From: dozieobowu@yahoo.com [josana] <josana-noreply@yahoogroups.co.uk>
Date: Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 5:17 PM
Subject: [josana] Book Review
To: josana@yahoogroups.co.uk
Book Title: The Wrath of War
Author: Patrick Amanze Njoku
Pages:353
Publisher: Cel-Bez Publishing Company Nigeria Ltd. Owerri
Year of Publication: 2009
Reviewer: Chidozie Chukwubuike, 14/12/2014
ECHOES OF BITTER LAUGHTER: A critical insight into The Wrath of War- a Nigerian civil war fiction by Patrick Amanze Njoku
Introduction:
Often, when writers capture war time experiences in literature, it comes in the form of a memoir (as in Achebe's There was a Country), history book (as in Madiebo's Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War) or Poetic Reflections as in Achebe's Christmas in Biafra and Other Poems). The first two genres are prose writings loaded with facts in time and event. However, while memoirs, can be said to be subjective, history books are efforts in objective analysis and documentation of the situation as occurred. The third genre can either be subjective or objective but its distinguishing quality is its emotiveness, a compelling language (in beauty and brilliance) that draws undivided attention to the subject matter.
There is yet another category of writings that capture war time experiences. It is prose fiction. It is a combination of researched and eye-witnessed facts distilled in creative imagination. A great deal of such works are usually post-war publications; even though the materials employed might have comprised notes and diaries kept during the course of the war and raw memory of participants. It is therefore important to classify the writers of prose fiction war narratives into two categories namely; (i) Percipient writers: those that had no direct involvement- some of whom were not even born-in the war. They got their knowledge through stories and reading. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with Half of a Yellow Sun, Ibe Gerald Oluchi with Road to Biafra, among others are examples of percipient narrators of the Nigerian civil war. (ii)Participant writers: those directly engaged in combat or related activities during the war.
It is on this second group of writings that our work under review, The Wrath of War by Patrick Amanze Njoku, falls. It is our intention to examine the different shades of the war situation running through the novel and use them as yard-stick to gauge the attitude of the author who is a participant narrator and the lesson he intends for the critical reader.
THE NOVEL: A brief re-telling: -
The Wrath of War is the story of avoidable human degradation wrought by the Nigerian Civil War. Isiukwu is the spoilt relation of Honourable Nwanna, a Biafran diplomat. In the heat of the Nigerian civil war, while other Biafran youths were either at recruitment camps or war fronts Isiukwu was hiding in the village frolicking with girls. Isiukwu's affair with Dora, a girl living across the road from their home, blossomed and they began to engage in what the author described as the weekly "recreation", a sarcastic euphemism for their regular sex escapades.
The posting of Rev. Fr. Ibe to Ubowala, where Hon. Nwanna and his family took refuge, disrupted Isiukwu's romance with Dora as the girl became deeply engaged in church activities and began to avoid Isiukwu. This experience coupled with the intensified efforts by the Biafran military at conscription of able bodied men forced Isukwu to leave the village. A brief encounter with the military gave Isiukwu the criminal instrument to hit back at society and Rev. Fr. Ibe was his major victim.
Situating the Author:
In modern scholarship, it is no longer fashionable to indulge in biographical criticism; that is, to discuss authors while talking about their works. Critics now deploy their critical energy totally to the text and assume the author 'dead'. This is borne out of the perception that the literary text has life of its own independent of the author. True as this might be, there are still circumstances that warrant an insight into how the life experiences of the author influenced his writing. The peculiarity of war narratives makes it necessary that one situates the author in order to critically look at the story. There are participant narrators and there are percipient narrators. Participant narrators are those that were physically involved in the war efforts one way or the other. Participant narrators are still further classified into narrators of fiction and narrators of non-fiction. Examples of participant narrators of fiction among the chroniclers of the Nigeria-Biafra war include Sasa U.K. Nwoke, Corporal Nwafor; Chukwuemeka Ike, Sunset at Dawn; Elechi Amadi, Sunset in Biafra; Hilary Njoku, A Tragedy Without Heroes; Patrick Amanze Njoku, The Wrath of War, etc.
And examples of participant narrators of non-fiction include Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country; Alexander Mediebo, The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War; Emefiena Ezeani, In Biafra Africa Died, etc.
In a personal interview with Patrick Amanze Njoku, he confirmed to this writer that he was of the Biafran Naval command. Having identified Patrick Amanze Njoku as a participant narrator, it is important to note that the toughest challenge of a participant narrator is what this writer has termed "the burden of memory".
- The Burden of Memory:
The world waited in vain for the late General of the people's Army of Biafra- Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to publish his account of the civil war and he never did. He only left behind some random thoughts. Why? I do not know of the existence of General Yakubu Gowon's published account of the war. Why? There's always this obvious reluctance by participants to write their war stories. This can be seen in Sasa U.K Nwoke's Dedication in the book - Corporal Nwafor:
"Have you considered putting your experiences into a book?"
"Pas du tout, not at all," I remarked pointedly.
"You must," he continued, "this is an unadulterated, unbiased, raw and original historical narrative on Biafra. Promise me you will write it," he said matter–of-factly.
I was pensive, lost in deep thought for a moment then the massive airplane touched down effortlessly, making a screeching contact with the tarmac. My senses returned. I turned to my friend, the French man and said:
"I Promise to write the story for posterity".
We shook hands and parted…
In There Was a Country, Chinua Achebe expressed this reluctance in a slightly different way:
There is some connection between the particular distress or war, the particular tension of war and the kind of literary response it inspires. I chose to express myself in that period through poetry, as opposed to other genres… it is for the sake of the future of Nigeria, for our children and grand children, that I feel it is important to tell Nigeria's story, Biafra's story, our story, my story.
Note that in each case, the authors expressed some sort of inhibition or reluctance but only compelled by the demands of posterity or the future generation to write their stories. Contrast these with the eagerness of a percipient narrator, like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, to build a narrative out of the flashes of exciting tales from veterans and history from pages of books. She expressed this eagerness thus:
I am grateful to them (her parents) for their stories… I think what matters is not what they went through but that they survived.
To the participant as opposed to the percipient "what they went through" is a burden that demands great care in the way it is un-loaded upon the next generation. It is supposed to be the guide post for surviving the peace (to borrow an expression from Ekwensi). It is very important. It is the burden of memory.
However, when you consider the fact that even Achebe – the master of fiction – in this case, could not bring himself to write fiction but rather chose what he called 'A personal History', you begin to appreciate the magnitude of Patrick Amanze Njoku's effort. This is a participant narrator who has made tremendous effort to assume the posture of a percipient narrator in order not to taint his tale with personal emotions. It is not an easy task. His is a landmark contribution in surmounting the burden of memory through fictive exploration of the different shades of war experiences.
SHADES OF THE WAR EXPERIENCES
In page three, the author, through a discussion among Biafran diplomats shows high hopes for the emerging nation, thus:
"I tell you," he yelled, Biafra will be the technological wonder of the black race and we will use our power to get into the security council and then we will liberate the other third world countries.
This was the general sentiment within the Biafran side of the divide. However, it didn't take long before uncertainty began to set in. In page 7, the federal troops entered Owerri. An important aspect of the war experience as revealed by the author is the adaptability of the Biafran civilian population. In page 8, we are told that "After a few days with the refuges in their new habitat, they were gradually absorbed in the day-to-day happenings of the indigenes".
The beauty of this narrative is in the author's unpretentious exposition of the different shades of the war experience – the good, the bad, the ugly – using a hero, Rev Fr. Justin Ibe, and a Villain, Isiukwu. These two characters both joined the war under different circumstances and through them the author exposes the different types of participation in the war effort.
- Isiukwu: Although the author slightly confuses the character of Isiukwu by calling him the Honourable's son in page 9 and then nephew in page 79, in a more elaborate sense he succeeded in establishing Isiukwu as a relative of the Honourable. The earliest encounter of the reader with the character of Isiukwu is as a young man lusting after a girl living opposite their own compound while a war raged. He became so notorious that his room was seen as 'the slaughter slab' by the girls in the neighhourhood. He was forcefully conscripted into the army but escaped from the camp. However, he later willfully enrolled for officer's training and when asked why he decided to join the army he answered:
… I had been thinking about it in the past two days… The kind of insult I got from those (army) boys was terrible … one of them even slapped me and called me an idle civilian.
With this negative motivation, one needed not to be surprised at Isiukwu's subsequent behaviours. He abducted a catholic priest just for the mere suspicion that the priest influenced Dora, the girl he was regularly having sex with, to begin to avoid him. He left the training camp due to ill health and never returned. He criminally gave himself a military rank and continued to promote himself. He got involved in all sorts of vices : illicit sex, drug, theft, blackmail, fight, black market, lies, greed, etc. The activities of Isiukwu and his cohorts were sabotaging the war efforts.
- Rev. Fr. Justin Ibe: A catholic priest who returned from Rome just before the war broke out is described in the novel as 'young, tall, strongly built and good looking'. He participated in the war in three different capacities, viz, (i) The Parish Priest of Ubowala who set up a relief center to cater for the war ravaged civilian population. (ii) A victim of criminal conscription who, having reconciled himself with his new fate exhibited exceptional gallantry and bravery. (iii) A wounded soldier reassigned from the front to an administrative position and he carried out his duties with uncommon patriotic zeal.
Rev. Fr. Justin Ibe served his embattled nation to the best of his abilities, even at the risk of his life. He also went through some sort of debasement that led him to drink, smoke, patronize dibia and womanize. There are also other aspects of the war narrative beyond the activities of these two characters that the novel projects.
Women's Resourcefulness: The resourcefulness of the women population in contributing to the Biafran war effort by sustaining the economy is highlighted in the book. This they did by engaging in what became popularized as Ahia Attack – i.e crossing into the enemy territory to buy goods blockaded from Biafra. It was a very risky enterprise.
Patriotism: Beyond the patriotism of Biafran young men, who voluntarily enlisted in the army, and the fighting soldiers, who, though outnumbered by the federal troops in both arms and personnel still fought unrelenting, there is still another shade of patriotism described in the novel thus:
At the Orlu market, which was in full session, the traders gave the boys (recruits) gifts of fruit and small tubers of yam.
Mercenary Soldiering: The author described the soldiers on the side of the federal government as Gwodo Gwodo soldiers who joined the federal forces from neighbouring countries such as Tchad, Niger, etc. However, a better picture of the nature of the mercenary soldier is in pages 213 -16 where, to my mind colonel Rolf Bob Steiner (described as a soldier of fortune) betrayed Biafra.
Cowardice: The conscription exercise described in page 31 shows that as there were heroes, there were also cowards. According to the narrating voice in the novel, "there were about thirty or maybe forty other conscripts sitting on the dirty ground at Amaraku Market that day. They were in different stages of frustration and anguish". In similar description on the same page, we are told that:
"He (Isiukwu) had prided himself on being able to avoid conscript teams that visited Ubo..."
Generally speaking, this book has exposed international conspiracy against Biafra, in the form of arms supply to the federal troops. It also informs the reader of international aid in the form of supply of relief materials to starving Biafran population in defiance to the federal blockade. In this book, we have seen greed, love, distrust, diplomatic embarrassment, outrage indignation, etc. In fact, we have seen the different shades, colours and even temperaments of war. And as a critical reader, what does one make out of all these? I think there is a re-echoing laughter in the background that is very bitter. That laughter is some sort of an embarrassing realization of the avoidability of war and all the evil that go with it.
BITTER LAUGHTER: Let us identify few specific scenarios to elucidate the concept of bitter laughter. The deliberate effort by a participant to write fiction is in itself a bitter laughter.
WCC (war can continue): The author in page 22 described a situation where the ordinary fighting soldiers in the trenches on both sides reached a gentleman's agreement for a ceasefire without the consent of their commanders. Within such periods, they exchanged gifts and held parties . They styled it WCC (war can continue) in mock reference to the fact that some people somewhere were enjoying themselves while they in the trenches were meant to continue the war. The author is therefore laughing aloud saying if they could effect a cease fire, why couldn't they decide not to fight altogether? There are other instances where individuals or group used that (WCC) expression. When someone enjoys comfort in spite of a raging war, the war can continue for all he cares!
Deceptions: The society pretends to want peace yet they accord special accolade to people who fought and killed the highest number of people in a war. Through the character of Isiukwu, the author is saying, 'if what they want is fantastic tales of heroism (why not?), anybody can fabricate one and gain respect. In the case of Isiukwu, even his difficult-to-please uncle came to show respect. The author seems to be laughing at the absurdities of war.
SEX IN WAR: The urge for sex is a natural instinct. One would think that under war situations, such natural expressions like sex would be kept at bay. But, no. It is even at such times that the basic instincts of man are most made manifest. In this case even a Rev. Father did it! The author is laughing at humanity and saying, 'you cannot always cheat nature no matter how you try to, so stop trying'.
Mercenary Soldiering, Debauchery and Sabotage: The author is laughing at the foolishness of man who would go to contract someone who has nothing at stake to fight for him. He reveals in pages 213 – 216 that such exercise can only result in debauchery and sabotage
Hunger: In the book, we notice the author laughing at the futility of the commanders of the hungry Biafran army in trying to maintain discipline in the face of opportunity to loot food and armoury. They were hungry. They were disillusioned and you cannot cheat nature. Even if it were a trap, the hunger in their stomach would not care. And the author seems to be laughing at the realization that Biafra lost the battle to nothing but hunger.
CONCLUSION
Has the war taught us anything? If the necessity of war could make us to be inventive and daring in searching for truth, then we must let the necessity of peace push us to be even more daring and inventive in searching for truth. The novel, THE WRATH OF WAR is only an expression of angst – anxiety and fear for the future. Won't we, like the priest who invested great effort in going against nature (celibacy) and by accident of war was exposed to experience nature (sex), return to those anti-natural tendencies as seen at the end of the book? The narrator, through his narrative seems afraid that we might return to those same situations that led us to fight the war just like the priest, his protagonist.
Works cited:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun, Farafina, Lagos, 2006
Chinua Achebe, There was a Country, Penguin Books Ltd. England, 2012
Emefiena Ezeani, In Biafra Africa Died, Veritas Lumen Publishers, London, 2013
Ibe Gerald Oluchi, Road to Biafra 1967-70, D.S.T Publishers, Owerri, Nigeria, 2013
Patrick Amanze Njoku, The Wrath of War, Cel-Bez Publishing Company,Owerri, Nigeria, 2009
Sasa U.K. Nwoke, Corporal Nwafor, Skill Publishing, Nigeria, 2008
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