- The French followed them via RCM under the auspices of CSSp (the Holy Ghost Congregation) in 1885
- Uncomfortable with their rival — the French — in their territory, Britain pulled strings to remove the French Catholic priests from Ìgbòland.
- Britain tipped Rome to instead replace the French with their neighbors, the Irish, hence the flooding of Ìgbòland with Irish catholic missionaries from 1905, chief of them the famous Rev Ignatius Shanahan who later became the bishop.
- These two (British/CMS and Irish/RCM) took over the Ìgbò, especially the young generations, and molded them to what they wanted them to become for 6 decades between 1901 and 1967.
- Then, the war set out, Britain and Ireland abandoned the Ìgbò. In fact, Irish missionaries numbering over 200 all left. The CMS did nothing because their country was waging war against the Ìgbò using Nigeria as cover.
- Our people were abandoned.
- It was principally the Germans that came to rescue.
- The German Caritas airlifted over 2,300 children, cared for them for three years and returned about 2,190 when the war ended in 1970.
- Germans provided food too.
- It was only in Germany that large conferences and protests such as you see in the inset pix were held or the sake of Biafra.
- After the war, it was still German automobile companies that gave out long luxurious buses in trust to people like Ekene dịlị Chukwu and Izuchukwu Transport of Nnewi to help them recover from the devastating loss and also help lift others from there. These transporters took the buses, made money and paid for them later. This was partly how Ìgbò people picked up economically after the war.
- Dear Onye Ìgbò, always note that the people that brought you Christianity and inserted its doctrines into your lineages abandoned you at the most perilous time because of international politics and interests. The greatest rescue and aid that helped our people to survive was from Germany 🇩🇪 — from Germans.
Ọ kwa màkà adị amakwa ama oo.
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