Mmuo Biafra strikes! As the British Labour party fractures over the antisemitism/racism crisis of its leader Jeremy Corbyn with this morning’s dramatic resignation from the party of seven influential members of parliament (Lucina Berger, Chuka Umunna, Ann Coffey, Mike Gapes, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker), a reminder that this affliction in the party started half a century ago – 53 years ago to be exact, when the then Labour leader and prime minister, Harold Wilson, centrally directed the prosecution of the Igbo genocide, the foundational genocide of post-(European)occupation Africa, with Britain’s client-state Nigeria … More resignations are expected from the party as this crisis worsens

(Harold Wilson: “would accept a half million dead Biafrans if that was what it took...”)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

“Diminution-of-African life”

AT the apogee of phase-III of this genocide, summer 1968-autumn 1969, 23 years after the horrendous Jewish genocide in east and central Europe carried out by Germany, Harold Wilson informed Clyde Ferguson (United States state department special coordinator for relief to Biafra), on record, that he, Harold Wilson, “would accept half a million dead Biafrans if that was what it took” the Nigerian génocidaires to destroy the Igbo resistance to the genocide (Roger Morris, Uncertain Greatness: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy, 1977: 122). Wilson pursued his genocide drive against the Igbo, steeped in that overarching ideological rubric of the expressed “diminution-of-African life” that constitutes the engaging, subjugating template of 400 years of pan-European enslavement of the African humanity in the Americas and elsewhere, beginning in the 15th century, and Europe’s consequent occupation of the African homeland itself (see, for instance, Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, African Literature in Defence of History: An essay on Chinua Achebe, 2001: 1-54).

Wilson’s Igbo death-wish tally of 500, 000 represented 4.2 per cent of the Igbo population at the time. The prime minister’s on the ground African executioners led by Fulani islamist/jihadists, fulsomely obliged their “massa” Wilson, murdering 3.1 million Igbo by 12 January 1970 – 2.6 million more Igbo than the Labour leader’s slaughtering target or 25 per cent of the Igbo population. 

WILSON would later acknowledge the extent of the British role in the sheer savagery of the Igbo genocide. In his memoirs, he noted that the Nigeria genocidist military, equipped zealously by Britain, expended more small arms ammunition in its campaign to achieve its annhilative mission in Biafra than the amount used by the British armed forces “during the whole” of the Second World War (Harold Wilson, Labour Government, 1964-1970: A Personal Record, 1971: 630, added emphasis). Robert Scott, military advisor in the British diplomatic mission in Nigeria then couldn’t agree more with Wilson on the subject. Scott stated that as Nigerian genocidist military forces unleashed their attacks on Biafran cities, towns and villages, they are the “best defoliant agent known” (Daily Telegraph, London, 11 January 1970). Chillingly dreadful...

(Jeremy Corbyn: current Labour party leader)

Intelligible
SEEN AGAINST this background of Harold Wilson’s repugnant involvement in the Igbo genocide, the very trenchant charge of antisemitism and racism that current Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn has had from some of his colleagues and other prominent persons in Britain, including, especially, those seven members of the party who have just quit, becomes hugely intelligible...

(The seven members of parliament who made their exit from the British Labour party today: [l-r] Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes, Luciana Berger, Ann Coffey, Chuka Umunna*****, Angela Smith, Gavin Shuker) (pic and graphics: Daily Mail, London, Monday 18 February 2019)

SNIPPETS of comments made by two of the seven members of the Labour party during the London press conference today announcing their exit from the party:

Luciana Berger:  “I am embarrassed and ashamed to remain in the party … [the Labour party] is “institutionally anti-Semitic … I cannot remain in the party that I have today come to the sickening conclusion is anti-Semitic … I am leaving behind a culture of bullying, bigotry and intimidation”.

Mike Gapes: “I am sickened that the Labour Party is now a racist, anti-Semitic party”.

*****It is immensely significant to note that Chuka Umunna, one of these now seven ex-Labour party members of the British parliament, is Igbo British, born in England in October 1978, 12 years after the launch of the Igbo genocide

Marcus Roberts Septet, “Nebuchadnezzar” (personnel: Roberts, piano; Wycliffe Gordon, trombone; Wessell Anderson, alto saxophone; Herbert Harris, tenor saxophone; Chris Thomas, bass; Maurice Carnes, drums; Herlin Riley, percussion; recorded: Mastersound Studios, Astoria, New York, US,  9-10 August 1989/10 December 1989 and The Saenger Theatre, New Orleans, US, 15 December 1989)

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is author of the recently published The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019)  (https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/01/published-longest-genocide-since-29-may.html)

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

Igbo genocide: Asaba, Saturday 7 October 1967

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

SATURDAY 7 October 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the mass execution of 700 Igbo male, boys and men, in Asaba (twin Oshimili River port of Biafra) by genocidist Nigeria military brigade commanded by the islamist troika Murtala Muhammed and Ibrahim Haruna and Ibrahim Taiwo. This was during phase-III of the Igbo genocide which Nigeria launched on 6 July 1967. Britain, Nigeria’s suzerain, is a co-genocidist state in the the ongoing genocide, this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, politically, diplomatically, militarily – right from conceptualisation and throughout execution. Britain, under the premiership of Harold Wilson, had sought to “punish” Igbo people for spearheading the political campaign, begun 30 years earlier, to terminate its 100 years conquest and occupation of the constellation of states and peoples of this region of southwestcentral Africa.

Emma Okocha’s Blood on the Niger (TriAtlantic Books, 2006), a compulsory reference in the study of the Igbo genocide, meticulously catalogues the savagery and aftermath of the Asaba massacre. Okocha, who lost most of his family during the slaughter, survived the execution as a 4-year-old.

(Emma Okocha: onye amuma ndi Igbo)

HUNDREDS OF OTHER Igbo boys and men were also murdered by the Muhammed-Haruna-Taiwo brigade in several other towns and villages in this Anioma region of Biafra, west of the Oshimili, as  Okafor Udoka has shown (Okafor Udoka, “Lest we forget the genocide of Asaba”, Skytrend News, 6 October 2014). Ifeanyi Uriah, now 63, another survivor of the Asaba execution, recalls, in an interview with Udoka, the haunting memory of 7 October 1967:

I cannot tell this story without tears in my eyes … They [genocidist brigade] ordered everyone to come out to the [Asaba] town square … They were honest with us. They told us they were going to kill us. They took us to the mounted machine guns. Then it dawned on us that it was true. I was standing with my older brother at the edge of the crowd. He was holding my hand. He had always taken care of me. We shared the same bed. He was the first to be dragged away by the soldiers. He let go of my hand and pushed me into the crowd. He was shot in the back. I could see the blood gushing from his back. He was the first victim of the massacre. Then all hell let loose. I lost count of time. To this day, I live with the smell of the blood of my brethren that night. Even the heavens wept for the victims of this holocaust. Finally the bullets stopped (Udoka: 2014).

Nigeria and Britain slaughtered 3.1 million Igbo people or 25 per cent of this nation’s population during the three phases of the genocide – 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, and phase-IV (beginning 13 January 1970) continues as gruesomely as ever with the murder of tens of thousands of additional Igbo... 

THIS genocide inaugurated Africa’s current age of pestilence.

(John Coltrane Quartet, “Seraphic light” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, Alice Coltrane, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Rashied Ali, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 15 February 1967])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Igbo genocide: Asaba, 7 October 1967

TODAY, Friday 7 October 2016, is the 49th anniversary of the mass execution of 700 Igbo male, boys and men, in Asaba (twin Oshimili River port of Biafra) by genocidist Nigeria military brigade commanded by the islamist troika Murtala Muhammed and Ibrahim Haruna and Ibrahim Taiwo. This was during phase-III of the Igbo genocide which Nigeria launched on 6 July 1967. Britain, Nigeria’s suzerain state, supported the genocide, this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, politically, diplomatically, militarily – right from conceptualisation and throughout execution. Britain, under the premiership of Harold Wilson, had sought to “punish” Igbo people for spearheading the political campaign, begun 30 years earlier, to terminate its 100 years conquest and occupation of the constellation of states and peoples of this region of southwestcentral Africa.

Emma Okocha’s Blood on the Niger (TriAtlantic Books, 2006), a compulsory reference in the study of the Igbo genocide, meticulously catalogues the savagery and aftermath of the Asaba massacre. Okocha, who lost most of his family during the slaughter, survived the execution as a 4-year-old.

(Emma Okocha: onye amuma ndi Igbo)

Hundreds of other Igbo boys and men were also slaughtered by the Muhammed-Haruna-Taiwo brigade in several other towns and villages in this Anioma region of Biafra, west of the Oshimili, as  Okafor Udoka has shown (Okafor Udoka, “Lest we forget the genocide of Asaba”, Skytrend News, 6 October 2014). Ifeanyi Uriah, now 62, another survivor of the Asaba execution, recalls, in an interview with Udoka, the haunting memory of 7 October 1967:

I cannot tell this story without tears in my eyes … They [genocidist brigade] ordered everyone to come out to the [Asaba] town square … They were honest with us. They told us they were going to kill us. They took us to the mounted machine guns. Then it dawned on us that it was true. I was standing with my older brother at the edge of the crowd. He was holding my hand. He had always taken care of me. We shared the same bed. He was the first to be dragged away by the soldiers. He let go of my hand and pushed me into the crowd. He was shot in the back. I could see the blood gushing from his back. He was the first victim of the massacre. Then all hell let loose. I lost count of time. To this day, I live with the smell of the blood of my brethren that night. Even the heavens wept for the victims of this holocaust. Finally the bullets stopped (Udoka: 2014).

Nigeria and Britain murdered 3.1 million Igbo people or 25 per cent of this nation’s population during the three phases of the genocide – 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, and phase-IV continues as gruesomely as ever... This genocide inaugurated Africa’s current age of pestilence. 

The world could have stopped this genocide; the world should have stopped this genocide. To understand the politics of the Igbo genocide and the politics of the “post”-Igbo genocide is to have an invaluable insight into the salient features and constitutive indices of politics across Africa in the past 50 years.

(John Coltrane Quartet, “Seraphic light” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, Alice Coltrane, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Rashied Ali, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 15 February 1967])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Uzo-Uwani

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

The world turns and the world changes,

But one thing does not change.

In all my years, one thing does not change,

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 “undoubtedly strategic rather than just tactical” (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])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Weapons of genocide – British arms to Nigeria to wage genocide against Igbo people: An overview

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

The world turns and the world changes,

But one thing does not change.

In all my years, one thing does not change,

However you disguise it, this thing does not change:

The perpetual struggle between Good and Evil.

(TS Eliot, “Choruses from the Rock”, 1934)

Instrument

Britain, under the primeministership of Harold Wilson, plays an instrumental role in the perpetration of the Igbo genocide – politically, diplomatically and militarily.

Without this entrenched British role, there probably would not have been the Igbo genocide… In this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, Nigeria and its British principal ally murder 3.1 million Igbo or one-quarter of this nation’s population during the course of 44 months…

(Harold Wilson... : “would accept a half million dead Biafrans if that was what it took” Nigeria to destroy the Igbo resistance to the genocide)

1. Early December 1967: Britain supplies  six Saladin armoured personnel carriers (APCs), 30 Saracen APCs along with 2,000 machine guns for them, anti-tank guns and 9 million rounds of ammunition to Nigeria genocidist military…*****

2. By the end of December 1967:  Britain approves export of 1,050 bayonets, 700 grenades, 1,950 rifles with grenade launchers, 15,000 lbs of explosives and two helicopters to Nigeria genocidist military…

3. In the first half of 1968: Britain approves export of 15 million rounds of ammunition, 21,000 mortar bombs, 42,500 Howitzer rounds, 12 Oerlikon guns, 3 Bofors guns, 500 submachine guns, 12 Saladins with guns and spare parts, 30 Saracens and spare parts, 800 bayonets, 4,000 rifles and two other helicopters to Nigeria genocidist military…

4. November 1968: Britain agrees that 5 million more rounds of ammunition, 40,000 more mortar bombs and 2,000 rifles, six Saladins and 20,000 rounds of ammunition for them, and stepped up monthly supplies of ammunition, amounting to a total of 15 million rounds additional to those already agreed, should be sent to Nigeria genocidist military…

5. 1968: The recent deal meant that Britain had supplied 36 million rounds of ammunition in the last few months alone. 

