Fake Anti-Igbo
Song
I doubt the authenticity of the
song circulating online that calls for genocide against the Igbo in Nigeria.
To say that I doubt the authenticity does not mean that it should not be taken
seriously, otherwise why bother commenting? Even fake news and fake songs can
have devastating consequences if gullible people swallow the propaganda and act
it out. Correct me if I am wrong but I think that Africans should not believe
everything they hear on the internet. We should engage in more critical
thinking.
I doubt if Hausa/Fulani warlords would authorize a
genocidal war song and rely on women to sing it for the men to act upon.
The Hausa/Fulani are very patriarchal in their culture and although they have
had warrior queens like Queen Amina of Zaria and the Boko Haram used women as
suicide bombers, it is very unlikely that they would use the voices of women to
declare war. Women may ululate to celebrate victory by their men but it is
unauthentic for women to be the ones calling for the rape and genocide of Igbo
women, children and men by Hausa/Fulani men.
I doubt the authenticity of
the song also because the accent is not a native Hausa speaker accent.
Although I do not speak Hausa (Ba na ji Awusa), the pronunciation of the
genocidist term Nyamiri in the song as Nyamuri is an indication that the singers
were not native speakers but agents provocateur trying to egg the Hausa/Fulani
youth into a genocidal frenzy against the Igbo who have never done them any
wrong, contrary to genocidist propaganda that the Igbo killed northern leaders in
the past when the Igbo did no such thing.
Western Nigerian officers (including some Western Igbo) led
the first bloody coup in the country to free their leader, Awolowo, from prison
and impose him as the Prime Minister. They later blamed it on Eastern officers
who actually foiled the coup. Then Western Nigerian and Middle Belt Christian officers
led the genocidal war against the Christian Easterners and blamed it on the Muslim
Northerners to ignite an endless religious war but the Igbo have managed to
avoid buying this trap. Yet the hatred of the Igbo remains the major thing that
unites all other Nigerians, according
to Achebe.
The authenticity of the anti-Igbo
song is also raised by the fact that the song made an exception for the
Yoruba, calling for them to be spared in the genocide against the Igbo. Yet it
will not be easy to tell who is Igbo and who is Yoruba in the absence of tribal
marks that are no longer common among the Yoruba. When the rain falls, it will
not fall on one man’s house top.
I doubt the authenticity of the
song furthermore because the beat is not the traditional Hausa beat with traditional
instruments. Rather it is a computerized disco beat that is actually danceable
and I doubt that genocidists would prefer to use disco beats to issue
genocidist calls even if their target audience is the Hip-Hop loving generation
of today. Dem go de Pose,
is what Baba Fryo called such a pretense.
I call on all Africans to disavow songs of hatred and
proclaim the fact that the Igbo are not ‘a curse to Nigeria’ but a blessing to
Africa. All Nigerians should reject genocidist propaganda and add their voices
to the defense of those who are targeted by haters, no matter their ethnic
groups. Choose roses than rape, choose Ubuntu than Ubulani, urges the people’s
poet, Mzwakhe Mbuli.
Dr. Biko Agozino is a Professor of Sociology and Africana
Studies, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
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