




































The Aesthetics of Orality in Ojukwu’s Biafra War Speeches  
 

Uchenna David Uwakwe 
+234-803-798-9970 davdumga69@yahoo.com  
      & 

Adaeze Regis-Onuoha 
+234-803-333-8220 adaezeregiso@gmail.com  
Directorate of General Studies,  

Federal University of Technology Owerri,  

Nigeria. 
 

 

Abstract 

One of the many apprehensions that attend the criticism of Biafra War literature is the 

certification of its artistic warrant, given the perceivable inclination to facts and 

historicity. Nonetheless, the war event has yielded all the genres of modern literary 

creativity, and for which criticism also is rife. Seemingly, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu 

Ojukwu’s Biafra War speeches, which have been an inalienable condiment of this literary 

inclination, scarcely have a place in the discourse of African literature. However, it is 

possible to underscore the linguistic patterns often identified among distinguished Igbo 

orators such as are also bequeathed upon tortoise in the Igbo folktale tradition. 

Particularly noteworthy of the circumstances of Ojukwu’s speeches is the underdog and 

survivalist placement of Biafra in the face of what was regarded as a civil war. That the 

better equipped Federal side had an unrestrained support of Britain had aroused sympathy 

from within and without the Biafra enclave and instructed the propensity of Ojukwu’s 

speeches to the imperatives of survival. All these justify the correlation of the known 

conflicts in which the tortoise figure is often portrayed. It is in this regard that this work 

hypothetically implicates the Igbo oral literary tradition and the possibilities of appraising 

its consequence on the rhetoric of Ojukwu’s war speeches. Therefore this work examines 

how the language forms in the speeches translate into modes whose figures do not 

diminish the verbal, yet aesthetic elements of orality.  
 

 

 

 

 

mailto:davdumga69@yahoo.com
mailto:adaezeregiso@gmail.com


Introduction 

Chukwuemeka Ojukwu’s Biafra War speeches remain a phenomenal influence on 

what is prevalent today as Biafra War Literature. Extracts of these speeches have 

often been made to embellish the narratives on this subject matter. However, the 

language in use in these speeches maintains a balance between the oral and the 

written patterns of expression. In the discourse of language, the transition from the 

oral to the written mode generates multimodal levels of analysis which integrate 

the potentials of the oral tradition in the written medium. These speeches may be 

examined with particular recourse to such language theories as speech act, 

pragmatics and other levels of discourse – discourse analysis and even the 

extension in critical discourse analysis. In the core literary studies, there are 

possibilities of structuring discursive frameworks around such theories as Marxism 

cum revolutionary aesthetics, sociological criticism, new historicism, 

postcolonialism and even eco-criticism. Indeed, extensive research has gone in 

these regard. However, little has been done to appreciate the aesthetics and culture 

of orality within the texts of these speeches. 

The texts containing the speeches for analysis in this work, are authored by Lt. 

Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Head of the then proclaimed 

Biafra nation. These two texts are – Biafra: Selected Speeches with Journals of 

Events and Random Thoughts of C. Odumegwu Ojukwu. Very many speeches were 

rendered at various points, but those that proceeded from the Biafran commander 

attracted a greater audience. They did not only give the required update on the war 

events, but they mostly stimulated the will of the Biafran people to keep up their 

struggle for survival. The assumption which propels this research is that there are 

forceful literary effects as there are ideological constructs in all the speeches as 

will be seen in the analysis here. They appear more succinct in recollecting 

patterns that are peculiar to the Igbo narrative tradition. These speeches are 



considered to be unique because of their significance in the upshot of Biafra War 

literature, in both the creative and critical works. In Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of 

A Yellow Sun, an instance recollecting one of the speeches is found here: “Fellow 

countrymen and women, you the people of Eastern Nigeria: Conscious of the 

supreme authority of the Almighty God over all mankind...I do solemnly 

proclaim...”(161-162). Some of these factual and historical echoes inundate both 

the autobiographical and fictional narratives on the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War.  

In summing up his editorial, Emenyonu cites a previous work which had 

investigated the fictions and memoirs of the Biafra War. His judgment is that “the 

commitment in political terms overwhelms the artistic vision”(xiv). Ijeoma 

Nwajiaku who had embarked upon a comparative review of Chukwuema Ike’s 

Sunset at Dawn and Adichie’s Half of A Yellow Sun identified some of the 

sociological consequences of the Biafra war. Simply, Nwajiaku relates how much 

literary works have been derived from the war experience: “In the case of Nigeria, 

one could safely assert that the civil war remains a singular important event that 

has remained a source of inspiration for creative writing in the years following the 

event” (40). In this regard also, Charles Nnolim (145), views Half of a Yellow Sun 

as the kind of historical novel whose accounts are detailed and precise in recalling 

the horrors of massacres, mass starvation and the struggle for survival which 

marked the vicissitudes of the Biafran War. Perhaps, it needs to be observed that the 

Biafra challenge is comparable to the varied conflicts in the Igbo folktales. 

