Nigeria Civil War
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It is 1971, and Nigeria is under military rule, though the politics of the state matter less than those of her home to Enitan Taiwo, an eleven-year-old girl tired of waiting for school to start. Will her mother, who has become deeply religious since the death of Enitan’s brother, allow her friendship with the new girl next door Sheri Bakare? This novel charts the fate of these two Nigerian girls, one who is prepared to manipulate the traditional system and one who attempts to defy it.
THE REVIEWS
“A beautifully paced stroll in the shoes of a woman growing up in a country struggling to find its post-independence identity…Everything Good Will Come depicts the struggles women face in a conservative society. This is convincing; more remarkable is what the novel has to say about the need to speak out when all around is falling apart.” – Times Literary Supplement, UK
“An original, witty, coming-of-age tale: Tom Sawyer meets Jane Eyre, with Nigerian girls…you can feel the dust and sun. This is award-winning novel is an iridescent introduction to a fascinating nation.” – Observer Magazine, UK
“Again and again Atta’s writings tugs at the heart, at the conscience. At the same time, reflecting the resilience of the Lagosians whose lives she explores, humour is almost constant, effervescent, most often with a satirical twist.” – Sunday Independent, South Africa
“This lively first novel breaks new ground with a close-up, honest story of a contemporary Yoruba woman’s coming-of-age in Lagos. Never reverential, Enitan’s first person narrative reveals the dynamic diversity within the city, the differences across class, generation, gender, faith, language, tradition, and individual character. Differences, yes, but sometimes connections, too.” – Booklist
“Sefi Atta’s first novel has the nerve to redefine existing traditions of African Story telling. It confronts the familiar passions of a city and a country with unusual insights and a lyrical power pointing our literature to truly greater heights.” – Odia Ofeimun, author of The Poet Lied
“Everything Good Will Come is like listening to an old friend recounting and bringing up to date and to life happenings in our beloved city of Lagos. I was sorry when I came to the end.” – Buchi Emecheta, author of The Joys of Motherhood
“What is beyond doubt is that Sefi writes brilliantly with instantly infectious wit.” – Bashorun JK Randle, author of The Godfather Never Sleeps
“There is wit, intelligence and a delicious irreverence in this book. But it is Sefi Atta’s courage in choosing to look at her fictional world through fiercely feminist lenses that I most admired.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Purple Hibiscus
“This is a courageous story about friendship and self-discovery, it is a rallying cry to women to speak out in a world that tries to muzzle them.” – Helon Habila, author of Waiting For an Angel
“An affirmation of faith in one’s capacity, especially female and national, for self-realization.” – Tanure Ojaide, author of Labyrinths of the Delta
Themes:
In the light of the above, the Historical Society of Nigeria is organizing an international conference on the Nigerian Civil War Forty Years After: What Lessons? The following sub-themes are expected to be considered by interested scholars:
a. Issues and causes of the Nigerian Civil War
b. The course of the Nigerian Civil War
c. Igbo perspective on the Nigerian Civil War
d. Non-Igbo perspective on the Nigerian Civil War
e. Ethnic minorities and the Nigerian Civil War
f. The war economy and its consequences
g. Demobilization and disarmament
h. Refugee Problem and the Nigerian Civil War
i. Post-civil war generation and their perspectives on the Nigerian Civil War
j. Literature on the Nigerian Civil War
k. Nigerian women and the Civil War
l. Resurrection of the Nigerian Civil War/irredentist ideas and movements
m. The Nigerian Civil War and the Wider World
In this book, Chido Onumah argues that many, if not all, of the problems of Nigeria are rooted in the structure of the country. He makes a case, as he did in his previous books, for the socio-political restructuring of Nigeria. He argues that the country needs to engage episodic political convulsions that threaten its very foundation, including Biafra, June 12, Boko Haram, the “National Question”, citizenship rights, and “militocracy”.
The book tells the story of a young girl who lived with her parents in the relatively calm and peaceful British colony of Nigeria, where shortly after independence compatriots went for each other’s throats. This soon exploded into a full blown civil war and from that time onwards, nothing was ever the same again.
