Lest you forget, my father fought in Burma

An African soldier during World War 2
The following true story is for Memorial Day and is published on the Red Room.

Lest you forget, my father fought in Burma

~ by Chima Michael Ekenyerengozi

May 26, 2011, 3:41 pm

(In memory of my father Sunday Eke, who fought and survived the World War II in Burma)

I have kept my father's identity card of Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF). But I have forgotten everything he told me about the role he and other thousands of Nigerians played as soldiers who fought for the British Empire and the allies in World War II. I do not know if my father won the coveted Burma Star. Marshall Kebby wrote about their exploits in Burma before he passed away over a decade ago. My father never kept a diary and it was after he died on November 19, 1983, that I knew that keeping a diary like Mr. Kebby would have helped me to know more about his past life as a soldier and ambulance driver before I was born.


African soldiers of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) during World War 2

Every Memorial Day or V-J Day reminds me of my father and the other unsung African heroes of the Whiteman's war that the Blackman was forced to fight against Adolf Hitler's Germany and Japan. No war film on World War Two has ever included them, except in 2009 when the BBC News reported about a documentary that revealed that only two in 10 of the soldiers who fought in Burma were white!


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Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time 27 May 2011

14:36 Heineken CEO Outlines Vision for the Brewer's Global Footprint

09:25 President Obama Announces Presidential Delegation to the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Attend the Inauguration of His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

26 May 2011

20:52 Ex-Im Bank Financing for Sub-Saharan Africa Exceeds $1 Billion for First Time

13:56 Singapore / Botswana / Presentation of Credentials Ceremony, 26 May 2011

13:55 Singapore / Botswana / Presentation of Credentials Ceremony, 26 May 2011

13:00 Globacom Selects PT's Powerful SEGway(TM) Signalling Solution to Enable Network Expansion in Nigeria

12:28 Security Agents Urged to Share Knowledge for Improved Effectiveness

12:28 Meeting of regional indicative programme steering committee ends in Dakar

25 May 2011

20:44 Message du Dr Jean Ping, Président de la Commission de l'Union Africaine à l'occasion de la commémoration de la Journée de l'Afrique / Mercredi 25 mai 2011, Addis Abeba

20:44 Address by Dr Jean Ping, African Union Commission Chairperson on the occasion of the commemoration of Africa Day / Wednesday 25 May 2011

Lars von Trier says 'I'm a Nazi' and rattles Cannes

Cannes boots von Trier for Hitler comments

Cannes festival reacts to Danish director's strange remarks about Nazis by declaring him 'persona non grata.'

Copyright (c) CBC 2011


Lars von Trier

Cannes, please revoke the ban on Lars von Trier

The controversial Danish film director and screenwriter Lars von Trier is well known for his provocative art films such as the horrifying Gothic and pornographic Antichrist that also shocked audiences at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in 2009. Therefore, when it was reported that he has rattled the organizers of the festival at the Wednesday press parley before the premiere of his apocalyptic science fiction film Melancholia at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, I was not surprised, because it is his signature for grabbing headlines. The organizers should have ignored his “I’M A NAZI” joke and claiming to understand Adolf Hitler. He has done it again and got the whole paparazzi going gaga over his unsavoury act. And then apologized after getting the attention for his his new film. Lars von Trier's shocking allusion to Adolf Hitler is another deliberate kind of deus ex machina and it has attracted the attention of the global village.

"I am not anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi," Lars von Trier said.
"I really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I was really a Nazi, because, you know, my family was German," von Trier said. "Which also gave me some pleasure."

"What can I say? I understand Hitler, but I think he did some wrong things, yes, absolutely. But I can see him sitting in his bunker in the end," von Trier said. "He's not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him, and I sympathize with him a little bit. But come on, I'm not for the Second World War, and I'm not against Jews."

Declaring him "persona non grata" and banning him from future Cannes is UNFAIR and HYPOCRITICAL!

Hello Festival de Cannes! What happened to Freedom of Expression or Free Speech which is clearly defined and stated in Articles 18 and 19 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights Charter

Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Please, the Cannes Film Festival should revoke the ban on this extraordinary radical Danish filmmaker and screenwriter, because it is reactionary and retrogressive in the further development of film-making as an art and a democratic vehicle for intellectual freedom.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima