There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra

3. Todd F. Davis, Kurt Vonnegut’s Crusade, or, How a Postmodern Harlequin Preached a New Kind of Humanism. SUNY Series in Postmodern Culture (Albany, N. Y.: State University of New York Press, 2006), p. 141.

4. Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Chinua Achebe, p. 143.

5. The term “intellectual warrior” was coined by Biafran writers to describe Stanley Diamond during the war. Christopher Okigbo might have been the first to use the phrase.

6. Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child.

7. Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Chinua Achebe, p. 143.

8. Ibid.

The War and the Nigerian Intellectual

1. Version of events told during writers’ discussions.

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

3. Alexander O. Animalu, Life and Thoughts of Professor Kenneth Onwuka Dike (Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria: Ucheakonam Foundation, 1997); also, conversation with Onwuka Dike at his home in Dedham, Massachussetts, shortly after the war.

4. A few of the roving ambassadors for Biafra were: Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (who later left the breakaway republic), Dr. Kingsley Ozumba (K. O.) Mbadiwe, Professor Eni Njoku, Chukwuma Azikiwe, Dr. Hilary Okam, Dr. Okechukwu Ikejiani, as well as Cyprian Ekwensi.

5. Animalu, Life and Thoughts of Professor Kenneth Onwuka Dike; also, conversation with Dike at this home.

6. Author’s recollections.

7. Ibid.

8. Marie Umeh, “Emerging Perspectives on Flora Nwapa: Critical and Theoretical Essays,” Africa World Press (February 1998). Also Femi Nzegwu, “Flora Nwapa,” The Literary Encyclopedia, first published October 20, 2001, http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3364, accessed February 6, 2012.

The Life and Work of Christopher Okigbo

1. Chinua Achebe, Hopes and Impediments (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1989), p. 118.

2. Obiageli Okigbo, A Biographical Sketch of Christopher Okigbo (1932–1967) © Christopher Okigbo Foundation, 2010; Donatus Ibe Nwoga, Critical Perspectives on Christopher Okigbo (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1984); Dubem Okafor, Dance of Death: Nigerian History and Christopher Okigbo’s Poetry (Trenton, NJ, and Asmara, Eritrea: African World Press, 1998); James Wieland, The Ensphering Mind: History, Myth and Fictions in the Poetry of Allen Curnow, Nissim Ezekiel, A. D. Hope, A. M. Klein, Christopher Okigbo and Derek Walcott (Washington, DC: Three Continents Press, 1988); Uzoma Esonwanne, ed., Critical Essays on Christopher Okigbo (New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 2000); Sunday Anozie, Christopher Okigbo: Creative Rhetoric (London: Evan Brothers, and New York: Holmes and Meier, 1972).

3. Chinua Achebe and Dubem Okafor, eds., Don’t Let Him Die: An Anthology of Memorial Poems for Christopher Okigbo (Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1978).

4. Ibid.

5. Francis Ellah, our colleague in Ibadan and beyond, remembers Okigbo this way:

Chris was a very sociable type. . . . [H]e talked all the time, telling everyone he met what he thought of the person. Chris read classics but nobody knew that his poems meant anything. We read them and then he published a few of them, and they turned out to be monumental works. The last time I saw Chris was when I came back from London, and he regaled us with a detailed account of his exploits. At one time, when he was librarian at UNN [University of Nigeria], and I had just started work with the Foreign Service, I built a home near Enugu campus and was within three hundred yards to Chris Okigbo’s home on the campus. This brought us closer together. Then, of course, I met his older brother, Pius.

Source: May 30, 2005, © The Achebe Foundation. Interview number 6: Senator Francis J. Ellah.

6. Eyewitness account.

7. Ibid.

8. Author’s recollection.

9. Achebe and Okafor, eds., Don’t Let Him Die.

The Major Nigerian Actors in the Conflict: Ojukwu and Gowon

1. On the Biafran side, aside from General Odumegwu Ojukwu: Major General Philip Effiong, chief of General Staff; Brigadier Tony Eze; Brigadier Pat Amadi; Colonel Joe (“Air Raid”) Achuzie; Colonel Nsudo; Colonel Iheanacho; Colonel Archibong; Brigadier Patrick Amadi, Biafran army; Colonel Patrick Anwunah, chief of logistics and principal staff officer to Ojukwu; Colonel David Ogunewe, military adviser to Ojukwu; Patrick Okeke, inspector general of Biafran police; Sir Louis Mbafeno, chief justice of Biafra; and the young and talented Matthew Mbu, Biafran foreign minister.

On the Nigerian side, apart from Major General Yakubu Gowon, the Nigerian head of state, there were: Obafemi Awolowo, deputy chairman, Supreme Military Council; Brigadier Emmanuel Ekpo, chief of staff, supreme headquarters; Brigadier Murtala R. Muhammed; Brigadier Mobalaji Johnson; Lieutenant Colonel Shehu Musa Yar’Adua; Brigadier Hassan Katsina, chief of staff, Nigerian army; Brigadier Emmanuel Ikwue, chief of air staff; Rear Admiral Joseph Wey, chief of naval staff; Dr. Taslim Elias, attorney general; H. E. A. Ejueyitchie, secretary to the Federal Military Government; Anthony Enahoro, commissioner for information; Olusegun Obasanjo; Colonel Benjamin Adekunle; Theophilus Y. Danjuma; and the twelve state governors.