The Author
Sasa U.K Nwoke was born in Ohafia, Abia State. He was a class-three student of Government Secondary School, Afikpo, when the war broke out, and on 28 January 1968, at the age of sixteen, he forced his way into the Biafra Army after several attempts to enlist. Trained as a gunner, he was posted to the armoured car Corporal Nwafor and fought through some of the fiercest sectors of the war, including seven weeks of daily battles on the Uzuakoli front.
After the war he continued his education overseas. He lives in Umuahia, Abia State.
The Book
Corporal Nwafor is his war memoir, the account of the name he answered during the Nigeria–Biafra war. The name, he told Vanguard in 2019, has three parts: the gunner from Umuoji who, on 30 June 1968, fired the only 73mm bazooka available to his brigade and knocked out an advancing Saladin armoured car at Ugwu Nwasike, Ogidi, before losing his life in the fight that followed; the captured Saladin itself, rebuilt and renamed in his honour; and the crew who fought in it - among them the author, a sixteen-year-old gunner.
The armoured car Corporal Nwafor fought from Uzuakoli to Ikot Ekpene, from Okigwe to Port Harcourt and back to Owerri. The Saladin survives today at the War Museum, Umuahia.
Videos
Sasa U.K Nwoke (Corporal Nwafor) and Godwin Alabi-Isama, who fought on opposite sides, recall the war in this BBC Africa Eye documentary. BBC News Africa on YouTube, June 2026.
Sasa U.K Nwoke is among the Biafra war participants and survivors sharing their experiences in this BBC News Pidgin documentary. Watch on Facebook (BBC News Pidgin).
Honoured by the Old Boys of Government Secondary School, Afikpo
In the News
- Remember all Biafra war victims, veterans - Vanguard, October 2026
- How I answered the name Corporal Nwafor during the Biafra war - BBC News Igbo, June 2026
- I would have questioned God for creating me a Nigerian if… - Vanguard interview, October 2019
- 50 years after Corporal Nwafor - Vanguard, July 2018