The nigeriabiafra war the biafran position the nigerian argument the role of the organization of african unity the triangle game. The statement by the national council of churches includes the following. Title osullivan, kevin publication kevin osullivan 2016. The working hypothesis of this thesis is that as a result of 1 conservatism of the oau. The nigerian civil war also known as the biafran war and the nigerianbiafran war was a civil war in nigeria fought between the government of nigeria and the secessionist state of biafra from 6 july 1967 to 15 january 1970. A personal history of biafra to date concerning the book we now have there was a country. Permission is granted to copy, distribute andor modify this document under the terms of the gnu free documentation license, version 1. Pdf the article aims to fill the knowledge gap on sao tomes. There is some connection between the particular distress of war, the particular tension of war, and the kind of literary response it inspires.
Relations, 19691976, volume e5, documents on africa, 19691972. First and second generation impacts of the biafran war. The war that followed shocked the conscience of the world, and revealed for the first time the true depth of incompatibility of the four partners in the nigerian federation. The underlying causes of the nigerian civil war were complex see diamond. In the main, the reason has been due to official and nonofficial attempts to subvert a focus on an event in which more than one million igbo were slaughtered through a process that was fomented, orchestrated, executed, and supervised by the nigerian state.
Was the biafra war a cathartic event for nigeria, ultimately propelling its people into a more unified conglomerate. Biafra and the discourse on the igbo genocide chima j. Those processes came together under the umbrella of 2 biafras legacy. This thesis aims to fill a gap in the historiography of international humanitarian aid in the nigeriabiafra war by focusing on the joint church aid jca, a consortium of catholic and protestant churches that provided relief aid for the starving civilians in biafra. Biafras declaration of independence from nigeria resulted in civil war between biafra and nigeria. Nigeriabiafra war marked a turning point in the history of the international. Telegram from the central intelligence agency to the white house situation room 1 2. The international politics of the nigerian civil war, 19671970 on. Ngo humanitarianism and the nigerian civil war 5 kevin osullivan.
Pdf the renewed pushsince the return to democratic rule in. Chimamanda ngozi adichies second novel, half of a yellow sun, won the 2007 orange prize for fiction. Africa, in particular subsaharan africa, is the recipient of the action. Ngo humanitarianism and the nigerian civil war kevin osullivan. When i remember biafra war killings, im still pained the many conflicts in nigerian corridors of power if buhari fails in corruption war, nigeria is in big trouble vp osinbajo 1. Within nigeria, slavery was widespread and bore social implications that are still evident. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. Nigerian federal forces attacked biafra soon after its secession, and the war ended when nigeria defeated biafra. Library of congress federal research division country profile. A lingering nightmare elitu nnechi ota phd department of history and international relations, faculty of humanities and social sciences, abia state university, uturu, nigeria. Pdf sao tome and the biafran war 19671970 researchgate. The nigerian civil war history the untold story of biafra. Ebook the biafran war as pdf download portable document format. Introduction the present work is an attempt to offer a.
This situation had its genesis in the geography, history, culture and demography of nigeria. The inhabitants were mostly the igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of nigeria. This edition consists of the central files for biafranigeria for the period between 1967 and 1969, arranged according to the state. In this study the political variable will generally be treated as. The biafran war and postcolonial humanitarianism by lasse. State department central files are the definitive source of american diplomatic reporting on political, military, social, and economic developments throughout the world in the twentieth century. The root causes of the nigerian civil war were increasing tensions and the difficult power. The genesis of the nigerian civil war and the theory of fear author. My main interest here is in how the igbo in the diaspora understand the. The conflict was a key episode for the restructuring of the relations between the west and the third world. Nairaland forum nairaland general politics biafra war, nigeria, starvation and land corridors 681 views david jemibewon. African war and south africas experience in the first world war were par. The genesis of the nigerian civil war and the theory of fear.
The glass of illusion of a united nigeria was shattered on the 6th of july, 1967 when general gowon declared war on biafra, making the nigerian civil war legit, it was no longer a rumor or backyard murmuring. The biafra civil war and its end at the orders of the federal military government, the nigerian federal troops marched in two divisions into biafra on the 6th of july, 1976. Or were postbiafra nationalism efforts merely surfacelevel. The biafran war is similar to the angolan or mozambique wars or so many other wars in africa, where many of the strings were pulled by external forces while the african puppets danced on the scene and got killed from the ignorance, and greed of their own leaders. A growing literature documents that investments made during critical periods of. Best of all, if after reading an ebook, you buy a paper version of there was a country.
Accounts of the war of 196770, when biafra sought to break away from nigeria, demonstrate this point. Biafras role in shaping the rapidly expanding international ngo sector in the late 1960s, before outlining the impact of the myriad practices and discourses of empire on the humanitarian response. A growing number of studies on the global history of the nigeriabiafra war have begun to reconstruct the roles of various countries during the war, trace changes in the landscape of humanitarian organisations, and explore the discursive forms of engagement with biafran suffering. The nigeriabiafra war lasted from 6 july 1966 to 15 january 1970, during which. There is a vast literature devoted to the political and military history of the nigerian civil war see, e. Foreign relations of the united states, 19691976, volume. Western powers were also involved in the war, with britain and the then soviet union backing nigeria, while france and a few other countries supported biafra.
