There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra

285 Pages·2012·1.73 MB·English

by  Chinua Achebe

A C A
LSO BY HINUA CHEBE
The Education of a British-Protected Child Collected Poems
Anthills of the Savannah The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories Things Fall
Apart No Longer at Ease Chike and the River A Man of the People Arrow of
God
Girls at War and Other Stories Beware Soul Brother Morning Yet on Creation
Day The Trouble with Nigeria The Flute
The Drum
Home and Exile
Hopes and Impediments How the Leopard Got His Claws (with John
Iroaganachi) Winds of Change: Modern Short Stories from Black Africa
(coeditor)
African Short Stories (editor, with C. L. Innes) Another Africa
(with Robert Lyons)
THERE WAS A COUNTRY
A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIAFRA
Chinua Achebe
THE PENGUIN PRESS
New York
2012
THE PENGUIN PRESS
Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. • Penguin
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• Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in 2012 by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Chinua Achebe, 2012
All rights reserved
“1966,” “Benin Road,” “Penalty of Godhead,” “Generation Gap,” “Biafra, 1969,” “A Mother in a Refugee Camp,” “The First Shot,”
“Air Raid,” “Mango Seedling,” “We Laughed at Him,” “Vultures,” and “After a War” from Collected Poems by Chinua Achebe.
Copyright © 1971, 1973, 2004 by Chinua Achebe. Used by permission of Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Achebe, Chinua.
There was a country : a personal history of Biafra / Chinua Achebe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-10159598-5
1. Achebe, Chinua. 2. Authors, Nigerian—20th century—Biography. 3. Nigeria—History—Civil War, 1967–1970—Personal
narratives. I. Title.
PR9387.9.A3Z46 2012
823'.914—dc23
[B]
2012005603
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not
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Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers;
however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.
CONTENTS
Also by Chinua Achebe
Title Page
Copyright
Maps
Introduction
P
ART 1
Pioneers of a New Frontier
The Magical Years
A Primary Exposure
Leaving Home
The Formative Years at Umuahia and Ibadan
THE UMUAHIA EXPERIENCE
THE IBADAN EXPERIENCE
Meeting Christie and Her Family
Discovering Things Fall Apart
A Lucky Generation
The March to Independence
The Cradle of Nigerian Nationalism
Post-Independence Nigeria
The Decline
The Role of the Writer in Africa
1966 (poem)
January 15, 1966, Coup
The Dark Days
Benin Road (poem)
A History of Ethnic Tension and Resentment
The Army
Countercoup and Assassination
The Pogroms
Penalty of Godhead (poem)
The Aburi Accord
Generation Gap (poem)
The Nightmare Begins
P
ART 2
The Nigeria-Biafra War
THE BIAFRAN POSITION
THE NIGERIAN ARGUMENT
THE ROLE OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY
The Triangle Game: The UK, France, and the United States
The Writers and Intellectuals
The War and the Nigerian Intellectual
The Life and Work of Christopher Okigbo
The Major Nigerian Actors in the Conflict: Ojukwu and Gowon
THE ARISTOCRAT
THE GENTLEMAN GENERAL
The First Shot (poem)
The Biafran Invasion of the Mid-West
Gowon Regroups
The Asaba Massacre
Biafran Repercussions
Blood, Blood, Everywhere
The Calabar Massacre
Biafra, 1969 (poem)
The Republic of Biafra
THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATION OF A NEW NATION
The Biafran State
THE BIAFRAN FLAG
THE BIAFRAN NATIONAL ANTHEM
THE MILITARY
OGBUNIGWE
BIAFRAN TANKS
A TIGER JOINS THE ARMY
FREEDOM FIGHTERS
Traveling on Behalf of Biafra
Refugee Mother and Child (A Mother in a Refugee Camp) (poem)
Life in Biafra
The Abagana Ambush
Air Raid (poem)
The Citadel Press
The Ifeajuna Manuscript
Staying Alive
Death of the Poet: “Daddy, Don’t Let Him Die!”
Mango Seedling (poem)
Refugees
We Laughed at Him (poem)
The Media War
Narrow Escapes