Word: ibo
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Cover: Photographic design by Fred Burrell, who utilized a dramatically lit wood-and-polychrome Ibo mask. The figures in the foreground symbolize Biafran refugees...
...swiftness was the first big modern war waged in Black Africa since the continent's colonies began receiving their independence. It was also one of the most devastating civil wars in modern history. At the outset, Biafra's people numbered 12 million-about two-thirds of them Ibo, the rest belonging to minority tribes (as does Effiong, who is an Ibibio). The secessionist territory covered nearly 30,000 sq. mi. and included some of Nigeria's richest land. At the close of the war, 3,500,000 people were squeezed into a devastated area...
...from a Biafran hospital hobbling down a road with intravenous needles still stuck in their arms and glucose bottles held aloft so the fluid could drip down. "The roads were choked with people," another priest recalled. "I could see terror in their faces." The exodus reminded him of an Ibo proverb: "A man who is running for his life never gets tired." But some did; they sat down along the road and never rose. Then the vultures swooped in, swiftly and silently...
...Biafra's breakaway as an unexceptionable attempt to achieve self-determination found it difficult to explain why the Ijaws, Efiks, Ibibios and other minorities under Ojukwu's rule seemed so unhappy -or why Ojukwu, in the early days of the war, tried to seize territory with non-Ibo majorities. In the long months of bickering over how relief supplies should be distributed to the starving women and children of Biafra, neither Gowon nor Ojukwu looked good. Gowon was accused of using starvation as a weapon to force Biafra into submission, Ojukwu of using it as a public-relations...
Despite what appears to be misguided chauvinism on the relief issue, Gowon seemed prepared to behave as a generous victor in other respects. To the Ibos in general, he said: "We know that most of you were dragged into this. May I welcome you back into the fold?" The general called for three days of prayer and pleaded with the remainder of Nigeria's 53 million people not to reject the Ibo rebels. "Let us join hands to build a truly united and great nation," he said...