eastern Nigeria declared
independence, sparking a bloody civil
war that lasted two and a half years
and killed more than a million people.
Ben Okafor was just 12 years old when
it began and told the BBC's Witness
programme what happened.
"When the declaration of independence was
made, everybody surrounded the radiogram
at home, all the streets were emptied.
People just went to the nearest radio and
stood there listening until the broadcast was
over.
There was a massive explosion of joyful
noises. There were dances in the streets. We
were all celebrating, but my father was cautiously
happy - that was the kind of person that he was. He
wasn't sure that it would not lead to a war.
Everybody hoped that that was going to be the end
of the oppression, that we were now an independent
nation, so to say - no longer part of Nigeria - and that
the troubles were over, that the rest of Nigeria would
just accept that and move on.
But, six days later, the war began.
I was in my first year of secondary school and we had
compulsory holidays, everything had stopped
because the Nigerian air force started bombing
indiscriminately.
It was unbelievably terrifying with buildings
crumbling and limbs everywhere. Cars on fire.
Schools, hospitals, being bombed. And shortly after
that the Nigerian troops entered my city.
My father wasn't at home that day. He was working
as an adviser to the new Biafran government. It fell
to my older brother to get the family out of the city.
He didn't have a driver's licence. He said: 'OK,
everybody in the car,' and I said to him: 'Who's going
to drive?' And he said: 'I am going to drive'. So we all
piled into this car and took off.
There were hundreds and thousands of cars on the
roads. I was quite small and, to be honest, quite
scared to see women throwing away their high-
heeled shoes and tearing their pencil skirts just so as
to be able to run, and some of them being caught by
shrapnel. Cars were ramming into each other. My
brother just kept his cool and carried on driving.
We went to my father's ancestral village, Ogbunike,
north-east of Onitsha.
A really significant thing happened to me there. There was an air raid, and I was sitting in the courtyard with my father. He grabbed me by the hand and ran with me. And we ran into the forest, and these jets were strafing the place with bullets. I looked in my father's face and I saw fear. And this was something I had never associated with him, ever, in my life, fear. Basically, this turned everything over, and I thought: 'No, I don't really want to hang around to watch this. So I decided to enlist in the army. With no support from the outside world, the Biafran government was under-resourced, and the army was
using children, known as the Boys'
Company, as spies behind federal
government lines to gather
intelligence. I began to train with the Boys' Company, but didn't tell my
parents. I told my family only when
my platoon was due to go on its
first mission the next day.
My mother was basically beside herself, so the next morning as I was preparing to leave, my older brother came to me and said: 'Look, you can't leave mum like this,' and that was when I went back and started to console her, and tell that I would be back, and that everything would be OK. Then I looked at the clock and realised that I was getting really really late for my rendezvous. I ran as fast as I could but it was too late, the platoon had gone without me. A few hours later, we heard on the radio that they had been caught. Someone in the government had
switched sides and given the
Nigerians information about the
Boys' Company. The boys had their eyes dug out and were sent back to Biafra. The boys were all about my age - 12 or
13 - and even the captain was only
15. At that time, there was so much
pain and fear. The soldiers would
arrive in a village and kill
everybody - men, women and
children, and sometimes their
cattle. And everybody had to do
something for the war effort.
Everyone. The Nigerian government had already imposed a complete blockade. This meant that food, medical supplies, clothing, and everything needed for survival, could not get through to the Biafran people. A few individuals and organizations (mainly from mainland Europe) risked their lives to bring food
supplies to Biafran refugees, but it
was not enough to prevent
widespread starvation. My sister and I were lucky to find work - in a refugee camp. My job was to ride a baker's bike to a nearby town where the Red Cross
had their depot, collect food and
take it back to my refugee camp.
People basically lived off the land. They hunted. You learned to eat all kinds of leaves that you would not normally look at, and hope to survive. Many did not. I saw them every day that I worked in that refugee camp. Every day. Sometimes you'd see them, and know they would be dead by the next day." Ben Okafor spoke to Witness on the BBC World Service. Ben Okafor remembers the Biafran war Ben Okafor is now a reggae musician Related Stories Nigeria buries ex-Biafra leader Nigeria unrest 'recalls Biafra' Reopening Nigeria's civil war wounds It was unbelievably terrifying with buildings crumbling and limbs everywhere. Cars on fire. Schools, hospitals being bombed" Ben Okafor Many Biafran children starved during the civil war Ben Okafor Born in Enugu, eastern Nigeria, one of eight children Fights in Biafran War as a 13- year-old Moves to the UK in 1979 Becomes reggae musician and
campaigner against child soldiers
Biafran War 1967-1970 1960: Nigeria gains independence from the UK
1967: South-eastern portion of
Nigeria secedes as Republic of
Biafra on 30 May Biafra dominated by Igbo ethnic group and the location of much of Nigeria's oil Nigerian army blockades Biafra and more than a million people die through famine, disease and
fighting 1970: Biafran government surrenders
Sorce:Bbc
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