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Biafra, the Niger Delta, and the Long War for Sovereignty
In the heart of southeastern Nigeria lies the Niger Delta, a region rich in oil and memory. It was here, in 1967, that the Republic of Biafra declared independence, igniting a civil war that would claim millions of lives and expose the fault lines of a postcolonial nation still tethered to imperial logic. Today, as foreign powers issue ultimatums and eye the region’s resources, the ghosts of Biafra stir once more.
When President Trump announced his plan to sell advanced U.S. weapons to NATO for distribution to Ukraine, the world felt the tension rise, like a drummer tightening the skins before a set. It’s a calculated move in the rhythm of proxy conflict—one beat closer, yet still not quite the clang of direct war.
Why are my Jewish friends so quiet on the killing of children in Palestine?
Where is the moral outrage over the killing in this region?
Where is the condemnation?
And when I lift up my voice against this slaughter,why does that make me a Jew hater?
Are Jews beyond reproach?
Are the Jews right to keep the Palestinians from their homeland?
Americans would be reluctant to follow Donald J. Trump into war. At least a sampling of cyberfriends on the social media site Facebook seems to suggest this is the case.
When asked: “Honestly, would you follow 45 into war,” 99.9 percent of the respondents replied with some version of expletive no.
One respondent took exception to the question and responses by resorting to vile name calling. She saw this unscientific poll as an attempt by liberals to denigrate Trump’s win.
A female school teacher in Florida said she would not follow 45 into war. She added, “If I was younger, I would keep myself pregnant.”
A federal employee who lives in New York said, “I would not follow him down the block.”
A young lady who lives in Middle Georgia said,”I would not follow 45 across the street, much less to war.”
A cosmetics industry executive said, “I wouldn’t follow him across the street with a green light.” With emphasis on “with a green light.”
One young lady opined, “There is no ‘following’ a nuclear war.”
“I wouldn’t follow him into a building,” a young Black male said.
A female political consultant in Macon-Bibb County, Georgia said, “I would not follow him down Dempsey Avenue.” Ironically, Dempsey Avenue, now known as Mercer University Boulevard was widened in the early 1970s via funding from the Richard Nixon administration. Ostensibly to facilitate the movement of federal tanks through the heart of the predominately Black Unionville community in case of urban unrest.
A beauty pageant winner from Michigan averred that 45’s “Children won’t go to war,” as justification for her not following him into war.
“I wouldn’t follow him anywhere. I would head in the opposite direction,” a television producer said.
“I would not follow 45 into a church,” a prominent Georgia death penalty lawyer offered.
“Only long enough to make sure he made it to the front,” said a deputy director of a mental health facility in Northern California.
A landscape photographer said, “Only if he is taking point.”
“No, I wouldn’t follow him to 7-Eleven,” said a journalist and Ex-Pat living in Paris.
“I wouldn’t follow him into Kmart,” a retired United Methodist pastor added.
Granted the vast majority of the respondents are past military service age, but judging from this non-scientific polling, it appears that 45 would be hard pressed to find support for a war that he can brand as his own.
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com
On the eve of one hundred days, since President Barack H. Obama handed the country over to Donald J. Trump; and I am amazed at two things.
The first thing that amazes me is the hatred that Trump antagonists have for him. This president is the classic, either you love him or you hate him. A case in point, a recent poll of voters who voted Trump into office say they do not regret their vote. In fact 96 percent of them continue to support him in spite of Trump’s bumbling start. These Trump supporters argue that he should be given time to learn on the job.
While on the other hand, the vast majority of Americans who made a negative value judgment of Candidate Trump, and did not vote for him, still thinks he is a despicable facsimile of a human being. You can not talk presidential politics with this group without a thorough bashing of Trump’s mental acumen, or stability, or both simultaneously.
Why am I amazed at these vicious attacks on Trump’s personhood nearly 100 days into his presidency?
My amazement has nothing to do with whether his persona in the White House is accurately depicted. I am amazed because Trump’s opponents are blinded by their personal hatred for him and are vicariously blinded to measures that could defeat his presidency. A goal which they profess to seek, only if it would not leave Mike Pence waiting in the wings.
Secondly, I am amazed that Trump antagonists do not realize that Trump knows his antagonists are as blinded by their hatred for him as the loyalists are blinded by their support of him. And he uses them both just the same to obtain his goals and objectives.
While Trump’s opponents dismiss him as a nut case, an ignoramus and completely devoid of any social skills to make it in the world, he marches headlong into his agenda.
Our media outlets have missed the boat as well as those who are consumed by media reports. The media points out Trump’s unorthodox approach to governance, but fail to see in his sleight of hand he is pulling the same ruse as some of his predecessors.
For instance, Bush 2 sent his military and intelligence officers to congress to make the “fake case” for weapons of mass destruction. The media played into Bush’s hands by constantly broadcasting footage of Saddam Hussein waving a World War I style rifle in the air from a balcony to whip up public hysteria to invade Iraq.
Sixteen years later, the unorthodox Trump does not dispatch his generals to congress, he summons congress to the White House for “fake sensitive briefings” on North Korea’s alleged nuclear arsenal. The effects are the same as the media dangles footage of an equally unorthodox leader parading his military might in North Korea.
I for one, do not want my congressional delegation to buy into the Trump narrative, that the situation in North Korea is so dire as to demand a military response from the USA. To paraphrase an old adage, “fool me once and you will never do it again.”
Since Douglas MacArthur, the generals have wanted to bring the entire Korean peninsula under American domination, so I am not surprised that the generals did not stop advancing this idea until they found an American president – unlike Harry Truman and the 11 presidents from Truman to Obama – who is willing to give them the authority to take the island.
On the eve of the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, oh, what a messy start to war if the public does not come to the realization, that Trump is no bumbling ignoramus, that he won the presidency, perhaps with a little help from his friends abroad, but mostly because he outsmarted his opponents like he has done to keep his presidency alive for nearly 100 days more than anyone with his lack of experience should have been capable of doing.
Trump has survived precisely because his adversaries do not believe Trump can think himself out of a wet paper bag. He will continue to survive in direct proportion to the denigration heaped upon his mental dexterity by his enemies. He or she who would defeat Trump, must start with the realization that Trump is as sagacious as any of the men who have held the office of the presidency. Otherwise, the name calling is empty rhetoric signifying absolutely nothing.
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, the editor of Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.
Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against war during an address at Riverside Church in New York, April 4, 1967. Exactly one year later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would breathe his last breath. Some say he should not have gotten himself involved in the Vietnam War. However, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that it was his abounding moral duty to lift his voice up for peace. He made his position clear and the distance between him and President Lyndon B. Johnson began to widen.
In the following passage below, Dr. King opined that if America is to be, her dark brothers and sisters must be free:
“For those who ask the question, ‘Aren’t you a civil rights leader?’ and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957, when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: “To save the soul of America.” We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:”
Langston Hughes Pondering the conundrum of being Negro and American
O, yes, I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath?
America will be!
During the month of February let us recall the words beyond the dream. You know, Jesus gave that wonderful sermon on the Mount of Olive, then came down from that mountain and put the beatitudes into the practical reality of everyday living. Our churches don’t tend to talk about that Jesus too much.
So too did Martin Luther King, Jr., walk a revolutionary path from the Lincoln Memorial to the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Our history don’t tend to talk about that Martin Luther King too much, either.
If we are serious about eliminating war, poverty and racism, then we must seriously consider how the Master lived beyond the Mount of Olive and pay close attention to the themes of King beyond the Lincoln Memorial.
Excerpts from Beyond Vietnam, by Martin Luther King, Jr., Riverside Church, 1967