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‘RESOURCEFUL AND PROGRESSIVE BLACKMEN’: MODERNITY AND RACE IN BIAFRA, 1967–70*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2010

DOUGLAS ANTHONY
DOUGLAS ANTHONY
Affiliation:
Franklin & Marshall College
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Abstract

Propaganda from Biafra and pro-Biafran rhetoric generated by its supporters drew heavily on ideas of modernity. This continued a pattern of associations rooted in colonial-era policies and ethnic stereotypes, and also represented a deliberate rhetorical strategy aimed at both internal and external audiences. During the second half of the Nigeria–Biafra War, the concept of race assumed an increasingly prominent role in both Biafran and pro-Biafran discourse, in part because of the diminished persuasiveness of Biafran claims about Nigeria's genocidal intentions. Arguments about race dovetailed with established claims about modernity in ways that persist today.

Keywords

NigeriaAfrican modernitiescivil warsethnicitynationalismrace
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 41 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 The issue of how to refer to this conflict remains politicized. Calling it the ‘Nigerian Civil War’ – as is conventional – invites the critique of denying Biafra equal rhetorical footing with Nigeria and reinscribing Federal claims that Biafra was little more than a rebellious region of Nigeria. Even the decision of whether to use the term ‘Biafra’ and its derivatives without quotation marks is sometimes read as an indication of political sympathies. While I have forgone quotation marks, I have done so to enhance readability. In referring to the Igbo ethnic group I have used the current preferred spelling, except in direct quotations, where I have reproduced original usage.

2 G. Jowett and V. O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion (2nd edn, London, 1992), 4.

3 The best scholarly treatment of propaganda in the war operates from a narrower definition, limiting its frame, by and large, to official communications by Biafra and its state allies. See J. Stremlau, The International Politics of the Nigerian Civil War 1967–1970 (Princeton, 1977), 110–41.

4 A. Harneit-Sievers, Constructions of Belonging: Igbo Communities and the Nigerian State in the Twentieth Century (Rochester, 2006), 127.

5 D. Anthony, Poison and Medicine: Ethnicity, Power, and Violence in a Nigerian City, 1966 to 1986 (Portsmouth, NH, 2002), 129–33.

6 A. Harneit-Sievers, ‘The people, the soldiers, and the state’, in A. Harneit-Sievers, J. O. Ahazuem, and S. Emezue (eds.), A Social History of the Nigerian Civil War: Perspectives from Below (Enugu, 1997), 51.

7 R. Chijioke Njoku, ‘An endless cycle of secessionism: intellectuals and separatist movements in Nigeria’, in B. Coppieters and M. Huysseune (eds.), Secession, History and the Social Sciences (Brussels, 2002), 257–8.

8 Harneit-Sievers, ‘People’, 59–60.

9 Zambia, Gabon, and Haiti also recognized Biafra.

10 Cooper continues, ‘otherwise, shoehorning a political discourse into modern, antimodern, or postmodern discourses, or into “their” modernity or “ours” is more distorting than revealing’: F. Cooper, Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History (Berkeley, 2005), 115.

11 J. Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt (Berkeley, 1999), 13, 17.

12 Cooper, Colonialism, 115.

13 A. Giddens and C. Pierson, Conversations with Anthony Giddens: Making Sense of Modernity (Palo Alto, 1998), 94.

14 A. L. Hinton, ‘The dark side of modernity: toward an anthropology of genocide’, in A. L. Hinton (ed.), Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide (Berkeley, 2002), 27. See also L. Kuper, Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century (New Haven, 1981).

15 Republic of Biafra, Ministry of Information, ‘An address by His Excellency, Lt. Col. C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Biafra Armed Forces, to an International Press Conference, Thursday, 18th July, 1968’.

