Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe's Books

Readings from Reading

By: Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

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The essays here underscore Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe's continuing optimism about the possibilities of Africans constructing post-"Berlin-states" as the launch pad to transform the topography of the African renaissance. Readings from Reading is a timely publication, coming on the eve of the historic January 2011 referendum in south Sudan in which the people of the region will choose to vote to restore their national independence or get stuck hopelessly in the Sudan, the first of the "Berlin-states" that Africans tragically "inherited" in January 1956. Ekwe-Ekwe insists that the contemporary Africa state, imposed on Africans by a band of European conqueror states and currently run by what the author describes as a "shard of disreputable African regimes to exploit and despoil the continent's human and material resources," cannot serve African interests. The legacy, as this study demonstrates, has indeed been catastrophic: "The [African] overseers pushed the states into even deeper depths of genocidal and kakistocratic notoriety in the past 54 years as the grim examples of particularly Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan ... depressingly underscore. 15 million Africans have been murdered by African-led regimes in these states and elsewhere in Africa since the Igbo genocide of 1977-1970." This is an engaging, incisive, wide-ranging and multidisciplinary discourse, salient features that have come to define Ekwe-Ekwe's groundbreaking scholarship of the past three decades. The author covers an assemblage of diverse topics and themes which include the Igbo genocide, the Jos massacres in central Nigeria, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab's failed attempt to blow up an incoming aircraft over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, African presence in Britain, Robert Mugabe, Muammar Gaddafi, Obafemi Awolowo, Omar al-Bashir, Charles Taylor, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ali Mazrui, Andrew Young, the G8 and Africa, Africa "debt," African emigres' remittances to Africa, "sub-Sahara Africa," reparations to Africans, African representation on the UN Security Council, African choices for the Nobel Peace Prize, Africa and the International Criminal Court, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, the Sudan and the Congo, arms to Africa, arms-ban on Africa. Finally, on the subject of the restoration-of-independence, the key connecting thread that links all the visitations, Ekwe-Ekwe critically examines the contributions made variously on this cord by an impressive line up of some of the very best and brightest of African intellectuals: Achebe, Adichie, Cesaire, Damas, Coltrane, Diop, Equiano, Ngugu, Okigbo, Senghor.

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Page Count

254

Publisher

African Books Collective

Published Date

ISBN 10

0955205018

ISBN 13

9780955205019

Longest Genocide, Since 29 May 1966

By: Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

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Longest Genocide, Since 29 May 1966

By: Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

The Igbo genocide is the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. This genocide has been executed by Nigeria and its suzerain-state Britain since 29 May 1966. It inaugurated Africa's current age of pestilence. It is the longest and one of the bloodiest genocides of contemporary history. The genocidists murdered 3.1 million Igbo (25 per cent of the Igbo population) during phases I-III of the genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970. They have murdered tens of thousands of additional Igbo in phase-IV, 13 January 1970-present day.No single nation or people in Africa has suffered such an extensive and gruesome genocide and incalculable impoverishment in a century as the Igbo.As Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe demonstrates in this authoritative study, Britain is the principal agent in the perpetration of the Igbo genocide. Britain had sought to "punish" Igbo people for their vanguard role in the campaign to terminate the British conquest and occupation of this southwestcentral region of Africa from the 1930s-October 1960. Nowhere else in Africa nor indeed the South World, during the 1950s-1970s, does any of the seemingly departing European occupying-powers in a conquered country effectuate the crime of genocide on a constituent people as a means of safeguarding its strategic interests. Britain's sordid record in Nigeria is exceptional. In fact at the apogee of phase-III of the genocide in 1968-1969, Prime Minister Harold Wilson reminded the world, on record, of the end game of this dreadful mission he chiefly directed from the comfort of his residence and office at 10 Downing Street, London, 3000 miles from Biafra. Wilson informed Clyde Ferguson, the US State Department special coordinator for relief to Biafra, that he, Harold Wilson, "would accept a half million dead Biafrans if that was what it took" Nigeria to destroy the Igbo resistance to the genocide. As the final tally of the murder of the Igbo shows, Harold Wilson probably had the perverse satisfaction that his Nigerian on the ground allies did perform far in excess of his grim target.The longest genocide - since 29 May 1966 concludes that Britain and its client genocide-prosecuting state Nigeria will surely account for this crime as both states are fully aware, being signatories to the relevant international treaties, that there are no statutes of limitation in international law in the pursuit, apprehension, prosecution and sentencing of individuals and institutions involved in committing genocide. Genocide is a crime against humanity. And this is indeed a heinous crime against the Igbo humanity.Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is a specialist on the state and genocide and wars in Africa. He is the author of several books including African Literature in Defence of History: An essay on Chinua Achebe (2001), Biafra Revisited (2006), Readings from Reading: Essays on African History, Genocide, Literature (2011) and the author, with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why Donald Trump is great for Africa (2018).AFRICAN RENAISSANCECover Design Mr Leroy Cristof

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