The war came with ugly incidences, one of which was the hunt for and abduction of girls and women to be forcibly converted to bed mates. Families sought hiding places for their ‘eligible’ females but these hide-outs were soon discovered through the power of and intimidation from the gun. Two women however decided that their daughters will never be made victims. They found a ‘safe haven’ for their daughters – the evil forest where the roars of wild animals were continually heard. But this is nothing compared to the brutal termination of lives and wanton destruction of properties through air, land and marine attacks; including starvation that was the order of the day, and which placed the final death mark on the people.
The forest dames, four in number, survived the war and one of them decides to tell the unfortunate story of the elasticity of human suffering. All four dames are still alive and can be reached for further interactions. One of the brave mothers is also still living.
About the Author
AdaOkere Agbasimalo writes with a passion that underscores her connection with her environment and profound knowledge of the theme of her work. She also has a rare gift in creative writing which enables her to latch on to a theme and very quickly weave her way through the scenes and characters with masterly control. This skill is perceptible in all her works which are unputdownable as they all immediately draw the reader into the story with a commitment to fulfill the objective of the story. Not afraid to grapple with potent social issues in her works, AdaOkere Agbasimalo in her usual candour, set out in the book "The Forest Dames", to recount war experiences from the gender perspective. With typical incisive narrative and imagery, she paints an engaging picture of hate, fear, passion, hunger, deprivation and hope, all the key elements of the crisis of war; eliciting in the reader, profound empathy at all turns. Her thoughts as enunciated in her book "The Forest Dames" should catalyze any mind desirous of equity, justice, fairness and peace in the world, to embrace these virtues. "Mom, you are rare" - Chibueze Benjamin Agbasimalo (son), Student, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State Nigeria. 2004. "Ndaa Ada Agbasimalo, i nwere ezi aha n'ulo di gi, i nwere ezi aha n'ebe i na aru oru, i nwere ezi aha n'umu nna gi". - Chima Eke alias Obareze (Bongo Musician) 2008 in album title Ezi aha ka ego
The definitive biography of “the main animating force of African poetry”
JP Clark: A Voyage is the definitive biography of Clark by Femi Osofisan, himself one of Nigeria’s most accomplished playwrights. It chronicles the life and career of the man John Pepper Clark – Bekederemo, from his remarkable childhood to his emergence in the 60s among the best and brightest of Nigerian literature. For the first time, JP breaks his silence about the controversial position he took during Nigeria’s Civil War and discusses his relationship with Soyinka and Achebe.
Generally regarded as the most lyrical of the poets of his generation for his simple, down to earth, visual and descriptive imagery, which makes his poems among the most memorable, JP Clark is perhaps the most underrated of Nigeria’s literary giants: Achebe, Soyinka and Okigbo, being the others.
Epistle to Maduabebe is Nengi Josef Ilagha's ninth book in nine years. Its publication on December 18, 2009, virtually brought the author's home state of Bayelsa to a standstill. Trenchant and uncompromising in all twelve chapters, brimming with prophecy for a world gone sour, the book has been hailed as “the height of polemic iconoclasm in Nigeria.”
Its author is the militant poet, journalist, and broadcaster who served time in the government of Bayelsa State as a Speech Writer. Its subject is corruption and greed. Its hope is redemption for a nation that is fast losing its dreams. Its righteous tirade is trained at Dr. Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru, former OPEC President, two-time Minister of Petroleum in Nigeria, and paramount ruler of Nembe, a key oil-producing community in the south of the country, and godfather of the incumbent government under Chief Timipre Sylva-Sam.
Immediately after the war, Rose turned her notes into a narrative that described the ingenious ways Biafrans made do, still hoping for victory while their territory shrank and children starved by the thousand. Now anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird contextualizes Rose's story, providing background on the progress of the war and international reaction to it. Edited and annotated, Rose's vivid account of life as a Biafran 'Nigerwife' offers a fresh, new look at hope and survival through a brutal war.
There has been a coup, a mutiny, and carnage by a group of junior officers. the first time in the nation. however, the general officer commanding the rebellion which eventually marked the end of the republic.
