Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About
- Thread starter TommyHilltrigga
- Start date
Frangala
All Star
Enugu in the spotlight: 50 years on, the flame of Biafra still burns
The one-time, would-be capital of Biafra remains torn between its tragic bid for independence from Nigeria in 1967 and a series of very modern problems
Lt Col Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu declares the independence of Biafra in May 1967. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Cities is supported by
About this content
Shares
196
Comments
29
Phil Hoad
@phlode
Tuesday 26 September 2017 07.00 EDTLast modified on Tuesday 26 September 2017 10.07 EDT
When this coal mining outpost was given town status in 1917 – one of the few Nigerian cities founded in the colonial era – there was little reason to think history would come calling. Seven years after independence, however, in the summer of 1967, it did so in tumultuous style when Lt Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Enugu the capital of the breakaway Republic of Biafra.
The move didn’t end well. The city was recaptured in the first week of October, and the civil war ended in mass starvation for the region’s Igbo people in January 1970. The internationally lamented tragedy was documented in the novel Half of a Yellow Sun, by the bestselling, Enugu-born writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A half-century on, the city’s now roughly three-quarters of a million people are back in the Nigerian fold.
Biafra calling
Well, more or less. The Biafra question and the possibility of “Biafexit” remain alive, as shown by the presence of a recent government-mandated military operation, codenamed Python Dance II, some say is aimed at suppressing calls for autonomy in the region. It follows “sit at home” protests in Enugu and other south-eastern communities at the end of May. Schools, markets and banks also fell quiet to commemorate the 50th anniversary, in response to a call from the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group. Its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was freed in April after two years of detention, and he maintains tense relations with the central government, who, he believes, have failed the south-east and the Igbo.
President Buhari, meanwhile, isn’t doing much to dissuade him with recent statements such as: “Naturally, the constituencies that gave me 97% cannot, in all honesty, be treated [in the same way as] constituencies that gave me 5%. I think this is a political reality.”
Biafra remains a hot-button topic, about which many people are reluctant to go on the record. A spokesman at Enugu’s National Archives of Nigeria, who wished to stay anonymous, would only confirm the city’s emotional pull: “It’s the epicentre of the Igbo race. There’s that affinity, that natural love.”
FacebookTwitterPinterest
A man pushes a cart filled with baskets of tomatoes at a local market in Enugu. Photograph: Reuters
Enugu in numbers ...
Six storeys in the African Continental Bank tower, Enugu’s tallest building
234km of the original railway line that ran coal freight down to Port Harcourt
63.4% of people living on $1 a day or less in 2010
75 appearances for the Nigerian football team made by local boy Jay-Jay Okocha
… and pictures
South African photographer Pieter Hugo’s Nollywood sets outlandish characters from Nigeria’s cut-price film industry against dusty Enugu backdrops.
History in 100 words
Enugu’s Ogui district, home to the University of Nigeria, gets its name from a village inhabited by the local Nike people (a sub-group of the Igbo) from the 17th century. The Cheshire-born geologist Albert Kitson would have encountered the Nike in 1909 when, prospecting for silver, he instead found coal on the nearby Udi Ridge. The colleries created a boom in black gold, which peaked in the 1950s; but by then the Igbo’s autonomous spirit had already made itself heard.
The Iva Valley shooting in November 1949, in which British colonial policemen murdered 21 striking miners, was one of many incidents that sparked the desire for nationhood. Post-independence, this drive towards self-determination ended catastrophically in the Biafran episode. War sparked severe famine and political repression, and decimated the Enugu coal industry.
Enugu in sound and vision
Radio Biafra, founded in London by Nnamdi Kanu, is keeping the flame alive in dependably strident west African style.
Enugu’s superstar actor Peter Edochie was the lead in the 1987 adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s Igbo epic Things Fall Apart. The city is the second hub of Nollywood production after Lagos.
FacebookTwitterPinterest
What’s everyone talking about?
How to sort out the Enugu’s longstanding utilities problems. Power cuts are frequent, and the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company – caught in a dispute over £6.5m of unpaid debtswith the state administration – seem helpless to rectify the situation. “Nobody is happy with them, and we’re praying for improvement,” says the National Archives spokesman.
Successive attempts to sort out and supplement the city’s three dilapidated main water plants have failed; and citizens relying on shallow wells for waters often run short in the dry season. Recent strides have been made to repair the city’s road network, but progress remains at the mercy of Nigeria’s chaotic and paternalistic politics. “These problems are common with developing countries,” says the National Archives spokesman. “But it is not permanent, it keeps on changing, depending on who is in the saddle.”
