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.
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe MULTIINTRUMENTALIST geniuswhose compositions, recordings and evocative soloing with any of his chosen instruments (alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, bassoon, oboe...) in his multicombo-led settings and across a range of collaborative ensembles (especially those headed by drummers Chico Hamilton and Max Roach, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, pianists George Russell and Andrew Hill, alto and tenor saxophonist Oliver Nelson,tenor and soprano saxophonist John Coltrane, and bassist Charles Mingus) have a distinctly recognisable Dolphyian signature that has impacted the jazz repertoire most profoundly
(Eric Dolphy Quartet, “Softly as in a morning sunrise” [personnel: Dolphy, bass clarinet; Herbie Hancock, piano; Eddie Khan, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, University of Illinoi, Champaign, Illinoi, 10 March 1963])
(John Coltrane Quintet, “Brasilia” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Reggie Workman, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: live, at The Village Vanguard, New York, US, 1 November 1961])
(Charles Mingus Sextet – with Eric Dolphy, Cornell University 1964, “Meditations” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, flute, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, Cornell University, 18 March 1964])
******Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019) and co-author, with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why #DonaldTrump is #great for #Africa (2018)
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe PIANIST,pianists’ pianist whose “encyclopaedic knowledge”, to quote the recurring phrase from many a critic of the jazz piano repertoire, ensures he ranges effortlessly in his solo take from the stride traditions of the 1920s-1930s (James Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Fats Waller) to the late 1940s/early 1950s revolutionary breakthroughs of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols and the later flights of Cecil Taylor but still sounding Jaki Byard; academic; indelible footprints on the Charles Mingus jazz workshop – particularly the classic sextet: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums
(Jaki Byard Trio, “Trendsition zildjian”[personnel: Byard, piano; David Izenzon, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: Prestige, New York, US, 31 October 1967])
(Charles Mingus Sextet – featuring Eric Dolphy, Live in Oslo 1964, “So long Eric” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, alto saxophone; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, 12 April 1964])
PRODIGIOUSLYcreative trumpeter and composer who, whilst still in his teens/early 20s, records critically acclaimed albums with masters Roach, Coltrane, and Dolphy, with whom he co-leads a 3-volume classic recording of music their quintet (Little, trumpet; Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Mal Waldron, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums) plays during a 2-week residency at New York’s (US) Five Spot Café in July 1961
(Booker Little Sextet, “Moods in free time” [personnel: Little, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Dolphy, alto saxophone; Don Friedman, piano; Art Davis, bass; Roach, drums; recorded: Nola’s Penthouse Studios, New York, US, 17 March 1961])
(Booker Little Quartet, “Minor sweet” [personnel: Little, trumpet; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Scott LaFaro, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; recorded: Time Label, New York, US, 13 April 1960])
*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019) and co-author, with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why #DonaldTrump is #great for #Africa (2018)
DISTINGUISHED prolific author of children’s books including the critically acclaimed MC Higgins, the Great
(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])
(Born 23 September 1926, Hamlet, NC, United States)
ICONOCLASTIC tenor (and soprano) saxophonist and composer who, arguably, has had the most profound impact on the development of jazz in the past 50 years (Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe)
(John Coltrane Quartetat work – left to right: Coltrane, Jones, Garrison, Tyner)
(John Coltrane Quartet, Both directions at once – the lost album [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; additional personnel: Ravi Coltrane, compiler, Ken Druker, compiler, Rudy Van Gelder, mixing, Sonny Rollins, liner notes; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 6 March 1963; released 55 years later, 29 June 2018!])
