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Acknowledgments
The idea for this book began with a conference organized at Marquette University in 2009 that examined the Nigeria-Biafra War (1967–1970), focusing primarily on the Biafran perspective. The conference reexamined the civil war in terms of nonmilitary support of the war effort and the lingering human costs of the conflict. As a historian, I have come to greatly appreciate the indomitable capacity of human beings to survive against all odds, even when faced with genocidal massacres. In this respect, the Nigeria-Biafra War holds an important place in the history of Nigeria and of postcolonial Africa: it was the first major black on black violence perpetuated against an ethnic group. For the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria, it holds an even more important place—it demonstrates the capacity of an oppressed people to resist an attempted genocide. Their narrative of the Biafra war of independence against federal Nigeria is still an ongoing one.
I would like to acknowledge a host of individuals and institutions that made the conference and this book possible. I am particularly indebted to the Igbo League, Inc., as well as the Department of History, the Office of the Dean at the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, and the Office of International Education, all at Marquette University, for funding