Biafra’s voice will prevail in these two antithetical worldviews at play in contemporary Africa

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

TWO voices in the southwestcentral region of Africa with such contrasting worldviews are in contestation presently:

1. For the first voice, from the Fulani islamist/jihadists in the north of the region, it is to threaten and threaten to murder, and indeed murder and murder and murder under the overarching, marching flaming banner of the herd as it and  parents and grandparents have done during the course of the gruesome Igbo genocide these past 53 years (29 May 1966-7 June 2019) and the Igbo pogroms in Kano (1953) and Jos (1945) and the dreadful legacy of foreparents’ trail of murders and subjugations of indigenous African populations across the entire north stretches of the region since they left their Futa Djallon highlands home of northwest Africa, 1500 miles away, just over 200 years ago to the day. The country that has unfailingly enhanced the monstrosity of this “voice” and its death mission throughout the trajectory is Britain, principally its creator. 

2. For the other voice, in the south of the geography, in Biafra, Land of the Rising Sun, it is engaged, uncompromisingly, in an assured, resilient quest for freedom that views life, yes, African life, as sacrosanct and is eager to employ its incredible talent of creativity and enterprise to transform the lives of its people, an outcome with epochal consequences for the region and all the continent and the rest of the African World – including, especially, in the Americas and Europe.

(Jackie McLean Quintet, “Love and hate” [personnel: McLean, alto saxophone; Grachan Moncur III, trombone; Bobby Hutcherson, vipraphone; Larry Ridley, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 20 September 1963])

*****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)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Sharply contrasting worldviews in contemporary Africa!

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

TWO “voices” in the southwestcentral region of Africa with such contrasting worldviews are in contestation presently:

1. For the first “voice”, it is to threaten and threaten to murder, and indeed murder and murder and murder under the overarching flaming banner of the herd as they and their parents and grandparents have done during the course of the Igbo genocide these past 52 years (29 May 1966-12 July 2018) and the Igbo pogroms in Kano (1953) and Jos (1945) and the dreadful legacy of foreparents’ trail of murders and subjugations of indigenous African populations across the entire north stretches of the region since they left their Futa Djallon homeland in Guinea-Conakry just over 200 years ago to the day.

2. For the other “voice”, in the south of the geography, Land of the Rising Sun, it is engaged, uncompromisingly, in an assured quest for freedom that views life, African life, as sacrosanct and is eager to employ its incredible talent of creativity to transform the lives of its people, an outcome with epochal consequences for the region and the rest of the African World.

(Jackie McLean Quintet, “Love and hate” [personnel: McLean, alto saxophone; Grachan Moncur III, trombone; Bobby Hutcherson, vipraphone; Larry Ridley, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 20 September 1963])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Biafra rebirth for Africa

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

BIAFRA’s restoration-of-independence signals to the rest of the constituent peoples or nations (i.e., pre-conquest and occupation) of Africa, enveloped in the European-created “Berlin-states” of death, immiseration, desolation and hopelessness, that freedom and transformation, right there in Africa, are achievable goals – that African peoples can build, reconstruct, embark on all possibilities of working for themselves and appropriating the fruits of their labour from their land and on their own terms... The world must now know that Biafra flowers innumerable Biafras of rebirth not seen in Africa for 500 years, since 1492.

(Jackie McLean Quartet, “Melody for Melonae”, from Let Freedom Ring [personnel: McLean, alto saxophone; Walter Davis, piano; Herbie Lewis, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 19 March 1962])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

80th birthday of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

(Born 5 January 1938, Kamĩrĩĩthũ, Kenya)

Novelist, playwright, essayist, conscience and treasured dissident voice in these turbulent times in the African World, indefatigable promoter of publishing in African languages as he, himself, has done consistently in the Gĩkũyũ beginning in the late 1970s when he publishes Caitaani Mũtharabainĩ which he later translates into English as Devil on the Cross (1980)

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Devil on the Cross (London: Heinemann African Writers, 1987, 256pp, £9.41/US$12.20, pbk)

FOR a succinct insight into the expansive contributions of  Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o to the heritage of African World Letters and associated development, see, for instance, Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Readings from Reading: Essays on African Politics, Genocide, Literature (Dakar & Reading: African Renaissance, 2011), pp. 45-50. 

(Jackie McLean Quintet, “Action” [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])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe