I just finished watching the BBC documentary on the Biafran War, Surviving Biafra: Voices from the Nigerian Civil War, and I couldn’t help but shake my head in disbelief.
The amount of misinformation in that documentary is alarming, but I don’t even blame them.
As Chinua Achebe wisely said “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”
By certain Igbo names, i can easily guess which part of Igbo or Sub they came from.
Kalu - Definitely Bende people of Abia State (Ohafia, Abiriba, Nkporo, Item e.t.c.)
Kanu - Umuahia precisely
Kamalu - Abia
Amadi - Imo or Rivers (Etche or Ikwerre)
Okoye - Anambra
ChukwuUdeNwaAro - Enugu
Nwenyanwu - Enugu
Ukpai - Abia or Ebonyi
Ogbonnaya - Enugu
Onwumere - Enugu or Imo
Ekwensi - Asaba or Anioma
A non-Igbo person who was not even born during the Biafran war is making a documentary titled “Surviving Biafra” and some of you fools are trying to gaslight me into believing it is going to be accurate and free of bias. Please.
I have lived long enough to see how the media is repeatedly used to distort the image of ndi Igbo, twist our history, misrepresent our traditions, and frame us in the worst possible light. I do not trust a non-Igbo person handling a story as sensitive and traumatic as Biafra.
A documentary titled “Surviving Biafra” made by outsiders is most likely going to become the complete opposite of what actually happened. They will rewrite history, soften atrocities, and somehow position themselves as the victims while the people who suffered starvation, bombings, displacement, and mass death get reduced to footnotes.
Was it not Gowon himself who recently came out admitting truths that exposed decades of lies surrounding the war? Lies that cost millions of ndi Igbo their lives. Yet now people are telling me “it’s one Nigeria” and “anyone can tell the story.”
If that is the case, then why use the name Biafra? Why center Igbo pain and Igbo history? If the story is being told from a Nigerian perspective, do you honestly think they are going to portray themselves as the villains in a war where ndi Igbo were massacred and starved?
Like I said before, let them make documentaries about how the Fulani enslaved and sold Yorubas. Let them make documentaries about herdsmen ravaging the South West and kidnapping people daily. Stop using ndi Igbo for clout and attention.
Because somehow whenever attention is needed, Igbos are dragged into the conversation. They know without ndi Igbo attached to it, many people would not even pay attention.
Ghana has ruled out the automatic renewal of South African company, Gold Fields' mining lease for Tarkwa Mine.
Tarkwa Mine produces $1 billion worth of gold annually with 427,000 ounces of gold in 2025.
The lease will expire next year.