Chimalum Nwankwo’s estimation of Biafra War literature is that what has been 

produced is inadequate. He places the estimation of the inadequacy against the 

artistic recollection of war events in Zimbabwean writings, in which “agonies run 

like fresh springs in the fictions of its authors” (7). Furthermore, Nwankwo 

recollects Eddie Iroh’s Forty Eight Guns for the General, Ossie Enekwe’s Come 

Thunder, Wole Soyinka’s The Man Died, and concludes that the works appear to 



evade the confrontation of the battle front while dwelling on the excesses of 

General Yakubu Gowon. He mentions a few other works that are adjudged to be 

“robust”. These include: Elechi Amadi’s Entrangement, Cyprain Ekwensi’s 

Survive the Peace, Chinua Achebe’s Girls at War, Flora Nwapa’s Wives at War 

and Festus Iyayi’s Awaiting Court Martial. Clearly, these critics have paid less 

attention to the aesthetics of the Biafra War literature that are latent in the culture 

of orality.  

In Half of A Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Adichie scintillatingly captures the 

personality of Ojukwu as well as the substance of his speech: 

I came to ask you a question,’ he said. His Oxford-accented voice was 

surprisingly soft; it did not have the timbre that it did over the radio 

and it was a little theatrical, a little too measured. ‘What shall we do? 

Shall we keep silent and let them force us back into Nigeria? Shall we 

ignore the thousands of our brothers and sisters killed in the 

north?...Are you prepared? Are we prepared?...(170).  

What this presentation does is to generate the facts of the war in giving veracity to 

her fictional narrative. Half of A Yellow Sun also recollects a Biafra War song as a 

consequence of the aroused survival instincts and the spontaneous response to 

Ojukwu’s speeches: “Yes! Yes! Ojukwu, nye anyi egbe! Give us guns! Iwe di anyi 

n’obi! There is anger in our hearts!”(171). Half of A Yellow Sun presents sights at 

the relief centres where some more Biafran songs touch on the enormity of food 

scarcity (283).  

In Olusegun Obasanjo’s My Command, the highpoints in the take-off and the 

progression of the war: the fall of Nsukka, Enugu, Bonny, Port Harcourt, Calabar 

and the extent to which the recapture of some of these towns kept up the charge of 



the battle. Ironically, Obasanjo reveals the quintessence of the Ojukwu’s 

submissions at the Aburi meeting. Obasanjo presents, somewhat inadvertently, the 

foresight and brilliance in Ojukwu’s Aburi submission. Obasanjo’s observation is 

that all the other participants, with the exception of Ojukwu, were naïve, 

inarticulate and unintuitive. This observation is captured here: 

        …although Ojukwu was given to overstatement and hyperbolic  

  expression there was no doubt that, by the time he had 

secured arms and ammunition from French, Spanish and 

Portuguese sources while he had assurance of support by both 

France and South Africa. The Federal side, at that time, were 

getting their small arms from Britain, Italy and West 

Germany…(65) 

Rose Adaure Njoku’s account of the war which stretches through the events that 

preceded the war, the entire thirty months of war experience and indeed beyond the 

cease-fire recollects the desperation of the ill-prepared Biafran side: 

…More and more civilians were streaming into the Army 

Headquarters asking for uniforms and arms to defend Biafra. Civil 

servants, lecturers graduates and undergraduates, students, teachers, 

traders and farmers became soldiers with little or no training. In front 

of the barracks of 1st Battalion at Abakiliki Road, you would hear 

them sing: 

   Ojukwu nye anyi egbe 

   Anyi je gbagbue Gowon 

   (Ojukwu give us gun to go and shoot down Gowon)…(109) 

 

In Rebels Against Rebels Nelson Ottah takes a specific focus on the details of the 

execution of the four saboteurs on the 24th of September 1967. This emotive 



occurrence remains one of the most significant events that bothered on the survival 

of the Biafran nationhood as well as the survival of art that pertain to the civil war.  

The identification with the poetics of orality, as the theoretical framework for this 

study, receives evocation in the propositions of Chinweizu, Jemie and Madubuike 

in their decolonization project. Part of what the troika assert is that a critic’s 

obligation is to supply to the writer as well as to the audience “a well researched 

and well analyzed knowledge of things valued in traditional African orature, and 

why these are valued” (286). They also recognize that every orator requires to 

present certain basic ingredients of orality. In justifying their argument, they had 

gone ahead to cite Achebe thus: “The good orator calls to his aid the legends, folk-

lore, proverbs & c. of his people; they are some of the raw material with which he 

works” (263). In the consideration that the oratorical force in these speeches came 

as a consequence of his study at Oxford University and the quintessence in 

historical studies, it becomes imperative to decolonize the linguistic forms and 

aesthetics by interrogating their leaning on the poetics of Igbo rhetoric. 

