Remembering Biafra

Uchenna Izundu talks to musician and actor, Ben Okafor, about re-living his experiences as a child soldier during Nigeria’s civil war in his new play, Child of Biafra.

Over 2 million people died during Nigeria’s civil war from July 6, 1967- January 13, 1970, when the southeastern provinces, mainly populated by the Igbos, tried to establish the Republic of Biafra following massacres of Christian Igbos living in the Muslim north. They were also frustrated by the lack of political power sharing in Nigeria.

In his new play, Child of Biafra , Igbo musician and actor Ben Okafor shares his experiences of training as a child solider for the Boy’s Company of which he is the sole survivor. Through African storytelling, physical theatre with archive footage, Igbo chorales and the irrepressible hi-life music of West Africa, Okafor re-creates his childhood journey of initiation through the fields and fortunes of war.

Why did you feel the need to share this story about Biafra?

Justin, the co-writer and I, felt that Nigeria needs to look at its history. Leaving aside the map of Nigeria and its constitution, we need to look at why this beautiful and wealthy nation is not reaching its potential. It has so much to offer.

If you know your history well, you will be in a position to choose the history that you can relive and those that you can leave.

Why do you think the war happened?

It’s the way that Nigeria was sculpted at that time by the British. It became difficult for people to have to work together as the languages, lifestyles, and even the food that they eat are so different. So, things began to go wrong. I don’t know how it came to such a level of mistrust – there was a lot of corruption in government. The army stepped in to make things get back together again. There was another military coup and the massacre of Igbos in the North. Hundreds of thousands of Igbos fled back to the east and that was the first time I heard the word ‘refugee’. My parents made room for friends and relatives in our home.

People in the East put pressure on Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu [an Igbo military governor of the East] to secede. He kept on fighting and negotiating to speak to the federal government to stop the massacres. Eventually he seceded and then the war started – it lasted 3 years.

I was coming up to my thirteenth birthday when the war started and we became refugees. Onisha, where I’m from, fell and I joined the army. I trained to fight in the Boy’s Company as an intelligence officer where you find out how many tanks and support the enemy has, escape to your own line, and tell them.

What happened in the army?

After training I was going to be shipped out to the battlefield. The whole house went mad at me being in the army. My mother wasn’t doing too well and so I stayed behind missing my rendez-vous time with comrades. The note from them, when I went to the meeting point the next day, said that I should return the next morning. That afternoon on the news was the announcement that my battalion was captured and they were beaten and maimed by the Nigerian army. Someone had switched sides and told the Nigerian Army about them in exchange for stuff.

The government of Biafra demobilised the entire battalion, but I was too young for that and that’s how I missed that one. I’m 52 now – sometimes I feel great – but my friends lost their eyes or their lives and up until now I feel I should have been there.

This play has been 10 years in the making. Why is that?

Justin and I have been busy doing other things and we talked to a lot of people and did a lot of research about Biafra.

We went to the Nigerian High Commission thinking that all the information would be there in one spot. But the Nigerian library was laughable and all the information that was there was the official stuff that you could put in a little folder. It was the information produced by Yakubu Gowan [head of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975 who took over under one military coup and was overthrown in another]. I asked if there was anything from the Biafrans or if there was a recording of the Biafran anthem. The person there who was helping was horrified; he told me it would be the equivalent of asking for the Nazi anthem in the British library. I told him that even if that was the case we would still be able to get it.

That experience just shows that within Nigeria itself nothing is stored in archives. Politicians, schools, and colleges don’t talk about it. This needs to be opened up if Nigeria is to go through healing; it needs to understand where it has gone wrong.

What do you want the audience to take away from Child of Biafra?

I’d like the audience to understand that even until today the British government hasn’t embraced the role it played in the Biafran war. Harold Wilson gave Nigeria everything to fight Biafra. They haven’t acknowledged the part they played in destroying the East. There were unbelievable atrocities. The British government lied to the people and denied supporting the Nigerian army. It stopped food and supplies going through to Biafra. The images of children dying were seen all over the world. Their justification was to keep Nigeria as one, but the belief was to do with oil as this was in the East.

Child of Biafra will premiere at Contact Theatre, Manchester from 19-21 July. For tickets call 0161 274 0600 or book online www.contact-theatre.org

Check www.benokafor.com for tour dates of Ben’s musical performances