| Chapter : | Introduction |
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Ezeh recounts the role of the media in giving the starving people of Biafra a human face and discusses ways that the famine in which millions of Igbo people faced death by starvation and disease provoked an unprecedented international outcry for relief operations. She demonstrates that the frustrations the relief agencies faced reveal the shortcomings of international operations that require approval from warring state authorities.
Fiona Bateman’s contribution in this volume addresses the impact of the Nigerian civil war in Ireland. Drawing on newspaper accounts and diplomatic correspondence, Bateman demonstrates the power of the media and the complexities of modern global relationships, religion, and politics. She reveals the power of memory and the ways historical events can be recalled both to interpret current events and to influence public attitudes in new contexts. Bateman’s analysis also reveals the contending representations of the war in various forms of media—particularly, the manner in which the British press presented the official view of federal Nigeria. The Irish colonial experience and the historical connections between Ireland and Igboland through Irish missionaries offer opportunities for considering the war in a different frame. Drawing parallels of suffering between Biafra and Tudor Ireland increased Irish identification with Biafra’s aspirations. Such historical connections and memories of famine and starvation have largely disappeared because postconflict Nigeria witnessed the exodus of Irish missionaries—an important part of the social and religious landscape of the Igbo people since the late nineteenth century—from the eastern region.
Tobe Nnamani’s chapter in this volume details the military and diplomatic support that Nigeria received from major world powers in the effort to crush Biafra. His assessment of the ethical and moral issues involved in the role the international community in the Nigeria-Biafra War reveals the multidimensional forces involved in dealing with the war and the humanitarian crisis that grew from the conflict. Nigeria’s former colonial master, Great Britain, together with the United States and most of both countries’ allies, supported federal Nigeria in the attempt to quash