‘My bombing account aims to discourage wars’

Bookshelf: Your book, ‘Blood at Noon’ is described as a chilling account of the bombing of Afor-Umuohiagu market during the Nigeria civil war. How factual is this account? Nnaemeka Nwankwo Okere: It is a nonfictional work, so it’s factual that that event happened on February 7, 1969 during the heat of the civil war. A […]

Bookshelf: Your book, ‘Blood at Noon’ is described as a chilling account of the bombing of Afor-Umuohiagu market during the Nigeria civil war. How factual is this account?
Nnaemeka Nwankwo Okere: It is a nonfictional work, so it’s factual that that event happened on February 7, 1969 during the heat of the civil war. A particular market that was serving as refugee camp and food sharing centre was bombed at the peak of market activities. I had to trace those who survived the attack to hear from them, the same people still bearing the brunt. Some of them are still alive today, either without an arm or a leg. My late father was one of them. He narrated the story from his own point of view. So the stories are indeed factual and not cooked up.

Bookshelf: One tends to perceive the author’s attachment to the place and the event, while reading the work. Aside the fact that you’re Igbo, what does the market mean to you?
Okere: The attachment is certainly not just because I am from that region. The market is about eighteen kilometres away from Imo State capital, Owerri. The location is in a village where the state’s airport is located today. And I won’t really call it an attachment. When there’s a war, people that are indirectly connected become easy targets. Women and children were caught unawares in that attack. Their husbands and fathers had gone out to war, so they were at home and looking for ways to break away from the pangs of hunger. So anywhere they could find food, they leveraged upon.
When the market day came, they went so they could quickly get some food items and return home. Even in the war in the North-East, you discover that those who never called for it, suffer the most. So, what happened at Afor-Umuohiagu is a pointer to whoever is calling for war.

Bookshelf: Why did you choose to write about that singular incident at Afor-Umuohiagu market?
Okere: A lot of books have been written about the civil war and I believe there are people still writing about it. But nobody has ever pinpointed and written about a particular location and emphasised on what happened there. During the war, Owerri was one of the last places to suffer from the heat and was one of the last to be conquered by the Nigerian army. It became an enclave and therefore easy to be captured. There were mercenaries, Russians and Egyptians, who were flying the fighter jets. As at that time, a good number of people in the market had never seen a white-skinned person. So when they saw them waving from the plane, they mistook it for solidarity. Before then they were scared, but that gesture comforted them. What really captured my attention was how they lured people to come out, even those without the intention of going to the market. A source said they started by throwing cash from the plane which was lowered to a point where everyone could see. They were giving thumbs up. The second time, they threw things that made people scramble for. It was when they came for the fourth time that they dropped the bombs. So that’s why I emphasised more on the market, because of the way they were lured from confinement.

Bookshelf: What do you hope to achieve from this narrative?
Okere: Wars still rage in one place or the other. It’s still going on in the North-East. My call is that, those who didn’t call for the war shouldn’t be attacked.

Bookshelf: When and how did you decide you needed to write about a market bombing that took place decades ago during the civil war?
Okere: I conceived the idea about five years ago and started it, but when Chinua Achebe released his book ‘There Was a Country’, on page 212, he mentioned the incident. By that time my work was already underway. But I sped up when I saw him simply mention the incident, the burning of Afor-Umuohiagu, in two lines, I realised that what I was working on will make a point.
There have been agitations, back and forth, from different quarters. These people agitating never saw the war. They think that calling for secession is by blocking the road, especially youth from the South-East. War goes beyond that and carrying machetes. When it comes can you stand and fight to the finish? I want people to read my book and see what a war can cause and if they will continue the agitation or embrace dialogue.  

Bookshelf: Did you get any feedback? How did readers receive your work?
Okere: The book is handy such that even a market person in Onitsha or Aba could pick, read and understand. I have gotten feedback from people who have said, why did I write the book now? That I should have allowed them achieve their aim before writing it.

Bookshelf: Can you clarify that?
Okere: They felt that I should have allowed them achieve their aim [Biafra], that my book is a discouragement to those agitating for secession. I said no, they need to be told what their parents suffered, in case they haven’t been told the story.

Bookshelf: Personally, do you want secession?
Okere: I don’t want secession. Dialogue is the best form of asking for relevance. You who ask for it may not even live to see its achievement.

Bookshelf: Are you saying secession should be sought through dialogue?
Okere: No. Nigeria today is one. Secession is not even the answer for now. We should remain one. A war has been fought and it was said ‘no victor, no vanquished.’ If there’s anything that needed to be addressed, let’s give it a good name and not hide it under secession.

Bookshelf: Don’t you think the gory details in the book, both in text and pictures; will have a negative effect on your readers?
Okere: My book is never to incite anybody. It’s not to provoke anybody to go back to the gruesome days of the civil war. It’s for readers to learn and be directed. I am not trying to make you lily-livered. It’s so we don’t go back to those days because I see the war as a mistake. One thing would have stopped it from taking place and that’s dialogue.

Bookshelf: What do you do when you’re not writing?
Okere: When I am not writing, I’m in the classroom.