Page 37 - PC Winter 2023-24

presbyterian.ca
WINTER 2023
By Dorothy Brown Henderson, Waterloo, Ont., who was present at the film’s debut at Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, in May 2023
Operation Lights Out is a must- see movie for your congregation. In 1967, Canadians were busy
celebrating a centennial, but, across the ocean in Africa, Ni- geria was engaged in a horrific civil war that would kill two million people, mainly from starvation.
In the world’s largest civilian war airlift in human history, The Presbyterian Church in Canada played a pivotal and determined role in saving the lives of over one million people—mainly children and women. It was, in the view of many, our denomination’s fin- est hour. As one missionary, Dr. Elizabeth Edmunds of New Mil- ton, Hampshire, England, com- ments in the film, “The church was faithful to her calling and had not passed by on the other side.”
The roots of this conflict are complex. The country now known as Nigeria became a British colo- ny in 1914 and consisted of 371 ethnic groups, each with its own language, culture and history. In 1960, Nigeria gained independ- ence and became a republic in 1963. From the beginning, eth- nic tensions were palpable and violent. When 30,000 Igbo people were killed in northern Nigeria, two million Igbo refugees fled to the eastern part of the country.
The east declared itself the independent Republic of Biafra led by Colonel Chukuuemeka Ojukwu. The response of the gov- ernment of Nigeria was swift. It would land-lock Biafra and use force to subdue it. Nigeria was at war against itself.
The critical question for Biafra now became, “How do we get food and medicine to the millions who cannot leave and are living in the middle of a war zone?” It was
The Rev. Russell T. Hall, representatives from the Christian Council of Nigeria and the Red Cross with a vehicle that was offered to the Nigerian Red Cross for emergency relief efforts, 1968. PHOTO CREDIT: PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ARCHIVES
exile. The 2.5-year civil war was over.
It seems unbelievable that the dogged insistence of the Rev. Ted Johnson and generous, wealthy colleagues, with their vision of refurbishing a Super Constellation Nordair plane, spurred thousands of ordinary Canadians to do- nate large sums of money to fly food and medicine to a starving population. The first plane cost $108,000 and had to be refur- bished and repaired in only four weeks. The Presbyterian Church in Canada donated $50,000 to that cause. Later, three more planes, which came to be known as Canairelief, became par t of a much larger Joint Church Aid air- lift operation dubbed the “Jesus Christ Airlines.” It was formed in 1968 by 27 agencies from 17 countries. It was a story of hero- ism, sacrifice, daring and persis- tence. The logo on the planes was a depiction of two fish—a biblical reference to the feeding of thou- sands—with yellow represent- ing the Roman Catholic Church and blue representing the World Council of Churches or Protestant churches.
There are both miracles and questions arising from this re- markable story. How has this story become lost to many? One of the film’s executive directors and the host, a Nigerian-Cana- dian, Angela Nnenne Onuora, confesses that even she was not aware of the details of the Biafran War before her research. It was her father-in-law’s (Dr. John Obi- ora Onuora) search for his former teacher, Ron McGraw, that led her to this exploration.
Even more curious is the fact that, officially, the government of Canada took no helpful posi- tion nor granted funding for this humanitarian work despite the efforts of many, including the Rev. Honourable Walter McLean who encouraged two members of parliament to fly into Biafra. When they returned, strongly commit- ted to this humanitarian effort, they actively advocated for the cause. In the film, the Honourable David McDonald describes a con- versation he had with then Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau. France’s President, Charles De Gaulle, had just visited Québec and support- ed the separatist movement in his famous “Vive la Québec libre” speech. The Liberal government responded from a strong feder- alist position and when Trudeau commented to McDonald that a
break-away province in Africa
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Connection
PRESBYTERIAN
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Movie Review: Operation Lights Out
a daunting dilemma. The situation became dire. By the time the con- flict was over, two million people would die, mainly from starvation.
The advent of television played a significant role in both the Bia- fran War and the war in Vietnam. For the first time in history, peo- ple could see live footage of the horrors of war. Canadians were stirred by heartbreaking images of Black children with stick limbs, distended, swollen bellies and red hair—a condition called kwashi- orkor caused by protein deficien- cy and starvation. Many teenag- ers weighed less than 35 pounds. An active promotion campaign began in Canada, raising funds for food, medicine and planes to be flown into Biafra.
At first, the religious coalitions who had been working in Nigeria had no planes, so they formed an unusual and clandestine alliance with a gun-runner pilot. Henry (Hank) Warton would begin the dangerous process of flying sup-
plies into Biafra from the island of Sao Tome, 270 miles off the Bia- fran coast.
As more planes were added, flights took off from Sao Tome at 20-minute intervals, always at night. The Biafran airport had been bombed, so the landing strip was a highway with a code name of “Annabelle.” Pilots flew in with no lights, little communication and zero visibility. Supplies were quickly unloaded and whisked to feeding centres. Always, in the background, were Nigerian bombers. It was dangerous, ex- hilarating and extremely nerve- racking work.
Why did pilots, ground crews and others do this? At first, for some, it was because the pay was so lucrative; but, as time passed, many became so touched by their involvement with the starving children that they began to donate most of their pay to the cause. They knew that each flight fed 20,000 people.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada’s involvement in this story began in the early 1960s, before the war, when the Rev. Edward (Ted) Johnson, Secre- tary for Overseas Missions, be- came instrumental in sending 33 people—teachers, doctors, architects and ministers, many of whom had young children—to Nigeria. Dr. Marjorie Ross, one of those who went with her family, describes this as a time of ideal- ism, a time when people desired to help make the lives of others better. A newly graduated young Canadian Presbyterian, Ron McGraw from Saskatchewan,
went to Nigeria as a chemistry teacher. There he met another chemistry teacher from Ireland, Hazel Thompson, who became his wife. The McGraws were to play a major role in the war relief efforts, overseeing many of the 1,437 feeding centres in four ma- jor provinces and staying on until the last flight out.
Of equal significance is the fact that the Rev. Ted Johnson had, before the war, made 10 trips to Nigeria and knew strategic lead- ers on both sides of the conflict. He was in a unique position to broker peace and was trusted by both sides. But even that would not prove to be enough.
As the war raged, pilots return- ing to Sao Tome rescued 4,000 children who were desperately in need of food and medical care. Missionary staff carefully identi- fied each child and kept detailed records of their home villages. On Sunday, August 3, 1969, a Canair plane crashed, killing all four crew aboard. This was a devastating blow, but, with heavy hearts, re- lief workers carried on. The four crewmen were: Raymond Freder- ick Levesque (First Officer); Gary Abraham Libbus (Load Master); Donald Everett Merriam (Captain); and Vincent Wakeling (Flight En- gineer). The last living pilot of the entire Canairelief crew is Captain Louie Gyarmathy, a member of St. Paul’s Caintown Presbyterian Church. Interviewed in the film he declared, “I’d do it again.”
Biafra continued to shrink, squeezed in and pounded by Ni- gerian forces, and on January 11, 1970, Colonel Ojukwu flew out to