Soviet propaganda poster
titled "Snake from the tomb" (1945) depicting the 'snake' of
Ukrainian nationalism emerging from a coffin decorated with a swastika and a
Waffen-SS helmet.
Translation:
Do you recognise this serpent?
The bloody, devouring beast is slithering.
Guarded by a spidery symbol (swastika),
Its name is - Stepan Bandera.
Its name is Judas, Cain.
These are the deeds of its snaky hands:
Fires across our land,
The spilled blood of innocent children.
And the people stood up defiant,
The country gave its verdict:
Crush the serpent and its protectors
And pull out the reptile's sting and teeth.
It was based on a cartoon
which was published in Radians'ka Ukraina newspaper in March 1945.
My
tribute to Francis Oladele being read by torchlight before a generator was
switched on. The scene was at a Lagos exhibition relating to his life and the
wider celebration of 50 Years since the filming of "Things Fall
Apart". The exhibition ended on Saturday, September 4th, 2021.
(Photo Credit: Modern Film Archiv).
This is the text:
Remembering Francis
Oladele.
"My uncle Francis
Oladele was the embodiment of the early Nigerian pioneer spirit. By this I mean
that as the time of national independence from the British colonial master drew
closer, the average person became increasingly more infused with a kind of
frontier spirit. This African Zeitgeist had many layers and forms of expression
such as the culture developed around the Onitsha Market Literature. But it was
firmly rooted in an ideology of self-progress and communal betterment.
A key requirement for
attaining this was the idea that one had to travel abroad to secure a sound
education. For the typically conservative-minded Yoruba family, this
often-meant study of the law, medicine, accountancy, and other professional
disciplines in the United Kingdom. But for the free-spirited Uncle Francis, the
future was in the creative arts and in the United States. And it is in America
that, ever the inveterate networker, he sowed the seeds of his future
ground-breaking film projects.
The names startle: he was
friendly with Babatunde Olatunji, became a roadie for Ornette Coleman and
touched base with Melvin Van Peebles. The common denominator between all three
men was that they were pioneers. His reach was extensive as the name of his
film company “Calpenny” reflected. His backers were from California,
Pennsylvania, and New York, and as Ossie Davis noted the nationalities of the
crew which was assembled to work on Kongi’s Harvest -Nigerian, American and
Swedish was a testament to his go-gettedness and ability to get things done.
He had the ability to
create a hub wherever he laid his hat.
The Kongi Klub in the
Adamasingba district of Ibadan was a venue at which he could keep a pulse on
the trends of the Nigerian music scene of the 1970s and where he could direct
foreign visitors.
Although Nigeria today has
what may be termed a film industry, one which generates a sizable amount of
revenues, it is one which for the most part is bereft of the values and
cinematic culture which my uncle sought to create in Things Fall Apart (1971)
and Kongi’s Harvest (1970). He told me that he felt unable to remain
“productive” in that climate and was content to spend his retirement
corresponding with researchers who wanted access to materials he had
accumulated during his film career.
What I remember most about
him was his gift for storytelling: anything from hair-raising tales of his
encounters with reckless drivers on Nigerian roads to his decision to spend
some time travelling America via the Greyhound Line.
There was a surreal tale
about attending the Moscow Film Festival at the invitation of the Soviet
authorities. When it was over, he had intended to fly to the United Kingdom to
complete the formalities of editing a film. But his Soviet sponsors would have
none of it and insisted that he leave Moscow via an already booked flight to
Lagos. The way Uncle Francis told it, after some discussion he felt obligated
to get on the Soviet plane lest he be forcibly taken onboard a waiting Aeroflot
plane and tied to his seat. There was perhaps some embellishment to the story,
but he did have to journey all the way back to Lagos only to take the next
flight to London.
On a more serious note he
did tell me of how he turned his Lapiti Estate home in Oyo into a safehouse for
his old friend Wole Soyinka when Soyinka was a fugitive from the security
agents of the Nigerian military dictator, General Sani Abacha. It was from
there that Soyinka made his escape through the border with the Republic of
Benin.
