Troubled Journey: Nigeria Since the Civil War is the latest of a number of case-study probes into Nigeria's unique experience as a modern African state. It pulls together a talented group of Nigerian historians who have been close students of Nigeria's "troubled journey" since Independence Day on October 1, 1960, and more precisely since the conclusion of its devastating Civil War from 1967 to 1970. This book is a major contribution to the on-going debate about how the country can best be politically restructured and socio-economically reformed.
The essays here underscore Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe's continuing optimism about the possibilities of Africans constructing post-"Berlin-states" as the launch pad to transform the topography of the African renaissance. Readings from Reading is a timely publication, coming on the eve of the historic January 2011 referendum in south Sudan in which the people of the region will choose to vote to restore their national independence or get stuck hopelessly in the Sudan, the first of the "Berlin-states" that Africans tragically "inherited" in January 1956. Ekwe-Ekwe insists that the contemporary Africa state, imposed on Africans by a band of European conqueror states and currently run by what the author describes as a "shard of disreputable African regimes to exploit and despoil the continent's human and material resources," cannot serve African interests. The legacy, as this study demonstrates, has indeed been catastrophic: "The [African] overseers pushed the states into even deeper depths of genocidal and kakistocratic notoriety in the past 54 years as the grim examples of particularly Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan ... depressingly underscore. 15 million Africans have been murdered by African-led regimes in these states and elsewhere in Africa since the Igbo genocide of 1977-1970." This is an engaging, incisive, wide-ranging and multidisciplinary discourse, salient features that have come to define Ekwe-Ekwe's groundbreaking scholarship of the past three decades. The author covers an assemblage of diverse topics and themes which include the Igbo genocide, the Jos massacres in central Nigeria, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab's failed attempt to blow up an incoming aircraft over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, African presence in Britain, Robert Mugabe, Muammar Gaddafi, Obafemi Awolowo, Omar al-Bashir, Charles Taylor, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ali Mazrui, Andrew Young, the G8 and Africa, Africa "debt," African emigres' remittances to Africa, "sub-Sahara Africa," reparations to Africans, African representation on the UN Security Council, African choices for the Nobel Peace Prize, Africa and the International Criminal Court, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, the Sudan and the Congo, arms to Africa, arms-ban on Africa. Finally, on the subject of the restoration-of-independence, the key connecting thread that links all the visitations, Ekwe-Ekwe critically examines the contributions made variously on this cord by an impressive line up of some of the very best and brightest of African intellectuals: Achebe, Adichie, Cesaire, Damas, Coltrane, Diop, Equiano, Ngugu, Okigbo, Senghor."
The Igbo are one of the most populous ethnic groups in Nigeria and are perhaps best known and celebrated in the work of Chinua Achebe. In this landmark collection on Igbo society and arts, Toyin Falola and Raphael Chijioke Njoku have compiled a detailed and innovative examination of the Igbo experience in Africa and in the diaspora. Focusing on institutions and cultural practices, the volume covers the enslavement, middle passage, and American experience of the Igbo as well as their return to Africa and aspects of Igbo language, society, and cultural arts. By employing a variety of disciplinary perspectives, this volume presents a comprehensive view of how the Igbo were integrated into the Atlantic world through the slave trade and slavery, the transformations of Igbo identities and culture, and the strategies for resistance employed by the Igbo in the New World. Moving beyond descriptions of generic African experiences, this collection includes 21 essays by prominent scholars throughout the world.
There are books on Igbo vocabulary and grammar, but none teaches you how to apply what you know in actual conversation such as Survival Igbo! If you desire to communicate in Igbo language in the shortest time possible then this book is for you. In this book, you will learn basic Igbo grammar rules, quick hacks to form sentences easily, commonly used words and phrases, what to say in different situations, Igbo slangs, a simple Igbo traditional prayer, a simple Christian prayer in Igbo, and lots more. This book offers threefold benefits: as a text on basic Igbo grammar, as a phrasebook and as an introduction to contemporary Igbo language usage. Whether you are of Igbo heritage or not, have learnt Igbo or not, this book will ensure that you communicate clearly, simply and freely in Igbo language whenever you need to.