 

Locating the Culture of Orality in Ojukwu’s Speeches 

The word ‘oral’ has always been used to relate to the act of speaking and is often 

located in its primal position to writing. The parallelism in the primacy of speaking 

over writing succinctly resonates in the perception that the oral tradition has 

become a veritable source of raw equipment for the modern African literary 

tradition in writing. The term ‘orality’ has been in use in contemporary literary 

discourse as a derivation from oral literature. It ostensibly evolves as the term 

‘orature’ did, but has received a wider acceptability in the criticism of modern 

African literary art. The assumption is that ‘orality’ serves a fitting significance not 

just in the adoption of the properties of the verbal art in writing but that it serves a 

greater purpose in preserving the African oral tradition. Therefore, with the 



discourse on ‘orality’, there are possibilities of analyzing the processes and 

transformation of the original oral text in the written medium. It is in this regard 

that this work considers how the ingredients of traditional Igbo orality yield the 

communicative force in Ojukwu’s war speeches. In this consideration, there is a 

requirement to examine the implications of orality and aesthetics in the texts of the 

war speeches, some with more or less adherence to their established and original 

forms of expression.  

What has often been interrogated as oral literary traditions are often interlaced with 

the life, culture and ritualized festivals and festivities of a given people. The word 

‘culture’ is often associated with the way of life of a people, particularly as it also 

relates to their social organization. The perception of culture is often tied to a 

certain geographical locale. In this regard, Schaefer views culture as “the totality of 

learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects and behaviour” 

(65). Generally speaking, culture embodies the habitual elements that have the 

potentials for impacting positively or negatively on the lives and preoccupations of 

a people. In this light, culture may be seen to reflect the patterns adopted by groups 

in order to actualize their goals and aspirations. In the consideration that the art of 

literary criticism pertains to a given group whose inclination is to appreciate the 

degree of alignment or departure from the known precepts, it is valid to identify the 

approach by which this is done. Fuery and Mansfield observe that, “Language is 

the lifeblood of culture” (14). In this regard, language remains the vehicle through 

which the components of culture are seen. 

Each artist, whether in the oral or written mode adopts the properties of specialized 

language. Usually, it is the kind of language that is structured to enforce emotional 

power. While language remains the basic equipment in the literary culture, it is 

often contrived to thrust measures of emotional appeal on the audience. While one 



artist’s style may be seen to differ from another, metaphors, euphemisms, ironies, 

rhetorical questions and varied allusions have become the key ingredients that are 

common in the culture of employing literary language. The configuration of 

Ojukwu’s rhetoric becomes the subject of investigation in this work, with 

particular attention to how certain patterns of the oral literary expression, of the 

Igbo kind extend to the written medium, with some more or less refurbishment. 

As a creative writer, Achebe accepts the English language as a burden, and with 

this consciousness embarked upon the project of domesticating it. Indeed, such 

craft draws a close attention to Wali’s suggestions on “The Dead End of African 

Literature?”. In its real consequence of provoking crucial interrogation, Wali 

appears to place a demand on the stakeholders, suggesting that “Literature after all, 

is the exploitation of the possibilities of language. It is the African languages that 

are in crying need of this development” (283). It is easy to see in Achebe’s works, 

varied adoptions of the Igbo literary tradition. By the term ‘varied’, the multiple 

genres of this literary tradition as well as the seeming complexity in their 

contextual application are all significant in exploiting the elements of the Igbo 

language, indeed with all accompanying cultural implications. In this regard, 

Achebe’s identification with the proverb as ‘the palm oil with which words are 

eaten’, is phenomenal. In the sphere of African literary creativity, as well as 

criticism, the view of the proverb as language delicacy with fitting correlation to 

given contexts cannot be overemphasized. Proverbial variations may be structured 

as the abridgement of certain folktales, parables or parodies, relating figures that 

draw from their original adaptation.   

The components of the oral tradition as seen in Ojukwu’s speeches may not be 

recognized in their original form. Rather, there is some kind of language 

engineering which ensures that the compatibility with Standard English usage is 



made obvious. Therefore, whereas the narrative style in the Biafran War speeches 

is described as being parodic, there are components of the oral tradition which 

sustain the varied use of metaphor. These include: adopting certain patterns that are 

known to pertain to folktale, myths, proverbs, riddles and parables. In some 

instances, cursory allusions are made which are no less evocative. The parodic 

adoptions which occur in more or less degrees in the speeches are seen to be laden 

with the properties of orality. We shall examine how the components of orality; 

parables, proverbs, riddles, allusions to the Igbo folktale, myths; are made to carry 

literary effects as they express the specificity of the Igbo culture and patterns of 

communication, especially within the war speeches. 