The events of January 15, 1966, marked a turning point in the history of Nigeria and will forever go down as one of the nation's most defining moments.
About the Author
Dare Babarinsa, a leading Nigerian journalist, graduated from the University of Lagos in 1981; he was the Chief Correspondent of the Concord Group of Newspapers in Ondo State during the 1983 general elections. He was Associate Editor at the leading Nigerian news magazine News watch until 1990 when he joined four other journalists from the News watch stable to establish Tell, Nigeria’s acclaimed foremost weekly news magazine.
Coming barely seven years after Nigeria’s independence, the civil war is, perhaps, the most critical watershed in the country’s annals. Heaps of books have written on that seemingly spontaneous event, but 41 years after the bombs stopped landing and rifles stopped crackling, the last of the war of survival has not been heard.
It has become the proverbial elephant whose different body parts were felt by seven blind men and each had a different story to tell. The latest of the wartime stories comes from a high-profile participant. Chief Achike Udenwa two-term governor of Imo State and former Minister of Commerce has also thrown his hat in the ring in the matter of reliving his own side of war time tales.
If, indeed, there had been any doubts about Chief Udenwa’s claims to being a central participant in the 30-month conflict then his new book captioned Nigerian/Biafran Civil War:My Experince has cleared such doubts permanently.
The 258-page book, structured in seven chapters, excluding preliminaries, strikes at the heart of an event which significance continues to reverberate in the face of current political developments.
In reality, it cannot be said with exactitude that Nigeria has finally overcome threats to its unity; a threat amplified by current security situations such as gave birth, though in varied circumstance, to the war which Udenwa partook in as a very young man.
In the first 76 pages the author took a historical perspective of Nigeria’s political evolution, making copious references to immediate events that eventually culminated in the civil war.
During the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) Wole Soyinka was arrested and incarcerated for twenty-two months, most of it spent in solitary confinement in a cell, 4ft by 8ft. His offence: assisting the Biafran secessionists.
The Man Died, now regarded as a classic of prison literature, is a product of this experience. What comes through in the compelling narrative is the author's uncompromising, principled stand on the universality and indivisibility of freedom and human rights.
Whichever it is, however, it is clear that the war has important implications and lessons for the viability and consolidation of democracy in Nigeria, both now and the future. Contributors to this volume examine these implications and lessons from different perspectives.
As the first African district officer, the author went down memory lane to give an in-depth account of his outstanding stewardship, the problems connected with the transfer of power as well as those inherent in the exercise of power by Nigeria'sevolving political adventure, he proffers his type of political arrangement which he feels is ideal for Nigeria.
the book which also dwells on the author's varied experiences in both the private sector and international service is compulsory reading for historians, politicians, government officials, administrators, students of administrative, company executives as well as prospective Nigerian and expatriate investors.
The Nigerian Army is an institution that has played a pivotal role in the affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. For more than half of the 57 years since Independence, Nigeria was directly ruled by a Military Government, largely composed of army officers, and always headed by one. It is impossible to explore any facet of modern Nigerian history or society without the military (and in particular the Army) looming significantly. Whilst several authors have documented the history of Nigeria (and significantly less many of its Army), rarely, if ever, has the impact of the politics of Nigeria on the Army, and vice-versa, formed the exclusive subject of study. This volume is an endeavor to fill that gap.
The period leading up to the Army’s first overt entry into the politics of Nigeria is reviewed, firstly the pre-Independence period, and then the years immediately following independence. The effects of the Nigerianisation of the Army, especially of the officer corps, and of the policy decisions made following the passing of control over the Army from the British to the Nigerian Government are considered. The political circumstances surrounding the Army’s first overt entry into politics - the January 1966 coup - and the political performance of the subsequent first military regime are discussed, as a precursor to the second coup in July 1966.
