A journey into the past, leaves some hanging questions of the present partly justified. This, Uche Nwokedi did justo in his memoir, A Shred of Fear. The book captures the ruthless effects Nigeria Civil War, otherwise known as Biafran War had on its victims using his family and neighbour as point of reference.
The author stylishly employs a simple narrative tone that enables the reader sees through the perspective of Nwokedi, the sad occurrences and the ugly stigma the war leaves behind. From the disruption of tranquility in the society, to abrupt pause to already established human activities, to loss of lives and properties, and incessant fear.
The fourteen-chapter book starts each chapter with a poem that gives a glance of what is contained in the chapter. It also has a pictorial cover of a small boy reading a book which, with his prayer Chaplet with lantern beside him and a mother figure sitting right beside him supervising his act.
The author draws from historical antecedents, how as a seven year boy carrying his normal school routine at Sancta Maria School, at the commercial hub of East, Aba, in 1967 was ushered into war with what he described as ‘air raids’ forecasting Nigerian war against the Biafrans after their secession.
He portrays how the Igbos in other parts of Nigeria were rejected all over the country and became homeless with steady stream of people at Aba Railway Station. According to Nwokedi, witnessing war presented a clearer understanding of war from the usual TV series of war. Schools were shut down, people from other tribes relocated back to their homes, the rationing of food and clothes, inter tribal marriages crashing (Using his Uncle Alex who married a Yoruba lady, Kofoworola as a case study). Also, social activities were brought to a halt as TV stations were shut down.
He however recalls the incidents that took turn during the war from a child’s perspective. He states: “Sometimes, if the target seemed to be further away, we would carry on playing.”
The author drives his readers on an emotional train as he recalls his personal experiences of the sad reality of war when he lost his three cousins, the Onwudiwes ( Ifeoma, Chuma, and Okey) same day after an air raid at Pound Road Extension. The hunting memory still lives with him and family till date.
He writes: “After the tragic and traumatic deaths of Okey, Ifeoma and Chuma, life became even more tentative and stark. I had caught a glimpse of the face of death and continued to have bad dreams for a long time. I think we all did. Everyone we knew was affected by the Pound Road bombing… The tragedy of the Pound Road bombing was much deeper than anyone could fathom. It cut through every family. Everyone around us, young and old, felt it, and for a long time, it was all we could talk about. “
At the unfolding of events, the author at some points, was forced to see war far beyond the view of a boy as he describes that “The naive wide-eyed excitement that I had initially felt as a child, that there was a war going on, disappeared in its place was fear and dread.”
Using his family as an example, Nwokedi puts forward in the book how war led to incessant migration from Aba to Uga, Umenyis, Ogidi, Umuchu, Ukpor, Achalla, and the likes. He states: “ War led to abrupt end to formal education and the exposure to knowledge informed by the realities of war”( scarcity of food and drugs, death, kwashiorkor).
African extended family system is portrayed in the book. Example is how families have to accommodate their members who came from abroad because of the war. He also depicts change and break in the way they live as war sets in. Moving from a convenient house into attachment with people, “low thatched roof outhouse with a pit latrine freshly dug for our convenience.”
In chapter eleven, the author shows the end to war in 1969 as people went about with daily functions like wedding, law court in session and the reopening of schools.
However, things were not the same again as there seems to be a big gap between the life before war and after. Using his uncle, Tony as an example, he depicts the psychological trauma people fought during the war.
He writes: “He would sit in the corner of the living room, day and night with bloodshot eyes watching the entrance to the house. He hardly moved or slept and did not take a bath for the first two days or so. He just sat there watching the door, clearly nervous.”
Nevertheless, the book is without errors. Not all Igbo lexicons used in the book were fully explained for non Igbo to understand. One would also add that the picture of Biafran war presented in the book, is primarily from a personal point of view of the writer.
