"I tend to think that the best definitional framework for assessing what took place in Asaba is not the UN Genocide Convention. Under the UN Convention, the case of Biafra as an example of genocide could be open to debate. The best framework is the Ethiopian concept of genocide in Article 238 of the Ethiopian Penal Code of 1957."
- Edward Kissi
Thanks for sharing all of this. But who called what happened in Asaba "genocide"? " I called it mass murder, ethnic cleansing, a horrific shameful event that should not be swept under the rug as we bicker over definitions. In fact, if someone called it genocide, I would not quibble with the person. The victims definitely would not have a problem with that definition!
- Ikhide
From: "Kissi, Edward" <ekissi@usf.edu>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "Kissi, Edward" <ekissi@usf.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 2, 2012 8:56 PM
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Economist: The disposable academic Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time
The Holocaust is an example of a genocide, as this particular crime is defined in Article II of the UN Genocide Convention of 1948. But not all genocides look like the Holocaust or should have all or some of the key features of the Holocaust. The Holocaust is unique in terms of its total intent and global scope as well as managerial efficiency. Never in the history of mass murder did a state intend to wipe out a group, in its entirety, where-ever members of that group lived. Whereas the Nazis killed all Jews they could find in Germany or Nazi-occupied Europe, as well as in North Africa, many Tutsis who lived outside of Rwanda, even in neighboring countries, were not targeted for annihilation. Thus, the Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide are examples of genocide, but are different kinds of genocide. A genocide does not necessarily have to have all the elements of another known genocide to make it so. Thus, any approach to the study of genocide that makes the Holocaust the criteria for determining what constitutes a genocide is a Holocaust-centric approach that betrays a lack of grasp of what genocide is, in international law.
On the other hand, not all mass killings, organized or random, constitute genocide. Genocide is not the objectionable killing of human beings. To ascribe genocide to any case of mass murder, because it involved the loss of human life, is a misuse of the legal concept of genocide. There are various trypes of mass murder: ethnic cleansing, state repression, war crimes and even what have become known, in international law, as "crimes against humanity." Genocide is a particular kind of mass murder.
What, then, is genocide? Most scholars who study genocide conclude that what distinguishes genocide from other mass killings is the intent to destroy a target group. The intent, if not overtly articulated by the perpetrators, has to be inferred from the extent of the perpetrators' actions. Intent to destroy the group can also be deduced from a pattern of purposeful actions undertaken by the perpetrators to put members of the target group beyond the perpetrators' unviverse of moral obligation to protect the lives of the target group.
In fact, there is no unanimity among genocide scholars about what genocide is and how it should be defined. Thus, there are numerous social science definitions of genocide that have been offered to enhance the internationally-accepted definition of genocide in Article II of the UN Genocide Convention. Therefore, the Biafran case, genocide or not genocide, can be examined in the context of any one of several definitions of genocide. The definitional context or framework has to be clear because there are many definitions of genocide out there.
I tend to think that the best definitional framework for assessing what took place in Asaba is not the UN Genocide Convention. Under the UN Convention, the case of Biafra as an example of genocide could be open to debate. The best framework is the Ethiopian concept of genocide in Article 238 of the Ethiopian Penal Code of 1957.
Note that Ethiopia was the first nation to ratify the UN Genocide Convention of 1948, in July 1949. Ethiopia's signature made the international definition of genocide legal and open the way for other ratifications. It was also the first nation to enshrine the terms of the Convention in its national laws. Ethiopia was also the first nation to redefine the concept of genocide and broaden that concept to criminalize the destruction of political enemies in conflict situations or the targeting of a politicized ethnic group. This definition of genocide is much broader and offers a better framework for examining the Biafran case than the UN definition of genocide which was framed purposely to assist the prosecution of Nazi criminals at Nuremberg.
Edward Kissi
Author of Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Cambodia (2006)
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ikhide [xokigbo@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 7:26 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Economist: The disposable academic Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time
Amatoritsero,
I have said it, and I will say it again, Toyin may try to back-pedal all he wants, but he clearly believes that the genocide in Biafra was a hoax. He is about 50 years old; he should know one way or the other what happened in Nigeria during the civil war. And what is this new nonsense about empirical data, analysis, etc, etc, each time someone sneezes around here? Is this a classroom and are we children who would spout off without any resource? And let's listen to ourselves for a second, what are we saying, are the songs of the women of Asaba not enough to make us ask: Why is a mass murderer's name adorning our international airport? Is it a genocide only if and when the white man says so? Sometimes man, sometimes you just want to holler!
- Ikhide
From: Amatoritsero Ede <esulaalu@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 2, 2012 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Economist: The disposable academic Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time
Folks,
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I think you might be misunderstanding Toyin Adepoju's demands for empirical analysis and evidence in the matter of whether Biafra was actually a genocide. He does not say there was no genocide but he is asking you to treat the matter as a scientific, fact-based analysis, rather with the blind emotion, which usually circumscribe talk about the Nigerian civil war. Toyin then goes on to produce facts, empirical evidence and logical arguments why the Jewish holocaust was a genocide. This reminds me of the fact that apart from holocaust deniers, the history of the 'black holocaust has never been given the prominence of the jewish holocaust, no were reparations made, nor are proper and visible commemoration of that bestial history. So it is usually dealt with in the abstract. Perhaps is it also because the Mediterranean and the transatlantic slavery trade, involving black humanity, was always treaded with emotion in public discussions, that is beyond the seminar rooms.
Amatoritsero
-- On 2 January 2012 15:24, toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> wrote:
Emmanuel,
Can you provide evidence of the existence of an anti-Biafra genocide?
The idea is repeated in various sources without any effort at justification.
It would be useful to first define the meaning of the term "genocide" and describe how it applies to the Biafran experience.
While its important to acknowledge the devastation suffered by Biafra for a number of reasons, ranging from poor strategy on the part of her leaders to war crimes directed against her citizens, it is vital to place that suffering in context.
I await evidence of genocide against Biafrans and Igbos, not all of whom were within Biafra proper during the war.
All Ikhide has done is picked up some idea on the anti-Jewish Holocaust and flung it indiscriminately at the Biafra story. His claim to outrage then works as a means of shielding himself from the more demanding task of proving his point.
I am yet to find evidence that justifies the idea of an anti-Biafra and anti-Igbo genocide
The anti-Jewish Holocaust might not be particularly useful as a template for comparison in proving the occurrence of an anti-Biafra/anti-Igbo genocide because there is a world of difference between the Jewish Holocaust and the Biafran experience.
The occurrence of the anti-Jewish Holocaust carried out by the Nazis is indisputable on account of the incontrovertible, concrete historical evidence of the planning and execution of a policy of exterminating Jews carried out with horrific efficiency in Germany and Eastern Europe.
The extermination program was an official, openly declared policy of the Nazi regime, the official designation of the policy being "The Final Solution of the Jewish Question".
It operated in three major stages carried out from the 1930s to war's end in the 1940s :
1. Identification and isolation of Jews
2. Rounding up and transporting Jews to extermination camps. These camps are well known and have become historical monuments: Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald, Majdanek, Sobibor, among others.The people who ran these camps are known and some have been brought to trial, particularly notorious among them being Joseph Mengele, the "Angel of Death" at Auschwitz, who decided which prisoners were to be gassed to death immediately and those whose deaths were to be delayed.He is also described as using the prisoners, including children, for horrible scientific experiments.
3. The prisoners were stripped of their valuables, either killed immediately or saved for later death. This death could come through random selection at the whims of the camp commandant, through a precise process of selecting people for gassing, or through starvation, exhuastion, illness or overwork.
The gas chambers still exist as part of the historical monuments the concentration camps have become.
Can anyone point to anything comparable to justify the claims of an anti-Biafra genocide?
Even if it is argued that Nigeria did not operate at the Nazi level of efficiency, can anyone point to a policy consistently executed or carried out at random but constantly directed at the extermination of Biafrans and particularly Igbos?
The historical records and the scholarship on the war are often not consulted, it seems, by a significant number of those who make pronouncements about it. This has led to a proliferation of myth over history.
thanks
toyin
On 2 January 2012 11:06, Dr. Emmanuel Franklyne <Ogbunwezeh@yahoo.com> wrote:
Ikhide,
You have said it all. Toyin Adepoju and other closet Nazis like him are still in denial. Biafra would forever remain Nigeria's albatross. The ghosts of Biafra are yet to be propitiated. And the wicked denials of the Toyin Adepoju's of this world are reasons why Nigeria will remain the graveyard of progress; a country that murders its best and canonizes its rogues.
Sent from my iPhone"Dont you want to adress the opinion that the much quoted notion of anti-Igbo genocide before and during the war is a farce concoted by Biafran propaganda on the ashes, misery and mutilation of Biafrans and particularly Igbos, whom the Biafran leadership and Ojukwu, in particular, sacrificed to an unnecessary and unwinnable war, sustaining that war even when victory was clearly impossible, manufacturing the genocide fear to keep Biafrans in the war, eventually fleeing to safety in exile even though he had promised not to leave his people, leaving them at a desperate time, with no options, leaving Efiong to negotiate surrender without any initiative from Ojukwu, who was now incommunicado?'
- Toyin Adepoju
Wow. And there are Nazis who claim the holocaust never happened. You won't see me engaging them in "intellectual dialogue." Nonsense. You are on you own here, Toyin; I totally and irrevocably dissociate myself from any and all hateful views like the above. Please keep my name out of it.
- Ikhide
From: toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 1, 2012 9:52 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Economist: The disposable academic Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time
Ikhide,
In the name of God, what have I done to deserve being described so : "I only engage in honest conversations; and it is clear to me that from your conduct here and elsewhere that you are not interested in one."
In this discussion on this group, I have called you out to defend your views on Nigerian education and Biafra.
You wrote of Nigerian education and Biafra in the following words:
"Upon the death of Dim Ojukwu, many of us donned the flag of Biafra. One young Nigerian reached out to me on chat and asked what the flag was about. I told him. He asked me to tell him more about Biafra. I asked him how old he was. 35 years old. A man born in Nigeria in the 70's told me that very very little of Biafra was taught him in school. How can that be, I asked? Then he told me about the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary. I have the entire transcript and one day when I have the time I shall fictionalize it and share with the world the war that our intellectuals have wreaked on our children."
In those words, you do the following
1. You describe the idea that "very little of Biafra" was taught to your 35 year old interlocutor, born in Nigeria in the 70s, as indication of what you describe as "the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary".
You thereby imply that Nigerian education from the 70s, when your interlocutor was born, to the present, is best understood in terms of ""the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary".
Have I misquoted you? No.
Everyone here can read and judge for themselves.
I am asking you to justify this assertion.
To justify this assertion, you need to demonstrate why you think the kind of education about Biafra you espouse should be a touchstone for assessing Nigerian education.
Does everyone of your age group share that opinion, making it unnecessary to defend and justify it?
Did you yourself not argue that history is perceived from various perspectives? Is it not vital that holders of these perspectives need to defend their views by presenting their rationale for holding those views?
It is salutary, that, for you, like many others " The passing of Dim Ojukwu was for me and many an opportunity to reflect on an era."
What are your reflections?
Various people have expressed theirs. Yakubu Gowon, the Nigerian Head of State during the war, whose differences with Ojukwu played a key role in the crises before and during the war has expressed his, motivated by Ojukwu's transition. Max Siollun, Nigerian history scholar, has done the same, which one can see if one Googles his name.
Over the years, Ojukwu reappraisals have been prominent on Nigerian centred online communities and in books on the war. The names of people like Ikenna Anokute on Nigerian and Igbo centred groups and Edruezzi on Nairaland are significant in this debate. Chief Ralph Uwechue, President of Ohanaeze, the Pan-Igbo organisation, a person who describes himself as at the centre of events in Biafra as events unfolded in those fateful days, not to talk of Philip Efiong, Alexander Madiebo, Ojukwu's fellow Biafran commanders, have all written books on the subject.
Joseph Achuzia, one of the most prominent figures in the Biafran military, who was part of events from the gestation to the dissolution of Biafra, has expressed his views on the meaning of Biafra, before and recently. Some other Igbos have expressed disagreement with Achuzia on the meaning of Biafra. Interestingly and ironically, Oguchi Nwocha's article critical of the perspective on Biafra of Achuzia, a war scarred veteran of that war, who was in Biafra from the beginning to the end with his Caucasian wife and their son, describing himself as using desperate methods to mobilize his men to fight in the face of apathy arising from the awareness of imminent collapse in the midst of horrific suffering, a stance contributing to his war time nickname as " Hannibal Air-Raid Achiuzia" described as serving seven years in prison at war's end for his role in the war, is titled "Educating Achuzie on the Biafran Dream."
Biafra means different things to different people, even among Igbos, who are the centre of its legacy.
What does it mean to you?
In the discussions on Biafra on Ederi, which you allude to, you lamented the failure of people to claim and own the Biafra story.
What is the character of your own ownership and claim on Biafra?
Is Biafra of such questionable value that you cannot stand up and present your views in this marketplace of opinions?
Dont you want to counter those, including Igbos in Biafra and Igbos after Biafra, who see Biafra as a misadventure and a power hungry venture driven largely by Ojukwu?
Dont you want to adress the opinion that the much quoted notion of anti-Igbo genocide before and during the war is a farce concoted by Biafran propaganda on the ashes, misery and mutilation of Biafrans and particularly Igbos, whom the Biafran leadership and Ojukwu, in particular, sacrificed to an unnecessary and unwinnable war, sustaining that war even when victory was clearly impossible, manufacturing the genocide fear to keep Biafrans in the war, eventually fleeing to safety in exile &nbs--
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