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Maazị Ogbonnaya

4 Jul, 10 tweets, 3 min read

Some Yoruba Army Officials who Fought in the side of Biafra to defend ndị Igbo.

1. Lt. Col. Victor Banjo

One of the first graduates to join the army alongside Ojukwu and others.
Banjo led the 3,000 strong Biafran brigade known as the "Liberation Army of Nigeria"

and also called the "Midwest Expeditionary Force" in the planned invasion of Lagos. His forces reached Benin within 12 hours on August 9,1967. By this time, Nigerian forces had captured Biafran towns of Obudu, Garkem, Ogoja, Nsụka heading to Enugwu and Bonny to PH.

Lt Col Banjo was the highest ranking Yoruba in the Biafran army.

2.Major Wale Ademoyega

One of the five majors that toppled the government of Balewa on Jan 15,1966, he was released from Warri prison during the Midwest invasion in August 1967 by a battalion led by Major Chukwuka

another of the five Jan 15 majors. He first commanded the Biafra newly reorganised 19th Battalion but replaced Ifeajuna as the "Liberation Army" Quartermaster General when he (Ifeajuna) was recalled back to Enugwu with his commander—Col Victor Banjo.

Ademoyega wrote a book on the Jan 15 coup entitled "Why We Struck". He was arrested by federal soldiers after the war, faced the military commission and was detained until October 1974.

3.Capt Ganiyu Adeleke.

He was one of the Jan 15 officers released by Ojukwu.

He cordinated the Biafra 18 Battalion at Ọnịcha as Infantry Company commander with Major Chukwuka in readiness for the Midwest invasion. He distinguished himself in the charge toward Ore and later became an instructor at the Biafra School of Infantry.

Biafran soldiers who took part in the Midwest invasion were released from prison in 1974 after Gowon granted them pardon but Capt Adeleke, Lt Col Ochei and "Col Hannibal" Achuzia were exempted from pardon and remained imprisoned.

4. Lt Fola Oyewole

He also joined in setting up the Biafra 18th Battalion at Ọnịcha and commanded the D Company that liberated Ughelli, parts of Sapele and Warri during the Midwest expedition.

Lt Oyewole is one of the first soldiers to write a very instructive book on the civil war entitled "The Reluctant Rebel". It is a credible account of the civil war from the eyes of an active Biafran army commander who is not from the East.

Oyewole is also one of the Biafran soldiers detained by the federal government after the war and released in 1974.

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In original Igbo culture, women don't answer their husband names.

When I read some misinformed ladies on internet saying how patriarchy embedded in Igbo culture makes women change their names immediately they got married to their husbands names, I shake my head, laugh and...

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My grandmother never bore the name of my grandfather and it wasn't a sin or an issue. My father was named after his grandfather—my great grandfather—Okoro Anaga who was the custodian of ụmụnna's ọfọ and a great man of honour. My father as a Christian was named Mark.

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Do you know that the Igbo had been trading textiles before the white man came?

We weren't completely naked.

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If you translate ịwa akwa literally, it means typing clothes.

But in Igbo cultural practices, it shows that one is man enough. He has reached the stage of being a full man.

At certain age in the past, children were naked but not adults. When you reach certain age, you will use textile to cover your private parts. Women too, except breasts

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When these guys said we were naked before they came, tell them there was ịwa akwa festival.

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Mr Ogugua Arah, from Onitsha- 1934. He was joint leader of the Onitsha Native Orchestra (alternatively Ibo Native Orchestra). This orchestra made the first commercial recordings in Igbo language, in 1939, under C.T.Onyekwelu's CTO Records, later Nigerphone,

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TOWN UNIONISM OR ỌHANEZE OR IGWE?

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Igbo inner maturity was so high that we were gifted Ụmụnna System.

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But the forces of slavery and colonialism have been eating off our DNA, our inner code of conduct. Then the genocidal period of 1966-1970 finished off Igbo DNA.

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Many didn't know that Professor Wole Soyinka was imprisoned for 2 years because of Biafra by Yakubu Gowon.

After becoming chief of the Cathedral of Drama at the University of Ibadan, Soyinka became more politically active.

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He was imprisoned for 22 months as civil war ensued by Gowon.

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Let's go to history...

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