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INTRODUCTION

An Igbo proverb tells us that a an to beat him cannot say where he dried his body

The rain that beat Africa began four to five hundred years ago, froh the transatlantic slave trade, to the Berlin Conference of 1885 That controversial gathering of the world’s leading European powers precipitatedcall the Scramble for Africa, which created new boundaries that did violence to Africa’s ancient societies and resulted in tension-prone modern states It took place without African consultation or representation, to say the least

Great Britain was handed the area of West Africa that would later becoeria, like a piece of chocolate cake at a birthday party It was one of the ions on the African continent, with over 250 ethnic groups and distinct languages The northern part of the country was the seat of several ancient kingdoms, such as the Kanem-Bornu—which Shehu Usman dan Fodio and his jihadists absorbed into the Muslieria was the locus of the glorious Nok Kingdom and its world-renowned terra-cotta sculptures The southern protectorate was hoion’s most sophisticated civilizations In the west, the Oyo and Ife kingdoms once strode doer River in the East, the Calabar and the Nri kingdoms flourished If the Berlin Conference sealed her fate, then the aamation of the southern and northern protectorates inextricably coeria’s destiny Aniether by a delicate, some say artificial, lattice1

Britain’s indirect rule was a great success in northern and western Nigeria, where affairs of state within this new dispensation continued as had been the case for centuries, with one exception—there was a new sovereign, Great Britain, to whoed fealty and into whose coffers all taxes were paid2 Indirect rule in Igbo land proved far h a newly created and incongruous establishebo democratic spirit3

Africa’s postcolonial disposition is the result of a people who have lost the habit of ruling the the new systems foisted upon us at the dawn of independence by our “colonial ement with the continent, it is imperative that it understand what happened to Africa It ful solution will require the goodwill and concerted efforts on the part of all those who share the weight of Africa’s historical burden

Most eria’s independence, reeria was once a land of great hope and progress, a nation with immense resources at its disposal—natural resources, yes, but even ed the course of Nigeria In ed the history of Africa

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There is some connection between the particular distress of war, the particular tension of war, and the kind of literary response it inspires I chose to express enres4 My Biafran poems and other poetry are collected in two volumes—Beware, Soul Brother, Poems (which was published as Christmas in Biafra and Other Poeroup these poe I have made the conscious choice to juxtapose poetry and prose in this book to tell complementary stories, in two art forms

It is for the sake of the future of Nigeria, for our children and grandchildren, that I feel it is ieria’s story, Biafra’s story, our story, my story

I begin this story with e in an earlier and, in so readers unfamiliar with this landscape into it at a human level and to be open about some of the sources of my own perspective

Pioneers of a New Frontier