Sola Osofisan
07-20-2007, 02:44 PM
This play has been 10 years in the making. Why is that?
Justin and I have been busy doing other things and we talked to a lot of people and did a lot of research about Biafra.
We went to the Nigerian High Commission thinking that all the information would be there in one spot. But the Nigerian library was laughable and all the information that was there was the official stuff that you could put in a little folder. It was the information produced by Yakubu Gowan [head of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975 who took over under one military coup and was overthrown in another]. I asked if there was anything from the Biafrans or if there was a recording of the Biafran anthem. The person there who was helping was horrified; he told me it would be the equivalent of asking for the Nazi anthem in the British library. I told him that even if that was the case we would still be able to get it.
That experience just shows that within Nigeria itself nothing is stored in archives. Politicians, schools, and colleges don’t talk about it. This needs to be opened up if Nigeria is to go through healing; it needs to understand where it has gone wrong.
MORE (http://www.bbc.co.uk/africabeyond/africanarts/19292.shtml)
Justin and I have been busy doing other things and we talked to a lot of people and did a lot of research about Biafra.
We went to the Nigerian High Commission thinking that all the information would be there in one spot. But the Nigerian library was laughable and all the information that was there was the official stuff that you could put in a little folder. It was the information produced by Yakubu Gowan [head of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975 who took over under one military coup and was overthrown in another]. I asked if there was anything from the Biafrans or if there was a recording of the Biafran anthem. The person there who was helping was horrified; he told me it would be the equivalent of asking for the Nazi anthem in the British library. I told him that even if that was the case we would still be able to get it.
That experience just shows that within Nigeria itself nothing is stored in archives. Politicians, schools, and colleges don’t talk about it. This needs to be opened up if Nigeria is to go through healing; it needs to understand where it has gone wrong.
MORE (http://www.bbc.co.uk/africabeyond/africanarts/19292.shtml)