Description
Book SynopsisThis first comprehensive study of the Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970) through the lens of gender explores the valiant and gallant ways women carried out old and new responsibilities in wartime and immediate postwar Nigeria. The book presents women as embodiments of vulnerability and agency, who demonstrated remarkable resilience and initiative, waging war on all fronts in the face of precarious conditions and scarcities, and maximizing opportunities occasioned by the hostilities. Women’s experiences are highlighted through critical analyses of oral interviews, memoirs, life histories, fashion and material culture, international legal conventions, music, as well as governmental and non-governmental sources. The book fills the gap in the war scholarship that has minimized women’s complex experiences fifty years after the hostilities ended. It highlights the cost of the conflict on Nigerian women, their participation in the hostilities, and their contributions to the survival of families, communities and the country. The chapters present counter-narratives to fictional and nonfictional accounts of the war, especially those written by men, which often peripheralize or stereotypically represent women as passive spectators or helpless victims of the conflict; and also highlight and exaggerate women’s moral laxity and sensationalize their marital infidelities.
Table of ContentsPart I: Writing about Warring Women in Prewar, Wartime and Postwar Nigeria
Chapter 1: Introduction: Writing about Women and the Nigeria-Biafra War
Gloria Chuku
Chapter 2: Undressing to Redress: The Sexual Politics of Protests in Colonial and Post-Colonial Southeastern Nigeria
Bright Alozie
Chapter 3: Women and New Responsibilities in Wartimes: A Perspective Analysis of the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967 – 1970
Ajishola Omojeje
Part II: Women’s War Life Stories and Memoirs
Chapter 4: Becoming Biafran: The Civil War Writing of Rosina Umelo
S. Elizabeth Bird
Chapter 5: Nwanyi B’uno: Reflections on Angelina Ihejirika’s Memoir on the Nigeria-Biafra War
Christine N. Ohale
Chapter 6: Invisible Loss: Rose Njoku’s Narration of Familial Loss in the Nigeria-Biafra War
Comfort Olajumoke Verissimo
Chapter 7: Women, War Memories and Counter Memories: Stories of Survival, Resilience and Empowerment
Sussie U. Aham Okoro
Part III: War Conditions and Women’s Coping Strategies
Chapter 8: Rape as a Moral Attack against Women in the Nigeria-Biafra War
Mary Rose-Claret Ogbuehi
Chapter 9: Igbo Maidens and the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967-1970: Interethnic Marriage or Forced Migration?
Nathaniel B. Gimba Luka
Chapter 10: Igbo Women's Fashion and the Nigeria-Biafra War
Chukwuemeka Nwigwe
Part IV: Women, Consequences and Postwar Rehabilitation
Chapter 11: Igbo Women and Postwar Reconstruction, Reconciliation and Reintegration Efforts in Nigeria, 1968-1975
Gloria Chuku
Chapter 12: Impact of the Nigeria-Biafra War on the Education of Girls in Eastern Nigeria: 1967-1970
Zara E. Kwaghe
Chapter 13: Igbo Women’s Experience in Northern Nigeria during the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967-1970: A Study in Lessons of Trauma and Backlash
Aisha Balarabe Bawa
Chapter 14: Women and War Crimes: Highlighting Progress on Gender-Based Legislation in International Criminal Justice since the Nigeria-Biafra War
Chinyere Eze-Nliam
Part V: The War and Literary Representations of Women
Chapter 15: Narratives of Trauma and Struggle in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
Blessing Diala-Ogamba
Chapter 16: The Wrath of War and the Ruin of the Woman: A Socio-critical Analysis of Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ngozi Kris-Ogbodo & Marinus Samoh Yong