16 Republic of Biafra, Ministry of Information, Biafra Deserves Open World Support (n.p., n.d.), 5.

17 See Anthony, Poison and Medicine, chs. 2–3.

18 O. Nnoli, Ethnic Politics in Nigeria (Enugu, 1978), 140–58, 277–84.

19 Indicative of the marginality that Biafran propaganda ascribed to the Yoruba is the statement in the Biafra Newsletter that Yoruba conscripts in Nigeria's army ‘mutineed [sic] against their Hausa-Fulani overlords’: Biafra Newsletter 1:3 (24 Nov. 1967). The publication also positioned the most visible Yoruba political figure of the day, the Finance Minister Obafemi Awolowo, an early opponent of the war, as a supplicant to Nigeria's military leader, Yakubu Gowon, a northerner and, according to the Newsletter, Awolowo's ‘master’. Invoking an ethnic stereotype, the authors wrote that Awolowo's opposition to the war fell victim to ‘his inherent Yoruba opportunism and his ambition to become Prime Minister of the sinking Nigeria’: Biafra Newsletter, [no number] (10 Nov. 1967).

20 It has become conventional to support this argument through reference to the numbers of teachers and students in each of the regions. See A. B. Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria (London, 1974), 245–7.

21 J. L. Hornby, forward to Geoffrey Birch and Dominic St. George, Biafra: The Case for Independence, (London, 1968), 2. Hornby had served in the Treasury Department of Nigeria (1950–8). The document was published by the Britain-Biafra Association.

22 Special Representative, Republic of Biafra, ‘Facts about Nigeria/Biafra: the domination bogey laid to rest’, mimeograph (n.p., n.d.).

23 K. Kellen, introduction to J. Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (New York, 1965), v.

24 Eastern Region of Nigeria, Ministry of Information, The North and Constitutional Developments in Nigeria [Nigerian Crisis 1966, volume 5] (Enugu, 1966), 3, 6.

25 A. A. Nwankwo and S. U. Ifejika, The Making of a Nation: Biafra (London, 1969), 101. Earlier in the war, Nwankwo had published in the Enugu-based Biafra Newsletter.

26 D. van den Bersselaar, In Search of Igbo Identity: Language, Culture and Politics in Nigeria, 1900–1966 (Leiden, 1998), 224; see also 308–9.

27 R. Adler, ‘Letter from Biafra’, New Yorker, 4 Oct. 1969.

28 Republic of Biafra, Ministry of Information, ‘Memorandum on future association between Biafra and the rest of the former Federation of Nigeria (Enugu, n.d.).

29 Adler, ‘Letter from Biafra’.

30 Republic of Biafra, Ministry of Information, ‘Address by His Excellency Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu to the Organization of African Unity Consultative Assembly at Addis Ababa on Monday Fifth August, 1968’, 4.

31 van den Bersselaar, Igbo Identity, 308–11.

32 Ibid. 309.

33 There is here an interesting irony. One strand of thought originating from the early years of colonial rule and embraced even today by many there, holds that the large, formally organized emirates of northern Nigeria, with their ties to transnational Islamic civilization with its literacy, legal sophistication, bureaucracy, and formal taxation represented a significantly more advanced way of life than those found among the smaller, less centralized societies of southeastern Nigeria.

34 The phrase originates with S. Ottenberg, ‘Ibo receptivity to change’, in W. J. Bascom and M. J. Herskovits (eds.), Continuity and Change in African Cultures (Chicago, 1962), 142.

35 C. K. Meek, Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe: A Study in Indirect Rule (Oxford, 1937; reprinted 1957), xvi. See also M. Perham, Native Administration in Nigeria (Oxford, 1937); and V. C. Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria (New York, 1965), 20.

36 In part this is explained by the ease with which many Western observers turned to ethnic or ‘tribal’ frames of reference to understand African affairs. Another important factor was Biafra's loss of most of its non-Igbo population, often by choice, to the Nigerian side during the war's early phases. By the time many of Biafra's foreign advocates began to weigh in, Biafra had an overwhelmingly Igbo population.

37 Republic of Biafra, Introducing Biafra (reprint, London, 1967), 1. The original document, printed in Biafra, appeared under the title Introducing the Republic of Biafra, and contains other minor discrepancies with the more widely circulated reprint.

38 Ibid. 1–2.

39 ‘Biafra will be modern welfare state’, Biafra Newsletter, 24 Nov. 1967.

40 ‘39 accusations against Nigeria’, Biafra Newsletter, 16 Feb. 1968.

41 Republic of Biafra, Ministry of Information, The Case for Biafra: First Independence Anniversary Edition (12 June 1968), 1.

