I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism

with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. You're listening to Witness History on the BBC World Service with me, Paul Waters.

And now let's go back to the early days of the Nigerian Civil War.

In 1966, Nigeria's government was overthrown in a coup, led mainly by soldiers from the influential Igbo minority.

A counter- coup followed, and soon Igbo people around Nigeria were facing attacks and persecution, leading to a flow

of Igbo refugees to their home region in the southeast of the country. There, the governor

was Emika Ojukwu. Wanting and premeditated acts of destruction against this region and its peoples have compelled them to reappraise their attitudes.

We have reached a stage where I am unalterably convinced that to save the very semblance of Nigeria as one country, we must drift a little apart.

When Nigeria's military leaders would not agree to looser links with the southeastern region,

in May 1967, Ojuquo declared it to be an independent state called Biafra.

Oh, Biafra!

Thirteen-year-old Patricia Ingozé, Ibigwe, was the daughter of an Igbo father. She lived in Lagos, the then capital of Nigeria,

and she knew to keep quiet about her Igbo identity. We were aware of the danger because you were told Kialis talk kills.

When you walk past dead bodies in the street, I didn't want to look at the faces, because

maybe somebody I know.

In Lagos, where the Yoruba people were the predominant ethnic group, Ebo people were targets,

and sometimes it was people Patricia knew who disappeared.

My first crush was my eldest sister's boyfriend. Oh, I just adored him. His name was

...