6. By the end of 1968:  Britain had sold £9 million worth of arms, £6 million of which was spent on small arms, to genocidist Nigeria military …

7. March 1969: Britain approves export of 19 million rounds of ammunition, 10,000 grenades and 39,000 mortar bombs to Nigeria genocidist military…

8. August 1969: Britain dispatches two senior RAF officers to Nigeria to advise the genocidists on their air terror campaign…

9. December 1969: Even as the Nigeria genocidist military is about to overrun the Igbo resistance, Michael Stewart, British foreign secretary, is calling for more British military supplies to the campaign, especially armoured cars…

Annhilative register

As the slaughter of the Igbo intensifies, particularly in the catastrophic months of 1968-1969, Harold Wilson is totally unfazed as he informs Clyde Ferguson, the United States state department special coordinator for relief to Biafra, that he, Harold Wilson, “would accept a half million dead Biafrans if that was what it took” Nigeria to destroy the Igbo resistance to the genocide (Roger Morris, Uncertain Greatness: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy, 1977: 122).

As the final tally of the murder of the Igbo demonstrates, Harold Wilson probably has the perverted satisfaction of having his “boys”, the Nigerian subalterns, perform far in excess of their “massa”’s grim target, a subject coldly stated in Wilson’s own memoirs where he notes that the Nigerian military, equipped zealously by Britain as highlighted above, expends more small arms ammunition in its campaign to achieve its annhilative mission in Biafra than the amount used by the British armed forces  “during the whole” of  the Second World War (Harold Wilson, Labour Government, 1964-1970: A Personal Record, 1971: 630, added emphasis).

And on this very annhilative feature, Colonel Robert Scott, military advisor in the British diplomatic mission in Nigeria, during the period, acknowledges, equally gravely, that as Nigerian genocidist military forces unleash their attacks on Biafran cities, towns and villages, they are the “best defoliant agent known” (Daily Telegraph, London, 11 January 1970). Chillingly dreadful but not surprising.

History: asymmetrical alliance?

In an age so obsessed with crass revisionism such is the dread by quite a few states across the world to face up to the treasure trove of incalculable atrocities they committed in history, including more recent history, that they have dabbled in constructing brazenly false, farcical or sanitised narratives to suit the exigencies of contemporary times especially on their records on human rights and crossnational relations. In the example of Britain and the genocidist state that is Nigeria, which has been the focus of this essay, it should be recalled that 50 years before the current global focus on islamist terrorism, Britain had formed a strategic alliance with the islamist Hausa-Fulani north Nigeria religiopolitical leadership, a vociferously anti-African but obsequiously Arabist national grouping opposed to the restoration of African independence (in Nigeria) from the British conquest and occupation which the Igbo had led for 30 years, beginning in the 1930s. As a result, Britain planned to hand over power to the islamists as condition for “termination” of its Nigeria occupation in return for the latter to preserve its vast economic assets and interests in Nigeria in perpetuity. 

Earlier on, the Hausa-Fulani islamists had carried out two premeditated pogroms against Igbo immigrant populations in Jos (northcentral Nigeria) and Kano (north Nigeria) in 1945 and 1953 respectively, both occurring during the epoch of formal British occupation. No perpetrators of these crimes were ever prosecuted by the British. These pogroms ultimately became the  “dress rehearsals”  for the Anglo-Nigerian perpetration of the Igbo genocide, beginning on 29 May 1966, in which 3.1 million Igbo were murdered. In 2009, these same islamists would inaugurate the Boko Haram terrorist organisation, a west Africa region affiliate of the Islamic state caliphate and the world’s most ruthless terrorists (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/institute-for-economics-peace-global.html). 

Alas, in what would probably appear to some as an asymmetrical alliance in the pressing international politics of  today, Britain is allied to a US-led military coalition fighting against the Islamic state (IS), the parent, overarching Sunni islamist-centred caliphate headquartered in the Middle East, whilst simultaneously allied strategically to the north Nigeria Sunni islamist leadership from where Boko Haram, IS’s west Africa key ally, is drawn. 

Despite Boko Haram’s rampaging murder of thousands of Africans in north/northcentral Nigeria and elsewhere, embarked upon after its 2009 inception, it is instructive to note that it wasn’t until November 2012, three years later, soon after the organisation murdered two Europeans near Sokoto (northwest Nigeria), that Britain designated it a “terrorist group”.

*****Reference to compendium (1-9) of British arms dispatch to genocidist Nigeria: Mark Curtis, “Nigeria’s war over Biafra, 1967-70”, markcurtis.wordpress.com

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of Longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (forthcoming, May 2016)

(Wayne Shorter Septet, “The all seeing eye” [personnel: Shorter, tenor saxophone; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Grachan Moncur III, trombone, James Spaulding, alto saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Joe Chambers, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliff, NJ,US, 15 October 1965)

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe