Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 50 years after the Biafra w

It is interesting to read these narratives about the Biafran war.First it is a reminder that if some narratives about the war got missing after the war and were made to disappear  as reported by a famous Nigerian historian in a public lecture in 2017 the truth cannot be killed. It is also Interesting because it reminds very sharp minds of what transpired and the role of the intellectuals of that era-what they did and did not do,  and could have done and did not do; that culminated in this war and perhaps more pointedly the starvation of children.

Perhaps this video could also have come side by side with the video of  a famous  Nigerian poet who was justifying this starvation  in an interview  and which was published  in this same highly esteemed forum only a few years ago!

Since I watched that tape I have grown  to question  whether and the extent knowledge can make people good or bad or to  think just and fair about others; and most importantly whether there is no psychological battle we must overcome within ourselves before we are well positioned to achieve pure and true ideas of others!

My question continues!

Prof Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi

Director of Internship and Linkages Services

University of Abuja

On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 06:16:45 PM GMT, 'Chikwendu Ukaegbu' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

The wonders of technology. I see that you still are the dynamic mind and pragmatic personality you were when I first met you with the ancestor. The ancestor left us too early.

He Rests in Perfect Peace.

Let's keep in touch.

C Ukaegbu

On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 5:51:43 AM CDT, 'Obiora IKE' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

How technology connects.  I am,  dear brother Chikwendu Ukaegbu, the same Fatjer Obiora Ike associated with my great ancestor and elder Prof Father Osmund Anigbo of blessed memory.

  I remember you clearly and your many visits to my domicile and office at Enugu woth the vision for a better Africa and world. 

Currently at Geneva as CEO of Globethics.net.  Small world.  We should connect more often and narrate our stories. 

Obiora Ike 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 at 11:19, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

<toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:

Deeply moving reminiscences

On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 at 03:32, 'Chikwendu Ukaegbu' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Wao! I watched the attached video 3 times to quench my curiosity. Many new information keep showing up decades after the Biafra war. A ring of tears filled my eyes looking at Rev. Fr. Thomas Cunningham. We never called him Tom when he lived at Christ The King Parish Aba. We used his first name in full.

Okey, if Fr. Thomas Cunningham baptized you, I may have been part of your baptism. I served Fr. Cunningham as an alter boy. I served him food, cleaned his room, cooked his food when he went to say Mass in outside stations like, Obuzor, Akwaete,  Umunteke, and Obehie, plus Ogwe.. All these took place when I was in primary school at the date of your baptism. Fr Cunningham had an older sister of same parents who was a Rev. Sister at St. Joseph's College Aba. It was heart warming to see him and remember the good old days when the Catholic Church helped to mould our character.

The Rev. Fr. Tony Byrne may be the  Fr. Byrne who taught English at Sacred Heart College Aba and briefly in my own school, Holy Ghost Teacher Training College Umuahia. No matter what pundits say, those men and women were special people. I still remember my Principal, Rev. Fr. Michael Reynolds, the best teacher that walked the earth. I still use his method of testing and continuous assessment many decades after.

 

Thanks Obiora Ike for sharing this clip. Would you be the Obiora Ike the very good friend of Fr (Dr.) Anigbo's of blessed memory who taught anthropology at UNN?  If so, we used to visit you in Enugu.

Thanks for your effort to contribute to increase our knowledge of the events of Biafra for the enhancement of historical knowledge of that troubling episode of the Nigerian project.

Chikwendu Christian Ukaegbu

On Monday, March 16, 2020, 5:25:13 PM CDT, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Obiora Ike:

Thanks immensely for sharing this video clip. Nigeria's war crime against Biafran children is still too emotional to discuss for folks like me who lived through it all and survived, thanks to these unsung heroes.

The main reason for my effusive gratitude to you for sharing this video is that I saw, for the first time, with an adult's eyes, Rev. Fr. Tom Cunningham, the man who baptized me in 1958 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Obuzor, Asa under Regina Caeli Parish, Obehie, Asa in today's Ukwa-East LGA of Abia State, Nigeria! Fr. Cunningham was posted back to the parish shortly before the civil war started in 1967. He was a household name in my family, particularly because my mother was a member of the Parish Council. Until today, my only memory of Fr. Cunningham was his insistence (in halting Igbo language that cracked us up) that children must eat first during our church's annual Christmas Harvest Bazaars. His efforts to save us innocent victims of this genocide amplifies the genuineness of his love for children that he showed early in his priestly vocation.

Finally, I don't know when the video was made, but to see a man who baptized me when I was barely three weeks old still looking so sharp and young? May God's blessing continue to be upon him!

Okey Iheduru

On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 10:37 AM 'Obiora IKE' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Dear All, 

The Biafra war ended some 50 years ago in January 1970 in Nigeria. This was Africa's greatest tragedy of the 20th century but still inadequately reported, studied or covered in the media or in history books.

With our advanced tools of modern communications, it is worth reflecting upon to see what transpired to save the lives of many innocent Biafran children who became victims of the ideology propagated in that conflict that HUNGER WAS A LEGITIMATE TOOL IN WAR. 

Here below you have a short video clip of how some brave Reverend Fathers and humanitarian activists engaged the churches with meagre resources and courageous initiatives to save some lives of innocent children trapped in that war in Biafra.

Of course when you save life and do some good, you get some label by forces opposed to good.  But doing good shall remain an agenda for all humanitarian and CHURCH AID WORKERS.  

I had the pleasure to talk with Jørgen Thomsen, Senior Advisor at DanChurchAid during the 10^th anniversary celebration of the ACT Aliiance which Denmark supports. 

 

You can see a clip of the Biafra Airlift documentary on the DVD that Jørgen and his team have done.  These are great people and we owe them eternal gratitude.  There is a longer Video available. 

Watch the short clip below...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lqmmf6k725tgn1c/VTS_02_1.VOB?dl=0.

  

HISTORY MUST NEVER REPEAT ITSELF AS IT HAPPENED IN BIAFRA.

Prof Dr Obiora Ike

CEO Globethics Geneva,

Switzerland

UN ECOSOC STATUS 

 

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e-mail: okeyiheduru@gmail.com

Just published "The African Corporation, 'Africapitalism' and Regional Integration in Africa" (September 2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785362538.

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