Word: biafrans
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...scene I witnessed at Umuahia's Queen Elizabeth Hospital following the air raid was repeated in nearly every Biafran town I visited. Under tall shade trees outside an already filled mortuary lay a score of corpses, including pregnant women and months-old babies, charred, disfigured and mangled. Amid the tearful cries of keening women, workers carried into the morgue mashed human fragments piled on stretchers, and limbs and torsos balanced on shovels. The next morning, clutching handkerchiefs over nose and mouth against the stench and carrying freshly sawed unpainted wood coffins, the families lined up patiently under the trees...
Though Nigerian Strongman Major General Yakubu Gowon insists that only military objectives are hit, the raids against civilians were, in fact, recently intensified to two-a-day strikes on all Biafran towns. During the six days I spent in Biafra, civilian bombing casualties totaled 300 dead by actual body count. I saw jets repeatedly release payloads on populated townships where not a single military installation was within range...
Africa's most talked about playwright is Nigerian Wole Soyinka, 33, who has languished in jail since August on charges that he aided the Biafran secession. His voice is being heard loud and clear off Broadway. Two Soyinka one-acters were produced in November, and now the skillful and creative Negro Ensemble Company (TIME, Jan. 12) has undertaken his full-length Kongi's Harvest. In their hands, it is a considerably better production than it is a play, although there is some interest in seeing how an African writes about Africa's No. 1 problem: turning tribes...
Speedboat Raids. Around Port Harcourt in the south, Biafrans have kept at bay Nigerian troops, who are 25 miles down the channel on Bonny Island. They have mounted gun batteries and trip-wire mines around the channel to discourage a waterborne assault, even venture out in speedboats for raids on Bonny. Biafran guerrillas sneak into their occupied capital of Enugu at night to harry the federal garrison, are battling with rusty Dane guns and cutlasses against a federal division along the Niger River. The Biafrans have also prevented another invasion force dug into the port town of Calabar from crossing...
Bulging with Bank Notes. The Ibo have adjusted to the war remarkably well. In the bush, villagers have taken into their families thousands of Ibo fleeing from other regions of Nigeria and from Biafran towns threatened with capture. Wholly new and hidden villages have sprung up near occupied towns. At roadblocks around the country, highschool girls in "Long Live Biafra" T-shirts help militiamen check passing cars. Light-Heavyweight Boxing Champion Dick Tiger, an Ibo, has toured the interior villages, advising militia officers on how to whip their inexperienced recruits into fighting trim...