Black Sorcerers -By J. Ezike

Last few months, I was summoned to rest my pen and engage the subject of my literature with ritual silence. I kept my protest faded from social media and receded in a remote world that neared the depth of my mind. My absence closed the door between me and my audience. But the subject for which I had been summoned to rest remained an intimate companion of my mental world. And every day I yearned for my pen with the hunger of a man whose distinct lust for cocaine stood in defiance of God. I was not merely being introspective or sabbatical or by any chance rethinking the subject of my literature. It was not a question of continuity or a loss of appetite for Justice. Neither was it a case of an abandoned aspiration for the greater good of the common man. In fact, I imagined this ritual silence as an extreme response that allowed for a blurred connection with the long walk to freedom. And I thought of it as a betrayal of conscience, as a conscious distancing from the subject of my literature. And the guilt that accompanied my ritual silence became the new idea that occupied the center of my heart. But I needed the guilt to correctly understand the bone-deep feelings of the white world in relation with the Biafran struggle for referendum that stood face-to-face with the deification of Nigeria.

The white world deifies Nigeria in a way that forbids all semblance of reality. It believes the mythology of its unity as a sacrosanct, indispensable ideal. And the notion that its unity is non-negotiable inevitably defeats the purpose of dialogue. In this way, the 1999 constitution is rendered as a biblical canon of moral and political value, as an innocent grimoire of Northern Nigeria. And we are left to own the Military Texts or the Legal Scripts of Exorcism in the way a sorcerer of Orlu commands the Wind of Evil or any other phenomenon that can be conjured by the Man beyond the ordinary. But the 1999 constitution is the Mother of Nigeria’s dark energies, not the child. It is the accursed stream from which we fetch an army of predatory ghouls and infest our life-lines with flagellating flirtations of the most notorious mami water spirits. From this inalterable reality the meaning of nationhood is divorced from the mechanism of creative leadership.

As for now, it must be said that the subject of Biafran referendum is the nightmare of the white world. And this visceral fear is bordering the imaginary. In fact, this fear is the modern phenomenon of the twenty-first century. It is the fear that holds a strong addiction for the Myth of Apocalypse – the unfounded belief that the restoration of Biafra will mark the end of the world. This leads us to another equally disturbing ideal, one that the white world strongly adheres but to which the black man is the recipient. It is the ideal that delimits the conscious thinking or awakening of the black man and prevents him, through fear and intimidation, from reaching the elevation of the Black Sorcerer. Now, the Black Sorcerer in this context is not necessarily the man with some paranormal power or in possession of a mystical, prophetic knowledge that pleads immortal energies. But rather, the Black Sorcerer in this context is the man who has transcended above the general awareness of his people. He is the Black Sorcerer because his mind proves to govern his body and shows itself exceptional in the assembly of dissidents and thinkers. He is the Black Sorcerer because he clearly understands the difficulties that surround his fate and the existing problems that command a great deal of misfortune over the destinies of his people. He is a Black Sorcerer because he correctly knows the real solution to the banality of slavery that excuses cowardice and wishful thinking.

I propose to take my ancestral land Orlu as the first point of reference. And I ask for the reader’s patience in advance if I fall to the seduction of selfish-thinking in my attempt to study the visceral fear of the white world towards the campaign for Biafran referendum, to rethink the nobility of courage and the demanding sacrifices which freedom-fighting affords.

It has been almost four years of Black Sorcery, of trying to refuse the fruit of Nigerian Independence, of struggling to rebuke Nigerian Innocence on the face of the map. And in admittance of my mortality, I have come face-to-face on a daily basis with the unblinking fate of most Orlu Black Sorcerers who were vanished and never set foot on their ancestral lands. Olaudah Equiano (Ikwuano) and King Jaja of Opogbo, two Black Sorcerers of “Old Orlu” paint a striking picture into this thoughtful conjuration of history. It does not matter if either of them received ceremonial burials or literary monuments in their names. That is totally irrelevant and far from the point. The point is that both Black Sorcerers who resented slavery and white oppression had their bodies driven by awakened minds, disconnected from their people, from their struggle. And in deeper sense, there is nothing uniquely different from what transpired then in comparison to what is transpiring now.

