Oxford Literary Festival April 2022
The FT Oxford Literary Festival 3 April 2022: Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigb (centre) Professor Leslye Obiora (right) In the auspicious setting of the Divinity School, Bodleian Library, at the University of Oxford, I had the pleasure of chairing an emotional and informative session on the Biafran War, gender equity and social/cultural issues. Along with Professor Leslye Obiora (current Professor of Law at the University of Arizona) our conversation centred around Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s sweeping novel “A Million Bullets & A Rose”. Difficult to sum up here: Professor Akachi’s experiences as a girl during the Biafran War (how writing her novel nearly 40 years later helped her deal with the trauma), and bringing in the lived experiences of her family and friends (devastatingly captured in her writing); the impact of the African Writers Series, and having role models for young women to be inspired. Professor Leslye’s childhood and direct inspiration from her close re