THE HOLY GHOST FATHERS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL IN POST-CIVIL WAR IGBOLAND, 1970-1983

Abstract

The expatriate missionaries of the Holy Ghost Congregation treaded like a “Colossusâ€, the Catholic terrain, in what was formerly known as Eastern Nigeria. They, therefore, left a huge legacy when they were unexpectedly repatriated in February 1970 by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG) in the war with Biafra, intended to use blockades and hunger to decimate and subdue the Biafrans; the missionaries were, nonetheless, supportive to the Biafrans, especially with the daunting humanitarian services which they coordinated with the outside world. The FMG found this unacceptable and thus found reasons to expel the missionaries. Sustaining the deported missionaries’ legacies in Igboland was a huge task riddled with seemingly great challenges and little hope for the young and very few indigenous members they had recruited into the Congregation before their departure. Fifty years after, the absence of published literature on how that young Igbo missionary group abruptly abandoned in 1970 managed to survive, necessitated this research. The method adopted in this work is more or less thematic narrative and critiquing