Ikenga- Songs at Sunset

Monday, December 01, 2008
Ikenga -Songs at Sunset

Finally put a video to the track my band- Ikenga recorded eight years ago- Songs at Sunset.

This song being to highlight the plight of the Igbo's during the Nigerian Civil War, from the genocide suffered pre-war, to the heroic and often-times Quixotic battles fought during the three year war July 6th 1967- January 15th 1970.

I was born on the the day the war started and pay tribute to my parents, who after having set up a cosy middle class paradise of a home in Enugu (then within Biafra) were caused to become refugees from 1967-1969, enduring hunger, exposure and the ever attendant dangers of war. They were the lucky ones, One Million Igbos died during the war, 80% of whom were innocent civilians mostly womenand childrensimply looking to survive within or apart from a country that appeared not to want them.

I do not seek to justify Biafra, or indeed to promote a neo-Biafran cause-not at all! Nigeria as an entity is far too important, not just to itself but to the continent and the world o be fragmented into mini-failed states. In addition, most thinkers who were part of Biafra will tell you that the Biafran administration was its own worst enemy and it was only a matter of time before there was internal implosion, even inspite of the highly skilled, motivated, industrious and knowledgeable population.

This song and video are meant merely to remind the hawks that war is not glamorous and fun, it is a bitter, sad, painful phenomenon.

Fact: The scourge of armed robbery and insecurity in Nigeria today was as a direct result of the demobilisation of several restless and disturbed young men nto society- with their guns.

That is a direct sociological legacy of the Nigerian Civil War- 41 years after.

The video comprises images pre and during the war, the image copyright is held of three main sources- a. The Corbis archive; b. CUNY ; c. www.emeagwali.com; d. The BBC and e. Reuters.

The songs being essentially a medley of folk and contemporary songs popular within Biafra, before and during the war. Some being songs of sorrow, others merely expressions of every day joy and pain. I leave you to make up your own mind.