By: Comrade Phils
The Biafran war lasted from July 1967 to January 1970. Estimated 2 million people died in the war with the majority being children who died from starvation.
The war attracted international support for both the Nigerian military government led by General Yakubu Gowon and the Biafran side led by Late General Odimegwu Ojukwu.
While France, Israel, China, Ivory Coast, etc supported Biafra, Britain and the Soviet Union supported the Nigerian government.
The United States claimed to be neutral in the war and while many sentiments favoured the Biafran side, it was worried about its $800m investments in Lagos. So Biafran got no help apart from rhetorics of wishful sentiments from the US. For the Americans, what mattered was their investments in Nigeria and not the deaths of starving children in the east.
With Britain backing their former colony, Nigeria, the BBC changed its narratives from siding the Biafran side to propaganda in favour of the Nigerian military government.
Shell BP did the same with over 5.5 million pounds given to Nigeria to purchase weapons. At this point, Nigeria was winning the war but it was no longer a war to be won or lost. It was ethnic cleansing.
Food was blocked from coming to the South and more people, mostly children, died from starvation than they did from gun wounds. This was narrowed down to a media strategy from both warring sides.
Ojukwu was smart. He hired the Geneva-based PR firm, Markpress to begin a media propaganda for the Biafran side.
Markpress did wonders within months. It left other casualties of the war and focused it on the dying children of Biafra. It called ita genocide on the Catholic Igbos of south by the Fulani Muslims of the north
This gained support from the Catholic bodies worldwide for the Igbos. In Israel, Markplace sold the war to Israel as a repeat of the holocaust against Christian Nigerians. Israel, haven suffered a similar fate in the near past themselves, Sided with Biafra.
The Biafran story took center stage in world fora, yet very little was done to stop the genocide.
With pictures of starving Biafran children on the headlines of all major newspapers in the world then and the world doing nothing to stop the killings, a few white men did something out of the ordinary to show support for Biafra and attract attention to their plight.
Frederick McCarthy Forsyth
Forsyth was a British journalist covering the Biafran war for the BBC. When Britain declared support for Nigeria and the BBC began narratives in favor of the Nigerian military government, knowing the truth first hand, he resigned from the BBC in protest and returned to Biafra as a freelance journalist to continue covering the war.
He became friends with Ojukwu and later authored many about the war and in favour of the Biafran narratives.
John Winston Lenon
The second European to take a stand in favour of Biafra was John Lenon, a famous musician, activist, and co-vocalist of the famous “Beatles” band.
On 25 November 1969, John Lennon returned the MBE he was awarded by Queen Elizabeth II in 1964 in protest against British support for Nigeria.
In his letter to the Queen returning the MBE, Lennon wrote:
“Your Majesty, I am returning this in protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. With love.” John Lennon.
Lemon was assassinated in November 1980.
Bruce Mayrock
The third to take a stand was Bruce Mayrock, a 29-year-old student at Colombia University in USA.
Mayrock had read and seen pictures of the dying children of Biafra. He had written to President Nixon on the issue but got no response.
On the 29th of May, 1969, Mayrock set himself blaze at the front of the UN headquarters in NewYork to protest the genocide going on in Biafra then. He died from his injuries the following day.
Mayrock’s protest sparked a new rave of support for Biafra and attracted mostly aides from US-based NGO’s.
Mayrock was just immortalized by the wife of the late Odimegwu Ojukwu, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu for his ultimate sacrifice for the Biafran people during the war.
Many did support the Biafran cause in personal capacities but these three stood out for taking extreme steps and depriving themselves of certain comforts to.make a case for the Biafran people.
My next #BiafraSeries will focus on the internal disagreements among military figures and stakeholders in the Biafran side to the war.
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