Biafra - Seperation and uncertainty

Over the summer I did a couple of interviews with my parents about their time in Biafra (see under 'Biafra' label). In this final blog on this subject I asked them about the period of time when mum had returned to Ireland and Dad was still in Biafra.

Paul: Jean, you arrived back from Biafra. What was life like in the months that followed?

Jean: I returned with Joy to Belfast because I was suffering from recurrent fever and needed investigation and so I went to Royal Victoria Hospital; since I had trained as a nurse there. So on-going investigations were done but no definite diagnosis was made. I had had repeated courses of antibiotics in Biafra without the benefit of laboratory back up, and this masked the symptoms and diagnosis.

I first of all stayed with Dick [her brother] and Marion, then moved to Aunt Beckie's [her aunt]. It was very stressful time as communication with Dad back in Biafra was very irregular and all the time I had the huge sense of responsibility as I was looking after Joy. One Sunday afternoon I was admitted by ambulance as an emergency to RVH with a high fever. Marion's mother Mrs Hamilton very kindly looked after Joy.
Just before Christmas 1967 I returned to Kana, Drimoleague [west Cork] to stay with my parents (your grandparents Rev Paul and May Kingston). I had a recurrence of the illness and was admitted to the Victoria Hospital in Cork. Your grandad Hugh J [dad's father] and Aunt Minnie looked after Joy. It was a time of great uncertainty about your Dad's safety and the future.

Paul: Ed, the war was still ongoing and you were still in Biafra what were conditions like and how was the hospital affected?

Ed: Conditions were demanding - famine, occasional air-raids. A busy hospital of 200 beds had increased to 500 in-patients, and teams of doctors from the main hospital in Enugu (the state capital which had been captured early in the war by Nigerian troops -about 400 of these in-[patients were army casualties looked after by teams of African surgeons, physicians. At the same time the hospital continued to look after civilians, and many out-patients especially children as well as sending out medical teams to hold clinics outside the hospital. I was medical superintendent and along with other missionary staff we were responsible for running the hospital.
For some time the hospital became the main World Council of Churches (WCC) supply centre and distribution centre for that area. Relief was flown in each night by relief planes to Uli Airstrip by Joint Church Aid [WCC and Caritas (RC)]. WCC relief workers met regularly planning the relief work.
The Red Cross representative in Biafra was given a house on the hospital compound - this was the Swiss Red Cross organisation responsible for the care of prisoners of war.
An exciting thing done was to organise a very large vaccination campaign which looked after perhaps up to 2 million children in Biafra, teams of African workers taken protection against smallpox etc. The vaccines were and supplied by the Pasteur Institute, Paris and stored in the hospital in specially flown-in kerosene fridges (since electricity supply was uncertain).

Paul: Jean, is it true that your feared for a time that Ed was dead?

Jean: Yes. Then I saw him briefly on a TV news report of an air-raid on Umuahia, in which some civilians were killed and others were rushed to the hospital as casualties. Ed came forward to treat one of these casualties. So I knew he was alive.

Paul: Ed and Jean, when did you see each other at that time?

Ed and Jean: About every 6 months Ed returned from Biafra on a relief plane (via Lisbon) and then returned to Biafra by relief plane, flying from Sao Tome (which is a small island on the Equator), flying into Uli Airstrip by night-time. I was home each time for about 4 weeks.

Paul: Ed, how did you time in Biafra come to an end?

Ed: We left the Unuahia Hospital (Queen Elizabeth Hospital) before the town was captured by the Nigeria Federal troops, about May 67, and set up a small emergency hospital in Mbatoli Health Centre near a large town called Owerri, which had been recaptured by the Biafrans. I had a recurrence of jaundice and so was advised on medical grounds to return home. I flew from Uli airstrip on one of the relief planes November 1969.

Thanks Ed and Jean!