There are metaphoric adoptions in Ojukwu’s speeches that assume the figure 

which Cuddon prefers to recognize as ‘exemplum’ (259). The adoption of proverbs 

is also seen, not usually in the known bipartite structure, but with some kind of 

transition. In such transitions, the basic symbols that form the core of the meaning 

are pinpointed. Cuddon’s definition of the proverb as “A short pithy saying which 

embodies a general truth …. Common to most nations and peoples, it is a form of 

expression of great antiquity” (566), finds elucidation in the speeches under 

analysis here. While they do not exactly come in the traditional structure, their 

pertinence to the Igbo tradition remain pronounced. There is this instance of 

adopting a parable here: “This has been a people’s war. Our people know that our 

struggle is a race for life. In such a race, nobody ever tires. We have a united 

people. We have a clear goal. We have a just cause.” (Random Thoughts: 47). In 

this, we find a recapitulation of the Igbo proverb, Osondu agwu ike – No one gets 

tired in a race for life. The truth which is reiterated here relates in clear terms the 

Igbo penchant for the struggle for survival – igba mbo. And by affirming that the 



Biafrans “have a just cause”, there is an emphatic pronouncement of the 

fundamental rights that are inalienable in a just society.     

There are certain adoptions of the elements of the Igbo riddle in the speeches. We 

find a unique style in which Ojukwu’s speeches pose questions that are similar to 

the Igbo riddle game. Chukwuma demonstrates how the questions in riddles are 

presented, in what she regards as “The Variable Premise”. According to 

Chukwuma, there is “a puzzling element in the riddle. The Variable Premise is 

sometimes implied and sometimes mentioned or given” (115). Cuddon 

corroborates Chukwuma in defining the riddle as “an ancient and universal form of 

literature, in its commonest form it consists of a puzzle question” (611). There is 

this instance where the speeches bear the evidence that rhetorical questions are 

displaced with what we regard as ‘riddling questions’.  

In a riddle, the contrivances and clues to each answer should make the ‘riddling 

questions’ more like an objective test – that is, having just one option. We find this 

kind of riddle effect created in this speech:  

We have made so many sacrifices in the past, and I am sure that 

you all agree with me that we cannot continue making sacrifices 

indefinitely. We now have our back to the wall. One more push 

and we either have to fight back or be crushed. (selected 

Speech: 39)  

There are pertinent suggestions on what the speaker aims at achieving in this 

speech without mentioning it directly. In pointing out that “we cannot continue 

making sacrifices indefinitely” and that, “we either have to fight back or be 

crushed”, the implication is made obvious here. Another kind of riddling device 

which the speaker adopted is seen in same speech here: “You will, therefore, have 



to consider at this meeting the form of association which we want the Eastern 

provinces to have with the rest of the country. We have tried a unitary system of 

government in Nigeria; and we have also tried a federal system” (Selected Speech: 

39).  

In presenting the kinds of government that proved to have failed, “the unitary 

system” and “the federal system”, the speech does not go on to relate the 

confederation which had already been proposed, but the audience is allowed to 

make out the preferred option. It is in this logic that a riddle pattern is seen to have 

been adopted in the speech here. Simply put, riddles are questions which precede 

certain figures, indeed affirmations that give the audience a clue to the expected 

answer.  

Also, allusions to the Igbo folktale take different patterns. Let us see this merger of 

Biblical allusion and the Igbo folktale symbols: “To us, war becomes a David-and-

Goliath struggle – a struggle which David inevitably must win” (Random Th: xvi). 

The adoption of this Biblical allusion also stands as a parallel to the image of the 

tortoise and leopard/lion as found in the Igbo folktales. This is seen as a fitting 

rhetoric in the dire need to motivate the people to remain alive to the challenge. 

While the traditional symbol of the lion surges forth again, we see it not with the 

same hope but some form of litotes;  “What does one do if one finds  one’s arm 

locked in the jaws of the lion?... If we do not struggle for our independence, we all 

die. We have to balance slow death and the possibility of life. That is why we are 

fighting” (Random Th: 57). 

