Black Panther Party of Northern California - Freedom Archives

PAGE 10
Theme can .be , no'victor :y'=in Nigeria's"civil 'war' . Spokesinen
far both` tYie ~edera.l govexnmerit and the seceding Big°
af~an state asist that if they ~da not win, Nigeria : will
be reduced to total chaos breeding` nothing but tr-iba.7.-~
hatred, guerrillas warfare a"n,d._ :.:bet-ty :-~di:at~a~tvrs2ri~s . Tn
an e~ffa-rt ~to : avert ~ this trag c'`demolition of Africa's .
''once "model deinocra:cy,'! Wole Soyinka, Nigeria's fore-.
moist poet and ~phay~ri+~ht~ (with tivo ~fffBraadwag plays . . . . ,
'chi's season), 'published a statement . 'n ; the fail Sketch' - ,: `
Ibadan ; ~call3ng for a cease fire:: : -Ten : ; days later he was
-"det`a ned,!~ two ~montYis cater the .: gow!ernment claimef 5oy~
inky had confessed 'to . : conspiring ui~ th th'e rebels ; .he denied
the charges' . . and. ~ .s still -in 'jail awaa .ting trial .
Whatever ahe. fC'tual .~fa -ct's may be, Sayinka a:s . . ..a painfully
accurate exarxple of the dilemma of the AfricaW writer
w'ho ~ is marad;T~r unable' : .' o isolate hiriself from hia society,
..yep. ; , canr~at find a .'safe vantage point from which to
comment .on :the scene around him';'" Befare his arrest . Soyinka;
wrote . an article : ; for the d atinguished Uganda magmine,
Transition ,, . in ,which he tx :ies to define the wxit-- . . . .. . .
eY's true-re§ponsibiTit~ in the "mtwement toward chaos
n.madern : :Africa-." :
ltity concern n :: this :~.rt c~e : i .,s
primarily with the . non-South A.fr.: -
can writer. . . and w.hy, . . b.e.a~Qx.e . ..very
long, he- - may begin -;to envy the
South African the bleak immensity
of : ha s.vprabl ems : Fr~r : the > South. Af=
rican has still the right to hope,
and this pxospect of a future as
yet uncompromised by failure on his
own part, in his own right : is
samet;":~.ng ~ whic'.~. ' has latr~ly `ceased . .
to exist for writers of other ~A~fr~i,- .
o~n :~tarese -.
Wliia-2 r. 'he may debate what eonst~:- ;
totes a~rIIlack writer and what
does- r..aty . . .. ctne ` br.ee.d, ~. of ' humanity
t^r2i- ch "gee cannot ~con~fox.'tabYy .tier~y ~.~,.
t2i'at- of . the wr 'ter . > ; . In -new socie- .
ties , ., .Which began: ,the deductive : ex
pe~riment in : authox-iaariani~m;, . ., ~ .it: