STORY TIME

|The Assassination of General Aguiyi-Ironsi and Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi| The Head of the Military, General Aguiyi-Ironsi (Middle), and from left: Major Hassan Usman Katsina, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Lt. Col. O Ojukwu, and Lt. Col. D.Ejoor, Governors of the Northern, Western, Eastern, and Mid-Western Nigerian regions respectively. On this day, in 1966, Nigeria's Second Head of State and First Military leader, General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (January 1966-July 1966), was arrested and assassinated by a group of mutinous Northern army soldiers. This revolt came to be known as the July 1966 Counter-Coup. Leading to the assassination, General Aguiyi-Ironsi was spending the night at the Government House in Ibadan, as part of his nationwide tour aimed at resolving the growing tribal violence threatening the peace and unity of the country, when his host, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, alerted him to a possible mutiny within the army. The General desperately t...

        |The Chicago Race Riots| State militia faces off with an African American Veteran during the 1919 Chicago race riots           On this day in 1919, Eugene Williams, a young African American man was hit by a rock while floating into the area of a segregated beach in Chicago by a caucasian man in the beach area.  Williams fell off his raft and drowned.  When the police arrived, they arrested an African American man for a minor complaint and refused to arrest the caucasian man who threw the rocks that resulted in the death of Williams.  This caused a major racial conflict that concluded on August 3, 1919 with 38 people killed and over 500 injured. A white gang looking for African Americans during the Chicago race riots of 1919

|A Play About An Adventure| written by Tochukwu Chike Muonagolu Continued from  Scene 1 Copyright © 2020 by Tochukwu Chike Muonagolu All rights reserved The total or partial reproduction of the contents of this book is totally forbidden without the author’s permission. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to publishingwithpermission@gmail.com

|The Tale Of A Greedy King|

|Egyptian Monarchy Toppled By Coup| The leaders of the Revolution, Mohammed Naguib (left) and Gamal Abdel Nasser (right) in a Cadillac On this day in 1952, the Free Officers, a nationalistic military group led by Mohammed Naguib and Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, engineered a coup that overthrew King Farouk I of Egypt, ending the monarchy and bringing the leaders of the coup to power. This event came to be known as the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.  Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, the Free Officers abrogated the monarchy as well as the 1923 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on 18 June 1953.

|July 21, 1967: Remembering Albert John Luthuli| On this day in 1967, Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli, a Zulu chief, teacher, religious leader, and first African to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace died after he was struck by a train. Luthuli was born in 1898, near Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). At the age of 10, he lost his father, a missionary interpreter from Zululand, and returned to South Africa where he learned Zulu traditions and duties in the household of his uncle. Educated through his mother’s earnings as a washerwoman and by a scholarship, he graduated from the American Board Mission’s teacher-training college at Adams, near Durban, and became one of its first three African instructors. In 1927, Luthuli married Nokukhanya Bhengu, a teacher and granddaughter of a clan chief. Luthuli’s first political step in joining the African National Congress (ANC) in 1945 was motivated by friendship with its Natal leader. Far more significant was his election to the Natives Represent...

|Kalu And The Village Witch|

|Sounds Of The Biafran War: 1966 Counter-Coup| (This is an excerpt from one of the stories I am currently writing. Set during the Biafran War/Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), the story recounts my grandmother’s experiences during the three-year tribal conflict that took away her husband (my grandfather) and changed her life forever. The characters in the story are real. I have only changed their names to protect their privacy. I hope you enjoy!) S he added salt, onions and seasoning cubes to the meat that was boiling on the stove, and began removing the skins from the cocoyams she boiled earlier so that she could crush them into a paste. When she was sure that the meat had cooked enough, she added the cocoyam paste to help thicken the stew, as well as some peppers and smoked fish. She noticed the water in the pot had reduced, so she added some more. She stirred the stew for a while, stopping every now and then, to wipe off the sweat on her brow with the hem of her wrappa. When she...

|Birth Date Of Nelson Mandela| On this day in 1918, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, philanthropist and first serving black president (1994-1999), was born to the Thembu royal family in Mvezo, South Africa. Mandela, often referred to by his clan name “Madiba," was raised by Jongintaba (regent of the Thembu) after his father’s death. In order to become a lawyer, Mandela renounced his claim to the chieftainship and attended the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand before settling to work as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943 and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. During this time, he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and unsuccessfully prosecuted in 1956. Influenced by Marxism, Mandela secretly joined the banned South African Communist Party (SACP) sometime in the late 1950s. Although initially committed to a no...

|Nathaniel Nakasa, South African Journalist And Writer, Dies In Exile| On this day in 1965, Ndazana Nathaniel Nakasa, a South African journalist and writer committed suicide by jumping from a high-rise building in New York. In 1964, Ndazana Nathaniel Nakasa had received The Niemann Fellowship to study journalism at Harvard University in the US. However, the apartheid government in South Africa rejected his application for a passport, and the young man was forced to leave the country on an exit permit, thus preventing him from ever returning to South Africa. It is believed that while in America, Nakasa became lonely and homesick, and knowing that he could never return home, he decided to take away his life. An annual award for courageous journalism has been named after him. 

|Marcus Garvey Back In Jamaica| On this day in 1914, Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator, arrived in Jamaica after a long tour that took him through Central America and Europe. Five days later, on July 19, Garvey launched the largest independent organization the world has ever seen—the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), intended to be the mouthpiece of black women, men and children all over the world. Ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, Garvey’s ideas came to be known as Garveyism.

|The Federal Government’s Decision To Pull Nigeria Out Of The 2020 WASSCE Examination And The Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Nigerian Students| The legal luminary and founder of Afe Babalola University, Afe Babalola, has kicked against the decision of the Federal government to cancel Nigeria’s participation in the 2020  West African Senior School Certificate Examination  (WASSCE). According to Babalola, a year of idleness for graduating students could breed frustration and promote violence. Babalola's statement comes after the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, announced that Nigeria will not be reopening schools for students scheduled to write the WASSCE examination due to the increasing numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country. This decision, Babalola believes, is flawed because graduating students in the country will lose their final secondary school year and an integral part of their lives. Rather than cancel the examination, Babalola suggests that th...

|The Beginning Of The French Revolution| On this day in 1789, a mob stormed the Bastille in Paris (a royal fortress and prison that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs) demanding the arms and munitions stored there. When the guards at the Bastille resisted, the mob captured the prison, released all its prisoners and dismantled it. This event signalled the beginning of the French Revolution—a decade of political turmoil and terror in which King Louis XVI of France was overthrown, and tens of thousands of people executed. The revolution came to an end in 1799 when General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the revolutionary government and established the French Consulate.

| The Ogaden War: Somalia Declares War on Ethiopia | Cuban troops in the Ogaden War On this day in 1977, Somalia invaded Ethiopia in an attempt to take control of the disputed Ethiopian region of Ogaden. The ensuing war, which lasted from July 1977 to March 1978, would become one of the defining events in recent East African history.

|INDEPENDENCE FOR THE ISLANDS OF SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE| On this day in 1975, after a period of transitional government, São Tomé and Príncipe achieved independence, and the MLSTP (Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé) Secretary, General Manuel Pinto da Costa, became the country’s first president. The Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé, set up in 1960, consisted of only a small group of exiles who were unable to mount a guerilla challenge to the Portuguese living on the island.  However, the government that took power from the authoritarian Estado Novo regime in the 1974 military coup in Lisbon Portugal agreed to hand over power to the MLSTP in 1975, causing all the Portuguese colonists living on the African island to flee.  The country’s first president, Manuel Pinto da Costa, was elected in 1975. The government of São Tomé and Príncipe initially followed eastern European models of political and economic organization. However, economic decline and popular dissatisfacti...

|OSHIMILI| painting by Roger Brown, 2012

|A Play About An Adventure| written by Tochukwu Chike Muonagolu Copyright © 2020 by Tochukwu Chike Muonagolu All rights reserved The total or partial reproduction of the contents of this book is totally forbidden without the author’s permission. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to publishingwithpermission@gmail.com If you wish to purchase a full copy of this book, visit:  https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08QGYD29Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Okwute&qid=1607943494&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08QRVHY1D/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=Muonagolu&qid=1608175959&sr=8-6 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1059112 Or Read for free at:   https://www.scribd.com/document/488464479/OKWUTE-A-PLAY

|AMERICA DECLARES INDEPENDENCE| blogs.loc.gov On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress of the American Colonies, which held in Philadelphia, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, thus announcing the American Colonies’ separation from Great Britain. The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. “That all Men are created equal,” is an eloquent assertion of The United States’ Declaration of Independence.  

|ALGERIA GAINS ITS INDEPENDENCE| muzahmat.tumblr.com On this day in 1962, French President Charles De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country, thus ending 132 years of French colonial rule in the North African Country. The pronouncement came after the signing of the Évian Accords—a treaty between France and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic—which ended a 7-year long violent war for independence. Ahmed Ben Bella became the country’s first president.

|LIGHT OF DEMOCRACY SHINES AGAIN IN NIGERIA| On this day in 1998 ,  after meeting with the new Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared publicly that all political prisoners in the country will be released. Koffi Annan had arrived in Nigeria on June 30th, shortly after the death of Gen. Sani Abacha, the former Nigerian head of state who had provoked widespread outrage by ordering several political arrests and executions.  During the visit to Nigeria, Kofi Annan also met with the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku and several pro-democracy leaders and opposition activists.