Multiinstrumentalist genius – alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, bassoon, oboe… – whose compositions, recordings and evocative soloing with any chosen instrument in his own multicombo-led settings and across a range of collaborative ensembles (especially those led by drummers Chico Hamilton and Max Roach, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, pianists George Russell and Andrew Hill, tenor and soprano saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Charles Mingus) have a distinctly recognisable Dolphyian signature and impacted the jazz repertoire most profoundly
(Eric Dolphy Quartet, “Red planet” [personnel: Dolphy, alto saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Eddie Khan, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, University of Illinoi, Champaign, Illinoi, 10 March 1963])
(Eric Dolphy Duo, “Alone together” [personnel: Dolphy, bass clarinet; Richard Davis, double bass; recorded: Fuel Records, New York, US, {May?June?July?} 1963])
Pianist, pianists’ pianist whose “encyclopaedic knowledge”(to quote the recurring phrase from many a critic) of the jazz piano repertoire ensures he ranges effortlessly in his solo take from the stride traditions of the 1920s-1930s (James Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Fats Waller) to the late 1940s/early 1950s revolutionary breakthroughs of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols and the later flights of Cecil Taylor but still sounding Jaki Byard; academic, indelible footprints on the Charles Mingus jazz workshop – particularly the classic sextet: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums
(Charles Mingus Sextet –
featuring Eric Dolphy, Live in Oslo 1964, “So long Eric” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, alto saxophone; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded:
live, University Aula, 12 April 1964])
IN AN ADDRESS to a business forum in London on Wednesday 18 April 2018, organised as part of the ongoing Commonwealth heads of state/government conference in the British capital, genocidist Nigeria’s head of regime Muhammadu Buhari says the following about young people in his “country”:
Nigerian
youths just want to sit down and do nothing, banking on the notion that Nigeria
is an oil rich nation… More than 60 per cent of the country is under 30, a lot
of them haven’t been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria is an oil
producing country, therefore, they sit and do nothing, and get housing, health care, education for free.
(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])
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe “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])
Lyrics of “God bless the child”(Billie Holiday & Arthur Herzog, Jr)
THEM that’s got
shall get
Them that’s not
shall lose
So the Bible said
and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa
may have
But God bless the
child that’s got his own
That’s got his own
Yes, the strong gets
more
While the weak ones
fade
Empty pockets don’t
ever make the grade
Mama may have, Papa
may have
But God bless the
child that’s got his own
That’s got his own
Money, you’ve got
lots of friends
Crowding round the
door
When you’re gone,
spending ends
They don’t come no
more
Rich relations give
Crust of bread and
such
You can help
yourself
But don’t take too
much
Mama may have, Papa
may have
But God bless the
child that’s got his own
That’s got his own
MAMA may have, Papa
may have
But God bless the
child that’s got his own
That’s got his own
He just worry ’bout
nothin’
Cause he’s got his
own
(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])
PRODIGIOUSLYcreative trumpeter and composer who, whilst still in his teens/early 20s, records critically acclaimed albums with masters Roach, Coltrane, and Dolphy, with whom he co-leads a 3-volume classic recording of music their quintet (Little, trumpet; Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Mal Waldron, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums) plays during a 2-week residency at New York’s (US) Five Spot Café in July 1961
(Booker Little Sextet, “We speak” [personnel: Little, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Dolphy, alto saxophone; Don Friedman, piano; Art Davis, bass; Roach, drums; recorded: Nola’s Penthouse Studios, New York, US, 17 March 1961])
(Booker Little Sextet, “Moods in free time” [personnel and recording details as in above])
(Booker Little Quartet, “Minor sweet” [personnel: Little, trumpet; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Scott LaFaro, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; recorded: Time Label, New York, US, 13 April 1960])
MULTIFACETED drummer who, in 1957, joins the jazz workshop of brilliant bassist, cellist and composer Charles Mingus(ensemble often varying from a quintet, sextet, octet and dectet) and both embark on one of the most enduring and resourceful artistic collaborations of recent times, recording over 30 albums in 22 years involving several influential instrumentalists in the repertoire, including, especially, multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy
(Charles Mingus Sextet, “So long Eric” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])
(Born 23 September 1926, Hamlet, NC, United States)
ICONOCLASTIC tenor (and soprano) saxophonist and composer who, arguably, has had the most profound impact on the development of jazz, African American classical music, in the past 50 years
(John Coltrane Quartet, “Impressions” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: live, Jazz Casual Productions {host: Ralph Gleason}, 7 December 1963])
PERCIPIENT tenor saxophonist and composer who, for 30 years, beginning in the mid-1950s, builds up an impressive range of collaborative work with leading rhythm and brass instrument-bandleaders of the age including Roach, Mingus, Chambers, Davis, Waldron, Walton, Weston, Hill, Gillespie, Morgan, Farmer, Reece, as well as work with multiinstrumentalist Dolphy and fellow tenorist Gilmore (ps: the gritty cascading texture of Jordan’s tenor solo in Charles Mingus’s “Meditations”[below], this freedom anthem, beginning 21.07 minutes into the recording, opens up yet another vista of creativity in this seminar at Cornell when it appears that all had been exhausted by the brilliant readings of Dolphy [flute/bass clarinet], Byard [piano], Coles [trumpet] and Mingus [bass] himself premiered 21 minutes earlier...)
