Achuzia, Biafra Spirit And South South Igbo

By Onuoha Ukeh

As a kid during the Biafra War, I did not know the major actors of the battle, which claimed more than two million Igbo. At that time, I never knew Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Yakubu Gowon, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Philip Effiong, Olusegun Obasanjo, Joe Achuzia and others, who played one role or another in the internecine war. This was expected. Little kids, in their innocence, do not know about wars.

*Achuzia

However, I will never forget the day my parents took my siblings and I into the bush, as we fled from the federal troops, who entered our community in Item, Bende Local Government Area of the present-day Abia State. That faithful early morning, we started hearing the sound of explosive artillery or shelling from a distance into the Item area. The sound of “Kpo, kpo, kpo, kpo” rent the air. Another shooting sound that always followed was “dum.”