The General’s Orderly: An Autobiography of a Biafran Child Soldier

Arua Okereke shares his personal account of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, which ended in 1970, in this inspirational and informative autobiography.

While there have been numerous accounts of the war, they have largely been written by governmental participants, military leaders, or academic historians, but this autobiography explains what the war did to everyday men and women.

As a private in the Biafran Army and later an orderly to the second-in-command in the Biafran Army, a glorified military name for a servant, the author was involved in the war directly and indirectly.

As a fresh child recruit with no battle experience, Okereke had no way of knowing the danger he would face. He did not realize how much he needed to prepare for battle emotionally, psychologically, and physically or how the war would continue to affect him long after it ended.

Devastated with the outcome of the war, the author had to cope with the dashed hope of a free Biafra as well as the desertion of his hero, the Peoples General, Odumegwu Ojukwu. Find out how he picked up the pieces of a broken life in The Generals Orderly.