There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra

The Role of the Writer in Africa

1. “The Beginnings of African Literature,” http://www.unc.edu/~hhalpin/ThingsFallApart/literature.html.

2. Bacon, “Atlantic Unbound”; Achebe, “The Duty and Involvement of the African Writer”; Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra,” Transition, no. 36 (1968), pp. 31–38. Published by Indiana University Press on behalf of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, www.jstor.org/stable/2934672; Lindfors, Conversations with Chinua Achebe. Achebe Foundation Archives © 2004–2011.

3. Ode Ogede, Achebe and the Politics of Representation (Trenton, NJ: African World Press, 2001).

4. Bacon, “Atlantic unbound”; Achebe, “The Duty and Involvement of the African Writer”; Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra,” Transition; Lindfors, Conversations with Chinua Achebe. Achebe Foundation Archives © 2004–2011.

5. Ali Mazrui, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo, African Writers Series (London: Heinemann, 1971). Achebe Foundation Archives © 2004–2011.

6. Ibid.

7. Bacon, “Atlantic Unbound”; Achebe, “The Duty and Involvement of the African Writer”; Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra,” Transition; Lindfors, Conversations with Chinua Achebe. Achebe Foundation Archives © 2004–2011.

8. Ibid. See also the preface I wrote for Richard Dowden’s book Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles (London: Portobello Books, 2008).

9. Ibid.

10. Adapted and updated from the following: Bradford Morrow, “Chinua Achebe, An Interview,” Conjunctions 17 (Fall 1991); Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra,” Transition; Lindfors, Conversations with Chinua Achebe.

11. Ibid.

12. From the preface I wrote for Richard Dowden’s book Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.

1966

1. Chinua Achebe, Collected Poems (New York: Anchor Books, 2004).

January 15, 1966, Coup

1. An honorific title whose original meaning was likely “war leader” or “captain of the bodyguards,” depending on the Hausa language expert one talks to.

The Dark Days

1. It is important to mention that Dr. Ogan was educated in Great Britain and was the first board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist not just in Nigeria, but if I am not mistaken, in all of West Africa! Dr. Ogan is a remarkable man who came from an extraordinary family of achievers in Item, Imo state; his younger brother Agu Ogan, a future professor of biochemistry and rector of Federal Polytechnic, Owerri, also became a close friend. Dr. Okoronkwo Ogan served his nation admirably and, with so many others, he served Biafra with equal distinction when the time came, in his case as a wartime surgeon at several places, including St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Umuahia. I remember being told by him how he was often overwhelmed by the sheer number of war wounded brought to his surgical service. These were Biafran army casualties, killed and maimed at the hands of Egyptian mercenary pilots flying for the Nigerian air force because the Nigerians, not surprisingly, did not have enough well-trained pilots!

2. Ikejiani was well-known for his attempts to end nepotism and clannishness in the Coal Corporation, fully integrating the organization that he ran with qualified Nigerians from all over the nation. His efforts drew great ire in many quarters.

3. Author’s recollections. Also Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Chinua Achebe: A Biography.

4. Ibid.

5. Chinua Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra.” Transition.

6. Robin Luckham, The Nigerian Military: A Sociological Analysis of Authority and Revolt, 1960–1967. African Studies Series, vol. 4 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press Archive, 1971), p. 17.

7. Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria (Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1983), p. 43.

BENIN ROAD

1. Chinua Achebe, Collected Poems (New York: Anchor Books, 2004).

A History of Ethnic Tension and Resentment

1. Achebe The Trouble with Nigeria, p. 46.

2. Ibid. Paul Anber, “Modernisation and Political Disintegration: Nigeria and the Ibos,” Journal of Modern African Studies 5, no. 2 (September 1967), pp. 163–79. Anber’s work provides a snapshot of the threat that Igbo educational, economic, and political success posed to other ethnic groups in Nigeria’s perpetual internal struggles for political and economic dominance. His work also provides useful background information on the ethnic rivalry that existed in Nigeria right up to independence and beyond. Robert M. Wren, J. P. Clark (Farmington Hills, MI: Twayne Publishers, 1984).