Bookshelf: Remembering Biafra: Narrative, History and Memory of the Biafra-Nigeria War

Edited by Chima J. Korieh and Ifeanyi Ezeonu

"Remembering Biafra: Narrative, History, and Memory of the Nigeria-Biafra War" brings the reader face to face with the literary and historical narratives of the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War from the perspectives of scholars and individuals who experienced the war. Authors who are diverse in their knowledge and experience of the complexities of the war provide fascinating insights into the human experiences of the war. Those looking for new perspectives on the Biafra war, especially a narrative of its human cost, will find this book illuminating and fascinating. The interdisciplinary nature of the book makes it a unique and important resource for scholars in literature, history, and all interested in the interplay between war, trauma, and memory. Editors: Chima J. Korieh and Emeka Ezeonu. Publisher: Goldline and Jacobs Publishing.

SYNOPSIS: In 1967, Nigeria was plunged into a brutal civil war with Biafra following the secession of the Eastern Region from Nigeria. The war lasted for 30 months and led to the death of over one million ethnic Igbo and other easterners. As the first genocide in post-colonial Africa, Biafrawas synonymous with starvation. The war took a terrible toll on the Igbo people with destruction of civilian infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools, hospitals. Homes and towns, crops and livestock were set ablaze as the federal troops marched through villages. Starvation was used as a deliberate policy of war against the Biafran population.

The war and its legacy have their roots in the historical conditions of Nigeria. The civil war was the culmination of nearly half a century of ethnic rivalry and mistrust and the peculiar vilification of the Igbo by other ethnic groups. The first military coup d’état of January 15, 1966, which resulted in the death of Ahmadu Bello, leader of the Northern People’s Congress and Tafarwa Balewa, the Prime Minister of the Nigerian federation (a Northerner) but no major Igbo political leader, gave the coup the image of an Igbo coup and the existence of a “grand Igbo design to rule Nigeria. The incident was followed by a series of pogroms and eventually a war against Biafra to deal with what was perceived as the Igbo problem. The underlying intention of Nigeria authorities in its relation with the Igbo and other easterners was to solve their political or resolve other differences by calculated massacre of Biafrans. Besides physical acts of extermination, the Biafrans were subjected to psychological pressure by malicious, vicious and destructive falsehood that relegated them to unwanted “stranger” in Nigeria.

Much of what has been written about the Nigeria-Biafra war remain the perspectives of the major actors and generals who conducted the war. These studies have not particularly focused on the genocide against the Igbo and the strategies adopted by northerners and the federal army to achieve the goal of annihilating the Igbo population. This book highlights the extraordinary and often neglected story of how the Igbo population was drawn into the warand their attempt to overcome the restrictions imposed on them by federal Nigeria.Focusing primarily on the Biafra side of that civil war, the book re-examines the civil war from the perspective of non-military actors in the war effort and the lingering human costs of the conflict. Through careful analysis of the experiences of those who witnessed the war and other primary and archival sources, this book brings to life the trials and tribulations of ordinary Biafrans and their experience of genocide.

Based on a personal experience of the Biafra-Nigeria War, this book speaks to the underlying genocidal rather than political motivations for the war. The book reveals that Igbos not only died in larger numbers at the hands of Nigeria federal troops and northerners than has previously been estimated, but that they also resisted their oppressors with greater determination than is commonly understood. The book highlights acts of heroic resistance by ordinary men, women, and children whose acts or resistance and resilience are shamefully unknown to scholars. Through the use of previously un-utilized eye-witness accounts and other records of the genocide in Biafra, the story reveals the genocidal actions of the Nigeria government, the impact of international politics on the crisis and the successful resistance to a ‘final solutions.’The book is an instructive experience in understanding the tortured path of the Igbo experience in Nigeria as well as the darker sides of international politics during the war.

Nigeria-Biafra War: Genocide and the Politics of Memory is an important book for Modern African studies, genocide, and history collections.

About the authors:

Chima Korieh was born in Mbaise, Nigeria. A product of public education, he graduated in 1991 with a First Class honors degree in history from the University of Nigeria. Dr. Korieh has a Masters in Education degree from the University of Helsinki in Finland, a Masters of Philosophy degree in History from the University of Bergen, Norway, and a PhD from the University of Toronto. He was a British Academy Fellow at Oxford University in 2008. Dr Korieh has traveled extensively to a number of countries including, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Russia. He is currently an Associate Professor at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and author or editor of over ten books.

Ifeanyi Ezeonu, PhD, teaches Criminology at Brock University, Canada. He received his B.Sc. (Hons. First Class) from the Anambra State University of Technology (now, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria), M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, England, M.A. from the University of Leeds, England and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He has published on issues of social and economic justice in Sub-Saharan Africa. His present research interests include: gang violence, racialized crime, the social construction of crime, transnational crime, environmental crime in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and contemporary African Diaspora.