Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was an unrecognized secessionist state in West Africa which existed from 30 May 1967 to January 1970; it was made up of the states in the Eastern Region of Nigeria.
Biafra's attempt to leave Nigeria resulted in the Nigerian Civil War. The state was formally recognised by Gabon, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Zambia. Other nations, which did not give official recognition but provided support and assistance to Biafra, included Israel, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Rhodesia, South Africa and the Vatican City. Biafra also received aid from non-state actors, including Joint Church Aid, Holy Ghost Fathers of Ireland, and under their direction Caritas International, MarkPress and U.S. Catholic Relief Services.
Its inhabitants were mostly Igbo, who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. Other ethnic groups that were present were the Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Ejagham, Eket, Ibeno and the Ijaw among others.
After two-and-a-half years of war, during which almost two million Biafran civilians died from starvation caused by the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian government and the migration of Biafra's Igbo people into increasingly shrinking territory, Biafran forces under the motto of "No-victor, No-vanquished" surrendered to the Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG), and Biafra was reintegrated into Nigeria. The surrender was facilitated by the Biafran Vice President and Chief of General Staff, Major General Philip Effiong who assumed leadership of the defunct Republic after the original President, Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu fled to Ivory Coast.
Video Biafra
Etymology
The country took its name from the Bight of Biafra, the stretch of water to its south at the east end of the Gulf of Guinea. Little is known about the literal meaning of the word Biafra. The word Biafra most likely derives from the subgroup Biafar or Biafada of the Tenda ethnic group who reside primarily in Guinea-Bissau. Manuel Álvares (1526-1583), a Portuguese Jesuit educator, in his work Ethiopia Minor and a geographical account of the Province of Sierra Leone, writes about the "Biafar heathen" in chapter 13 of the same book. The word Biafar thus appears to have been a common word in the Portuguese language back in the 16th century.
Maps Biafra
Secession
In 1960, Nigeria became independent of the United Kingdom. As with many other new African states, the borders of the country did not reflect earlier ethnic, cultural or religious boundaries. Thus, the northern region of the country has a Muslim majority, while the southern population is predominantly Christian. Following independence, Nigeria was divided primarily along ethnic lines with a Hausa and Fulani majority in the north, and Yoruba and Igbo majorities in the south-west and south-east respectively.
In January 1966, a military coup occurred during which a group of predominantly Igbo junior army officers assassinated 30 political leaders including Nigeria's Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and the Northern premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello. The four most senior officers of Northern origin were also killed. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the President, of Igbo extraction, and the premier of the southeastern part of the country were not killed and the commander of the army, General Aguiyi Ironsi seized power to maintain order.
In July 1966 northern officers and army units staged a counter-coup. Muslim officers named a General from a small ethnic group (the Angas) in central Nigeria, General Yakubu "Jack" Gowon, as the head of the Federal Military Government (FMG). The two coups deepened Nigeria's ethnic tensions. In September 1966, approximately 30,000 Igbo were killed in the north, and some Northerners were killed in backlashes in eastern cities.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu proposed a confederated Nigeria. In January 1967, the military leaders and senior police officials of each region met in Aburi, Ghana and agreed on a loose confederation of regions. The Northerners were at odds with the Aburi Accord; Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the Western Region warned that if the Eastern Region seceded, the Western Region would also, which persuaded the northerners.
After the federal and eastern governments failed to reconcile, on 26 May the Eastern region voted to secede from Nigeria. On 30 May, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the South Eastern Region's military governor, announced the Republic of Biafra, citing the Easterners killed in the post-coup violence. The large amount of oil in the region created conflict, as oil was already becoming a major component of the Nigerian economy. The Eastern region was very ill-equipped for war, out-manned and out-gunned by the military of the remainder of Nigeria. Their advantages included fighting in their homeland and support of most South Easterners.
The Nigerian Civil War
The FMG launched "police measures" to annex the Eastern Region on 6 July 1967. The FMG's initial efforts were unsuccessful; the Biafrans successfully launched their own offensive, occupying areas in the mid-Western Region in August 1967. By October 1967, the FMG had regained the land after intense fighting. In September 1968, the federal army planned what Gowon described as the "final offensive". Initially the final offensive was neutralised by Biafran troops. In the latter stages, a Southern FMG offensive managed to break through the fierce resistance.
An ex Biafran officer, Sunday Onwuzor Nwiwe, Alias Bazoka, epitomized that Biafrans lost the war as a result of occidental conspiracy and hunger.
It is believed that one of the major factors that sparked the war was the declaration of independence for Biafra made by Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in 1967. He eventually died on the 26th of November, 2011 (aged 78) after a brief illness, many years after the war.
Geography
Biafra comprised over 29,848 square miles (77,310 km2) of land, with terrestrial borders shared with Nigeria to the north and west, and with Cameroon to the east. Its coast was on the Gulf of Guinea in the south.
The former country's northeast bordered the Benue Hills and mountains that lead to Cameroon. Three major rivers flow from Biafra into the Gulf of Guinea: the Imo River, the Cross River and the Niger River.
The territory of Biafra is covered nowadays by the Nigerian states of Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Abia, and Akwa Ibom. While the Igbo people of the current Nigerian state of Delta were not included in Biafra as per Ojukwu's decree founding Biafra, some Delta Igbo did fight on the Biafran side.
