Description
Book SynopsisNew Perspectives on the Nigeria-Biafra War: No Victor, No Vanquished analyzes the continued impact of the Nigeria-Biafra war on the Igbo, the failure of the reconstruction and reconciliation effort in the post-war period, and the politics of exclusion of the memory of the war in public discourse in Nigeria. Furthermore, New Perspectives on the Nigeria-Biafra War explores the resilience of the Igbo people and the different strategies they have employed to preserve the history and memory of Biafra. The contributors argue that the war had important consequences for the socio-political developments in the post-war period, ushering in two differing ideologies: a paternalistic ideology of “co-option” of the Igbo by the Nigerian state, under the false premise of ‘No Victor, No Vanquished,” and the Igbo commitment to self-preservation on the other.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Power of Silence: Reflections on the Politics of Memorializing the Biafra War
Chima J. Korieh
Part 1: War, History, and Memory
Chapter 1: Inhibitions to Speaking Out: Assessing Frederick Forsyth’s Three Categories of Silent Witness in Biafra
Paul R. Bartrop
Chapter 2: The Catholic Church and the Post-War Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in Nigeria, 1970-1975
Nicholas Ibeawuchi Omenka
Chapter 3: The Inseparable Ties with the Past: Indirect Colonial Rule in Nigeria and the Biafra War
Anwesha Das
Chapter 4: Biafran Enclaves and the Militia Activities in Mid-Western Nigeria, 1967-1970
Odigwe A. Nwaokocha
Chapter 5: Biafran Radical Groups and the Quest for Biafra Sovereignty in the Nigeria-Biafra War
Bernard Steiner Ifekwe
Chapter 6: Shades of Gray: Nigeria-Biafra War Coverage, American Diplomatic Nightmare, and the Conscience of a Nation.
Austine Duru
Part 2: Wartime Victims, The Igbo, and the Biafran Experience
Chapter 7: Constructing the Impact of the Nigeria-Biafra War on the Anioma People
Odigwe A. Nwaokocha
Chapter 8: The Philosophy of Refugeeism and Returneeism: The Experience of the Igbo in the Nigeria- Biafran War
Francis O. C. Njoku
Chapter 9: Biafra’s Hidden Victims: The Lone Story of a Child Evacuee, 1967-2017
Françoise Ugochukwu
Chapter 10: Children in the Nigeria-Biafra War: A Study on their Evacuation, Rehabilitation and Repatriation
Nicholas Ibeawuchi Omenka
Part 3: Fifty Year After: Biafra, Biafrans, and New Struggles
Chapter 11: RE-Imagining Biafra
Obioma Nnaemeka
Chapter 12: Biafra Aftermath and the Path Forward
G.N. Uzoigwe
Chapter 13: Biafra Then. Biafra Now.
John Sherman
Chapter 14: Pertinent Stakes in the Continuing Conversations on Biafra
Obinna Innocent Ihunna
Part 4: Biafrawar, Arts, and Representations
Chapter 15: War, Memory and the Literary Imagination
Rose A. Sackeyfio
Chapter 16: Of Tragedy and Art: Contemporary Igbo Artists and Critical (dis)Engagement with the Biafran War
John Kelechi Opara
Chapter 17: “Hands off Africa”: An Iconographic Survey of Biafra Self-Determination Posters in the Nigeria Civil War, 1967-1970
Etiido Effiong Inyang
Chapter 18: The Artist and the Nigeria-Biafra War: Memory and Representations
Hyacinth Chidozie Ngumah
