And the wall came tumbling down! The Berlin wall, that is. Last month, the world commemorated that momentous event that occurred 25 years ago before our very own eyes. As I have said before, I played a small role in the collapse of that wall, and at least one living friend can attest to that.
It was in the Summer of 1989 that I visited Germany, which was then still divided into East and West Germany, and got the chance of a lifetime to affect a world event. I am eternally grateful to my two classmates, at the International Space University’s Summer session who invited me to join them on the trip to Germany during a school break. ISU was based in Strasbourg, France, close to the German border.
When we got to the East Germany border the driving lanes were divided by country groups. The lane with the label, Allied Countries, is the one that we drove towards. I started sounding off as I got out of the car: I am going to go through the same lane two. No way am I going to walk across traffic to the other end of the road to find which gate they expect me to pass through. My people fought in this war alongside the British, the Allied Forces. It suited them to have us fight with them and now the war is over, they have forgotten us.
When it was my turn to present my travel papers, I told the mean-looking guards: My uncle fought in this war, so I should be allowed to pass through this gate ( Allied Countries). Something along that line of logic. To my surprise, before I could go any further they asked, “ What’s your uncle’s name?” And before I could come up with a name they waved me on. I wanted to say: to them, “I am not done yet.”
I have been wondering, do they still have the list of those who fought in World War 2? Even the recruits from developing nations? Recently, the United States came to the conclusion that the recruits from the Philippines who fought alongside the Americans in that war were entitled to a compensation by the U.S. government. I have since confirmed that two uncles served in the British Armed forces during World War 2. One uncle, Mr. Eke Uche, was in the British Royal Air Force during that war. A photograph of him in his Air Force uniform has surfaced, bringing much joy and pride to our family, especially, his only child, my cousin, who never got to know her father. This always makes me tear up inside.
Buckingham Palace should honour the soldiers from Nigeria and other Commonwealth nations who fought with Britain during the World War. Those brave soldiers and/or their families are more deserving of British government money than many of the people currently on their welfare roll. The Nigerian media should launch a campaign to secure some sort of compensation for those soldiers and they should start by telling their stories — lest we forget the impact their service had not only on the war but on Nigeria also.
Okay, let’s keep moving. It’s hard to talk about Germany without talking about the World War. When we drove into West Berlin we discovered that the Germans had decided to let the relics of the war tell the story of their recent past without distracting too much from their resolve to move on to a better future.
When my travel buddies and I visited the Berlin Wall, we scrawled our own messages on it. “This wall will surely come down soon, “ I wrote. Before writing, I laid my hands on the wall and performed a little ritual based on the Biblical story on the fall of the wall of Jericho.
I just felt it in my gut that the wall would collapse soon. The soldiers who guard the river that divides East and West Berlin looked like lost souls weary of performing their duty —amongst them, shoot and kill anybody who tried to cross from one side of Berlin to the other. And from what I saw inside East Berlin I intuited that no nation can survive long if their stores shelves are empty — and their soldiers are weary. Besides the empty shelves, the feeling of impending doom was heavy in the air. It reminded me of the dying days of Biafra.
As the images of the fall of the Wall unfolded on T.V a few months later, my two travel buddies (one of whom now deceased) called me and exclaimed: You said so. Yes, I did, I declared and decreed it and it came to pass. I came, I saw and I conquered the Wall with the word of my lips and the power in my hands to pull down strongholds.
So there you have it, the small role I played in the spiritual realm to bring down the Wall of Communism. May such a wall of separation be never again erected to divide and conquer.