Interesting
film depiction of a fictional meeting between Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, the leader
of the breakaway Republic of Biafra and Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, who was one of
the ringleaders of the first army mutiny in Nigeria.
Ifeajuna
had been the first Black African to win a Commonwealth gold medal at the
Vancouver Games of 1954. Like Ojukwu, he was a university graduate who joined
the army when an army career was not one of first choice for graduates.
After
the failure of the mutiny of January 1966, he escaped to Ghana and stayed there
under the protection of Kwame Nkrumah until Nkrumah’s overthrow. An Igbo, he
went to Biafra where he became an officer, but became embroiled in an intrigue
which the the Biafran authorities interpreted as treason.
The
film is set on the eve of his execution by firing squad in September 1967.
©
Adeyinka Makinde (2016).
Adeyinka
Makinde is a London-based writer.
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