42 Ibid. 1. See also Giddens and Pierson, Conversations, 94.

43 Biafra, ‘Address by Odumegwu Ojukwu on Fifth August, 1968’, 4.

44 Y. Abdulazeez, ‘Foreign influence in the civil war’, War Chronicle 1:1 (n.d., probably July 1967), 38; the War Chronicle was published and distributed by the New Nigerian Newspapers organization. For more on Nigerian propaganda see Anthony, Poison and Medicine, 119–36.

45 The National Archives, (NA) FCO 65/249, letter, Britain-Biafra Association to Maurice Foley MP, 6 Feb. 1969.

46 S. Diamond, ‘Biafra: the Biafran possibility’ (probably 1969), circulated by the American Committee to Keep Biafra Alive.

47 Northwestern University Library Africana Studies collection, open letter to President Richard Nixon by Paul O'Dwyer, 25 July 1969.

48 ‘Godell report on the Biafran study mission’, Congressional Report, 115:33 (25 Feb. 1969), S1986, reprinted in an undated insert to Africa Today.

49 Peter Wood, et al., ‘The Nigerian/Biafra War: historical background’, memorandum, 14 Nov. 1968, reproduced in Biafra Review 1 (Jan. 1970).

50 Letter to the Editor, Daily Times (Lagos), 22 July 1969. The authors were Bayo Akereke, Akin Ojo, and Elias Omotosho. Reproduced in ‘Current news from and about Biafra: a review of current Biafran news compiled from the international and domestic press and reports from informed sources’, no. 33 (12 Aug. 1969).

51 ‘What more must Biafrans do?’ The Observer, 11 May 1969.

52 Organization of African Unity, No Genocide: Final Report of the First Phase from 5th October to 10th December by the Organization of African Unity Observers in Nigeria (December 1968). See also Brigadier Sir B. Fergusson, ‘Tragic facts of Nigeria deny genocide story’, The Times, 12 Dec. 1968.

53 G. Knapp, Aspects of the Biafran Affair: A Study of British Attitudes and Policy Towards the Nigerian–Biafran Conflict (London, 1968), 17.

54 F. Forysth, ‘Gutted hamlets, rotting corpses: this is genocide’, The Sunday Times, 12 May 1968.

55 ‘Nigeria: Britain's ally in crime’, statement by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Prof. E. B. E. Ndem, Biafra Sun, 15 June 1968.

56 ‘America should disown Palmer's concept of self-determination’, statement by Dr Ifegwu Eke, Biafra Sun, 27 June 1968.

57 Stephen Lewis, Journey to Biafra (Don Mills, Ontario, 1968), 16; the booklet reproduced articles from the Toronto Daily Star. Lewis was a member of the Canadian Parliament.

58 C. O. Ojukwu, Ahiara Declaration: Principles of the Biafran Revolution (Geneva, 1969), 14.

59 Ibid. 19–20.

60 Ibid. 5.

61 Ibid.

62 Ibid. 5–6. An account in the Christian Science Monitor described Ojukwu's delivery of these lines as sarcastic: M. Reik, ‘Biafra's unifying goal: an independent, democratic black state’, Christian Science Monitor, 7 Aug. 1969.

63 Ahiara Declaration, 9.

64 Ibid. 9.

65 Ibid. 10.

66 Reik, ‘Biafra's unifying goal’.

67 Press Release, Biafran Overseas Press Division/Markpress News Feature Service, 7 Jan. 1970.

68 S. Diamond, preface to B. Nickerson, Chi: Letters from Biafra (Toronto, 1970), v.

69 Ibid. v–vi.

70 Ibid. vii.

71 Nickerson, Chi, 113.

72 A. A. Nwankwo, Nigeria: The Challenge of Biafra (Enugu, 1972), 80–1.

73 Ibid. 84–5.

74 http://www.biafranigeriaworld.com; http://www.biafraland.com; http://www.biafranet.com/ (all consulted 23 Feb. 2010).

75 See Anthony, Poison and Medicine, chs. 4 and 6.

76 Tobe Nnamani, ‘Biafra in retrospect: still counting the losses’, 17 March 2004, http://www.kwenu.com/publications/nnamani/biafra_retrospect1.htm (consulted 23 Feb. 2010).