I am delighted that he is
being accorded with the honour of the festival including the restoration of Things
Fall Apart. I hope that it can serve in some way as a means of
re-energizing or re-orientating Nigerian filmmaking towards a more purposeful
cinematic culture."
- Adeyinka Makinde, Author,
Writer and Researcher, London, June 2021.
Lady Iro Hunt pictured in the
1980s. (Photo credit: Giorgos Lanitis).
Greek-Cypriot heiress Iro
Myrianthousi who was the publisher of Lagos This Week.
She was the niece of the
Greek-Cypriot business brothers A.G. and C.P. Leventis who established a large
trading firm in Nigeria and several other West African countries. She trained
as a social worker in England before becoming the proprietor of the Lagos-based
magazine.
Photographed in the 1980s.
NB.
There was apparently a
"tug-of-love" between Sir David Hunt, the British High Commissioner
to Nigeria (1967-1969), and Lieutenant Colonel Emeka Ojukwu over Myrianthousi.
Many, including the author
Michael Gould, have speculated that much of Ojukwu's antipathy towards Britain
emanated from the love rivalry with Hunt which Ojukwu lost.
Michael Gould: " I feel
he was very distressed to hear of Iro’s marriage to David Hunt, and I think
much of his antipathy towards Britain during the war emanated from the fact
that he and Iro had had an intense relationship, and that his sentiment for
Britain was coloured by this union ... There is definite acrimony between Iro
Hunt and Ojukwu, because he always sends her Christmas cards, signed with his
love, and she gets very agitated on receiving them because, as she said, of the
way he behaved towards Hunt during the war. Ojukwu seems to have come to terms
with the past, but Lady Hunt is in an unforgiving mood, even intimating that
Ojukwu’s vitriol towards Hunt led to his health being undermined."
John Vorster, the Prime
Minister of Apartheid-era South Africa (left) and Yitzhak Rabin, the ex-Chief
of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces who was Israel's Prime Minister.
John Vorster’s four-day state
visit to Israel in April 1976 was the first visit by a South African premier
for over 25 years. South Africa had been one of the first countries to
recognise the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.
Among the places Vorster
visited was Vad Yashem, the Holocaust Museum. He also visited the town of Bethlehem.
At Vad Yashem, Vorster had said "I cannot understand how that tragedy
happened. I feel what you have built here is Israel is the answer to that
holocaust."
This was ironic because
Vorster had been a Nazi sympathiser who was a member of the neo-Nazi Ossewabrandwag
which empathised with Adolf Hitler. Vorster was also a commander of the group's
militia who were known as Stormjaers (Stormtroopers). According to the
book Apartheid: A History by Brian Lapping, the Stormjaers “adopted
the Swastika badge, gave the Hitler salute, threatened death to the Jews and
provoked fights with army volunteers.”
Vorster was detained by the
British for being a security risk during World War 2.
At a state dinner, Rabin
toasted "The ideals shared by Israel and South Africa, the hopes for
justice and peaceful co-existence."
The visit elicited
speculation that both countries would strike a deal related to the supply of
arms and weaponry by Israel to South Africa. These included the Kfir or Lion
Cub jet fighters and possibly anti-insurgency weapons.
By the late 1970s, it was
understood that both nations had been engaging in a secret collaboration on
nuclear weapons. In 1979, the Apartheid regime tested a nuclear weapon in the
South Atlantic using a delivery system which they had developed with the Israelis.
The South Africans also supplied Israel with uranium for its nuclear
establishments.
NB.
. General Moshe Dayan made a
secret visit to Pretoria in 1974 to enquire as to the possibility of Israel conducting
an atomic test on South African territory.
. Shimon Peres had made at
least one secret visit to Pretoria over the question of nuclear cooperation.
One accounted visit occurred in early 1976.
. Apartheid South Africa
initially resisted formally entering diplomatic relations with Israel because
of Israel's connections with many African states during the early years of
decolonisation. However, after the United Nations General Assembly vote in 1974
which declared Zionism to be a form of racism, South Africa, in an act of
solidarity, sent an ambassador to Israel in November 1975.
