Sacralising History Biafra as a Religion Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Compcros Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems "Exploring Every

Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge" To Sacralise : A Method To sacralise means to recognise a phenomenon as sacred. Such recognition is demonstrated in particular ways of relating to the phenomenon. How one thinks and acts in relation to the phenomenon suggests that element is perceived as a centre from which much, if not all, of the universe is to be assessed. Such a standpoint may be shared with a style of understanding philosophy as different from religion. It becomes religious when determined efforts are made to present this point of view as binding on the fates of others regardless of their views about it. It becomes, therefore, to a greater or lesser degree, a cosmological imperative, describing the fates of humans affected by this vision as linked to their readiness to identify with this point of view. It creates a prophetic framework in terms of this point of view within which people are categorised as to their ultimate moral evaluation and the total trajectory of their historical development. That is a description of a comprehensive mode of sacralisation involving a sense of moral absolutism, developing moral values understood as universally binding. It also involves a conception of punishment and reward in relation to one's stance as to this moral vision. The best known examples of sacralising philosophies in this mode are the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
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 History demonstrates methods of sacralisation that are not as thoroughgoing in their judgement of people in relation to the moral standpoint on the universe demonstrated by the ideology in question. The phenomenon that motivates this essay, though, seems to me be usefully described in terms of this style of sacralisation. Objects of Sacralisation The act of sacralising is usually organised around particular phenomena that believers understand as embodying meaning that encompasses broad areas of, if not all, of reality. This phenomenon may be a story of an event or sequence of events. This history is often embodied by the memory of those who participated in these events. The story itself is often enshrined in an oral or written narrative of these epochal occurrences. This history suggests a reconstitution of the universe in terms of generating a moral order binding on all existence from the time the events took place. I have developed this portrait of a style of sacralisation by comparing my immediate subject in this essay, the memory of Biafra, the state that seceded from Nigeria, leading to the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970, with the Abrahamic religions, since the better known religious contexts share significant similarities with the process of sacralisation undertaken in the name of Biafra. The Sacralisation of Biafra and its Leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu- Ojukwu Ever since my first encounter, in late 2011, with the veneration of Biafra on the Nigerian literary group, Ederi, most of whose members at the time were Igbo, I have come to realise that for some Igbos, the memory of Biafra has assumed the status of a religion. Igbos are the ethnic group who can be described as being at the heart of the historical, ideological and geographical identity of Biafra and the suffering endured in the name of Biafra, leading to the association of this nascent republic with the victimhood of their ethnicity in that war. This is a religion, that like all religions, interprets reality in terms of its own highly selective style of thinking, demonstrates its own dogmas, its ranking of believers and non-believers, as well as a moral compass for judging humanity, perspectives expressed in terms of the moral absolutism and
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prophetic stance common to many religions. The Need for a Book for Biafra Sadly, the Biafra story seems to have lost the chance of a definitive summation of its vision as could only have been written by the man at the centre of the maelstrom of aspiration, war, heroism, historic struggle against overwhelming odds, monumental suffering and controversy, that is the Biafra story, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the head of state of Biafra, who passed away without any public news on his hoped-for-memoirs of the founding of Biafra and the war that ensued. This massive gap places greater weight on the expressions of other actors, particularly Biafrans, on the conflict. Philip Efiong, Ojukwu's second in command, who assumed the role of head of state of Biafra after Ojukwu fled into exile and who announced the surrender of Biafra, has written his own memoirs but this does not seem to lend itself to the hagiographic vision of Ojukwu that some Igbos hold. In my reading of their comments on Nigerian centred online social communities, I don't see the book mentioned, although extracts I have read from it suggest it is a deeply poignant work, bringing alive the fervent hopes, desperate struggles and cruel ironies of Biafra. Chinua Achebe's There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra Chinua Achebe, former Biafran, one of the world's greatest writers, whose works are powerful in their evocation of the glories and tensions of his Igbo ancestry in its reshaping within the vortex of colonial Nigeria and his insightful exploration of post-colonial Nigeria, insights that have earned him the deserved title of a visionary and prophet, has just published a book on Biafra. Achebe's book will be related to in various ways. One of those approaches is that of seeking confirmation of painful experiences and the diagnosis of unforgotten, still throbbing wounds from a great and eloquent mind who was at the centre of the action. The life giving value of such a book to many Igbos is suggested by the fact that the tremors of the war may be described as continuing to shape attitudes of some Igbo to being part of Nigeria.

Some may share the spirit of Esiaba Irobi, who describes himself in Nnorom Azuonye's "My E-Conversation with Esiba Irobi" in Sentinel Poetry, February 2003, as a citizen of Biafra in exile in Nigeria.
Obododimma Oha presents himself in his essay 'A Risen Sun that Shines Forever', his blog post of Thursday, December 1, 2011, as a person compelled to live within the womb of the very entity still at war with his homeland Biafra, from which vantage point he conducts his own resistance, even if only by such symbolic actions as urging the flying of the Biafran flag on Facebook to mark Ojukwu's transition, an unfurling of the rising sun of Biafra's summative symbol to further torment the twisted conscience of those enemies of the grand dream who refuse to acknowledge its deathless significance and persist in trying to destroy a vision that was defeated in the 'shooting war' but remains alive and luminous in the mind, where it is nourished by those who identify with its immortal radiance. The recent debates on various Nigerian centered listserves inspired by a newspaper extract of Achebe's book crystallise attitudes that represent the sacralisation of Biafra and Odumegwu-Ojukwu. The debate places in context the role of this hagiographic stance in the struggles to define justice and national identity in the shadow of the Nigerian Civil War. The extract from the book is particularly controversial in placing Biafra and the fate of the Igbos at the centre of Nigerian history, particularly after the war. The book develops the existing argument that the unresolved questions around Biafra are reflected in the confusions in Nigerian history in the decades after the war. The Biafra Story As Seen from a Moral Mountaintop and its Challengers The evaluation of Biafra from a moral mountaintop from which its acolytes survey the rest of humanity first came to my attention with the declaration by Olu Oguibe on the literary group Ederi that a person who cannot acknowledge that Odumegwu-Ojukwu did the best for his fellow Igbos and other Biafrans in connection with founding Biafra and fighting a war to defend it, is not worthy of being respected as a human being. I was puzzled. Can such a complex narrative as the Nigerian Civil War and the role of Ojukwu and Biafra in that tangled web be reduced to such a linear interpretation?
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Chinua Achebe, for his part, declares that Igbos have never been integrated into Nigeria after the civil war and that this lack of integration of Igbos into Nigeria means that the country will always be mediocre. Some Nigerians were puzzled by this stance. True, the country has serious problems but is linking them specifically to problems with Igbo integration into Nigeria a realistic assessment? Others Igbos, suggesting their role as the ethnic group most affected by the civil war and whose members carry most emotively the torch of Biafra, filled in their own contributions to this style of presenting the place of Igbos in Nigeria. Kingsley Nnabuagha described the situation as one of the neglect of one organ in the body, leading to problems with the entire body. He argued, in addition, that even though all parts of the body are important, one is right in describing some as more strategic than others. Obi Nwakanma, a great believer in Nigerian unity as well as a devout pro- Ojukwkwu figure, argued that until Nigeria pleads for forgiveness from the Igbo for the genocidal war against them, the country would continue to suffer problems. Some non-Igbo respondents argued that the stance of describing Biafra and its leadership as saints while condemning the role of the rest of Nigeria in the civil war is faulty because the Biafran leadership should be described as culpable in decisions they made at strategic points before and during the war that led to the vulnerability of Biafra in general and the Igbos in particular. They also pointed to war crimes committed by Biafran soldiers. Were there fewer instances of these because Biafrans had less opportunity for them or because Biafrans were less disposed to such barbarism? This is a very brief summation of opposing perspectives on the subject and might not do justice to the scope of the arguments presented. Such expansive arguments include the massive case for describing the war as an anti-Igbo genocide presented by Kingsley Nnabuagha and Kingsley's more careful elaboration of what may be described as the 'Biafra curse' argument. Also, reading in full anything Obi Nwakanma writes is a vital exercise
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in conceiving and expressing ideas. I will present his contributions to debates on online social networks as a project of its own. I did not include Peter Opara's poetry of invective, projected in the spirit of an Ojukwu high priest who has difficulty responding to challenges to Ojukwu except in terms of totalistic denunciations of the mortals who dare to raise a contrary opinion on the stellar existence of the man whose visual figure is memorable for his heroic beard, jagged face, as it became in later years, and his reputation as 'the owner of words', as someone put it, exuding the aura of an immortal hero, who, to his acolytes, conquered in vision if not in the flesh. I chose to write this brief summation so as to give shape to my observation about one approach to Biafra and Ojukwu. Another approach to Ojukwu among Igbos emerges from those who criticise Ojukwu for strategic decisions made in that war. Such figures include Ralph Uwechue and Nnamdi Azikiwe, both former Biafrans. A more recent critic is Ikenna Anokute, and a Google search for 'Ikenna Anokute on Ojukwu' demonstrates his unrelenting critique on various online social networks of the Ikemba of Nnewi, Ojukwu's chieftaincy title awarded on his return from exile. A rich source for such criticism among Igbos is also the Nigerian social network Nairaland. Begun 4th October 2012. Completed 4th October 2012. First published 5th October 2012. 3:00 am.
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