By Cilas Kemedjio
In its coverage of the end of the Biafra war (1967-1970), Time Magazine inserted, “Africa’s Divided House,” a short commentary that focused on ethnic tensions threatening to turn Africa backward. The Time article echoed the speech (“House Divided”) delivered by Abraham Lincoln on June 16, 1858 at Springfield, Illinois at the Republican Party Convention. Time contended that Black Africa was gripped by “primeval tribal loyalties that stand in the way of nation building” (Time 20). Read through the lenses of this rhetoric of progress and development jumpstarted by colonial agency, the Biafra conflict’s complex motivations are reduced to a regressive move against the trajectory of modernity, an initiative decidedly attributed to the genius of the white man and western civilization.
The Biafra war reads as a resurgence of tribal instincts, a regression from the progress achieved by colonizers. However, Africans and Africanist commentators have also acknowledged the ethnic connotation of the Biafra conflict. Chimamanda Ngozie Achidie claims that political elites, tribalists and nepotists, seek to keep “the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office.” Chinua Achebe concurs with this interpretation when he sees in the war and the Igbo problem the consequences of a tribalist imaginary triumphing over a national vision.
The resurgence of the Biafra problem could be read as a symptom of past and present discriminatory practices and rhetoric that befalls the Igbo community. The revival of Biafra may simply function as nostalgia, even though some may see behind the remembrance a return to the secessionist syndrome that have yet to be addressed by the Nigerian nation. It could also be a screen that prevents disenfranchised populations from confronting economic practices that are structurally deficient. Fifty years after its end, the articles that follow raise significant questions that remain central to the understanding of the Biafra war:
Adichie, Chimamanda. 2015. “On The Oba Of Lagos.” Olisa Blogazine. April 10. https://www.olisa.tv/2015/04/chimamanda-adichieoba-lagos/.
Adunbi, Omolade. 2017. “Biafra as Focal Point for Fresh Perspectives of Nigeria.” Africa Is a Country. June 21. http://africasacountry.com/2017/06/biafra-as-the-focal-point-for-fresh-perspectives-of-nigeria/.
Chenxue Lu, Vivian. 2017. “Biafra–nostalgia as Critique.” Africa Is a Country. June 6. http://africasacountry.com/2017/06/biafra-nostalgia-as-critique/.