Former Peace Corps volunteers at Biafra Conference, l to r Jim, David, me, Ned.
Biafra Conference Finale
The conference on the 50th anniversary of the Biafran War ended on Wednesday. Jim Phillips, who like the three of us panelists on Tuesday, was also a Peace Corps volunteer who had served in Nigeria. He is now a professor at Columbia and gave the 2nd keynote presentation.
He spoke on “The International Response to the Biafra Crisis: Challenges, Errors and Contradictions.”
The Nigerian army was “an undisciplined rabble,” he said. The Biafran army was similar. The Nigerians were led by officers with little experience, while the Biafran army was headed by officers with more.
But the Nigerians had the might; that is, they had more weapons and support from Great Britain.
Our “Waging Peace” panel at the conference, taken by David’s granddaughter Kayla.
On Tuesday in our Peace Corps panel, David Koren had emphasized that the relief operations as he knew them did not bring in weapons. But Dr. Phillips said that the earliest food relief was coupled with arms smugglers, and that tainted the effort throughout the war.
The response of the international community to the pictures of starving babies in Biafra was huge. However efforts at distribution were not always well-coordinated on the ground, Dr. Phillips said.
He spoke about the importance of community engagement and management. “If you have a socially-engaged community, your programs have better results.” This is the same message I hear from all international aid and development professionals. But it was not commonly accepted in 1967 to 1970, the years of the Biafran War.
My friend Liz Bird, Gloria Chuku, conference organizer, and me. Wish I could straighten my name tag!
Wednesday night was a banquet and dancing. The DJ was excellent with his choice of highlife music. I love highlife. I had someone take a video, but it’s too long to share and I can’t figure out how to edit it! Maybe I’ll learn by next time.
If you have any tips, please let me know.
Social Media for Nigerian Artists
Our son Sam spoke at a conference in Lagos last week: “Handle IT Africa Social Media.” Sam said on the phone later he’s been speaking at lots of conferences; he enjoys it, just like I do.
Sam speaking at the IT Handle Conference
The article said that Sam, the head of Anglophone West Africa, TRACE TV, “kicked off the event with his comments about the importance of social media for Nigeria’s artistes.”
Social media has improved the profitability and visibility of artistes, he said. “Until digital and social media came, artistes would work on songs and pray the radio stations” would play them.
TRACE TV, Sam’s company, is a little like MTV in the U.S., and helps with exposure for many Nigerian musicians.
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe at Oncology Conference
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe is the daughter of Clem’s cousin Isaiah. She is a lawyer with a specialty in health law. She said on Facebook, “Yesterday I taught the Masterclass on Death, Dying, Advance Directives, Living Wills, Power of Attorney at Beyhealth’s Oncology Conference. It was engaging, interactive, and a learning experience as always.” Not a fun topic, but important.
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe, daughter of Clem’s cousin Isaiah
Death is not a topic easily discussed in Nigeria, “for reasons that we explored in this class,” she said. Indeed, it’s not discussed easily in many places.
Euthansia is a criminal offence in Nigeria, but according to Cheluchi, it occurs too often by default, “because of lack of finances to pay for health care.”
What made the training really special for her and the audience? She said, it “was made even more exciting by having my Dad, Prof Obidinma Onyemelukwe, along. He gave me permission to share some of our own story around having difficult conversations. And I think it helped bring home some of the key points.”
Although we’ve always called her dad Isaiah, he’s using his Igbo name more now.
She said, “many of the participants admired our father-daughter bond. This training was definitely made special by having him sit and watch me do some of the work I do.”
Facebook certainly helps me stay in touch with relatives and friends!
Chapman’s from Ikoyi Club
Whenever I played tennis at Ikoyi Club in the years we were living in Lagos, I usually ended with drinking a Chapman’s. It was made by the stewards at the Club, using a mixture of a soft drink, probably Fanta, and bitters. At least that’s how I think it was made.
Now two brothers are recreating the drink for the British market! In an article in the Leamington Courier, the brothers say they enjoyed the drink as children in Nigeria and have had a dream of producing it commercially. When their careers as professional squash players ended, they decided to give it a go.
The article calls it a traditional Nigerian drink. I think of palm wine as a traditional Nigerian drink.
Palm wine in a glass and in a calabash bowl
Chapman’s was only “traditional” at Ikoyi Club or other clubs where mostly foreigners bought it at the time the brothers were in Nigeria.
They are calling their drink Ikoyi Chapmans. The paper quotes Mike who said, “It was a long, drawn-out process, so it was emotional to see our drink go round the bottling line. We were just absolutely elated – we can’t believe it.”
I can imagine the thrill. I wish them success, and look forward to their Ikoyi Chapmans coming to the U.S.
