"1948"

This story was written by a Nigerian man (Hussain) who stood for his people during the days of invasion in 1948.  ( Fiction )

"1948"

I was one of the poor young Nigerians who never had a chance and privilege to know what most people refers to as wealth. My parents were poor! We had nothing! Growing up in a remote town (Village) then was fun and at the same time, horrible! My village was small but filled with wonderful people who had nothing to be happy about but yet lived happily. We had nothing but crude oil. The white men made enough money through our crude oil and gave little to our selfish leaders who only cared about their pocket/s. We enjoyed nothing under their government, it was all about them and not us. Our rivers, houses, markets were all affected through bad pipelines and yet, our chiefs didn't care to do something since they had shares from the white men.

Only few children had the opportunity to attend schools. Many couldn't go because they had no money or had no one to send them to school even though they wanted to. I was part of the young ones who had the privilege to go to school not because my family had the money but because we lived as slaves under a white man, Mr Pelkings. He was a military man, also part of the top leaders in our region. I never wanted to go to school, I always wanted to visit the pipelines and steal crude oil and sell so as to have some money to take care of my old sick mother but I made use of my privilege well.

More white men trooped in to manage our crude oil business and to rule over us. We had no choice because they were responsible for everything we had then and they gave us life. Many men in my village were used as slaves, beaten, killed under these white people without sympathy. Everything started to change, our chiefs never cared! They were subjugated by the white men over their thirst for graft because they depended from hand-to-mouth stipend they occasionally bestowed on them. 

The people in my village couldn't take the treatment from the white men anymore so we decided to form a resistance movement against the white man's oppression, the maltreatment which strikes from within. We were ready to die for our cause; our freedom but sadly we were lacking the armament of modern welfare. The white men knew of our concealed plot and the security grew thrice the previous security consciousness, the situation dire while suspected ursurper were arrested without trial. I ran away from my master because I wanted dialogue not war. I went straight to Chinedu's house ( the leader of the youths) who wanted to lead the War against the white men but he never listened to what I wanted to say. I was with my parents when we heard the sad news about the young ones that attacked the white men at the region gate. Some were slained, some were held hostage! Others suffered from serious injuries, a complication from mutilated body parts. 

I was enshrouded in gloom and decided to fight and stand against the oppressive invaders. All I wanted was freedom! Nothing but freedom!

One sad morning, we heard gun shots around the markets. It was the white men who came with a brute force to sack down the market and touched, numerous souls were slained! Old and young ones were killed! Our sisters, mothers, wives were raped and killed infront of us. It was a sad day in 1948, our schools turned to barracks, our houses were destroyed, our people were killed! It was a morning of sadness, agony and pain. We became more angry and we fought for our rights but lost every precious things to the war, we were left with nothing! Our people died during the fight for freedom, many injured and many lost their family members through this war.

Our leaders failed us because of money, we were left with nothing! We suffered from what was meant to be our source of joy, there was no education for my people anymore, no shelters nor food. We suffered in our own land, from our own rulers and foreign rulers. I was arrested and spent 15years in prison because I fought for my people. 

We became embittered and fought ruthlessly for our rights.