THERE WAS A COUNTRY: AN INTERTEXTUAL REVIEW

If history does anything, it nags. Every historical account provokes opinions and creates new public spheres. The variety of direction can be appreciated with various account of any phenomena or event. The same dynamics is not divorced from Chinua Achebe’s “There Was a Country”. The book is widely accepted in Nigeria, but on impulsive ethnic and tribal outrage. The book no doubt betrays Achebe’s sentiment about the economic and material Hercules of his Igbo group, but it accounts for much more than that. He holds that the Igbo’s dominated government services and the economic landscape of the nation. For that reason they were suspect and usually disdained, a fact which can be confirmed by a northern conjecture nurtured by the late Sardauna himself, Sir Ahmadu Bello who in a video described the Igbo’s as rats who like to take over everything. I watched this video personally on You-Tube. There Was a Country can be referred to as the Renaissance book of Nigeria’s history. Every country has defining moments that serve as pivots from which the older and future generations look at for introspection and subliminal admonishments. For USA it’s their fight for independence in 1776 and the civil war prosecuted by Abraham Lincoln. Today the Gettysburg address by Lincoln is still recorded as one of the best speeches ever made. That address is beyond speaking, it’s beyond record keeping. It represents a social contract for reference and action to stay under a union for American citizens. For China it’s the Cultural Revolution orchestrated by Mao. Germany had Hitler moments. For Nigeria, the defining moment which always threatens or calls for unity of this nation is the BIAFRA WAR, prosecuted by two fine military officers, one loved by the Oxford elite and intelligentsia, the other a Sandhurst fine man, loved by the British royals- Ojukwu and Gowon respectively. For a long time, there have been different insights and accounts into the war. There also has been a lack of itch to write and produce this account for it to resonate in the minds of every Nigerian citizen for didactic purposes. Achebe has surely endeavoured to fill this void. Achebe begins with the pre-colonial on the left hand and the colonial on the right. He recounts how the British imperialism infiltrated our religious clime and how he a son of a catechist tried to understand the conflict between old traditions and dogmatic infallibles of Christianity. He also portrays the level of scholarship and ambition of his own family as typical construct of educational aspiration. Achebe relives what his perception on the role of the artist is in society. He argues for a participation in politics and active citizenship. He also stokes the charge for any generation to endeavour to explore the role it should play in society. Perhaps Achebe’s role has traversed generational shifts and he happens to have migrated from one generation to the other- the colonial generation and the post-colonial. There was a country’s plot was a protest to the humanitarian misdeed against the Igbo’s during the war. Most importantly, underlying this protest was a valid negotiation that goes back and forth and operational within the present for tribal/ethnic existence. The pogroms by the muslim north after the first military coup executed by Major Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna and the likes served as preludes to the war. Achebe’s book evidenced the ease with which various ethnic groups could easily gather to take defence and retaliate, as in the case of the Muslim/Hausa-Fulani north dealing Aguiyi-Ironsi to death and the other adjoin ethnic groups like Efik, Ibibio, Ijaws having distrusts against the Biafra campaign and usually betraying strategies of the Biafran’s . All these beg the question of our existence as a Nation and the often silenced or ignoring themes such as True Federalism, review of the 1914 amalgamation and amplified ones on North-South rotational presidency. Achebe didn’t fail to report his educational exploits, his performance in the University College entry exams which led to an award of a scholarship for him. Achebe also accounts for members of the golden generation with whom he was probably privileged to school with. They are Gamaliel Onosode, Christopher Okigbo, whom he regards as the best poet of his time, Grace Alele Williams etc. He was elitist in his structure of his report in terms of the account of his personal life. There Was A Country can be dubbed to be an autobiography of Achebe and some his war trials, except that, he was privileged and had privileged friends. He probably didn’t have friends who found it difficult to climb the ladder of educational and professional upliftment. He probably never had a friend who was a trader. There also seems to be a conflicting dialectic about who really organized the coup Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna seemed to differ on who the true hero was. Ifeajuna handed a manuscript to Achebe which was never published. Achebe regrets this till date. The war was bloody of course and several countries took different sides. Britain stood by Nigeria and countries like Tanzania, Ivory Coast and France supported Biafra. Julius Nyerere was the first to announce his support for the Biafra cause. France had a rivalry policy of disintegrating British economic post-colonial hold and cultural hold also. Thus, Ivory Coast under Houphet Boigny perpetuated that policy by supporting Biafra. Achebe records several aids being blocked by Nigeria. There were records 30,000 children, women and men massacred by Ibrahim Haruna during the war. It’s a surprise that Haruna has agreed to this publicly without remorse. He has also not been charged for war crimes, perhaps that would be retro-active. The Biafran army soaked the pressure from all fronts and employed the best use of propaganda during the period. People like Wole Soyinka who tried to facilitate a truce were jailed. One of the most disappointing moments was when Nnamdi Azikiwe withdrew support for Biafra owing to disagreements with Ojukwu and his style of not not listening adequately. Ojukwu according to Achebe didn’t consult widely before declaring war. The Aburi Accord was not implemented and this led to further hostilities between both side. Achebe’s account was not short