The impact of the Army’s direct involvement in politics on the military performance of both sides in the Civil War is explored. After a nine-year interregnum, in July 1975 Nigeria returned to the era of coups, with at least eight attempted and successful coups, some of them bloody, over the next quarter century before the return to civilian rule in 1999. The personalities leading the resultant military Governments, and the policies of those Governments, are explored, in an attempt to discern their legacy on the political development of Nigeria, and on the Nigerian Army as an institution.
Major Emmanuel IFEAJUNA, the first-ever black African to win a gold medal at a major international sports event and Nigeria’s first-ever gold medalist was more famous for his lead role in the January 15th, 1966 violent coup in Nigeria than for his track and field acclamation of the 1956 commonwealth in Vancouver.
In 1967, he wrote a controversial account of January 15th, 1966 coup in an unpublished manuscript popularly called The Ifeajuna Manuscript; which mysteriously went missing in the hands of some of Nigeria’s best literary minds.
About the same time Major Ifeajuna wrote his manuscript, a British freelance war correspondent, Dan Witszel came to Nigeria with a bequeathed hand made diary to cover the war from the Biafran front. What Witszel didn’t realize was that his ordinary-looking diary had within it, secrets of the most sophisticated oil rig ever designed!
Forty-odd years on, a renowned Nigerian writer, ignited the interest of very powerful individuals in the international oil business when he described Dan Witszel’s diary as the material with which Major Ifeajuna wrote his manuscript. With this new revelation, a clandestine search for the manuscript was then sanctioned by powerful oil executives in London and they sent a ruthless ex SAS man, Robyn Callahan to look for the manuscript at all costs even if it meant murder.
If one may suspend disbelief, reading this book will amount to a rewiring of our convictions and concepts about Nigeria and its history.
How and Why the Yoruba Fought and Lost the Biafra-Nigeria Civil War, amounts to a game changing interrogation of Nigeria. The book demonstrates that an implausible conjecture is not only possible but that it has already happened in the past!
Ego-Alowes adopts a psychoanalytic approach to the whole drama that is Nigerian politics. Suddenly, all the scattered pieces of our history are pieced to reveal not just where the "rain started to beat us", but also a way forward from the ensuing cold.
Personally, I do not think that the mentioned characters are solely aware of the implications and connotative meanings of their many comments as well as body language; perhaps it is because history has overtime conditioned me to perceive them as political saints. Nonetheless, national gamer or apostle, this is one book to read, for Nigeria's sake.
-Amara Chimeka
Parading an array of stars - Adegoke Adelabu, Festus Okotie-Eboh, Mbonu Ojike, Ladoke Akintola, Michael Okpara, Tafawa Balewa, Anthony Enahoro and the larger-than-life trio, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello along with their many admirers and disciples - the political history of Nigeria which they wrote with their lives and times is vividly recorded for posterity on the pages of these books.
Copiously illustrated with a treasure of ancient photographs, social issues of sports, secret cults, ritual murder, entertainment, the arts, religion, juju, the 1966 coup, the civil war and many others are also prominently featured in this compilation arousing the memories of those who were either too young then to understand what was happening, or who had not been born altogether. The two-volume book is strongly recommended to all Nigerians and the people of all nations and tongues generally, as a well of information about this acknowledged potential giant and most populous black African nation worldwide.
His tributes to both the institution, New Nigerian newspapers, and its editor, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, who discovered and mentored him shows his appreciation for the way and manner these two jointly “conspired” to make him the celebrated writer of books on the profession he hardly knew about before they tapped him.
The author traces the history of New Nigerian newspapers into which Mallam Adamu Ciroma, administrator-turned-editor, recruited him.
Agbese had no previous training in journalism and saw his entry as a stint, from which he would exit within a reasonably short period of time.
That was on July 6, 1967. He is still in the profession and sees the publication of this book as a means of showing his gratitude to the profession, to the organization and to Ciroma who exposed and trained him.
Ciroma made a journalist out of a trained teacher, and Dan will never forget him for making him believe in himself. Dan recalled: “Ciroma was one of the most broad-minded Nigerians it has ever been my luck and privilege to work with. He was a kind and patient man. And he always showed a tremendous understanding of, you guessed it, my non-stellar performance as I struggled to learn the ropes. I could not have had a greater and more kindly mentor; I followed his guidance every inch of the way.”
