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

massacres have all raised a new consciousness about addressing gross human rights violations from an internationalist perspective. Scholars have given increasing attention to issues of memory and their relationship to the past.⁵⁷ How are memories of traumatic events carried across space and time? How are historical events such as wars, genocides, and human rights violations inscribed on the personal and collective memories of affected societies? How they are appropriated to inform public policy?

Following World War II, many survivors of the Holocaust did not shy away from narrating their experiences of incarceration, forced labor, and attempted genocide endured at the hands of the Nazis. Similarly, survivors of the genocides in Armenia, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Darfur who have undergone the significant transition from victim to survivor often use resurgent memories of their past dehumanization. As Ifeanyi Ezeonu argued, “The Jewish consciousness of the decimation of their race under the Nazis has galvanized a massive international hunt for and punishment of former Nazi leaders. But more importantly, it has led to the emergence of the ‘Never Again’ consciousness of the global Jewish politics. Similarly, Armenians have been proactive in documenting and using the historical evidence of their own genocidal treatment by Turkey in negotiating their position in regional and international politics.”⁵⁸

However, unlike the Jews and the Armenians, the Igbo have not carried out systematic study or documentation, nor have they used their experiences in the Nigerian conflict as a resource to drive their participation in contemporary Nigerian politics. In discourse about the position of the Igbo in the Nigerian project, the political focus on the “New Biafra” appears to be subverting a focus on the Igbo genocide. Indeed, the desire behind the genocide appears to motivate this shift.⁵⁹ Even given the evidence and the horrendous nature of the Biafra killings, few have addressed the Igbo case or examined this forgotten genocide. Yet the ways different parties to a conflict memorialize such historical events and reconstitute themselves after catastrophic episodes in their history are crucial matters for examination.⁶⁰ Erna Paris has raised important questions that explore how people