FacebookTwitterPinterest
Video: A journey through Enugu
What’s next for the city?
If political independence is still distant for Enugu, then it can work on agricultural self-sufficiency in the meantime: a long-time goal for the region. The fertile state was a net exporter of food before the Biafran devastation; the national oil addiction further stunted its green fingers in the 70s. But there is much informal farming in the city, the National Archives spokesman says: “A people that cannot feed itself cannot lay claim to be sovereign, so [we understand] the importance of farming. We’re being encouraged to grow things, even it is just maize and oranges in your front or back garden. It is something – money you would have otherwise spent in the market.”
The challenge is to nurture this kind of ad hoc urban cultivation with formal policies: a starting point might be sorting the aforementioned water supply problems, or the reported holdups with a national subsidised fertiliser schemelaunched in March.
Close zoom
The Nigerian Television Authority’s Enugu offshoot gives events in the area a decent runout, but don’t expect it to wave the Biafran colours. For that, there’s the Biafran Herald.
Do you live in Enugu? What key facts, figures and cultural highlights have we missed? Share your stories below
Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, and explore our archive here
The one-time, would-be capital of Biafra remains torn between its tragic bid for independence from Nigeria in 1967 and a series of very modern problems
Lt Col Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu declares the independence of Biafra in May 1967. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Cities is supported by
About this contentShares
196
Comments
29
Phil Hoad
@phlode
Tuesday 26 September 2017 07.00 EDTLast modified on Tuesday 26 September 2017 10.07 EDT
When this coal mining outpost was given town status in 1917 – one of the few Nigerian cities founded in the colonial era – there was little reason to think history would come calling. Seven years after independence, however, in the summer of 1967, it did so in tumultuous style when Lt Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Enugu the capital of the breakaway Republic of Biafra.
The move didn’t end well. The city was recaptured in the first week of October, and the civil war ended in mass starvation for the region’s Igbo people in January 1970. The internationally lamented tragedy was documented in the novel Half of a Yellow Sun, by the bestselling, Enugu-born writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A half-century on, the city’s now roughly three-quarters of a million people are back in the Nigerian fold.
Biafra calling
Well, more or less. The Biafra question and the possibility of “Biafexit” remain alive, as shown by the presence of a recent government-mandated military operation, codenamed Python Dance II, some say is aimed at suppressing calls for autonomy in the region. It follows “sit at home” protests in Enugu and other south-eastern communities at the end of May. Schools, markets and banks also fell quiet to commemorate the 50th anniversary, in response to a call from the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group. Its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was freed in April after two years of detention, and he maintains tense relations with the central government, who, he believes, have failed the south-east and the Igbo.
President Buhari, meanwhile, isn’t doing much to dissuade him with recent statements such as: “Naturally, the constituencies that gave me 97% cannot, in all honesty, be treated [in the same way as] constituencies that gave me 5%. I think this is a political reality.”
Biafra remains a hot-button topic, about which many people are reluctant to go on the record. A spokesman at Enugu’s National Archives of Nigeria, who wished to stay anonymous, would only confirm the city’s emotional pull: “It’s the epicentre of the Igbo race. There’s that affinity, that natural love.”
FacebookTwitterPinterest
A man pushes a cart filled with baskets of tomatoes at a local market in Enugu. Photograph: Reuters
Enugu in numbers ...
Six storeys in the African Continental Bank tower, Enugu’s tallest building
234km of the original railway line that ran coal freight down to Port Harcourt
63.4% of people living on $1 a day or less in 2010
75 appearances for the Nigerian football team made by local boy Jay-Jay Okocha
… and pictures
South African photographer Pieter Hugo’s Nollywood sets outlandish characters from Nigeria’s cut-price film industry against dusty Enugu backdrops.
History in 100 words
Enugu’s Ogui district, home to the University of Nigeria, gets its name from a village inhabited by the local Nike people (a sub-group of the Igbo) from the 17th century. The Cheshire-born geologist Albert Kitson would have encountered the Nike in 1909 when, prospecting for silver, he instead found coal on the nearby Udi Ridge. The colleries created a boom in black gold, which peaked in the 1950s; but by then the Igbo’s autonomous spirit had already made itself heard.
The Iva Valley shooting in November 1949, in which British colonial policemen murdered 21 striking miners, was one of many incidents that sparked the desire for nationhood. Post-independence, this drive towards self-determination ended catastrophically in the Biafran episode. War sparked severe famine and political repression, and decimated the Enugu coal industry.
Enugu in sound and vision
Radio Biafra, founded in London by Nnamdi Kanu, is keeping the flame alive in dependably strident west African style.
