SYNOPSIS

May 30th 1967. Colonel Odemegwu Ojukwu unilaterally declares the independence of the state of Biafra from the Nigeria. The Nigerian federal government ruled by Yakubu Gowon leads a military offensive over Biafra to recover the region. Hostilities open way for large-scale war and the first post-colonial conflict in African soil. Saint Tome, at the time a Portuguese colony, is close to Biafra by air. Its geographic position permitted the establishment of an airlift which saved of hundreds of thousands of children from starvation. Fifty Yeats later, a phantom in San Tome wonders amidst what remains from this event considered the first civilian aid mechanism in the 20th century.

THE FIRST SHOT

That lone rifle-shot anonymous

in the dark striding chest-high

through a nervous suburb at the break

of our season of thunders will yet

steep its flight and lodge

more firmly than the greater noises

ahead in the forehead of memory.