₦airaland Forum

frankdoz1:
This is another story about Biafra. We all know about
Biafra--it's where a million people have starved to death
in the past six months. One million people. Think about
that for a minute. There are almost five thousand Harvard
undergraduates. If each one of us died two hundred
times, that would be almost a million deaths. Almost,
but not quite. Yes, we all know about Biafra.


THE UNITED STATES government never meaningfully
recognized that the Biafran situation existed until this
month. The government had not even breathed the
possibility of official U.S. recognition of Biafra as a
nation, predominantly as a result of the archaic "one-
Nigeria" policy which America inherited from Britain and
has guided State Department attitudes toward West
Africa for years.


Earlier this month the State Department sent a six-man
fact-finding mission to examine the needs of both
Nigeria and Biafra and to make recommendations to the
U.S. government about the necessary forms and amount
of possible aid. Senator Charles E. Goodell (R.-N.Y.),
accompanied by his administrative assistant--Charles
W. Dunn--was in charge of the mission's diplomatic
aspects.


Four experts on African problems, led by Jean Mayer,
professor of Nutrition at the School of Public Health,
also treked to Biafra. They made detailed studies of the
supplies and health of both sides of the conflict, but
they concentrated on Biafra because of the huge gaps in
America's knowledge of the situation there due to the
lack of diplomatic links with that area. Mayer said "At
least this (the mission) means the State Department
realizes that Biafra will probably survive for at least the
immediate future."


The Mission has prepared a 36-page report, edited by
Mayer, which calls for an immediate ceasefire as the
only way to provide adequate food and medical supplies,
a halt of the atrocities being committed against Biafran
civilians, and a huge increase in the amount of relief
supplies. The report blasts the United States and the
United Nations, except UNICEF, for their failure to aid the
Biafrans. In a foreward to the report, Sen. Goodell states
"It was our purpose to fill America's factual void" on
Biafra. "May these findings bestir the world's leaders to
prevent an indirect form of genocide."


Right now, with the report still at the printer's, it's a
moot point whether or not America will carry out the
report's recommendations. Chances are good when you
consider that Goodell is a leading Republican and that
Nixon seemed to smile at the Mission's purposes. On
the debit side is the influence of Great Britain, who,
along with the Russians, are arming the Nigerians. No
matter what the State Department does with the report,
or doesn't do, if this report of starvation doesn't stir
well-fed America, perhaps, as E. E. Cummings once
suggested, we'd better "Burry the Statue of Liberty
because it begins to stink like hell."


BEFORE the civil war, Biafra differed from most
developing nations because it had a good supply of food
and water, and sound public health policies with many
physicians, nurses, hospitals, and clinics. Following the
slaughter of 40,000 Ibos in 1966, about two million Ibos
and other minority groups left their positions throughout
Nigeria and fled to Biafra. Additional refugees continue
to pour into Biafra to avoid capture by the Nigerian
troops who have gained a reputation for slaughtering
whole villages.


While Biafra originally encompassed 29,000 square miles,
present boundaries now enclose only about one-fourth
of that area. This remaining territory is totally landlocked
and does not contain the former Biafra's most fertile
land. The Mission asserts that somewhere between eight
and nine million Biafrans live in this area, although
many previous estimates have been as low as four
million.