Word: africa
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...tape and get him on a flight to Enugu, former capital of the Eastern Region, for an eyewitness report of relief operations. also had valuable background files from TIME'S Nairobi Bureau Chief Edwin Reingold and Ottawa Bureau Chief Alan Grossman. During two years in West Africa, Grossman covered the Ibo massacres that led to the present civil war. Among his more vivid memories, Grossman recalled walking along the platform at the Kano railroad station, "a handkerchief clasped to my nose to dull the lingering stench of more than a hundred Ibo corpses...
...bitter war in Biafra (see THE WORLD) is a symbol of the continent's divided soul, and the most discouraging example so far of a profound impasse that is crippling many of Black Africa's 30 newly independent states. It is an impasse between tribe and nation, which is also a clash between tradition and change, fact and aspiration...
...subgroups that represent certainty amid bewildering social and economic upheavals. On the other side is nationalism: the heady hope of creating modern states that will lead to African affluence and power. Until African leaders unify divisive tribes and build strong economies, the dream cannot be attained. Over most of Africa, false expectations of instant progress have incited unrest and power drives by rival tribes. Exploited by ambitious politicians, tribalism has become the chief complication of almost every major African conflict...
...together with a loyalty toward his fellow tribesmen that is as fierce as is his utter disregard for any outsider. Makonde tribesmen still slit their cheeks to identify themselves to the world, but it is unnecessary surgery. So inseparable are the images of a man and his tribe in Africa that it is as if he carried an invisible mark on his skin...
...honest opinions of an Irishman who has been around a bit. "It's just like any other war," he says, "they never solve anything, it never does any good." The war's origin is simple, he feels: "the Ibos were right to secede. They're smart, the smartest in Africa, they have all the doctors and lawyers." Though the origin of the war is tribal, its continuation may be due to intervention, he says, noting that "there's a lot of oil under Biafra," and that the oil might have something to do with English support for the Nigerians...