The Republic of Biafra lasted for less than three years, but the war over its secession would contort Nigeria for decades to come. Samuel Fury Childs Daly examines the history of the Nigerian Civil War and its aftermath from an uncommon vantage point – the courtroom. Wartime Biafra was glutted with firearms, wracked by famine, and administered by a government that buckled under the weight of the conflict. In these dangerous conditions, many people survived by engaging in fraud, extortion, and armed violence. When the fighting ended in 1970, these survival tactics endured, even though Biafra itself disappeared from the map. Based on research using an original archive of legal records and oral histories, Daly catalogues how people navigated conditions of extreme hardship on the war front, and shows how the conditions of the Nigerian Civil War paved the way for the country's long experience of crime that was to follow.
An interdisciplinary study of the Asaba massacre, re-examining Nigerian history and enriching the understanding of post-conflict trauma and memory construction.
In 1961, Rosina 'Rose' Martin married John Umelo, a young Nigerian she met on a London Tube station platform, eventually moving to Nigeria with him and their children. As Rose taught Classics in Enugu, they found themselves caught up in Nigeria's Civil War, which followed the 1967 secession of Eastern Nigeria--now named Biafra. The family fled to John's ancestral village, then moved from place to place as the war closed in. When it ended in 1970, up to 2 million had died, most from starvation. Rose ('worse off than some, better off than many') had kept notes, capturing the reality of living in Biafra--from excitement in the beginning to despair towards the end. Immediately after the war, Rose turned her notes into a narrative that described the ingenious ways Biafrans made do, still hoping for victory while their territory shrank and children starved by the thousand. Now anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird contextualizes Rose's story, providing background on the progress of the war and international reaction to it. Edited and annotated, Rose's vivid account of life as a Biafran 'Nigerwife' offers a fresh, new look at hope and survival through a brutal war.
The book is aimed at students and scholars of conflict, Africa, ethnic politics, and religion. It may also appeal to religious and political leaders. It proposes a new perspective on how ethnicity and religion shape political outcomes and violence in Africa, adding psychological elements to standard political science arguments.
Biafra's declaration of independence on May 30, 1967, precipitated a civil war with important implications for the territorial integrity of all newly independent African states. Allegations of genocide commanded the world's attention and brought forth unprecedented humanitarian intervention. This full account of the internationalization of that conflict draws on hitherto confidential records and more than two hundred interviews with foreign policymakers, including Yakubu Gowon and C. Odumegwu Ojukwu. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and the world's eighth largest oil producer, but its success has been undermined in recent decades by ethnic and religious conflict, political instability, rampant official corruption and an ailing economy. Toyin Falola, a leading historian intimately acquainted with the region, and Matthew Heaton, who has worked extensively on African science and culture, combine their expertise to explain the context to Nigeria's recent troubles through an exploration of its pre-colonial and colonial past, and its journey from independence to statehood. By examining key themes such as colonialism, religion, slavery, nationalism and the economy, the authors show how Nigeria's history has been swayed by the vicissitudes of the world around it, and how Nigerians have adapted to meet these challenges. This book offers a unique portrayal of a resilient people living in a country with immense, but unrealized, potential.
New Perspectives on the Nigeria-Biafra War: No Victor, No Vanquished analyzes the continued impact of the Nigeria-Biafra war on the Igbo, the failure of the reconstruction and reconciliation effort in the post-war period, and the politics of exclusion of the memory of the war in public discourse in Nigeria. Furthermore, New Perspectives on the Nigeria-Biafra War explores the resilience of the Igbo people and the different strategies they have employed to preserve the history and memory of Biafra. The contributors argue that the war had important consequences for the socio-political developments in the post-war period, ushering in two differing ideologies: a paternalistic ideology of “co-option” of the Igbo by the Nigerian state, under the false premise of ‘No Victor, No Vanquished,” and the Igbo commitment to self-preservation on the other.
"Die vorliegende Studie ist eine sozialgeschichtliche Bestandsaufnahme des nigerianischen Bürgerkriegs (""Biafra-Krieg"", 1967- 70) und seiner Nachkriegszeit. Die Studie verfolgt den Ansatz einer ""Geschichte von unten"", die die Erfahrungen und Einschätzungen solcher Menschen aufzeichnet und darstellt, die (etwa im Gegensatz zu Politikern und Generälen) üblicherweise keine Memoiren über die Kriegszeit veröffentlichen. Thematisiert werden das Alltagsleben unter Kriegsbedingungen und die Schicksale von Flüchtlingen und Frauen; die Erfahrungen mit militärischer Gewalt und die Wahrnehmung der ""großen Politik"" durch die ""einfachen Leute""; die oft traumatische Erfahrung des Kriegsendes und die Probleme des Wiederaufbaus nach 1970. Neben den Erfahrungen der Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit selbst analysiert die vorliegende Studie die Art und Weise, wie der Krieg heute wahrgenommen und interpretiert wird. Damit leistet sie auch einen Beitrag zum Verständnis heutiger nigerianischer Poltitik, vor allem aus Sicht der vormals vom Bürgerkrieg betroffenen Regionen. This is a social history study of the Nigerian Civil War (`Biafran War', 1967 - 70) and post-war reconstruction after 1970, written as a `history from below'. It records experiences and perceptions of people from within the former war-affected area who - unlike a number of famous politicians and generals - normally do not publish autobiographies. Topics covered are: everyday life under war conditions and the experiences of vulnerable groups, like refugees and women; the experience of military violence and the perception of politics by `ordinary' people; the experience of the end of the war, traumatic in many cases; and the problems people faced in the reconstruction process after 1970. The study also looks at the ways the war experience is viewed and interpreted in South-Eastern Nigeria today. Thereby, it also contributes to the understanding of current politics in Nigeria, particularly from the perspective of the former war-affected area. Axel Harneit-Sievers is Research Fellow of the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin. Jones O. Ahazuem is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Sydney Emezue teaches history in the School of Humanities, Abia State University, Uturu. Co-published with Jemezie Publishers, Nigeria. "
