Odiedo Stephen

"NIGERIA swore an oath to defend this flag: heart and soul of the republic. Each son, daughter: to defend NIGERIA'S flag. For this flag would be as liberty's flame blazing forth from the heart of each son, daughter. Not one section saying 'there is no basis for unity' or 'A NIGERIA cannot protect our lives forfeits our loyalty.' Know, child: whether of the living, or as you, of the dead, NIGERIA'S fierce oath is this flag. I mourn BIAFRA'S dead - my sons, you children starved to death - all. To walk BIAFRA'S defeat - that I will. A most terrible price will BIAFRA pay, will NIGERIA pay: from BRAZIL to the slaves still chained in QATAR. Come, child: your journey and mine is but begun."

"BIAFRA'S son is dead. If there is a one EZI-NNE must mourn, it is  BIAFRA'S poet. Yet from ANIOMA you've walked dry-eyed, unmoved. When GREEKS dashed her son ASTYANAX to death from TROY'S burning towers distraught ANDROMACHE refused to leave before mourning her beloved little boy. She knew mourning in the sight of the GREEKS meant slavery for her but she spoke the rites for her's and slain HECTOR'S son. She mourned both an only son and a husband dead - knowing that for her tears the GREEKS would not treat her as royalty but a slave. Still  ANDROMACHE mourned HECTOR'S son in sight of the brutal GREEKS. Don't mourn us - but can't mother BIAFRA shed even one tear for BIAFRA'S POET-SOLDIER?"

"BIAFRA'S mother: you doomed the SUN-POET. As the GREEKS plundered accursed TROY, AENEAS  carried TROY'S lares and penates to safety: seed-fire of a future blessed by the gods. MOTHER BIAFRA: seed buried in earth must die. Life unfurls anew only when buried seed shrivels, dies - then dead seed bursts open, ruptures the husks of death, unfurls new life, new leaf reaching for the sun. But EZI-NNE has thrown away the life of the POET-SOLDIER on a suicide mission. Special forces training be damned: the mission BIAFRA gave the SUN-POET was doomed from the get-go. Were our starving deaths not enough? EZI-NNE: the SUN-POET you shredded in NIGERIA'S meat grinder was BIAFRA'S best and brightest."

"BIAFRA, like doomed TROY, has chosen him: I see your fear, EZI-NNE. This is war's year one - but already BIAFRA'S awash in blood and dead. BIAFRA'S army Midwest: crushed. In ENUGU, OWERRI new widows dare not mourn nor speak missing husbands' names. Lying RADIO BIAFRA shouts victory upon victory - but a widow's heart can't deny what the marrow of her bones knows: NIGERIA widows yet another BIAFRA woman. A son, EZI-NNE: NIGERIA'S battle-sword roars for blood. Earth must drink blood: male; unblemished; perfected; versed in the poetry of IDOTO'S veiled mysteries. EZI-NNE: birth BIAFRA'S resurrection post-war by the Saviour-son's blood. Now." "I know not your meaning." "Now. A son. Perfected."

"BIAFRA is at war, EZI-NNE: NIGERIA on the march against you means that BIAFRA is dead. Mother BIAFRA knows what she must do now in BIAFRA'S defeat - lest the land die as I died. Mother BIAFRA'S purest sacrifice must confront the dragon-monster at the heart of the labyrinth: a son armed with the word - a blood sacrifice. Mother: the seed buried in your fecund earth wins BIAFRA the resurrection. Send forth BIAFRA'S best Son against the dragon at the heart of the labyrinth. To defeat dragon NIGERIA: defeated BIAFRA'S best Son must die. To slay the monster, feed it poisoned bait: the death that will kill a man begins as an appetite. Sow earth with raw salt, EZI-NNE: the best and the brightest."

