For the Love of my Fatherland; The 50year old Country.

~from the stables of Solumtochukwu Ella Okonkwo - Awka.

All hail Biafra
Land of the rising sun, we love and cherish
We have vanquished our enemies, all hail Biafra
God Bless Biafra , in Him we trust
Shout it sing it, all hail Biafra.

A child living in a family where he is always given a reason to question his true parentage. Filled with insecurities decided to retrace his path and find his Freedom.
"I had not been living in my home"he informed himself.
"I need to find my home"he assured himself.
But for every of his attempt to leave and live, he was forced to stay, brutally.
As he grows, he fights for his freedom, the freedom he never knew what it would look like.
But deep within him, he wants that freedom, bitter or sweet.
"It would be better than here"he reassured himself.

That is our Story.The Story untold of a 50year old Country that lived and grew in our hearts.
A Story we would never forget.

"Samson, arise, get up from sleep, the Philistines are coming"

Samson was lucky to be warned but Biafra were not.
Samson should probably forgive and forget the Philistines ,after all, they were "Philistines " but Can Biafra forget the Wickedness and betrayal from "THEIR BROTHERS"?
Can Biafra forget the Genocide, the most cruel form of War?
We will always Remember, even when Forgiveness is a hard option, Forgetting is IMPOSSIBLE.
We Remember, as living witnesses, as products of war and as the bearers of the Story yet untold,

The breach of brotherhood.
The betrayal of Unity and oneness.
The callousness of a nation to a better and larger part of her.
The brutality and Massacre.
The War  which lasted for three years taken with it the lives of more than one million people.
The Battle which claimed the lives of some.
Majority who died of  famine, kwashirokor and hunger.

God bless Biafra
We have emerged triumphant, from all our foes
Through the crucible unscathed, we passed
victorious

Our trumpets pealing, the glorious song
Play it, sing it, all hail Biafra

We will always remember;

The Soldiers  who on empty stomaches with just raw lizards and rats to survive on, fought for a cause, to be heard and to live.
The many mosquito bites... Ohhhh
The many talents we lost to hunger and kwashirokor.
The Aburi Accord callously discarded, the freely signed agreement became the beginning of the end.
The trade by barter of our girls'pride and womanhood with the infamous "Ahia Attack "(the trade behind the enemy lines) .

Oh hail Biafra
We shall always remember, all that perished,
In the struggle for our freedom, all hail our
heroes
Our prayers shall
bemoan, both day and night
Say them always, all hail Biafra

We will always remember;

The many sounds of bullets and in quick succession, our brothers lay dead.
Our Grand fathers and mothers, our mothers and fathers still toddlers then, in despair, desperation and confusion toured aimlessly and lived hopelessly .
Our Brothers and Sisters mostly old who refused to flee their Fatherland and got Death as the price.
The bird of death(air raid) , as quickly as it flew, a brother is cut to halves, his friend a bit slow for the final handshake.
The gruesome sight of many mothers bearing their dead children refusing to give up,refusing to let go.
The Igbo Chiefs whose bodies were disposed with reckless abandon and buried "en masse".What a breach of respect for Ancient Tradition! And you say we shouldn't remember.I,Okonkwo Somtoochukwu would never forget.

We will always remember;
The Struggle  for "white" relief materials,the fight for survival, the fight to finish.
The Cassava leaves, Caritas rations of salt and salty fishes which a whole nation feed on for three years. (We still like leaves although not Cassava leaves.. The aftermaths of War).
The soaking of stock fishes to extract salt from it(just like in the time of Ebola salt saga, salt was a scarce commodity).
The mentally scarred, the so-called Mad Men and women who the anguish and myriads of War pressure have reprimanded to walking aimlessly and conversing with themselves.
The many "kainene "that would never return.
Our Heroes, who fought a fight to the finish, with their pens(Wole Soyinka ,Chinua Achebe,Flora Nwakpa ,Christopher Okigbo,and others), with their mouths(Odumegwu Ojukwu and others)
We Remember, Biafra, on the point of total collapse, surrendered  and cease to exist except in our hearts.
We Remember the killings and the tortures even after the SURRENDER.
 I Remember, with pains, my Grandfather 's words(God bless his soul),he never recovered from that War.

"Agha Ajoka(war is bad), The War ended but we lost everything, our integrity, our vision, our hope, our Patriotism and Brotherhood, our wealth and security ,We will always remember, forgetting is IMPOSSIBLE. "

We Remember the Fall of Biafra
We Remember the Country there was.
We still remember the Freedom we are all clamouring for.
We believe that Biafra would shine Forever.

All Hail Biafra
Now our star shines everywhere, we crave humility
God guide and protect us all, all hail Your
Wisdom
Shielding us from fury, unleashed by our enlightenment
Biafra, Biafra, shinning forever