BORN IN FIRE: PRELUDE TO BIAFRA
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it saw as an "inexcusable atrocity."'28 The
Nigerian Foreign Minister, on the other
hand, thought a military target was involved;
and when pressed further on the issue in
view of the overwhelming evidence of outside observers, he merely said it was a "military error." One thought immediately of
Guernica, which has been immortalized for
us by Picasso. The parallels are remarkable.
Guernica-like Umuohiagu-was bombed
by the Nazis on a crowded market day, leaving thousands dead. The Biafran toll has already risen to 550 [the Times (London),
11 February]. The Nazi Foreign Minister
called Guernica a "regrettable military
error." The qualifying epithet did not occur
to the Nigerians.
Finally, Nigeria, presumably fighting to
keep its country united, has nevertheless
resolutely refused to let international relief
agencies fly in food and medicine to relieve
the suffering, especially the children. It has
shot at relief planes of the Red Cross and
Church Relief Services, which have persevered in sending much needed relief under
hazardous conditions, on the spurious claim
that International Red Cross are gun merchants. The implication of Adekunle's statement is terrifying. "I want to prevent even
one Ibo having even one piece to eat before
their capitulation" sounds a persistent and
sinister echo. In Calabar, which the Nigerians have controlled for the last eighteen
months, Adekunle himself has refused international relief to what is left of its population. The umpteenth "final" offensive,
which the Nigerians announced at the end of
January,29 has consisted entirely in ceaseless
8 The New York Times, 8 February 1968.
'See the Observer (London), 26 January 1969
bombings of defenceless civilians; no engagement with the Biafran military forces has
been launched. The implication, to the Biafrans, is unmistakable; and with it, their will
to survival.
Furthermore, Nigeria has often claimed
that the struggle is an internal matter, somewhat overlooking the considerable involvement of Britain and the Soviet Union. Biafrans only wish it were so, for then the war
would end speedily in their favor. This is not
merely speculation. In the first two months
after Nigeria invaded Biafra, the war was an
internal affair. Biafran quickly captured the
entire Mid-Western State of Nigeria, and, as
I have said, were within striking distance of
Lagos, before Britain took fright and poured
arms, ammunition, and personnel into Nigerian hands.
Yet Biafra still warmly and confidently
entertains hope of triumph. It is, in the
words of Thomas Mann, "the hope beyond
hopelessness," for the sake of those hapless
children, for suffering humanity, and a reaffirmation of man's essential nobility. Walter
Benjamin, the highly gifted German Jew
who was hounded to an early death by the
Nazis in 1940, concluded his brilliant essay
on Goethe's Elective Affinities with the
words: "Only for the sake of the hopeless
are we given hope." And so for these, for
the oppressed and downtrodden, and-dare
I add-for the sake of a despoiled Africa,
we in Biafra must succeed, we must survive.
where "a new Federal offensive which Lagos confidently believes will be the 'last push' against
the Ibo heartland [was] launched without fanfare." Also the New York Times' report, 5 February 1969, of "Another 'Final' Offensive."
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