. Israel abstained from UN
votes which condemned South African Apartheid.
Quotes:
. “there is a certain
sympathy for the situation of [white] South Africa among Israelis. They are
also European settlers standing against a hostile world.”
- Seymour Hersh in his book The Samson Option.
. "Israel and South
Africa have one thing above all else in common: they are both situated in a
predominantly hostile world inhabited by dark peoples."
- Official Yearbook of the
Republic of South Africa, 1978.
. "(The blacks in South
Africa) want to gain control over the white minority just like the Arabs here
want to gain control over us … And we, like the white minority in South Africa,
must act to prevent them from taking over.”
- General Rafael Eitan, Chief
of the Israeli Defence Force (1978-1983).
. “The people of South Africa
will never forget the support of the state of Israel to the apartheid regime.”
- Nelson Mandela, shortly
after his release from prison in 1990.
Franz Beckenbauer, one of
football's greatest ever, has passed.
His career coincided with the
golden era of German football during which he won every honour coveted by
footballers: the FIFA World Cup (both as player and manager), the European
Nations Cup and the European Champions Cup.
He was also one of a number
of European and South American greats who tried to turn football into a major
part of American sporting culture by joining Pele at the New York Cosmos.
Beckenbauer was significant
not only as part of the generation of West German players who built upon the
post-war World Cup triumph at Berne in 1954, he also played a part in
developing the possibilities associated with the role of a ‘libero’, a position
excelled at by a select few including Armando Picchi, Gaetano Scirea and Franco
Baresi.
If Paul Breitner and Gunther
Netzer represented the rebellious face of German football, then Beckenbauer was
their ideological opposite. Where Breitner was a self-professing Maoist,
Beckenbauer was for the bourgeoisie. He was explicitly a supporter of the
politically conservative Christian Social Union of Bavaria which ruled the
state of Bavaria for decades just as Beckenbauer, "Der Kaiser", ruled
the roost as captain of both the national team and Bayern Munich.
It was a testament to
Beckenbauer's power and influence that Bayern Munich accepted his
recommendation that Udo Lattek take up the reins as manager of Bayern. Lattek
then led Bayern to three consecutive Bundesliga titles, one German Cup and the
first of three consecutive European Cup titles.
Beckenbauer had an elegant,
imperious style of playing. He had industry and was resourceful. Above all he
was a tremendous leader of men.
He had many career highlights
but the one which sticks with me most is of the one-armed Beckenbauer, hand in
a sling, doggedly playing to the last minute in the losing effort in the FIFA
World Cup semi-final in Mexico when West Germany lost 3-4 to Italy in a game
which was dubbed the "Match of the Century".
"We don't
like armed struggle. Armed struggle is nasty, it is hard and as a result of it
you go to jail, into exile, be tortured and as a result you can die. You see
one forced to kill. It hardens the person, hurts him, but armed struggle is
essential to advance".
Pedro El Marino
was aided by a Spanish Army officer codenamed "Leonidas”, as well as by
ultra-rightist actors, one of whom, Jean-Pierre Cherid, had been a former member of the French O.A.S.
(Organisation de l'armee Secrete) and two neo-fascists: Jose Maria Boccardo from Argentina and the Italian Mario Ricci who belonged to Avanguardia Nazionale.
The murder on
Thursday, December 21st 1978 was carried out in Anglet, a town in the Basque
region of France.
The assassins
had wanted to kill Argala on December 20th -the anniversary of Carrero Blanco's
death- but were unable to do so as Argala did not emerge from his apartment on
that day.
Argala, 29 years old at the time of his death, had activated the explosive that killed
Blanco. He was buried six days later on Spanish soil and in 1982, a memorial plaque was unveiled in his hometown Arrigorriaga.
The revenge
operation was claimed to have been financed by a personal bank loan with the
weapons being purchased in Belgium. However, Pedro El Marino is said to have
obtained the explosives from a US military base. He was at the forefront of a
state-financed and directed "dirty war" against ETA mainly through a
group known as the Spanish Basque Battalion.