The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of the organization of african unity oau in the nigerian civil war, 19671970. There has been a reluctance or indifference to a systematic study and documentation of the igbo genocide in nigeria. Actions initiated first by the slavers, then the colonizing nations, and more. The other side of the nigeriabiafra war bangor university. Sir abubakar tafawa balewa by fixing the date of handover of instruments of surrender from the humbled republic of biafra to nigeria after a 30month civil war that took thousands of lives on both sides on january 15, 1970, perhaps the stakeholders wanted to make a statement that whatever damage was done to the. The history of nigeria since 1914 is deeply rooted in major political issues which are violently contested along the lines of ethnic, religious and regional boundaries in the country. Few events alter the socioeconomic structure of a country as radically as the convulsions and displacements concomitant with war and political upheaval. The twosides are fighting a total war and subordinate. Lessons from the history of humanitarian action in africa. Canadian society of church history biafra and the canadian churches, 19661970 peter bush much of the history of africa has been written from a single perspective. The role of the organization of african unity in the. The nigeriabiafra war, popular culture and agitation for sovereignty.
Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the northerndominated federal government. In a deeply divided society like nigeria, history is told, of course, in very different ways, reflecting the collective experiences of muslims or christians, northerners or. The economic impact of the nigerian civil war cambridge core. The nigerian civil war biafra war broke out on 6 july 1967. Bybee nigeria has long contended with a separatist movement in the southeastern part of the country. Smith abstract in late august 1968, following a british proposal, nigeria announced it would allow an international observer team into the country to show that it was not pursuing a campaign of genocide in biafra. Every page goes through several hundred of perfecting techniques. All structured data from the file and property namespaces is available under the creative commons cc0 license. The nigeria biafra war that raged between 1967 and 1970 made headlines around the world, above all for the major famine in the secessionist enclave of biafra, and prompted a major international relief. Is it possible for nigeria to move past its cultural clashes and numerous vices, and become one. A personal history of biafra pdf feedback consumers have not nevertheless quit the article on the sport, or you cannot see clearly but. At the orders of the federal military government, the nigerian federal troops marched in two divisions into biafra on the 6th of july, 1976. During the nigeriabiafra war, the national council of churches made a powerful statement, proclaiming, among other things, that the mass starvation occurring in biafra would undoubtedly reach the level of a major human tragedy.
The central premise of intellectual history is that ideas do not exist in isolation. There is no popular support in biafra for a guerrilla war now. The conflict was infamous for its savage impact on the biafran people, chinua achebes people, many of whom were starved to death after the nigerian. The story moves between sections set in the early 1960s and the period of the nigeriabiafra war 19671970. Interpretations of humanitarian action in biafra range from an emphasis on the impressive operational capacity of ngos in the face of mass. The defining experience of chinua achebes life was the nigerian civil war, also known as the biafran war, of 19671970. Biafra, officially the republic of biafra, was a state in west africa that existed from may 1967 to january 1970. The war was the culmination of an uneasy peace and stability that had plagued the nation from independence in 1960. Part of hpgs study on the global history of humanitarian action, the symposium is one of a series of regional conferences. Achebes longawaited account of coming of age during the defining experience of his life.
Azikiwe, not quite living up to the title of his essay on the origins of war, takes his enquiry little beyond the immediate causes of the armed conflict. Foreign relations of the united states, 19691976, volume e5, part 1, documents on subsaharan africa, 19691972. The introduction explores the history of the journal itself, from its discovery by william valentine in the files of the free church of scotland, edinburgh, in 1907 and its subsequent loss in. Biafras declaration of independence on may 30, 1967, precipitated a civil war with important implications for the territorial integrity of all newly indepe. A major addition to the flourishing history of human rights and humanitarianism, it argues that the global moment biafra is closely linked to the ascendance of human rights, humanitarianism, and holocaust memory in a postcolonial world.
Nigeria, july 2008 2 of slaves flowed north across the sahara for a millennium, ending only at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1967 the breakaway independent republic of biafra was established by the igbo people. The killing of two prominent muslim politicians in the january 1966 coup and the bloody revenge coup created irreconcilable mistrust between the muslim north and christian east which has not been resolved up till today. Read the book on paper it is quite a powerful experience. Shuwa operated through the north of biafra, while the second division advanced on nsukka which later fell on july 14. This edition consists of the central files for biafra nigeria for the period between 1967 and 1969, arranged according to the state department records classification system, february 1963july 1973. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. The uk, france, and the united states the writers and intellectuals the war and the nigerian intellectual the life and work of christopher okigbo the major nigerian actors in the conflict. The reannexation of the region to nigeria after the civil war did not put an end to the agitation but led to the emergence of several probiafra movements in. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled gnu free documentation license. Biafra war, nigeria, starvation and land corridors. This book traces the early history of nigeria from inception to civil war, and the complex events that defined the conflict in biafra.
Nigeriabiafra warmarked a turning point in the history of the international committee of the red cross icrc. In my view it was a cataclysmic experience that changed the history of africa. Biafra, officially the republic of biafra, was a secessionist state in then southeastern nigeria that existed from 30 may 1967 to 15 january 1970, taking its name from the bight of biafra the atlantic bay to its south. It was made up of the states in the eastern region of nigeria.