There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra Read Online Free PDF Page B

beginning.
    As a young man, surrounded by all this excitement, it seemed as if the British were
     planning surprises for me at every turn, including the construction of a new university!
     It is, of course, only a joke, but I am sure many of my colleagues shared similar
     feelings. Here we were, a whole generation of students who really could not have had
     any clear idea of going to university until these events began to unfold.
    It was a remarkable group—Chike Momah, Flora Nwapa, Mabel Segun, Ben Obumselu, Emmanuel
     Obiechina, Kelsey Harrison, Gamaliel Onosode, Wande Abimbola, Iya Abubakar, Adiele
     Afigbo, Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, Theophilus Adeleke Akinyele, Grace Alele Williams, Mohammed
     Bello, Elechi Amadi. A bit later Wole Soyinka, J. P. Clark, Oluwokayo Oshuntokun,
     M. J. C. Echeruo, Christopher Okigbo, Ayo Bamgbose, Christine Okoli (my future wife),
     Emeka Anyaoku, Chukwuemeka Ike, Abiola Irele, Zulu Sofola, and several others. These
     young men and women came from all over the country—from elite secondary schools modeled
     on the public schools of England—Government College, Umuahia, Dennis Memorial Grammar
     School, Government College, Ibadan, and Abeokuta, King’s College, Lagos, and Queen’s
     College, Lagos.
    T HE I BADAN E XPERIENCE
    Umuahia had a large contingent of students admitted to University College, Ibadan,
     with a number of students winning at least minor scholarships.
    I received my scholarship to study medicine at Ibadan. I wanted to be in the arts
     but felt pressure to choose medicine instead. After a year of work I changed to English,
     history, and theology, but by so doing I lost the bursary and was left with the prospect
     of paying tuition.
    I remember what the dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor E. A. Cadle, said to me
     when I went to ask to be moved from the sciences to the arts: in order to get into
     the arts I had to have taken a school certificate exam in Latin, which was not taught
     at Umuahia. I was faced with a difficult dilemma and spent some time thinking about
     the ramifications of taking extra courses in Latin.
    But providence had other plans. Soon after my conversation with Professor Cadle an
     announcement came through from the University of London, our parent institution, indicating
     that it was dropping the Latin requirement for admission into the Faculty of Arts.
     The University of London argued that the native languages of students from the British
     Commonwealth could stand in for the Latin requirement. I was elated. I went back and
     asked Professor Cadle for admission into the Arts Faculty. He brought out my file
     and told me that I was admitted on the basis of my performance in physics and chemistry.
     He wanted reassurance from me that I would be able to make such a fundamental shift
     in academic focus and maintain good grades. After a little more conversation, he admitted
     me to study English, history, and theology, and I moved from medicine to the Arts
     Faculty.
    My older brother Augustine Achebe, an engineer by training, had returned from his
     studies in England and had landed a good job. On learning that I had lost my bursary,
     Augustine gave me money he had saved up for his annual leave so that I could pay the
     university tuition and continue my studies, which I did, very pleasantly.
    After graduation I did not have to worry about where I would go next. The system was
     so well organized that as we left university most of us were instantly absorbed into
     civil service, academia, business, or industry. We trusted—I did, anyway—the country
     and its rulers to provide this preparatory education and then a job to serve my nation.
     I was not disappointed. I went home to my village at the end of the holiday and visited
     a secondary school within my district, called the Merchants of Light, in Oba, near
     Ogidi. I asked the principal to give me a job as an English teacher. And he did!
    It helped that my colleague J. O. C. Ezeilo had completed