The Nigeria-Biafra War: Genocide and the Politics of Memory By C ...

powers in shaping the politics of postcolonial Africa and the continuing wars of liberation in the African territories still under colonial control. The liberation struggles in Namibia and Mozambique and South Africa’s struggle for majority rule all created an environment in which Africa became a chessboard for Cold War power politics. This involvement was an extension of the ideological struggle between the United States and its allies in Western Europe, on the one hand, and the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, on the other. The second reason the Biafran war attracted attention involved the massive propaganda that emerged on both sides of the conflict. In particular, the war drew considerable attention in the western world owing to the effectiveness of Biafra’s propaganda machine. Newly released secret British and American papers reveal that the Nigeria-Biafra War became what Rick Fountain called “a triangular big-power contest between the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union.”⁴² Indeed, the Biafran war played into the predominantly bipolar world of the Cold War era. However, the Nigeria crisis also interested other European powers and China for economic reasons—the emergence of Nigeria as an important source of crude oil. Indeed, Time magazine quoted Ojukwu as describing the war as “Mr. Wilson’s war for African oil.”⁴³ Many other foreign nations were also drawn into the Nigerian crisis. For some African nations, such as Zambia, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Tanzania, the Biafran struggle represented a continuation of the fight for self-determination that was sweeping through Africa in the 1960s. Haitians, too, identified with the Biafran cause. The Haitian president offered support to Biafra and particularly drew on the historical connections between the Igbo people and Haitians.

Biafra’s initial success alarmed Britain and other major European powers, as well as Russia. Britain in particular was concerned about the impact an independent Biafra would have on its oil holdings.⁴⁴ The Soviet Union saw the war as a chance to increase its influence in West Africa. The most significant foreign aid to Biafra came from France, which supported Biafra with weapons shipments through the two Francophone states of Ivory Coast and Gabon.⁴⁵ According to secret British