(Charles Mingus Sextet – with Eric Dolphy, Cornell University 1964, “Meditations” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, flute, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, Cornell University, 18 March 1964])
Multiinstrumentalist genius – alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, bassoon, oboe… – whose compositions, recordings and evocative soloing with any chosen instrument in his own multicombo-led settings and across a range of collaborative ensembles (especially those led by drummers Chico Hamilton and Max Roach, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, pianists George Russell and Andrew Hill, tenor and soprano saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Charles Mingus) have a distinctly recognisable Dolphyian signature and impacted the jazz repertoire most profoundly
(Eric Dolphy Quartet, “Softly as in a morning sunrise” [personnel: Dolphy, bass clarinet; Herbie Hancock, piano; Eddie Khan, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, University of Illinoi, Champaign, Illinoi, 10 March 1963])
“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])
(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])
Prodigiously creative trumpeter and composer who, whilst still in his teens/early 20s, records critically acclaimed albums with masters Roach, Coltrane, and Dolphy, with whom he co-leads a 3-volume classic recording of music their quintet (Little, trumpet; Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Mal Waldron, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums) plays during a 2-week residency at New York’s (US) Five Spot Café in July 1961
(Booker Little Sextet, “We speak” [personnel: Little, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Dolphy, alto saxophone; Don Friedman, piano; Art Davis, bass; Roach, drums; recorded: Nola’s Penthouse Studios, New York, US, 17 March 1961])
(Booker Little Sextet, “Moods in free time” [personnel and recording details as in above])
(Booker Little Quartet, “Minor sweet” [personnel: Little, trumpet; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Scott LaFaro, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; recorded: Time Label, New York, US, 13 April 1960])
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe It is no mean achievement that Charles Mingus’s music encapsulates all the critical junctures of jazz. His work with the pioneering geniuses of Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and Art Tatum in New York of the early 1950s gives Mingus the compositional and arranging insights that would soon be the bassist’s forte.
Few jazz scholars would now disagree that the success of that much discussed May 1953 concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall featuring the Parker Quintet (Parker, alto; Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Bud Powell, piano; Mingus, bass; Max Roach, drums) is not just a Parkerian triumph but equally that of the iconoclastic bassist from Los Angeles.
Beginning with Mingus, the bass ceases to be merely an “accompanying” time-keeping, harmonic instrument in jazz. It still has to contend with “time-keeping”, but it has entered into the interplay as a polyphonic participant. The work of subsequent bassists particularly Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Jimmy Garrison, Scott La Faro, Gary Peacock, Eddie Khan, Charles Haden and Dave Holland attest to this Mingusian redesignation
In 1954, Mingus launched his Jazz Workshop experimentation which was to emphasise more of “group” or “collective” improvisation in jazz, away from what was then increasingly becoming the tedious and formularised “theme-solo-theme” structures of the bebop revolution that had been launched in the 1940s by the Parker-Gillespie-Thelonious Monk troika. As a critic once observed, it was not that Mingus was “avoiding Bebop, he straddled it”. He still had to absorb the great jazz heritage to move the music forward to wrestle with the new possibilities.
Creativity and rehearsals and creativity
It is therefore the case of Mingus trying to return jazz to the “group feeling” of those years of its early development in the closing decades of the 1800s. The soloist still has a great deal of space in Mingus’s thinking but their musical concepts has to develop in anticipation and in response to the polyphony of collective interaction; there are now multisided and multiple centres of creativity soon after that infectious bass intro! The act of creativity is no longer dependent on some space and time limitation. The workshops could not distinguish between rehearsals, for instance, and real performances! Creativity during rehearsals becomes rehearsals of creativity occurring at bandstands with or without an audience (for the latter, listen to the ethereal 1962 album Mingus Presents Mingus, featuring multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy). The music is always in a state of flux: evolving, developing, maturing, breaking up, only to form the nucleus of another centre of activity, itself interacting with other centres of the medley.
With the classic Pithecanthropus Erectus album (1956), Mingus gives notice to this sense of continuous creativity – after all, this composition is his portrait of the formulaic development of a cataclysmic human form and the (predictable?) resultant chaos that this produces in the world by the end of the 20th century. Using distinct but unusual forms of squeals, grunts, duets and harmony, the composition exacts a coherent understanding of this tragic travelogue that a 1996 earth inhabitant would perhaps be familiar with (exhaustion/appropriation/destruction of the world’s limited resources, rupture of the ozone layer) than their counterpart 40 years before. The impassioned crystalline-striking lyricism of altoist Jackie McLean, the Rollinsesque rebuttals of tenorist J R Monterose and the plodding, haunting echoes of pianist Mal Waldron strokes keep the narrative of the age on course and there is relief, at the final movement, when the pulverising destroyer falls, is destroyed.
In Blues and Roots album that follows suit, Mingus pays homage to the sacred music of his roots. The rhythmic tension at play by soloists McLean, Booker Ervin (tenor), John Handy (alto) and Jimmy Knepper (trombone) over such compositions as “Tensions”, “Moanin’”, “Cryin’ Blues” and “E’s Flat Ah’s Flat Too” always calls for new insights, ever more challenging interpretations on replays. “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting” is predictably such a joy and by the time this composition is confronted yet again by a new Mingus personnel line up live in Antibes, Juan-Les-Pins (France) in 1960, detailing Mingus (bass and piano), Ted Curson (trumpet), Dolphy (alto), Ervin (tenor) and Dannie Richmond (drums), it has become the launching pad for intuitive flights and virtuosity.
Commentary
Mingus’s vivid commentaries on contemporary American life and worldwide developments are prolific. These samples range from ballads (“Sue’s Changes”, “1 X-Love”, “Bemoanable Lady”, “Celia”) to the very humorous (“Eat that Chicken”, “Hog Callin Blues”, “Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am”, “Old’ Blues for Walt’s Torin”, “My Jelly Roll Soul”), sentimental/sensuous (“Portrait of Jackie”, “Love Chant”, “Orange was the Color of her Dress, then Blue Silk”, “Peggy’s Blue Skylight”) to outright, politically serious (“Pithecanthropus Erectus”, “Ecclusiastics”, “Passions of a Man”, “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting”,“Letter to Duke”, “MDM – Monk, Duke, Mingus”, “Oh Lord Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me”, “Meditations on Integration”, “All the Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother”, “Fables of Faubus”, “Haitian Fight Song”, “Weird Nightmare”, “So Long Eric”) and dirge – “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”, Mingus’s salute to tenorist Lester Young, and of course Epitaph, his 127-minute long composition which was performed posthumously by a 30-piece orchestra at the New York’s Lincoln Center in 1989.
Nearly a decade before critics would use the term “free jazz” to describe the music of revolutionaries such as Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, etc., etc., the Mingus workshops were already redefining and laying the foundation of new points of departure for jazz. Names of workshops’ alumni read like the priority core zone of the restless and most adventurous innovators of the jazz directory of the era: drummers Willie Jones and Dannie Richmond; trumpeters Clarence Shaw, Richard Williams, Ted Curson and Johnny Coles; altoists Jackie McLean, Charlie Mariano, John Handy, Eric Dolphy (also flute and bass clarinet virtuoso), Charles McPherson; tenorists Teo Marcero, J R Monterose, Roland Kirk, Booker Ervin and Clifford Jordan; trombonist Jimmy Knepper; pianists Mal Waldron, Jaki Byard, Horace Parlan, Roland Hanna.
*****This essay was first published 20 years ago to the day in the African Peoples Review (Vol. V, No. 3, September-December 1996, p. 22) under the signature of Nnamdi Nzegwu. It is reissued here in the original – HE-E
(Charles Mingus Sextet – with Eric Dolphy, Cornell University 1964, “Meditations” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, flute, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, Cornell University, 18 March 1964])
Multiinstrumentalist genius – alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, bassoon, oboe… – whose compositions, recordings and evocative soloing with any chosen instrument in his own multicombo-led settings and across a range of collaborative ensembles (especially those led by drummers Chico Hamilton and Max Roach, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, pianists George Russell and Andrew Hill, tenor and soprano saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Charles Mingus) have a distinctly recognisable Dolphyian signature and impacted the jazz repertoire most profoundly
(Eric Dolphy Quartet, “Softly as in a morning sunrise” [personnel: Dolphy, bass clarinet; Herbie Hancock, piano; Eddie Khan, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, University of Illinoi, Champaign, Illinoi, 10 March 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])
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 (eg., 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 launch of the Igbo genocide on 29 May 1966, the African/African-Arabised “inheritors” of this conquest-genocide state, or the “boys” of their respective Europe-based “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 èNziem – 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 murderedor 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 murderedor 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 of genocide fatality of any single constituent nation or people in Africa during these past 138 years
(5) 13 January 1970-Present Day (phase-IV): Nigeria state-organised genocide of Igbo people – tens of thousands of Igbo murdered
(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 – 5 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 Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of Longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (forthcoming, May 2016)
(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])
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).