"BIAFRA'S child, yours is not the only starving death I mourn. From JOS to IBADAN, from ZARIA to BAUCHI, from OWERRI to ORLU: BIAFRA'S blood cries to heaven." "You mourned their deaths - but neither you nor NIGERIA mourned my death. Infamous NIGERIA called starvation a legitimate weapon of war. Starve them into submission!'  NIGERIA starved me not to submission but to death EZI-NNE - polluted NIGERIA could never speak my funeral rites. NIGERIA took my all. But my hunger that you speak my name - NIGERIA cannot take away that. When GREEKS returned home the ghosts of TROY'S defeated dead polluted the lustral rites at GREEK altars. NIGERIA'S abominations against BIAFRA pollutes this land."

"BIAFRA'S hungry child has allowed only ONE Soul to ride this boat across death's river: IRONSIDE. The leader NIGERIA flogged to ribbons of raw flesh then shot dead. Remember, mother BIAFRA: there is a divinity hedges the person of a king. Yet NIGERIA raised treason's hand against IRONSIDE. By this thyrsus, this boat, did IRONSIDE cross the river of the dead. IRONSI IRONSIDE: stalwart warrior - NIGERIA'S curse to the end of time. There is a divinity hedges the person of a king, said the sage enchanter. EZI-NNE, curse my OGBANJE return: am the skeletal bone-child walking NIGERIA, poisoned apple, harvest fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even in death I am hungry, EZI-NNE."

"BIAFRA paid NIGERIA with the hard coin of starving children, NNE. But fifty years ... my revenge begins." "I could not save you - nor BIAFRA'S children." "You misunderstand, NNE. I don't want NIGERIA broken up - that is my revenge begun: chill dread - fear slicing like a cold steel blade into the heart. Each NIGERIAN afraid like I was: from Kaduna to Nsukka, from Oguta to Kano, Abeokuta-Abuja-Lagos. Fear of the AFRICAN STATE - there my revenge begins. I died with dread in my heart - starving to death, afraid of this monster: NIGERIA. Like the TROJANS deathly afraid of conquering GREEKS. TROY'S terror cursed GREECE for all time. BIAFRA'S starving child: my dying last breath cursed NIGERIA."

"BIAFRA demands our lives for NIGERIA - your favourite son OJUKWU said. BIAFRA'S starving children as the price for NIGERIA'S murderous welcome." "There were pogroms throughout NIGERIA. What could he do?"  "Do you know why TROY fell, NNE? The apple of discord inscribed with these words: 'to the fairest.' When the owners of NIGERIA said "there is no basis for unity" BIAFRA'S favourite son agreed. The flames of burning TROY cursed the conquering GREEKS. NIGERIA must not break up NNE - that is NIGERIA'S burning curse. So name our names mother BIAFRA, each GREEK household would taste the bitter fruit of TROY'S conquest. It is lady Lugard that named NIGERIA - never forget that, mother BIAFRA."

 I "No victor, no  vanquished" - cruel-eyed haughty Nigeria’s victorious anthem. “No Victor, no vanquished. Th’ clarion call snotty Arriviste victors flung at th’ cry of ‘woe!’ By th vanquished. ‘No victor, no vanquished.’ Yet Compare this with the vision that brought down The Union Jack ,  raised Nigeria's  forget- The-past new flag: what a comedown no-gown- For-the-vanquished Ezi-Nne! No victor – Th’ vanquished? Lost Biafra’s  starving or dead Children.  You? Nne? Nigeria’s stern,  stricter Than ever victors came out of th’ war fed, Rich, fat - your favourite son fled with bank Accounts,  jet. Ojukwu. Th’ children’s bones stank  II Where were you Nne? Th’ only vanquished - th’ lost ones Of Biafra were hungry, - each  a ruckle Of bones. Skeletal, dying as the sons Of Biafra raced for exile. Dying t’ suckle On th’ teats of Biafra while dying on Camera. Dying right before the gaze Of the world's...

