‘Biafra should be mourned in order to heal’

Bookshelf: What was your background like?Dr. Diliorah Chukwurah: I was born in Jos where I continued to live with my parents until the age of nine when we relocated to the (defunct) Eastern Region due to the civil crises. The secession and the war followed. After the war I moved back to Jos with my […]

Bookshelf: What was your background like?
Dr. Diliorah Chukwurah: I was born in Jos where I continued to live with my parents until the age of nine when we relocated to the (defunct) Eastern Region due to the civil crises. The secession and the war followed. After the war I moved back to Jos with my parents. I attended St. Joseph’s College, Vom in Plateau State, followed by the College of Arts and Science, Mubi. I studied medicine at the University of Benin, worked in Gombe and Jos before moving to England where I still live today.
Bookshelf: Why did you decide to write about the Nigerian civil war after such a long time?
Chukwurah: I wrote part of the book over 15 years ago but was unable to continue due to other commitments. It’s still timely and the lessons valid for our time. History never expires.
Bookshelf: You are a medical doctor. When and how did you start writing?
Chukwurah: This is my first book. Many people I know, including my family, were adversely affected by the war. I thought I should write a short account of the crises and the war based on my experiences as a child. My original intention was to share the book with my extended family and acquaintances and to leave copies in the family library. This is because we have young people and many adults who are ignorant of the events of that period because our parents would not talk to their children about the crises and the war. The writing developed into a major book on the subject. I loved books as a child and wanted to choose a vocation related to writing and publishing but my parents urged me to study medicine.
Bookshelf: Some Nigerians may be of the opinion that the war should be forgotten. What do you hope to achieve?
Chukwurah: I want to inform and use my experience and that of some people I shared that period with to illustrate an aspect of the Biafra story that is often not told.  
Bookshelf: You wrote that you do not recall your parents using the word ‘Biafra.’ In other words, they did not want to unearth the past. Why do you think so?
Chukwurah: If someone precious to us dies, we grieve and mourn, perform elaborate rituals and ceremonies to celebrate the person’s life. It all helps us come to terms with the loss and we are not ashamed to talk about the person’s life. When Biafra died, our parents walked away from the dead body, so to say and never looked back. They did not grieve or mourn, but bottled up all their feelings and emotions about Biafra and luckily they found solace in hard work and in rehabilitating themselves. Why would they not speak about Biafra? Was it some sort of post-traumatic phenomenon that they were numb from the trauma, or was it shame that they lost the war? Were they in a state of denial or did they feel intimidated by the generals who ruled us for over three decades after the war – the same generals against whom they fought? They quietly got on with their lives.
Bookshelf: The book chronicles your experience as a Biafran child. Can you share a bit of that experience?
Chukwurah: It was about life in refugee camps, experiencing and witnessing a lot of hunger and diseases, traversing dangerous battlefields, fleeing from bombs and missiles and having my sister struck dead in my presence by a rocket, trekking for over a day with little rest, queuing from 11am to 3pm to be served breakfast by members of the International Red Cross, almost losing my genitals to scabies, and going without formal education for three years. The image that comes to mind when a Biafran child is mentioned is the image of hunger, disease and malnutrition. That image was real for majority of the children and for me.
Bookshelf: How was it possible to recollect events of over 40 years with vivid descriptions and dialogue when you were just nine?
Chukwurah: Circumstances were largely responsible. I was exposed to remarkable experiences during the crises in the north and within Biafra. Some of these experiences were harrowing, such as when my little sister was killed in Port Harcourt while we were trying to escape from federal soldiers and my father was seriously injured; when my parents went missing during the war; life in three refugee camps; bombing episodes and so on. These traumatic events were etched in my memory as landmarks. I then tried to recall those that took place in between these landmarks. I also filled the gaps with the help of my mother. I am indebted to Alexander Madiebo, the Commander of the Biafra Army for his detailed account of the war in his book ‘The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War.’ I was able to relate the battles he described to my family’s geographical locations and circumstances in Biafra. I was also fortunate to have written some parts of the book over 15 years ago when I first came to the decision that I would write on the subject.
Bookshelf: You talked about the ingenuity of Igbos during the war, when they manufactured ‘genocide,’ an armoured vehicle and ‘Ogbunigwe,’ a bomb. Do you think eastern Nigeria has lived up to expectations presently in relation to the past?
Chukwurah: It’s unfortunate that some of the legacies of Biafra didn’t bear fruit. I think the East was waiting for the federal government to take the lead in advancing technology in Nigeria. It was a huge mistake as technological advancement and industrialisation has never been a priority for the ruling elite and politicians.
Bookshelf: Could you distinguish between life in Jos and the east in those days when you relocated in the course of the war?
Chukwurah: I experienced life in two phases in Jos. The first phase comprised of normality – a secured life surrounded by family members, friends and neighbours. I went where ever I had to go without fear. The second phase was during the Araba riots in Jos. This was between May and September 1966. The situation got increasingly tense to the point where majority of the Igbo men sent their families to the east. All my friends left. It was no longer safe to go to school or to wonder far from the house. Jos was one of the last cities to succumb to the pogrom, unfortunately the leadership at the national and regional levels did not intervene to salvage the situation even at that stage and things got worse.  
Not long after we relocated to the east, Igbos from other parts of the country were compelled to move there for their safety. The whole place was over-crowded, with little accommodation for the returnees. Many Igbos owned mansions in the north and west of the country, but did not put up any buildings in their villages or towns of origin. So they had to squat with relations. Schools were stretched to their limits with returnee children, and some pupils were studying under the trees. Unemployment was rife. People increasingly got restless and fed-up with the attitude of the government in Lagos and students, market women and civil servants started demonstrating against the federal government for not acting against the pogrom.  
Bookshelf: Having experienced the horrors of the civil war, and with benefit of hindsight, what do you recommend as recipe for sustainable peace, progress, and unity in Nigeria?
Chukwurah: I am a firm believer in democracy – where it’s well implemented and adhered to – and the rule of law where the law of the country is next to God with nobody above it. There are a host of other factors but these two are largely responsible for the advancement in Western societies. At best what is practised today in Nigeria is oligarchy; some would add kleptocracy, and I will agree.