African Heritage Festival: My Run-in With Biafra Secessionists

August 1st is a significant date to students of black culture all over the world. It was on this date in the year 1834 that slavery in the British empire was abolished. The August 1st Anniversary 2015 was organised by the African Heritage Group. The Festival was organised to promote Pan Africanism and demand reparations from the British Government for years of mistreatment.

Disun and I attended the festival/march to help with logistics and media coverage. We assumed that we will not be seeing any Africans at the Festival; the Caribbean Society in the UK leads the pan African movement (This is wrong, Africans should be at the forefront). We were shocked to find a particular group flying its banners with pride and confidence. This festival was held to promote African Unity but a particular group used this opportunity to air their grievances to a compassionate crowd.

We ran to catch up with the group and asked for an interview. We were introduced to Mr. Festus Anekwe [Coordinator for the Biafra Group in the UK]. He was a very humble and respectable man (surprising considering the way radio Biafra is on twitter) and it was easy to have a conversation.

You can watch the interview here----- http://youtu.be/fiy8lKe_eUU

Mr Anekwe did not give us the answers we wanted so we walked up to another group of people. Unfortunately, we were unable to film because we had a heated conversation.

We spoke to a solicitor representing Biafra in a court case against the Nigerian Government and asked him why he thought a Biafran Secession will solve the problems Nigeria is experiencing. He took offence to that and went on a heated rant. He used all manner of rude language short of insults and we got into a little shoving match with him and his backers. Fortunately, we kept our heads and apologized to him. We explained that we only wanted an explanation. He said something shocking which explained his erratic behaviour earlier. He and a few others at the rally were orphans of the civil war. Most of them lost their parents and have not seen Nigeria since then. He said this to me teary eyed and the woman next to him tried her best to console him. At this point we left and had another heated argument with a new group pf people for hours.

After the rally, I spent a lot of time trying to dissect the issues stopping Nigeria's progress. One major issue I can highlight is our inability to come to a conclusion on past conflict. We are more comfortable with sweeping uncomfortable topics under the rug. Nigerians need a national identity separate of tribe or religion. What is that common thing that all Nigerians can identify with? Irrespective of religion or tribe. Our fore fathers did not do enough to address that question. It is up to us (the youth) to create a Nigeria that all Nigerians can Identify with.

God Bless Nigeria.