Enugu’s superstar actor Peter Edochie was the lead in the 1987 adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s Igbo epic Things Fall Apart. The city is the second hub of Nollywood production after Lagos.
FacebookTwitterPinterest
What’s everyone talking about?
How to sort out the Enugu’s longstanding utilities problems. Power cuts are frequent, and the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company – caught in a dispute over £6.5m of unpaid debtswith the state administration – seem helpless to rectify the situation. “Nobody is happy with them, and we’re praying for improvement,” says the National Archives spokesman.
Successive attempts to sort out and supplement the city’s three dilapidated main water plants have failed; and citizens relying on shallow wells for waters often run short in the dry season. Recent strides have been made to repair the city’s road network, but progress remains at the mercy of Nigeria’s chaotic and paternalistic politics. “These problems are common with developing countries,” says the National Archives spokesman. “But it is not permanent, it keeps on changing, depending on who is in the saddle.”
FacebookTwitterPinterest
Video: A journey through Enugu
What’s next for the city?
If political independence is still distant for Enugu, then it can work on agricultural self-sufficiency in the meantime: a long-time goal for the region. The fertile state was a net exporter of food before the Biafran devastation; the national oil addiction further stunted its green fingers in the 70s. But there is much informal farming in the city, the National Archives spokesman says: “A people that cannot feed itself cannot lay claim to be sovereign, so [we understand] the importance of farming. We’re being encouraged to grow things, even it is just maize and oranges in your front or back garden. It is something – money you would have otherwise spent in the market.”
The challenge is to nurture this kind of ad hoc urban cultivation with formal policies: a starting point might be sorting the aforementioned water supply problems, or the reported holdups with a national subsidised fertiliser schemelaunched in March.
Close zoom
The Nigerian Television Authority’s Enugu offshoot gives events in the area a decent runout, but don’t expect it to wave the Biafran colours. For that, there’s the Biafran Herald.
Do you live in Enugu? What key facts, figures and cultural highlights have we missed? Share your stories below
Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, and explore our archive here
@Frangala have you heard about this? shyts not looking good for Kabila...
As Congo refugees pour over border, Angola's backing for Kabila in doubt
As Congo refugees pour over border, Angola's backing for Kabila in doubt
As Kabila’s Control Slips, Congo’s Relations With Neighboring Angola Fray
As Kabila’s Control Slips, Congo’s Relations With Neighboring Angola Fray
And we know Angola has a new president.
As Congo refugees pour over border, Angola's backing for Kabila in doubt
As Congo refugees pour over border, Angola's backing for Kabila in doubt
As Kabila’s Control Slips, Congo’s Relations With Neighboring Angola Fray
As Kabila’s Control Slips, Congo’s Relations With Neighboring Angola Fray
And we know Angola has a new president.
Frangala
All Star
Yea I heard. They are refugees from the Kasai Region borders the Angolan border. Kabila had ordered the killing of a Luba tribal chief in Kasai Kamwina Nsapu because he was anti-govt. and ordered his succession something that is prevented from the constitution. Federal govt. cannot interfere in matters such as these. He is also accused of ordering the killings of two UN investigators who went to investigate the killing of this chief. But long story short, the chief's men rebelled against the the armed forces causing people to flee the region and flood into Angola something like 30,000 refugees and more internally displaced in DRC.
Angola has been behind Kabila the father and son but now see him as a destabilizing force in the region because he does not want to cede power in addition they do not want a humanitarian crisis in Congo to have tons of refugees flood across their border. In addition Isabel Dos Santos, daughter of the previous President is married to an exiled Congolese businessman Sindika Dokolo who is also very staunch and anti-Kabila and has assisted the Congolese refugees in Angola.
It's only a matter of time that Kabila is gone maybe before the end of this year, he is getting very desperate which also means there may unfortunately a few more deaths but he is cornered and nowhere to go. He is heading to the ICC in the near future.
Last edited:
Yet he himself has vowed he wanted to put the killers behind the UN investigators behind bars. It seems Kabila like Mobutu is running out of his usefulness.
Angola has been behind Kabila the father and son but now see him as a destabilizing force in the region because he does not want to cede power in addition they do not want a humanitarian crisis in Congo to have tons of refugees flood across their border. In addition Isabel Dos Santos, daughter of the previous President is married to an exiled Congolese businessman Sindika Dokolo who is also very staunch and anti-Kabila and has assisted the Congolese refugees in Angola.
It's only a matter of time that Kabila is gone maybe before the end of this year, he is getting very desperate which also means there may unfortunately a few more deaths but he is cornered and nowhere to go. He is heading to the ICC in the near future.
