Nigerian-Biafran War/Nigerian Civil War

Pre11th century to 16th centurydevelopment of city states, including the

colonization advanced civilizations of Hausa and Borno kingdoms
16th-18th centuriesTrans-Atlantic slave trade devastates population
1809-mid-1800sSokoto Caliphate
1830s-1880sYoruba civil wars
1861-1914

1960

British establish presence, consolidate indirect rule, using local chiefs and
other leaders to control population; multiple languages, ethnic groups, and
religions are tied together by colonization, including the dominant Yoruba,
Igbo, and Hausa-Fulani ethnic groups.
IndependencePrime Minister Balewa leading coalition government

1962-3

Census inflames tensions between ethnic groups

1966

Balewa killed during a coup by military (led by Ironsi, who was Igbo)
30,000+ Igbos massacred in North, mass migration South
Ironsi killed in coup (led by Gowon, an Angas, an ethnic minority)

1967

Three eastern state secede to form the Republic of Biafra, Civil War begins;
Ojukwu leads

1969

Nigeria bans Red Cross aid to Biafra

Nigerian soldiers advance through Biafra; significant civilian casualties;
refugee camps without supplies foster starvation and disease

1970

Kwashiorkor endemic throughout Biafra

Biafra surrenders

Ethnic Groups
Igbo

Southeast
Democratic
communities; Male
suffrage
Highly educated
population

Yoruba
Southwest
Monarchs, but class
mobility
Colonial rule inspired
Western-style careers

Hausa-Fulani
North
Sultan as monarch;
Islamic feudalism
Colonial rule limited
missionary and other
Western contact;
rendered
underdeveloped

Symbols
and Motifs

Concerns

Themes

Theoretical
Dimension
s

Food
Refugee Camps
Foliage/Forest
Animals
Language
City v. Village/rural
Cross-cultural communication
Identity and national borders
Preoccupation with location
Socioeconomic class
Western education
Western education v. Traditional knowledge
What is the value of different types of knowledge?
How can they coexist when they are often contradictory?
National Borders
Who owns the land and the resources?
How is a nation formed?
Language
When can a person be heard? [English]
How is language used to determine identity?
Unspeakable experience
What can be communicated through language?
What cannot be explained through language systems?
What can a particular audience hear?
Whose story is told? Whose is left out?
The use of media
Rhetorical framing of Africa
What images are shown versus repressed
Illusion of access
Western media coverage as constructing a negative image of Africans
Globalization and its discontents
a stabilized and centralized viewpoint on globalization as the drama of the
Western subject and its sufferings (Mirzoeff)
The winners and losers in the global economy
Memory and Trauma
Perpetrator v. victim
How we remember, how we memorialize
Photographs as artifacts v. books as artifacts
Heritage of deprivation
Mirzoeffempire of the camps
Benedict Andersonnations as imagined communities
SpivakCan the Subaltern Speak?