A Biafran Soldiers Survival from the Jaws of Death: Nigeria-Biafran Civil War is a reflection of a personal experience in the battlefield and an insight about certain activities in some war theaters. Attempt was made to illustrate how Nigeria waged a war of genocide against Eastern Nigeria especially the Igbos (Biafrans). This book went further to show that the nonchalant attitude of many African countries toward the Nigeria-Biafra conflict later metamorphosed in various conflicts in many parts of Africa. The growth of Africa has been retarded by similar wars in Angola, Congo, Mozambique, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Rwanda. One of the objectives of this book is to lay the facts and was neither intended to evoke sentiments nor to cast aspersion on any group or individuals. It is better to learn from our past mistakes for the future progress and unity of Nigeria. Although the war has ended, some of the factors that contributed to the causes of the civil war are still there. In order to keep Nigeria as one indivisible entity, there should be concrete efforts to ensure that human rights of all Nigerians are fully protected.
In 1961, Rosina 'Rose' Martin married John Umelo, a young Nigerian she met on a London Tube station platform, eventually moving to Nigeria with him and their children. As Rose taught Classics in Enugu, they found themselves caught up in Nigeria's Civil War, which followed the 1967 secession of Eastern Nigeria--now named Biafra. The family fled to John's ancestral village, then moved from place to place as the war closed in. When it ended in 1970, up to 2 million had died, most from starvation. Rose ('worse off than some, better off than many') had kept notes, capturing the reality of living in Biafra--from excitement in the beginning to despair towards the end. 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.
Gender, Migration and Development in Africa: Igbo Women in the Diaspora and Community Development in Southeastern Nigeria provides a unique approach to the study of the role of Igbo women in the diaspora to community development in Igboland. Utilizing primary sources, specifically, migration stories of women and the groups they form in the United States and other parts of the world, the book highlights the dynamism in the zeal to give back to their communities of origin in Igboland. The book seeks to affirm the propensity of Igbo women to evolve through personal efforts and formation of social groups to extend humanitarian services to underprivileged individuals and societies in Igboland. Through several community development programs, they have provided needed medical and educational supplies, hospital equipment, supplies and sponsored several medical missions in different parts of the Igboland. This book further counters the previously understudied role of women in development. Through a comprehensive documentation of the various programs and projects completed by the groups and individual charities, readers and policy makers will be inspired to appreciate the efforts of the various groups and extend needed support and assistance to the groups. The findings in the book reveal the increasing shift from the brain drain concept to brain circulation and networking within the Igbo women community. They are positively utilizing the skills and resources acquired from their host communities to engage in the development processes through remittances and social development projects. The study reinforces the trends and ideas that the improvement of African societies may well depend on the contributions of Africans outside the continent, especially women.
In this groundbreaking collection, leading historians, Africanists, and other scholars document the life and work of twelve Igbo intellectuals who, educated within European traditions, came to terms with the dominance of European thought while making significant contributions to African intellectual traditions.
This history of the poor of Sub-Saharan Africa begins in the monasteries of thirteenth-century Ethiopia and ends in the South African resettlement sites of the 1980s. Its thesis, derived from histories of poverty in Europe, is that most very poor Africans have been individuals incapacitated for labour, bereft of support, and unable to fend for themselves in a land-rich economy. There has emerged the distinct poverty of those excluded from access to productive resources. Natural disaster brought widespread destitution, but as a cause of mass mortality it was almost eliminated in the colonial era, to return to those areas where drought has been compounded by administrative breakdown. Professor Iliffe investigates what it was like to be poor, how the poor sought to help themselves, how their counterparts in other continents live. The poor live as people, rather than merely parading as statistics. Famines have alerted the world to African poverty, but the problem itself is ancient. Its prevailing forms will not be understood until those of earlier periods are revealed and trends of change are identified. This is a book for all concerned with the future of Africa, as well as for students of poverty elsewhere.