Kabila is already being cornered by those Great Lake African countries, the West, his people and now potentially Angola. However, the DRC does NOT need another big war. Rebel leaders time and time again in Africa have proven to be horrible leaders. Kabila needs to be forced out via political pressure and then install an actual EDUCATED leader. I know you will disagree A LOT but I prefer a leader from the Eastern Congo.
Red Shield
Global Domination
Yea I heard. They are refugees from the Kasai Region borders the Angolan border. Kabila had ordered the killing of a Luba tribal chief in Kasai Kamwina Nsapu because he was anti-govt. and ordered his succession something that is prevented from the constitution. Federal govt. cannot interfere in matters such as these. He is also accused of ordering the killings of two UN investigators who went to investigate the killing of this chief. But long story short, the chief's men rebelled against the the armed forces causing people to flee the region and flood into Angola something like 30,000 refugees and more internally displaced in DRC.
Angola has been behind Kabila the father and son but now see him as a destabilizing force in the region because he does not want to cede power in addition they do not want a humanitarian crisis in Congo to have tons of refugees flood across their border. In addition Isabel Dos Santos, daughter of the previous President is married to an exiled Congolese businessman Sindika Dokolo who is also very staunch and anti-Kabila and has assisted the Congolese refugees in Angola.
It's only a matter of time that Kabila is gone maybe before the end of this year, he is getting very desperate which also means there may unfortunately a few more deaths but he is cornered and nowhere to go. He is heading to the ICC in the near future.
Man how many african presidents back during independence got with white women
Premeditated
MANDE KANG
about time, the new leader has be be someone from East Congo considering that's the most stable place in the country.
Frangala
All Star
There won't be a war. The opposition has been doing a great job diplomatically and trying to talk to regional and world powers about the situation and possible sanctions against Kabila's circle most of his wealth is an offshore account. The reason he is holding on is because he fears for his life, retribution, prosecution and his wealth. So he is cornered, there won't be a war I think the opposition has matured politically over the years (not as mature as West Africans but it's getting there). UDPS is the most popular party and Etienne Tshisekedi's son (Felix) is going to be the next President in an election.
The vast majority of Congolese probably wouldn't elect a person from the East outside of those from the East because there is this suspicion of Eastern political elites with being in bed with Rwanda and Uganda. So it's probably not going to happen anytime soon and Kabila the father came into power with the support of those Eastern African countries so the majority of Congolese don't trust politicians from that part of the country.
Last edited:
lol... A LOT.Man how many african presidents back during independence got with white women
I always assumed the Western part especially the capital was the most stable part. I prefer an Eastern president because the Eastern part of Congo from what i always read and watched always got the blunt of Congo's suffering due to its vast resources. A president from the Eastern part would be more understanding of the situation, unite the country and probably develop that part of the country. Plus I would prefer the DRC to be more align with East African countries like Kenya Tanzania, Zambia than Angola which has always been corrupt as shyt. I would prefer Congo being in the Swahili political sphere of influence.
Frangala
All Star
Man how many african presidents back during independence got with white women
Not a lot actually. Dos Santos went away to the Soviet Union (moderm day Azerbajian I think) to study some type of engineering and that's how he met the woman's mother I believe she was Russian and went back home to Africa and I believe had more children with an Angolan woman. Dokolo's mother was an aid worker Danish in Mobutu's Zaire and that's how his father and mother met in Congo. But I don't think it's a common occurence.
This is excellent and lets hope it becomes true. I been praying for the Congo because it like Haiti holds A LOT of potential in its part of the world. And if he fears for his life then he should just give up power fast and just move to a western nation like all these dictators do. Staying any longer just makes things worse. I'm going to look up the UDPS. Like i said Congo does NOT need another rebel leader.There won't be a war. The opposition has been doing a great job diplomatically and trying to talk to regional and world powers about the situation and possible sanctions against Kabila's circle most of his wealth is an offshore account. The reason he is holding on is because he fears for his life, retribution, prosecution and his wealth. So he is cornered, there won't be a war I think the opposition has matured politically over the years. UDPS is the most popular party and Etienne Tshisekedi's son (Felix) is going to be the next President in an election.
Sad. I feel it could unite the country. Hope it doesnt mean isolation. I'm guessing Felix is obviously not from the East.
Frangala
All Star
I see your argument but I think UDPS and Tshisekedi means a lot to the people are almost the equivalent what the ANC meant to South Africans in any democratic elections they will win by a landslide because they are the face of the opposition that could not be corrupted in the country's history and always have been revered for that by the masses.