"No Victor, no Vanquished" - cruel, victorious NIGERIA'S new anthem, clarion call: no victor, no vanquished. Compare this with the vision that brought down the UNION JACK and raised NIGERIA'S flag: what a comedown EZI-NNE! No Victor - the vanquished? BIAFRA'S starving children - where were you NNE? NIGERIA came out of the war rich, fat - your favourite son OJUKWU fled with his bank accounts, private jet. The only vanquished were BIAFRA'S children: hungry, skeletal - each but a ruckle of bones dying on camera. Right before the gaze of the world's seeing eye as the world's cameras clicked away." "I did what I could to save the children!" "Yes NNE - now flip the camera's lens! OJUKWU'S here."

"Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it - isn't that the proverb, mother? Before the UNION JACK came down BIAFRA'S sons swore that any one talking of secession from NIGERIA was a traitor against the republic. So why did BIAFRA declare a republic and walk away from NIGERIA? Was that not treason? They swore an oath - and NIGERIA watched them plot treason - for which  BIAFRA'S children paid: hungry skeletons dying before the world's media cameras. Confess it mother: BIAFRA gave Nigeria a holocaust of child victims sacrificed to propitiate Nigeria's God of power. Biafra's hungry children were Nigeria's harvest of the cursed first fruit. BIAFRA'S ghosts will not be silenced, mother."

"FIFTY YEARS, EZI-NNE: fifty years. And not one child of Biafra's great hunger completed the journey, not one. Now BIAFRA, you bad mother, here you stand pleading that your favoured son cross the river, complete his journey of the return. What of the ghosts of Biafra's hungry skeletons? Fifty years mother - and not once did you speak of us, of our hungry skeletons; hungry ghosts. Not you. Not your Nigerian sons - and each of them fat and pregnant. You are all Nigerians now, aren't you mother?Can I make a suggestion NNE? When you go back to the living, tell your pregnant Nigerian sons to birth their fat pregnancies quick, quick. Yes NNE - I am the hungry ghost of Biafra's angry Skeletons."

BIAFRA: SONNETS ON POST-COLONIAL AFRICA'S FIRST GENOCIDE. 'No Victor, no Vanquished' - that is what Nigeria says, mother. But I know my hungry ghost is still hungry. So your favourite son will not cross the river of the dead - until you go back to Nigeria and call all the children who starved to death to cross this river. Then will the ghost of your favourite son cross. Until then, NNE, his ghost languishes this side of the river - just like the hungry ghosts of the children of BIAFRA. EZINNE: do you even know how many of us died in the great hunger? Go back, walk the battlefields - from Enugu to Umuahia. Name each one of us by name - then will Ojukwu's shade cross the river of the dead.

JEBEL MARRA, DARFUR: from Auschwitz, Poland to Death Island, Namibia they carried the Candle of Memory. Now, at the foot the WORLD TREE Al Nuwr wal Yasmeen, Czeslawa Kwoka and Settela the Sintezza approach the three GRAEAE. The first GRAEAE weaves the fabric of fate reverse forward. The second measures it out to the length apportioned each mortal life. At journey's end the third GRAEAE cuts off the thread. Witnessing to each genocide's killing field the three children  summon the Candles to Darfur one last time. Arrived back from her conference with Lorelei Rhine Maiden, Al Furahwi stands by the GRAEAE. The children witness to Darfur's Candle of Memory for the sake of distraught AL FURAHWI.

"DARFUR'S children each the Candle of Memory carry in scorched burning rocks and scrub of Darfur. And you, Jebel Marra, flaming heights of the Antonov bombers: the stuka dive-bomber was a Luftwaffe plane - Germany's terror bomber. Now Janjaweed hail the Antonov Sudan's triumphant stuka-dive bombers - my Poland knew the terror of the dive-bomber as Jebel Marra dreads the Antonov of terror and cluster bombs bursting like ripe fruit to kill and maim for years to come. Let not Darfur's Candle of Memory burn out," Czeslawa Kwoka. "To remember my dead; carry their candle is the call of the Sinti to me," Settela the Sintezza wails in slow cadence. "Darfur's Candle is Memory," Al Nuwr wal Yasmeen.