for the admiration of Zik and his influence and inspiring leadership. Zik till date can be regarded as the most detribalized amongst the early leaders of Nigeria. Achebe had said of Tafawa Balewa to be lukewarm, Sardauna to hold back to pursue the Northernization policy on Awolowo to plot to decimate the Igbo people who he considered to be a threat to the advancement of his people-Yoruba. This has been the centrepiece for discussion in this book and has attracted repudiation from eminent Yorubas and commentators. Many have labelled Achebe has an insatiable tribalist. I disagree, because everywhere its survival of the fittest. Americans, Jews, Europeans are all negotiating their existence through the block of identity. Achebe feels wronged, because his people have been wrong and the man is entitled to his own opinion. That was his opinion of Awolowo. Besides didn’t Awolowo trump the ethnic card against Nnamdi Azikiwe in the western region? It’s all about the dialectics of politics. Chinua Achebe should be given credit for shedding light on our historical recluse. He has exposed historical gaps and has provoked the needful which is a fervent and passionate discussion of the past with the roles of various actors. Achebe has also called for many patriotic and pragmatic efforts to help Nigeria. Indeed “There Was A Country” and there is still a country called Nigeria. What we need is serious people and responsible leadership. There Was a Country and the Igbo’s are still a part of it. Long live Nigeria.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF SEX: IN DEFENCE OF FAT GIRLS

It’s good to be back, my muse contacted me that I have been forgiven, albeit with a condition. The condition was derived from a sentiment and truth, through an observation of global social landscapes. The sentiment is that being fat, chubby, big as a woman is never culturally wrong. What is true is that we are being mediatised to believe that slim does it for women and that it’s the ideal. The method I would employ in my analysis is gotten from my age long belief that nothing truly exists, everything is created. Its borne out of my suspicion of truth and my admiration of lies. It’s a sociological perspective I don’t want to bore anyone with. Back to the issues we; readers and writers are gathered to digest. If we remember and if we reflect, there was and confusingly is a love for women with “big stuffs”. Men relished big women and in the fashion of the Igbos, the George wrapper can only be fitting if a woman had big buttocks and a sizeable frame. This was the social order in terms of how the female sex was projected, constructed and consumed. One morning we woke up and realized that the tastes of men had changed and switched to slim women. Interesting as it is, it became even appealing to women also. These days everyone, movie producers, music makers, health professionals, everyone in society on a global plane lends credence to the art and science of weight loss and the art of admiration of women who keep to size and who manage to lose weight. This aspect of our culture has gained much prominence, especially in a country like Nigeria where woman has been constructed as Lepa or Orobo, with the former receiving more admiration and the latter socially relegated and social outcasts. It is so bad that many big/fat women try all sorts of defence like calling themselves chubby and giving other descriptions that I call sub-constructions. Some just give up and contribute to the gym business and other diet and weight loss schemes. For the avoidance of doubt and relation with reality, I am not supporting unhealthy living. My defence and narrative protest against negative social constructions of fat women is based on the following beliefs, call it conspiracy theories. If we look critically, weight loss industry is a big one. It includes the materials used for sit-ups, thread mills, gyms, certain food categories, and even the apparel and clothing industry itself. T he point is this, the argument against fat/chubby/big women is more of an economic than health one. Capitalists rule through propaganda and tweaking of societal values. They communicate subtly through various means that are conscious or sub-conscious. When you go to the market and hardly find your size and your slim friend has a variety of choices to make, that is a sub-conscious communication that you should adjust your waistline. Then when everyone begins to scold you based on your weight without concrete medical facts other than the one that uninformed people tell them, then that’s a conscious one that has been designed to be so. My analysis stems and progresses this way; its more convenient and cost effective for a capitalist to produce clothes at a particular size for the market, he needs not make use of large quantity of materials because everyone is fat, all that he needs to do is make most for people in a particular range and few for the big ones. Then media seeds are sown by communication through various platforms that being big is bad. They select slim actors and actresses. They use people that are extra slim in modelling competitions that the whole world sees. Then they use a slim “figure 8” in beauty pageants. I fat/big women have responded with their own pageants, shops and magazines. You see events such big and bold. Does that say something about protest and re-affirmation of personhood? The” lose weight industry” is a big one that thrives on media messages against big/fat people, especially women. You may start to wonder whether the media has such powers. The media has more than that. Dependency theory posits that people depend on the media to make sense of their existence. The funny part is that you see slim housewives and their disgust and pro-weight loss advice for big/fat women. They usually advice that such women lose weight else their husbands would look out for a slim woman. The ironical thing is that the husbands of slim women look out for the fat/big women. Sorry that’s based on my inference through local investigations. Finally, I advocate for a certain level of media literacy and close observation and investigation of sources of cultural change. We woke up one morning and slim women became the leading socially constructed elements of official sexuality. We need media literacy and not jump on bandwagons without probing.