Escape from Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War - Softcover

Angelina Ihejirika

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156902488X ISBN 13: 9781569024881

Publisher: Red Sea Press,U.S., 2016

Synopsis

Escape from Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War chronicles the life of Angelina Ihejirika, a young mother who struggled to protect the six small children her husband had left her with while attending a university overseas, just before the Nigerian-Biafran War erupted in July 1967. When the Eastern Region seceded from Nigeria and became known as Biafra, Angelina and her children were marooned in the war-torn, famine-ravaged Biafra, her husband far away in school at the University of Fourah Bay in Sierra Leone. Neither Christopher nor Angelina knew if each other were alive for more than two years, the war cutting off all communication between Biafra and the outside world.

Then, an Irish nun in Angelina's village, among the few missionaries who remained during the war and tried to help Biafrans' who were being massacred and starved, asked Angelina what was gnawing at her soul. Learning of her fate, the nun set off a chain of miracles by asking Angelina to write a letter to her husband at Fourah Bay, which the nun would smuggle to Ireland via her own mail, then on to Sierra Leone. The letter would eventually travel around the world, finding Christopher in the United States, where he had gotten a scholarship from Fourah Bay for graduate studies in finance at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

In the U.S., not knowing the fate of his family had begun to affect his studies, and like Angelina with the nun in Biafra, Christopher too was sent an angel in the form of his college dean and mentor. After querying Christopher about his own troubled spirit, the dean got a few friends together in a desperate effort to locate Angelina and her six children if indeed they were still alive in Biafra, and bring them to the United States. It would involve recruiting both ordinary and extraordinary people, U.S. congressmen, and the leader of Biafra itself, and eventually raising enough money to pay for the escape of Angelina and her children from war ravaged Biafra to the United States in June 1969.

About this title

About the Author:

ANGELINA IHEJIRIKA, née Nwachukwu, was educated in Nigeria and the United States, among the first female students of the prestigious Cornelia Connelly College run by Irish and American nuns in Nigeria. The Nigeria-Biafran war eventually led to her relocation to the United States, along with her children, in June 1969. In Chicago, Illinois, she obtained an Associate's degree in Early Childhood at the College of DuPage, and a degree in General Studies at Roosevelt University. Her teaching career spanned 1949 to 1984. In retirement, Ms. Ihejirika became involved in numerous humanitarian projects under the foundation she founded in 1999, "Voice of a Woman for Humanity". She has seven children, all of whom live in the Chicago area with their families.
 
MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA is a Chicago Sun-Times Urban Affairs Reporter and Assistant City Editor with nearly 30 years' experience in newspaper journalism, public relations, and government. In 23 years with the Sun-Times, she has covered crime and inner-city issues,housing and education, politics and philanthropy. She was Weekend City Editor in 1997 when she left to work as Governor Jim Edgar's press secretary for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. She launched the Ihejirika Media & Communications Group in 1999, managing media operations for members of the U.S. Congress, Illinois Legislature and Chicago City Council. Returning to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2003, her numerous awards include the 2016 Chicago Defender Women of Excellence Award; in 2015, the Studs Terkel Award; NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists) Salute to Excellence Awards in 2015, 2014 and 2011; a 2013 Vernon C. Jarrett Par Excellence in Journalism Award; and two SPJ Lisagor Awards in 2008. A highly sought after public speaker, Ms. Ihejirika has appeared as a political analyst on CNN and TV One; PBS-, FOX-, CBS- and ABC-TV; WBEZ-, WVON- and Vocalo-Radio.

Review:

"A riveting and heartwarming memoir, 'Escape from Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War' summons Angelina Ihejirika's childhood in Nigeria, her early quest for an education, marriage, teaching career, uncommon courage and determination in the midst of a vicious civil war, and her eventual and miraculous escape to the United States. It is a love story, full of wisdom, pain and unwavering optimism, a testament to the resilience and ultimate triumph of the human spirit." - Christine Oti Ohale, Ph.D., author of 'From Ritual to Art: The Aesthetics and Cultural Relevance of Igbo Satire Education'

About this edition

• Publisher: Red Sea Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 156902488X
• ISBN 13: 9781569024881
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 162