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

international politics, the politics of memory, and the systematic attempt to “forget” the Nigeria-Biafra War—the first major civil war in postindependence Africa.

The Civil War in Historical Context

The Nigeria-Biafra War was a watershed in Nigeria’s postcolonial history. The war has redefined interethnic relations and continues to shape postwar politics. The events that led to the war and contributed to its legacy have roots in Nigeria’s historical conditions. The British pitted Nigeria’s various ethnic groups against one another with the amalgamation of northern and southern parts of the territory in 1914.⁵ British policy created what R. T. Akinyele described as a greater “awareness of the principle of self-determination,” especially among the three largest but divergent ethnic groups, Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa-Fulani.⁶ Nigeria’s recurring political problems began soon after independence in October 1960, despite attempts to hold the country together by glossing over the inherent contradictions in the political system. The pluralistic structure of postcolonial Nigeria and the inherently suspicious relations between ethnic groups led to perpetual disagreement and enhanced ethnic tensions. The new political elite relied on ethnocentric systems of loyalty, making national integration difficult. This structure also posed challenges at the regional level—for instance, during the western regions political crisis, when contending political interests sought to establish or expand their support bases. These competing interests clearly affected the stability of the nation and its constituent parts.

One of the greatest obstacles to the nationhood was the widespread mistrust that existed among Nigeria’s different ethnic groups and that manifested itself in the crisis of 1966. These pogroms resulted in the deaths of over thirty thousand Igbo men, women, and children, as well as in the maiming of thousands more. The failed British imperial policy that amalgamated Nigeria’s multiple nationalities and subnationalities into a