Take for instance the Black Sorcerer of Ogidi – Chinua Achebe, who went on self-exile after tearfully witnessing the slaughtering of over 6 million Biafrans as oppose to conservative estimates and after vain attempts to banish the demons that reveled in Military Grace and after many decades of correctly interpreting the solution to the deepening tragedies that overwhelms the entrapped mass-victims of Nigeria. These Black Sorcerers in the welling sadness for the plights of their people and after untold sufferings, usually transfer the baton of sorcery through legacy and in most cases do not live long enough to conclude what they began. And in deeper sense, we realize that their symbolic sadness is a visceral experience that spoke of many tales. It is that sadness that crawls inward and dethrones all hope. It rips optimism into shreds and extracts the forbidden thoughts of silent conformity with the Legal Script of Exorcism. And we are tempted not to un-look the footprints of their painful struggles but to pluck from their trees the fruit of inspiration.

Others, though with the preparedness for death, had departed from this school of thought as young bodies in casket. Take for instance, the Black Sorcerer of Abeokuta, Fela Kuti whose questionable death was related to HIV and AIDS. At an un-ripe age of 58, he was punished to an early grave. His travails were the barrels that shot lethal fears in the hearts of his admirers. And to be honest, one would need to apply some sort of daredevilry to walk in his shoes. Soundsultan had captured it well in the lyrics of the song titled 2010 – “I see dem I jaa! I look dem from far. Me I fear dis govament people…” The song though a celebration of cowardice over the nobility of courage did well in bringing awesome sorcery against the many Sokoto Caliphate lies and false promises, the mass-spell from the grimoire of Northern Nigeria and the unfulfilled presidential vow of constant power supply in the year 2010. The premise of the lyrics conferred dignity in self-exile and the visceral fear of government oppression and intimidation that instilled the chilling expectation of executive punishment. Unfortunately, Fela’s sorcery was memorable for its polemic-humor rather than its substance. And this is perhaps one of the many reasons millions of Nigerians are still spell-bound in mediocrity. Perhaps, it is because they listen to Fela’s sorcery and laugh rather than to think. They dance rather than to act.

Take for example the contemporary music industry and its pseudo-afrobeats rhythms which are merely a repository of Selfish Art and in deep sense, functions as a mechanism of mass control. It is a viable industry sponsored by the predatory Sokoto Caliphate and the executive leadership in Aso Rock, to keep Nigerians unconscious and “foolishly happy” with the state of things. Today, the airwaves are awash with meaningless songs funneled into the minds of Nigerians, turning them into Zombies of their repressive government. Fela was prophetic when he said: “Zombie no go walk unless you tell am to walk…” Election days provide the clearest evidence that Nigerians are indeed Zombies and permissive of Nigerian Innocence that is really nothing but a charade. It dethrones every standing doubt of their ability to rationalize their existential realities.

The trend of Selfish Art serves to obscure that Nigeria is a failed experiment, that Fulani privilege is a concrete fact, that unity is a myth, that One-Nigeria is a unicorn, that regional marginalization is as real as political seclusion and economic sabotage in Biafra land and elsewhere within Nigeria. Today, we have some Oduduwans and Biafrans who believe themselves to be Fulani. They conveniently appropriate the culture of their slave-drivers and oppressors. And they do so with the expectant attention for caliphate reward and would wrongly interpret the conditions and politics of the land. Igbo leaders, groomed to be Fulani are gagged into puppet-silence and would rather look away from the foreign persecution on their soil. They would rather ignore the mayhem of Fulani banditry or rebuke the Uthman Danfodio Dream as romanticized by Miyetti Allah and Northern Nigeria. And this prison that was a gift from Britain to over 250 ethnic nationalities has been the hell we all chose to live in.

Amidst the overwhelming trouble lies abundant presence of Black Sorcerers. But most of these sorcerers in their highest level of consciousness seem helpless and hopeful of the pre-ordained Nigerian Tragedy. Though they have demonstrated believable actions in search for answers and solutions but seem to deliberately ignore the truth that bares the chaos of amalgamation and the altering of cultures and natural existence.

Another Black Sorcerer of Abeokuta – Wole Soyinka, a man whom I deeply respect and admire, a man who was God’s handiwork during the war of ethnic cleansing and genocide on the Igbos in 1966-1970, used his sorcery through the literatures of his youth, through his righteous anger and superior arguments, through his nationalist visions and Pan-African ideologies, through his patriotic ideals and literary politics, through his litany of essays and intellectual activism. And like Achebe, he too had embarked on self-exile but returned home only to be tamed by the same evil he had fought against.