JEBEL MARRA, DARFUR. "I have carried the Candle of DARFUR'S SORROWS to Namibia - place of the first genocide. I have answered the conscience of the world that stood with Darfur in the days of the DARFUR GENOCIDE," Al Nuwr wal Yasmeen tells the three NORNS. "These two walked the abyss of sorrow with me. It is Czeslawa who showed me the way that leads from DEATH ISLAND, NAMIBIA to AUSCHWITZ of the flames and to DARFUR. And Settela taught me to speak for Darfur's dead children. Darfur must listen to them - so I will ask them to speak for themselves." "I am Czeslawa Kwoka - my country POLAND knows the sorrow, the blood curse of genocide." "And I am Settela, the Sinti are the forgotten ones."

"BERLIN: death of Herero, death of Damara, death of Nama - but you Ancestral Ones are not dead but awake, watchful. And you will get home to Namibia. You will get home to the Ancestral Rites. You will return." Al Nuwr wal Yasmeen, Czeslawa Kwoka and Settela Sintezza avow to the bones of the dead in Berlin, capital of the Reich that vowed Herero genocide. "You will reach the Ancestral Rites of Return - for the children call the Ancestral Ones to return home to Namibia. And you will return home from Berlin, from Freiburg, Weimar, Hamburg. Guided by the Candle lit by the Herero children you will yet return home from every site of  shame and centuries of captivity. You will return to Namibia."

"BERLIN: sorrow of all Damara; name that Nama speak with dread in their hearts; voice that ordered the vernichtungsbehfel: death to all Herero!" Czeslawa Kwoka, Settela of the Silence and Al Nuwr wal Yasmeen, Darfur's Candle of Memory speak to the Ancient Ones. "Ancient Ones. You that have stood witness here in Berlin. Carrying the Candle of the DARFUR GENOCIDE, I stand here before your bones. Berlin is not far from your shrines, Namibia is not far away and you are not forgotten. See all, Valiant Ones. Remember all, you All Seeing Ones of encyclopaedic memory: see all. My Candle to the DARFUR GENOCIDE calls you each by name. Ancient Ones caged in Berlin: stand witness! Sorrow of Damara!"

"FREIBURG, city of Herero skulls, Nama skulls - caged Spirits: hear me. O Nama, souls trapped under Freiburg's gaze of the indifferent; to you Dama whose sorrow is forgotten; to you Herero of abiding sorrow: my name is Settela and I am Sintezza; my name is Czeslawa Witness to Auschwitz of the flames; I am Al Nuwr wal Yasmeen here in Freiburg, city of Herero sorrow, regret: Darfur's Candle of Memory and Sorrow calls you by name. Hearken to my call, Daman; hear me, Ovaherero; Ngoni; Waluguru; Makua; Yao; Makonde; Namaqua: you are not forgotten. To Freiburg of captivity and shame I carry the Candle of Sorrow. Candle of the DARFUR GENOCIDE, I speak to you Ancient Ones. Stay awake! Stay awake!"

"DEATH ISLAND, Namibia. I call your names O Dama that died obedient to the will of the land, Candle of Memory. And you Nama that perished here, Candle of Remembrance. And of you, Herero's dead, Candle of Sorrow," Settela Sintezza, Czeslawa Witness and Al Nuwr wal Yasmeen of Darfur's sorrows summon the dead. "DEATH ISLAND: gates of hell. DEATH ISLAND, Germany's far side of the moon. DEATH ISLAND: place of medical experiments and race science, eugenics and famous Charite, best hospital in the world. DEATH ISLAND: to this day Germany speaks not of what happened here. DEATH ISLAND: Herero's dead; Dama's unburied ones, Nama's dead: cry sorrow! And by Darfur's Candle light the Candle of Memory."