This expression parallels how Achebe uses the character Ikem Osodi in presenting 

the ‘Tortoise and Leopard’ paradigm in Anthills of the Savannah (128). The style 

in Igbo rhetoric is revealed; how the people are led into the tradition of enforcing 



the logic and thematic thrust in each context of speech performance. This brings 

out the vitality which allusions embody in narrative performances. According to 

Cuddon, “when using allusions, a writer tends to assume an established literary 

tradition, a body of common knowledge with an audience sharing that tradition and 

an ability on the part of the audience to ‘pick up’ the reference” (25). The use of 

allusions is not only symbolic but involves also, those forceful communicative 

elements that reflect the background knowledge which the artist shares with his 

audience. Ezenwa-Ohaeto observes that, “the witty rhetoric is sometimes enhanced 

by a connotative allusion to a folktale” (148). There is another example in the 

speeches here where there is an allusion to the Igbo folktale: “Ours is the classical 

story of the elephant and the ant. The elephant is driven frantic with ants all over 

its enormous bulk. The elephant has its powerful tusk but can find no respite…” 

(Random Th:144). 

In each instance where these folktales are adopted, two contrasting characters are 

pitted against each other. Usually, the tales point to the myth of the political ethics 

among the Igbo. There are also variegated submissions of the myth of Igbo 

political ethics that make the presentation of Gowon’s dictatorship rather 

outlandish. In such presentations, the abuse of authority is revealed as an 

aberration, and that which the Biafrans had to reject. Edna Aizenberg discusses 

myth as being imperative in African literary discourse thus: “Myth is useful in 

exploring dictatorship because the dictator is the product of an unresolved search 

for forms of government in societies still negotiating the breach between tradition 

and modernity (510). In the instance of Biafra, it is the juxtaposition of the Igbo 

political heritage and the dictatorship of Gowon from which the people had to 

obtain their freedom.  



Again, in analyzing the myth of dictatorship, Aizenberg shows how Achebe’s 

works portray the Igbo aversion for the abuse of authority thus; “In fact, the voice 

of myth is significant in the examination of authority and its limits” (511). The 

myth of Igbo enwe eze is seen to run through the ideology behind the Biafra War 

speeches. The leader’s responsibility towards his people is what presupposes oha 

zere eze, eze ezere oha (the people respect their leader, as the leader respect the 

people). Azuonye fittingly observes that “The true eze rules by divine grace and 

the commonweal and his goal should be to protect and care for all, not to exploit or 

plunder them and their land” (79). This has always been a fitting explanation for 

the proposition that the Igbo people never had kings. It is the attempt of the Biafran 

leader to justify his responsibility to his people that informs why his speeches take 

their coherent posture. Ojukwu achieves this by attempting to revoke the rationale 

in Gowon’s intellect:  “The foremost duty of a soldier is to protect the integrity of 

his country….As a non partisan member of his country’s community, his path of 

duty is expected to be clear and objective, free from encumbrances” (Selected Sp: 

77).  

There is also the myth of the underdog which eventually becomes the hero through 

a steady pursuit of a desired goal. This draws from the portrayals in the Igbo 

folktales of the theme, ‘slow and steady wins the race’. This theme is explored in 

such tales as, ‘The building contest between the tortoise and lion’, ‘The race 

between the tortoise and the dog’ and ‘How tortoise married the king’s daughter.  

Just as tortoise is the underdog in Igbo tales, the place of Biafra was constantly 

identified with this underdog image. This is particularly seen in the repetition in 

the speeches that Biafra was engaged in the war of survival. In the speeches 

Ojukwu also captured from time to time how Gowon had continuously failed in his 

bid to overrun Biafra after he had set a deadline for each of such assignments. In a 



broadcast on the 30th of June 1967 Ojukwu said: “It is a month today since we 

took the irrevocable decision to assert our autonomy and sovereignty by becoming 

the Republic of Biafra. Gowon’s immediate reaction was to vow to crush us. Since 

then he has consistently described his decision as irrevocable” (Selected Sp: 203). 

One year after, at the first anniversary of Biafran independence, Ojukwu recollects 

again the strength of the Nigerian force thus: “The massive military assistance 

which Nigeria received from Britain, Russia, and other countries encouraged 

Nigerians to build an oversized army for her ‘total war’ against us” (Selected Sp: 

257). Nonetheless, he goes on to emphasize what should be the resoluteness and 

commitment of the Biafran people thus: 

We are fortunate as a people to have developed a profound 

appreciation of the importance and dignity of labor. We believe 

that as long as a man does honest and useful work he is entitled 

to a fair appreciation and reward. Thus, the village farmer, the 

fisherman, the truck pusher, the artisan, the civil servant, the 

professional, the big business executive, the trader, and indeed 

every class of worker has an important part to play in the life of 

the community and should be proud of that part” (Selected Sp: 

265). 

In identifying with this class of people in the Biafran society, the speaker does not 

just relate the commonness of purpose in the struggle for survival, there is also the 

view of a resolute people. Here is an expression of the never-say-die attitude of the 

people. It is in this regard that we perceive the resoluteness, wisdom and longevity 

for which tortoise is identified in teaching the paths to survival, in a world where 

the jungle law is in active operation. 



In 1969, Ojukwu said again: 

The war continued with our enemies more than ever determined 

not only to wipe us off the face of our God-given earth but to 

do so with such brutality and in so short a time as to be a lesson 

to us for daring. Today, I am happy and proud to report that 

their miscalculations have persisted.” (Selected Sp:367).  

 

This persistent presentation of the survival of the underdog, against the view of 

ruthless dictatorship which the animal kingdom bears of leopard in the Igbo 

folktale has been observed. It is in identifying with these images from the Igbo oral 

tradition that the view of this element of the culture of orality is evoked in this 

work. The application of these forms is well understood in the line of Okpewho’s 

view of the transmutation into a level where, “the oral tradition is turned to 

metaphorical or symbolic use rather than slavishly mirrored” (90). The transition is 

such that the recourse to the original text consciously reactivates the given context 

of each speech performance. 

Rhetoric and Aesthetics in Ojukwu’s Speeches 

In spite of the fact that the Nigeria-Biafra event has yielded a vast body of literary 

writings, the consideration of Ojukwu’s War speeches in a literary discourse is 

predicated on the underlying aesthetics that mark the presenter’s rhetoric. It is on 

this basis that this work requires to elucidate how the contents of the speeches, as 

historical facts, are embellished with such artistic elements as would only be a 

derivation from the culture of literary expressions. To speak of aesthetics is to 

appreciate the figures in use in a work considered to be literary in form, and 

perhaps contents. Much of the propagandist charge against Ojukwu’s war speeches 

stemmed from the force in the rhetorical employment.  In My Command, Obasanjo 



does not fail in responding to the force which some of the speeches bore. It also 

shows how intensely the Federal troops were hit by the chattels of Ojukwu’s 

rhetoric. Obasanjo says here: 

        …although Ojukwu was given to overstatement and hyperbolic  

  expression there was no doubt that, by the time he had 

secured arms and ammunition from French, Spanish and 

Portuguese sources while he had assurance of support by both 

France and South Africa. The Federal side, at that time, were 

getting their small arms from Britain, Italy and West 

Germany… (65). 

 

Regarding rhetorical strategies, Bonvillain says: “The power of language is not 

only that values, words, reveal attitudes of speakers, but also that words are used to 

create compatible attitudes in hearers” (62). The images that are adopted by the 

writer are those that are common to both the speaker and his audience. In this 

regard Bonvillain identifies the use of ‘metaphor and metonymy’ as the “complex 

processes of semantic extension and transfer” (63).  

There is the need for the kind of logic, style and tact which marks out the war 

speeches. Language is enforced through the use of repetitions. Many of the stories 

that recollect the events leading to the crisis are repeated. Much more, the kind of 

repetition which obliterates the monotony and the constancy of given lexical items, 

is found in the repetition of ideas. This is seen in the choice of words that are 

synonymous with the lexical items they precede. We see these instances here: 

“Following wild and mischievous accusations and allegations” (Selected Sp: 52). 

In this phrase, the pairing of the synonyms: wild/mischievous and 

accusations/allegations, seems to give the full semantic implication as the synonym 

is applied in yielding the requisite support.  



The trickster figure that is made to presage the character of Gowon is seen to 

assume a dimension that is visibly ironic. In the speech to the Consultative 

Assembly on ‘Failure of Talks’ we have this subtle indictment; “Lieutenant 

Colonel Gowon has now decided to take upon himself to draw up proposals for 

lessening tension and for constitutional reforms” (Selected Sp: 72). It is in the 

furtherance of this speech that the irony is made clearer thus: “Constitution-making 

is not the task of the soldier and all of us have publicly admitted that we were not 

trained to do that type of thing” (Selected Sp: 73).   

Let us see some more of these instances of the adoption of certain kinds of 

repetitions. The semantic meaning of words are re-enforced by employing their 

synonyms. These may be single words, compound words or even ideas. Here are 

some examples: “private gains and self-enrichment” (Selected Sp: 55), “As I 

rightly pointed out in my letter to Lieutenant Colonel Gowon, the truth is that the 

public is becoming impatient, disappointed and frustrated” (Selected Sp: 82), “I 

find it necessary to put all the facts before you, indicating the issues, and 

difficulties and the dangers” (Selected Speeches146:), and “in the face of all these 

unfriendly and destructive acts, deliberate and well calculated against this 

region”(Selected Sp: 72). Worthy of note in most of these instances is the pattern 

of climactic concatenation of synonyms which build up in the progression of 

consequence and meaning in the ideas presented. We may appreciate the adoption 

of climax in these groups of synonymous words and ideas 

Impatient/disappointed/frustrated, issues/difficulties/dangers, and deliberate/well 

calculated.  

Rhetorical questions are also used frequently in the speeches as we find in these 

instances: “What are the International observer team observing? Is war a good 

thing? Have we reached such a level in our civilization that we really have to go 



and watch whether killing is properly done?” (Random Th: 32), “…when will 

world statesmen awaken to the fact that the Biafran race is being systematically 

wiped out?” (Random Th:31). Observe that the intensity and force in these 

questions is in the presentation of a stretch of them in each given context of use. In 

the speeches, the speaker retains the attention of the audience by adopting a unique 

narrative style that involved merging the logical and emotive force with a view to 

yielding to the people’s expectation. It is the satisfaction of the people that there is 

a justification of the aesthetic beauty of each rendition.  

Bonvillain’s observation is pertinent in this regard: 

Language use has a manipulative aspect to it in the sense that 

speakers employ words in order to have an effect on hearers 

such as to convey information, ask questions, or issue 

commands. But the words chosen are often not neutral in their 

connotations. They have associated senses that presuppose 

culturally shared symbolic meanings” (63).  

Again, Bonvillain identifies that “conceptual metaphor is employed in crafting 

works with literary evocation, in translating non-physical entities into concrete 

images or objects” (65). The several shades of metaphor that are seen to lend 

vigour to the language in use in the Biafran speeches become more forceful in 

understanding the context and performance of Ojukwu’s Biafra War speeches. 

Conclusion 

In locating the Biafran War speeches within the domain of literary studies, this 

study has attempted to demonstrate the significance of the survival of these texts as 

sub-genres of the Igbo oral literary tradition. The discussion involves the 

exploration of the discernible patterns of the Igbo oral literary tradition in the 



Biafran War speeches. Okoh had raised serious concern in this regard, following 

the consideration of the western parameters of literary certification. It is this 

concern that Okoh presents thus:  

Indeed, the fact that the Aristotelian concept of drama lays 

much emphasis on imitation, plot, dialogue, conflict, and 

suspense which has given rise to so much controversy about the 

basic question of whether Africa has any dramatic traditions. 

(141) 

What is seen in Okoh’s assessment as dramatic traditions relates to the models in 

the other generic classifications of the African literary forms – oral and written. It 

is the concern of this research to present a justification, in appraising Ojukwu’s 

war speeches, which allays such apprehensions as have always been raised. 

Chinweizu, Jemie and Madubuike have argued that part of the process of 

decolonizing African literature is to avoid being coerced into accepting those 

parameters which are perceivably alien. Much as this stand is supported by theories 

on cultural studies, it must be observed that the key elements which Okoh 

pinpoints, and many more, are embedded in the Igbo oral literary tradition.  

 

Emenyonu identifies pertinently how Achebe’s submission of critical poetics 

reveals “an enchanting imagery”(xii). It is in Achebe’s adoption of Igbo proverbs 

that the said imagery is revealed in a spectacular confluence of imaginative 

creativity and criticism. It therefore gives vehemence to the focus which he 

identifies as the central challenge confronting the works of literature that pertain to 

the Biafran War: 

The imaginative work (a by-product of war), must still meet 

certain known aesthetic and critical standards by which it 

should be judged as a work of art….It is easy for the creative 



writer to stray away or be derailed from the objective artistic 

visions because of partisan or passionate involvement in a 

cause. (Emenyonu: xii) 

It is in this regard that this paper has attempted to discuss the pertinence of 

Ojukwu’s Biafra War speeches in the literary discourse with specificity to how the 

potency of the Igbo orality provided the ingredients for the presenter’s rhetorical 

employment. While some of the Biafra War novels and autobiographies have 

attempted to incorporate these speeches, they have been intended to lend credence 

to the historic-political events that had precipitated the Nigeria-Biafra challenge. 

Even where critics venture into the discourse of the Biafra War aesthetics, they 

eventually find a soft landing within the spheres of the historicity of the event. 

With seeming difficulty, Nwahunanya attempts to locate what he captions ‘The 

Aesthetics of Nigerian War Fiction’. The complication in this critic’s burden is 

however glaring in his summation that – “Viewed strictly as artifacts, Nigerian 

War novels would be seen to reveal various degrees of artistic success, and this is 

often determined by the extent of each writer’s weaving of history into 

art…”(296). Perhaps, it had been to expand the postcolonial picture from which 

Nwahunanya’s probing had done of Biafra War novels. All the same, this approach 

recollects the aggregation of the simplistic enquiries into the literature that 

proceeded from Biafra.     