We are faced with the profound question as to whether Nigeria understands itself as a tool of the white world. I have asked these questions so many times through numerous essays and sometimes I feel the pressing urge to retire my pen and watch the suffering Nigerians stew in hell. But then I am forced by something within to resume duty and so I asked these questions especially to the so-called modern or contemporary Nigerian writers. Who are your audience? Who do you intend to romance with your literature? Who do you intend to redeem? But most of all, I had always wondered – how do you befriend a devil without eating with the devil? These questions though unanswerable which is not to say that it is shallow.

The greatest good of this Old Evil is that it has elevated a great number of Nigerians into Black Sorcery. It has freed them from the Zombie Spirits and launched them on the path of self-discovery and breaking through the barriers of lies and the dangerous fear they had known all their young lives as Nigerians. The fear lived amongst them. It recognized their sacrificial positions as victims rather than citizens. It was there in the extravagant cathedrals of Northern Nigeria. It was there in the gagged press and entertainment industry. It was there in politics and activism. Little wonder the Black Sorcerer of Ife, Dele Giwa was mailed his own death for writing truth to power and confronting the evil that flaunted itself as Nigeria. His death was another fear girded into the spirit fabric of the country. And that fear had defeated death even till today. This is why numerous media houses like Vanguard, Punch, Channels TV, Legit and a franchise of government–sponsored journalists and writers do not report facts to the people.

Recently, the Fulani-led government passed a bill to gag the social media and impose censorship on anti-government publications and restrict all objective expressions from writers, journalists and activists. The bill equates activism with terrorism and citizen journalism as a reflection of hate speech. The bill indicts the conscience of the society as enemies of Sokoto Hegemony. The bill believes itself omniscient, sacrosanct and threatens the worse possible punishment on those who dare to reject Nigerian Innocence. And it proposes to take the enactment of this law seriously, which is to say that henceforth every citizen of Nigeria whether by passport or by birth is forbidden from criticizing the decisions and actions of Aso Rock. This, in my humble opinion, is the height of insanity. One cannot, at once, render in a summary the level of sheer madness that animates Nigeria. And if one were to fold Nigeria matter on his head like Fulani turban, one would lose his memories to the mean gods. In short, it is impossible to repair Nigeria. And if Nigeria were an aircraft, it is doomed to crash over and over again. So why not dispose it? Honestly, Nigeria is not a super eagle neither is it a flying eagle. Nigeria is a millipede amongst the committee of civilized nations. It is what I have described it to be: a crawling caterpillar. Eeedris Abdulkareem had captured it well in his evergreen song titled Jaga Jaga “Nigeria jaga jaga, everything yama yama, everywhere scatter scatter, poor man dey suffer suffer…” Meanwhile, the Black Sorcerer of Ondo, Omoyele Sowore is still languishing in DSS’ detention and the Deity of Lagos, Bola Tinubu and his gangs are complacent, satisfied and unprovoked…

We have seen this trend in the custom of oppression, murder and extra-judicial hanging of dissenters. I was no other than eight, when the Black Sorcerer of Ogoni-land Ken Saro Wiwa was executed by hanging through the coordinated complicity of the three arms of government: the legislative, the executive and the judicial. Before our very own eyes the Fulani-led government dipped in savage sweats, torched bodies through Military Texts. And we saw the re-incarnation of Abacha’s despotism and his predecessors, fulfilled in the 1999 constitution. This Legal Script of Exorcism has unleashed many demons ever since.

