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.
Showing posts with label Innocent Chukwuma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Innocent Chukwuma. Show all posts
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe Military commander, historian, and head of state of Burkina Faso, 4 August 1983-15 October 1987, when he leads a transformative governmentin “post”-(European)conquest Africa which demonstrates, overwhelmingly with indelible successes, just as the resourceful Biafran resistance had breathtakingly inaugurated this breakthrough on the Africa continental scene during the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, phases I-III, that the engine of societal development is located internally, in the people, themselves – not the prevailing and pervasivefraudulent developmentalism unleashed on Africa in the 1960s by the same France, Britain/other lead European World conqueror-states that had for 400 years enslaved, dispersed, occupied and immiserised Africa and its peoples; thus, Thomas Sankara’s and Biafra’s historic liberatory legacies of transformative outreaches emanating internally, not externally, forged so tenaciously, constitute contemporary Africa’s freedom path to the restoration of unfettered independence from continuing European World seizure via the latter’s imposition of local client states and overseers (for instance, the Fulani islamist/jihadist-led notorious Nigeria genocidist and kakistocratic state), enhanced expropriation, and hardly disguised impunity
(Jackie McLean Quintet, “Hootnan” [personnel: McLean, alto saxophone; Charles Tolliver, trumpet; Bobby Hutcherson, vibraphone; Cecil McBee, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 16 September 1964])
*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author, with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why Donald Trump is great for Africa (2018)
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe Military commander, historian, and head of state of Burkina Faso, 4 August 1983-15 October 1987, when he leads a transformative governmentin “post”-(European)conquest Africa which demonstrates, overwhelmingly with indelible successes, just as the resourceful Biafran resistance had breathtakingly inaugurated this breakthrough on the Africa continental scene during the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, phases I-III, that the engine of societal development is located internally, in the people, themselves – not the prevailing and pervasivefraudulent developmentalism unleashed on Africa in the 1960s by the same France, Britain/other lead European World conqueror-states that had for 400 years enslaved, dispersed, occupied and immiserised Africa and its peoples; thus, Thomas Sankara’s and Biafra’s historic liberatory legacies of transformative outreaches emanating internally, not externally, forged so tenaciously, constitute contemporary Africa’s freedom path to the restoration of unfettered independence from continuing European World seizure via the latter’s imposition of local client states and overseers (for instance, the Hausa-Fulani/islamist-led notorious Nigeria genocidist and kakistocratic state), enhanced expropriation, and hardly disguised impunity
(John Coltrane Quartet, “Giant steps” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Tommy Flannagan, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Art Taylor, drums; recorded: Atlantic Studios, New York, US, 4-5 May/2 December 1959])
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe FORTY-SEVEN years into phase-IV of the Igbo genocide and literally on the eve of the epochal breakthrough of the Biafra freedom movement (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/blog-post_99.html), it could sound perplexing to adjudge the next step of the Igbo path of action as “beginning anew”. But I am reminded of that towering injunction by poet-philosopher Aimé Césaire who deftly charges that the way forward, in the aftermath of such a cataclysmic history, is the “quest to reconquer something, our name (sic), our country … ourselves”. Who is the investor? For the Igbo, the long march to re-take Biafra, re-claim Biafra, their homeland, for themselves and their children and grandchildren and theirs, and consequently end the genocide of 50 years has indeed begun: invest and invest and invest in Biafra... You don’t have to wait for the formal assumption in office of the restoration-of-independence Biafra government in Enuugwu to embark on the immediate task to invest in and for freedom.The specifics, vitality and range abound for the choices of the investor, inventor, scientist, plumber, innovator, thinker, carpenter, analyst, surgeon, builder, artist, composer, mechanic, estate developer, researcher, chef, sportsperson, manufacturer, trader, architect, nurse, entertainer, banker, distributor, painter, teacher, insurer, lawyer, fisherperson, musician, engineer, trucker, producer, sculptor, hotelier, physician, draughtsperson, director, writer, decorator, academic … All conceivable cutting-edge fields in ideas, science and technology are here to be worked at – researched on, understood, adapted, reworked, invented, manufactured, distributed… Biafra will resume the quest towards establishing the high-powered global-oriented economic enterprise interrupted catastrophically by the genocide since Sunday 29 May 1966. Igbo entrepreneurs are therefore thrust with the challenge to turn Biafra into the workshop that serves its people and competes actively with the rest of the world. The world will surely respond accordingly by establishing crisscrossing routes of communication to Biafra to enhance cooperation and exchange. The investment and transformational opportunities emplaced within the population of 50 million throughout the 200-mile north-south stretch of highlands and escarpments and forestlands and grasslands and valleys and waterfalls and lakes and assorted reserves of mineralogical and agricultural resources from the Nsukka plateau (north) to Azumini, Igwe Nga/Opobo, Igwe Ocha/Port Harcourt, Umu Ubani/Bonny, Umuebelengwu and Ahoada of the Igbo Atlantic (south) and the 100 mile-panhandle from Ugwuta, Onicha and Anioma west to the Abakaleke/Ehugbo/Bende/Arochukwu east are breathtakingly immense for the imaginative and industrious investor, elaborated further in this 18 August 2015 essay: (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/there-is-presently-visionary.html).
Disinvest from Nigeria TO COMPLEMENT this historic drive, Igbo in the diaspora in Nigeria must embark on the disinvestment of their businesses in Lagos, Abuja and elsewhere in that “country”. Igbo must also begin to boycott all goods and services made in and forLagos. TheLagosbrand is henceforth toxic: “Don’t buy ‘Made inLagos’”. The frequently commuting Igbo should cancel all ticket reservations on flights in and out ofLagosand bookings inLagoshotels. They should use other airports en route to Biafra such as Enuugwu, Owere, Asaba, Igwe Ocha and those in Calabar and Uyo. New airports should be built to cope with the fast changing situation. A Lagos boycott will only soon force airlines to route directly to hitherto un-used facilities (with the necessary upgrades of course!) such as Enuugwu and Owere, for instance, as ultimately, as everyone knows, successful business orients to the client’s preferences. There is no reason why the overwhelming majority of Igbo travellers should not fly straight to their Biafran destinations in a few months as the boycott ofLagosintensifies. No moreLagosbusiness conferences: don’t plan one there; don’t attend one there – just skip it as “unimportant”! Finally, the Igbo importers and exporters who command a dominant space in the Lagos district ports’ activities should move their businesses elsewhere: Igwe Ocha, Calabar, Warri, Sapele, Burutu and, soon, Igbo entrepreneurs and engineers will add to these capacities new outlays in Azumini, Onicha and elsewhere and the bridging up of the Aba-Igwe Ocha conurbation to further diversify enterprise and opportunities (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/there-is-presently-visionary.html). Breakthrough IGBO RESISTANCE to the
genocide is arguably the most defining struggle currently underway in Africa.The breakthrough of
the Biafra freedom movement, very much on the cards, is of major importance for Biafrans and the future direction of Africa. This development cannot be exaggerated.
(Billy Harper Quintet, “Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance!” [personnel: Harper, tenor saxophone; Virgil Jones, trumpet; Joe Bonner, piano; David Friesen, bass; Malcolm Pinson, drums; recorded: Barclay Studios, Paris, France, 21/22 July 1975])
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).
