Book contents
- A History of the Republic of Biafra
- A History of the Republic of Biafra
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Law, Order, and the Biafran National Imagination
- 2 Sworn on the Gun: Martial Violence and Violent Crime
- 3 Counterfeit Country: Fraud and Forgery in Biafra
- 4 Burying the Hatchet: The Problems of Postwar Reintegration
- 5 A Long Heated Moment: Violent Crime in the Postwar East Central State
- 6 No Longer at Ease: Fraud and Deception in Postwar Nigeria
- Epilogue: War Crimes and Crimes of War
- Archival Collections Consulted
- Index
Epilogue: War Crimes and Crimes of War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2020
- A History of the Republic of Biafra
- A History of the Republic of Biafra
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Law, Order, and the Biafran National Imagination
- 2 Sworn on the Gun: Martial Violence and Violent Crime
- 3 Counterfeit Country: Fraud and Forgery in Biafra
- 4 Burying the Hatchet: The Problems of Postwar Reintegration
- 5 A Long Heated Moment: Violent Crime in the Postwar East Central State
- 6 No Longer at Ease: Fraud and Deception in Postwar Nigeria
- Epilogue: War Crimes and Crimes of War
- Archival Collections Consulted
- Index
Summary
The threads of violence and deceit laced into Nigerian life were not there from the beginning. Some of them were woven in by colonialism and some by events in the more recent past – oil, austerity, militarism, and a rancorous turn to liberal democracy among them. All played their parts in making Nigeria a “counterfeit country,” as one polemicist called it. Yet independent Nigeria can only be fully understood in the frame of war, and this is especially true for the history of crime. Crime pervaded Nigerian life during this time, warping Nigeria’s internal affairs and its place in the world. It gave the country what Pius Adesanmi called a “stubbornly unrebrandable” bad reputation – one that it still struggles to shake off. As this book has argued, that reputation is the residue of war.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A History of the Republic of BiafraLaw, Crime, and the Nigerian Civil War, pp. 252 - 256Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020