One of the challenges Mallam Adamu threw at Dan on assumption of duty has resulted in the publication of this book.
Within three months of his assumption, Mallam Adamu threw the challenge to Dan to prepare himself to interview the six newly appointed military governors of the six states carved out of the former Northern Region.
Dan portrayed all the six military governors he interviewed as simple, humble and committed to developing the states the Head of State, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon had put under their charge.
Gowon, it appeared, had known personally or shared similar perspectives (by attending the same secondary school) with over 60 per cent of them.
The well-organised, disciplined and efficient Third Marine Commandos, the soldiers in this theatre of the war earlier commanded by Col. Benjamin Adekunle with Lt. Col. G. Alabi-Isama, the Chief of Staff, already controlled the Atlantic coast from Bonny to Calabar before Col. Olusegun Obasanjo's arrival as the new commander.This most-revealing book is in three parts. The first part is an account of the author's life and his first encounter with the army. Under the watchful eyes of a mother who gave the best in moral education to a son of promise, Alabi-Isama's life got shaped by a pre-destined career where the cap really fitted. The second part is about the real combat. It outlines, in detail, the strategies and tactics the commandos employed during the historic 480-kilometre trek from Calabar to Port Harcourt and narrates the hostile climate, terrain and environment, the travails, health and survival hazards they had to surmount on the 30-day march. The think-tank, the mapping out of operations and disciplined control of men and materials by Alabi-Isama, the chief of staff, as well as the officers of 3 Marine Commando Division of the Nigerian army, sustained the Nigerian side of the conflict.
This section concludes with the final successful push by the commandos into Uli-Ihiala, Biafra's 'centre of gravity', a move that ended the war following the surrender of Biafra. The third part is an expose on Obasanjo's book, My Command. The author contests Obasanjo's claims about the war as being inconsistent with the truth and maintains that it is a tragedy that the real fighters of the war for the unity of Nigeria have not been acknowledged to date. Rather, they wallow in poverty and are discredited by their military leaders who assumed political offices with all the accompanying largesse.
The book is a rich manual, a repository of invaluable information and a document that gives a precise and veritable first-person account of the Nigerian civil war, in the Atlantic theatre. It is a must for every serving and retired member of the armed forces to own. Other Nigerians and the international community would find it particularly useful in reconstructing the events of Nigeria's civil war.
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He laments Nigeria's farcial democratic enterprise, condemns the excesses of the political entrepreneurs responsible for the status quo and posits political restructuring that is based on a brand-new, autochthonous constitution as a design for drilling water out of the current pervasive aridity.
Our past is our past, be it gory or glorious. It is the pathway that leads to the future. Literature, as a laboratory where life – past, present or yet to come – is examined, plays a momentous role. The worst thing people can do is to live in denial. Wars are recurrent features of the history of peoples all over the world. What is most amazing is that love is best engendered by tumultuous situations like wars. In Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s novel, Roses and Bullets
The lives of many are turned apart by the civil war that broke between Nigeria and Biafra. While things are falling apart, Eloka and Ginika find love in each other. They seal their love when they get married as man and wife. The center holds until young men start being forcefully recruited into the Biafran army. Eloka and many other young men are recruited. Even young Udo gets a feel of the battlefront. With the desire to escape the harsh criticism of her mother-in-law, Ginika attends a gig with a friend. An officer drugs her and has carnal knowledge of her. She gets pregnant for the “faceless” officer. The child dies. Ginika loses almost all: her in-laws; her family and friends; even her love, Eloka. Yet, she doesn’t lose all. She still has the precious gift of life.
With Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie firmly establishes herself as a most powerful storyteller and humanist, ''the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,'' according to The Washington Post Book World.
The book has won numerous awards and accolades worldwide, including the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction in 2007.
About the Author:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into thirty languages. From the award-winning author, comes a new work 'Amaericanah' a powerful story of love, race and identity.Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, published by Algonquin in 2003, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her novel Half of a Yellow Sun won the Orange Broadband Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck, was the winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A recipient of a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.