More contemptible still, is the fact that the recourse to politics and history has 

impeded the full appropriation of the core literary theories in the criticism of Biafra 

War literature. It is in this light that the perspectives of orality and rhetoric in the 

speeches of Ojukwu generate this significant outlook and informs the imperative 

call for a foray into the deep-seated aesthetics within the broad corpus of Biafra 

War literature.  



Works Cited 
 

Achebe, Chinua. Anthills of the Savannah.  Ibadan: HEB Nigeria, 1988. Print. 
 

Adichie, Ngozi Chimamanda. Half of A Yellow Sun. Lagos: Farafina,  

 2006. Print. 
 

Aizenberg, Edna. “The Dictator and the Intellectual: Myth as a Socially 

 Symbolic Act in Achebe and Asturias” Eagle on the Iroko (Selected 

 Papers from the Chinua Achebe International Symposium) Ibadan:  

 HEB Nig Plc 1990: (507-525) Print. 
 

Azuonye, Chukwuma “Igbo enwe eze: monarchical power versus democratic 

 values in Igbo oral narratives” Power Marginality and African Oral 

 Literature. Eds. Graham Furniss & Liz Gunner. Cambridge: Cambridge 

 University Press, 1995 63-82 Print. 
 

Bonvillain, Nancy. Language, Culture and Communication.4th ed. New 

 Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. 2003. Print. 
 

Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jemie and Ihechukwu Madubuike. Toward the 

 Decolonization of African Literature. Enugu: Fourth Dimension 

 Publishers, 1980. Print. 
 

Chukwuma, Helen. Igbo Oral Literature: Theory and Tradition. Abak: Belpot,  

       1994. Print. 
 

Cuddon, J.A. Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London:  

 Pengium Books, 2013. Print. 
 

Emenyonu, Ernest. “War in African Literature: Literary Harvests, Human 

 Tragedies” (Editorial) African Literature Today Vol. 26 2010.  

 145-151 Print.  
 

Ezenwa-Ohaeto. Contemporary Nigerian Poetry and the Poetics of Orality. 

 Bayreuth: Bayreuth University. 1998 
 

Fuery, Patrick and Nick Mansfield. Cultural Studies and Critical Studies. 

 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print. 
 

Njoku, Rose Adaure Withstand the Storm. Ibadan: Heinemann Frontliners,  

 1986. Print. 

 

Nnolim, Charles. “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun”  

 New Novels in African Literature Today- Vol.27 (Ernest Emenyonu  



 eds.) New York, 2010. (145-151). Print. 
 

Nwahunanya, Chinyere. Literary Criticism, Critical Theory and Post Colonial 

 African Literature. Owerri: Springfield Publishers, 2007. 
 

Nwajiaku, Ijeoma. “Revisiting the Nigeria-Biafra War: Social Perspectives  

 in Sunset at Dawn and Half of A Yellow Sun” Remembering Biafra: 

 Narrative, History and Memory of the Nigeria-Biafra War, Eds. 

 Chima Korieh and Ifeanyi Ezeonu New Jersey: Goldline & Jacobs 

 Publishers, 2010. 39-54 Print. 
 

Nwankwo, Chimalum. “The Muted Index of War in African Literature and 

 Society” War in African Literature Today Vol. 26 Ed. Ernest Emenyonu  

 New York, 2010. 1-14 Print. 
 

Obasanjo, Olusegun. My Command. Ibadan: Heinemann, 1980. Print. 
 

Ojukwu, C. Odumegwu. Biafra: Random Thoughts. New York: Perennial 

 Library, 1969. Print. 
 

-------. Biafra: Selected Speeches with Journal of Events.  New York: Perennial 

 Library, 1969. Print. 
 

Okoh, Nkem. Preface to Oral Literature. Onitsha: Africana First Publishers 

 Ltd, 2008. Print. 
 

Onuekwusi, Jasper. Fundamentals of African Oral Literature. Owerri: 

 Alphabet Publications, 2001. Print. 
 

Ottah, Nelson.  Rebels Against Rebels. Lagos: Manson and Company,  

 1981. Print.  

Schaefer, Richard T. Sociology. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education,  

 2005. Print. 
 

Wali, Obiajunwa. ‘The Dead End of African Literature?’ African Literature:  

An Anthology of Criticism and Theory Eds.Tejumola Olaniyan & Ato Quayson. 

Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, (281-284) 2007. Print. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Short Biography 

Uchenna David Uwakwe is a Senior Lecturer at the Directorate of General Studies, 

Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria. He obtained the Doctor of Philosophy 

(PhD) in Literature at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, after completing both the 

Bachelor of Arts (B.A) and Master of Arts (M.A) in English Studies at the University of 

Port Harcourt, Nigeria. His journal publications reflect the order of his research 

inclination to African oral literature, feminism and literacy development. Uwakwe is a 

Christian and married with children.  

 


