kordofan, Blue Nile) – tens of thousands of African constituent peoples murdered
(Multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy here plays “God bless the child” [composed by Billie Holiday & Arthur Herzog, Jr] [personnel: Dolphy, bass clarinet; recorded: live, University of Illinoi, Champaign, Illinoi, 10 March 1963])
“The conventional wisdom of the Tower of Babel story is that the collapse was a misfortune. That it was the distraction of the weight of many languages that precipitated the tower’s failed architecture. That one monolithic language would have expedited the building, and heaven would have been reached. Whose heaven, she wonders? And what kind? Perhaps the achievement of Paradise was premature, a little hasty if no one could take the time to understand other languages, other views, other narratives. Had they, the heaven they imagined might have been found at their feet. Complicated, demanding, yes, but a view of heaven as life; not heaven as post-life.”
(Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture in Literature, 1993)
Mwalimu! Head of the Tanganyika African National Union, beginning 1954, which spearheads the restoration-of-independence movement in Tanzania that successfully frees the country in 1961 from 80 years of dual German and British conquests and occupations, president of the freed republic, October 1964-November 1985, provides rearguard bases for education, medical care and training (in Tanzania) for numerous southern African restoration-of-independence movements especially from Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa (1960s-1990s), one of the very few leaders in Africa who unequivocally condemns Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, during which Britain and client state Nigeria murder 3.1 million Igbo people – the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, plays key role in the 1978 termination of the Idi Amin Dada murderous regime in neighbouring Uganda
(Max Roach & Anthony Braxton, “Birth” [personnel: Roach, drums; Braxton, reeds; recorded: Ricordi Studios, Milan, Italy, 7 September 1978])
Child prodigy, very distinguished pianist, composer and bandleader, member of the Miles Davis Second Great Quintet of the 1960s (full personnel: Davis, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums), academic (Thelonious Monk Institute/Herb Alpert School of Music, University of California Los Angeles)
(Herbie Hancock Quintet, “The eye of the hurricane” [personnel: Hancock, piano; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; George Coleman, tenor saxophone; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewoods Cliffs, NJ, US, 17 March 1965])
“Lady Day”! One of the most outstanding singers of the 20th century with a unique voice, “uncoverable”, a critic intones, and composer/co-composer of especially the following classics: “Lady sings the blues”, “God bless the child”, “Fine and mellow”
(Billie Holiday & Orchestra, “God bless the child” [personnel: Holiday, vocals; rest of personnel/recording date/other details unavailable])
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is specialist on the state and on genocide & wars in Africa in the post-1966 epoch – beginning with the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-present day, the foundational and most gruesome genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. 3.1 million Igbo or 25 per cent of this nation’s population were murdered by Nigeria and its allies, principally Britain. Africa and the rest of the world largely stood by and watched as the perpetrators enacted this horror most ruthlessly. The world could have stopped this genocide; the world should have stopped this genocide. This genocide inaugurated Africa’s current age of pestilence. During the period, 12 million additional Africans have been murdered in further genocide in Rwanda (1994), Zaïre/DRCongo (variously, since the late 1990s) and Darfur – west of the Sudan – (since 2004) and in other wars in Africa. African peoples have, presently, no other choice but exit/dismantle the extant genocide-state (the bane of their existence & progress) & construct own nation-centred states that serve their interests. He is author of several books & papers on the subject and his new book is entitled The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019).