The fear is palpable and it has made the victims live in denial. But the greater fear and denial is the fear and denial of the white world. It is the denial that calls white as black and vice versa. It is the denial that tells us that Nigeria is the hope of Africa. It is the denial that baptizes the cruel leadership of the Fulani in a kind of way that celebrates tyranny, mediocrity and backwardness. It is the denial that fails to recognize the humanity of the helpless victims gagged into silence and political strangulation. It is the denial that feigns ignorance of the constant genocide and the legacy of great oppression. It is the denial that expresses disgust to the clampdown of the 1999 constitution. It is the denial that turns a blind gaze to the five decades of constant struggle for the revision of the Nigerian Union. It is the denial that disremembers the many years of civil rights movement by the IPOB, LNC, OPC, MASSOB… to renegotiate the basis of Nigeria’s unity…

Days ago, someone had asked me thoughtful questions relating to the Biafran Struggle. He had wondered about my long silence from social-media and what appeared to be a well-thought decision to pause the regular publishing of political articles that campaigned for Biafran referendum. Of course, the Biafran referendum since 2016 had been the subject of my literature. And he had advised me to lobby lawmakers or North American politicians or better still write to the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau. He had told me that if I had all the moral and political support of the Canadian Government, we might be able to convince the British Government that Biafra’s restoration is not wired to alienate the white world and that a solid, viable and progressive Black Nation is in the general interest of the western world and the global community. And with Biafra at the forefront of this industrial revolution, Africa will “finally” contribute to human advancement. And will “finally” shift from their long-standing role as consumers, or to put it in explicit terms, as parasites. I cannot remember if I agreed or declined. But one thing was certain: I had administered concerns and doubts of having the Prime Minister of Canada attend to my letter or grant me audience to retire every fear and unfounded beliefs surrounding the civil rights movement for Biafran referendum. I imagined that Mr. Trudeau as that powerful close-by critic of my literature, as a leader in the white world who did not hide his sentiments as regards my political publications, opinions and thoughts on about British stronghold in Nigeria. I knew that Mr. Trudeau may not be the most powerful leader but certainly has a stake in decisions that affects our world. And to be honest, I did not want to remember what he had done to me but rather what he had done for me. And I knew that my concerns rose from the hospitality afforded to me by his ministerial office. But I made it clear to “this friend” that Biafra was a foregone conclusion and that I did not pray or wish to see its manifestation via war but referendum instead. But, the challenge here is how to dethrone the ancestral fear that wrecks the white world whenever the subject of Biafra is mentioned in texts and publications and the surging guilt that puts a gag on their lips and drowns them deep into the Myth of Apocalypse. We will never understand this phenomenon completely.

I was listening to the radio broadcast of the Black Sorcerer of Afaraukwu, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in the cold wintry evening. And out of all the things he had said, I took one statement as a workable idea. It was the idea that affirmed Biafra’s place in the committee of civilized nations even if it was to be achieved through “the unilateral recognition of one superpower like the United States of America”.

I strongly resonate with Brother Nnamdi’s submission. The USA is a strategic ally of Canada, Britain, France and Israel. And in deeper sense, the USA is a universe, and this universe is stretched from the empire of the Americas to the wealthy fortresses of Europe and the suburbs of Asia and Middle East, down to the Treasure-Lands of Africa. I rationalized over the stronghold that America has in the climate of power and found the fact of our independency possible under its sole influence. I knew that a portion of America’s cooperation will in the long run convince the rest of the white world that Biafran Freedom is not the end of the world.

Also, this friend of mine had mentioned the vast deposit of oil in Biafra land as an omnipresent obstacle to our freedom. And I know, as a writer, who represents the voices of millions of Biafrans, that our intention is not to claim the commercial energy to ourselves. It has “never” been the motive of our struggle from the jump. Our vision is defined from the Japanese economic model, and it is the model that converts human talents into productive investments. I am not a politician, neither do I consider myself worthy of being called a Black Sorcerer. I am only a businessman trying to make sense of Biafran rights to self-determination. And I believe, from a business standpoint, that the Biafran Oil itself can be “freely” distributed to regions and countries of benefits through a multi-lateral treaty. I am also a firm believer in partnerships and amicable resolutions. I believe that the US, Canada, Britain, the UN, the EU, the AU can arrange a workable model of Biafran Oil distribution to satisfy the demands and interests of nations and corporations. The Biafran Oil should not be the bone of contention but the bond of mutual understanding amongst all the parties concerned. War is not an option. This is exactly what I would have written or proposed to the President of the United States, the Prime Ministers of Canada and Britain, the integrated leadership of the UN, the EU and the AU. There should be a civilized and democratic option in reconciling the differences between Nigeria and Biafra. There should be a legal approach in the separation of these two diverse cultures and territories. There should be a way of having both distinct worlds divorced without further gunshots and bloodshed.