Edet Efiong Okon
Ritman University, Ikot Ekpene
Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
&
Samuel Peter Edueno
Department of History and International Studies.
University of Uyo
Abstract
The study examined the plights of men and women of fishing communities in South-eastern State during the Nigerian Civil War. The littoral fishing communities of the State became the landing ground of troops of the 3 Marine Commando Division and Biafran army from where a forward push was made into the hinterland. The fishing communities in South Eastern State domiciled in the creeks, rivers, and rivulets contributed to human, material and military needs of the Federal troops for the successful execution of military needs of the Federal troops for the successful execution of military operations in Ijaw and Igbo heartlands. The study further argues that the role played by coastal and fishing communities were not gender bias because both men and women were exposed to danger, risk, deprivation, hunger and displacement. While men ferried troops through the creeks into the hinterland, women provided food and warm. The study submitted that it was consequent upon the sufferings and courage of men and women in the fishing communities that the Federal troops of the 3 Marine Commando Division made victorious incursions into the hinterland and eventually squeezed Biafra into an enclave. Also, the post war conditions of men and women in the riverine and coastal communities of the former South Eastern State of Nigeria had severely deteriorated 50 years after the war. Nonetheless, this study employs historical methodology using both the primary and secondary sources.
KEYWORDS: Nigerian Civil War, Men, Women, Riverine
Introduction
The nature of suffering and courage endured by men and women of the fishing communities of South Eastern State during the Nigerian Civil War of July, 1967 to January, 1970 raised concerns and contributes immensely to a better understanding of the saddest period of Nigeria’s post-colonial history.[1]
The activities, suffering and courage of men and women of the fishing communities of the area seldom received attention and commendations from writers, scholars and historians. Also, before the formal outbreak of war on 6th July, 1967 at Garkem village, Major Isaac Boro, Commander of the 3MCDO’s Sea Training School in Atimbo, Calabar and heavily and mercilessly terrorized Oron, Uruan, Ibeno, Andoni, Efik and other Ibibio fishermen and women in creeks, sea and rivers under the false belief that Biafra could draw food supports from local innocent fishermen who braved the odds and risked their lives for a little or no mention in almost all the scholarly works on the war 50 years after.[2]
The pre-war mobilization and movement of ammunitions, foods and other items by Biafran Leader Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu from Portugal, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire[3] discreetly through Cameroon and fishing communities of Oron, Ikang, Akpabuyo, Efiat, Ebughu and Udung Uko exposed men and women of those communities to untold suffering and resilience in the hands of Biafran secret military marine transporters and Nigerian army equally.[4] This initial scenario unarguably distinguishes and scores men and women of fishing communities of South Eastern Nigeria as first to experience the pains and courage associated with that war which later penetrated to Ijaw and Igbo heartlands at full-fledged stage.
This is the study of the extent of resilience, courage and sufferings unleashed on men and women of fishing communities of the former South Eastern State of Nigeria presently structured as Akwa Ibom and Cross River States during the Nigerian Civil War. It is also necessitated by the longing to balance the partial, mindless and lopsided reconstruction of the war by writers, historians and other scholars who apparently avoided to celebrate the braved odds and pains endured by people of the fishing communities who knew nothing about the ‘why’ of the war but paid ultimate prices. They rather situated reconstructions on what Umoh described as “battle-centric military history” thereby leaving the posterity in a travesty of information pertaining to pains and courage of people in fishing communities who saw, partook and suffered the war odds before those in the hinterlands of Ijaw and Igbo and other parts of Ibibio.[5]