Language
Whilst it existed, the predominant language of Biafra was Igbo. Along with Igbo, there were a variety of other languages, including Efik, Ogoni, Ijaw, Annang and Ibibio. However, English was used as the official language.
Economy
An early institution created by the Biafran government was the Bank of Biafra, accomplished under "Decree No. 3 of 1967". The bank carried out all central banking functions including the administration of foreign exchange and the management of the public debt of the Republic. The bank was administered by a governor and four directors; the first governor, who signed on bank notes, was Sylvester Ugoh. A second decree, "Decree No. 4 of 1967", modified the Banking Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the Republic of Biafra.
The bank was first located in Enugu, but due to the ongoing war, the bank was relocated several times. Biafra attempted to finance the war through foreign exchange. After Nigeria announced their currency would no longer be legal tender (to make way for a new currency), this effort increased. After the announcement, tons of Nigerian bank notes were transported in an effort to acquire foreign exchange. The currency of Biafra had been the Nigerian pound, until the Bank of Biafra started printing out its own notes, the Biafran pound. The new currency went public on 28 January 1968, and the Nigerian pound was not accepted as an exchange unit. The first issue of the bank notes included only 5 shillings notes and 1 pound notes. The Bank of Nigeria exchanged only 30 pounds for an individual and 300 pounds for enterprises in the second half of 1968.
In 1969 new notes were introduced: £10, £5, £1, 10/- and 5/-.
It is estimated that a total of £115-140 million Biafran pounds were in circulation by the end of the conflict, with a population of about 14 million, approximately £10 per person. In uncirculated condition these are very inexpensive and readily available for collectors.
Military
At the beginning of the war Biafra had 3,000 soldiers, but at the end of the war the soldiers totalled 30,000. There was no official support for the Biafran Army by any other nation throughout the war, although arms were clandestinely acquired. Because of the lack of official support, the Biafrans manufactured many of their weapons locally. Europeans served in the Biafran cause; German born Rolf Steiner was a lieutenant colonel assigned to the 4th Commando Brigade and Welshman Taffy Williams served as a Major until the very end of the conflict. A special guerrilla unit, the Biafran Organization of Freedom Fighters, was established, designed to emulate the Viet Cong, targeting Nigerian supply lines and forcing them to shift forces to internal security efforts.
The Biafrans managed to set up a small yet effective air force. The BAF commanders were Chude Sokey and later Godwin Ezeilo, who had trained with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Early inventory included two B-25 Mitchells, two B-26 Invaders, (one piloted by Polish World War II ace Jan Zumbach, known also as John Brown), a converted DC-3 and one Dove. In 1968 the Swedish pilot Carl Gustaf von Rosen suggested the MiniCOIN project to General Ojukwu. By early 1969, Biafra had assembled five MFI-9Bs in Gabon, calling them "Biafra Babies". They were coloured green, were able to carry six 68 mm anti-armour rockets under each wing and had simple sights. The six aeroplanes were flown by three Swedish pilots and three Biafran pilots. In September 1969, Biafra acquired four ex-Armee de l'Air North American T-6Gs, which were flown to Biafra the following month, with another aircraft lost on the ferry flight. These aircraft flew missions until January 1970 and were flown by Portuguese ex-military pilots.
Biafra also had a small improvised navy, but it never gained the success their air force did. It was headquartered in Kidney Island, Port Harcourt, and commanded by Winifred Anuku. The Biafran Navy was made up of captured craft, converted tugs, and armor-reinforced civilian vessels armed with machine guns or captured 6-pounder guns. It mainly operated in the Niger Delta and along the Niger River.
Legacy
The international humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières originated in response to the suffering in Biafra. During the crisis, French medical volunteers, in addition to Biafran health workers and hospitals, were subjected to attacks by the Nigerian army and witnessed civilians being murdered and starved by the blockading forces. French doctor Bernard Kouchner also witnessed these events, particularly the huge number of starving children, and, when he returned to France, he publicly criticised the Nigerian government and the Red Cross for their seemingly complicit behaviour. With the help of other French doctors, Kouchner put Biafra in the media spotlight and called for an international response to the situation. These doctors, led by Kouchner, concluded that a new aid organisation was needed that would ignore political/religious boundaries and prioritise the welfare of victims.
In their study, Smallpox and its Eradication, Fenner and colleagues describe how vaccine supply shortages during the Biafra smallpox campaign led to the development of the focal vaccination technique, later adopted worldwide by the World Health Organization, which led to the early and cost effective interruption of smallpox transmission in west Africa and elsewhere.
On 29 May 2000, the Lagos Guardian newspaper reported that the now ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo commuted to retirement the dismissal of all military persons who fought for the breakaway state of Biafra during Nigeria's 1967-1970 civil war. In a national broadcast, he said the decision was based on the belief that "justice must at all times be tempered with mercy".
In July 2006 the Center for World Indigenous Studies reported that government sanctioned killings were taking place in the southeastern city of Onitsha, because of a shoot-to-kill policy directed toward Biafran loyalists, particularly members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
In 2010, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and University of Nigeria, Nsukka, showed that Igbos born in Biafra during the years of the famine were of higher risk of suffering from obesity, hypertension and impaired glucose metabolism compared to controls born a short period after the famine had ended. The findings are in line with the developmental origin of health and disease hypothesis suggesting that malnutrition in early life is a predisposing factor for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes later in life.
A 2017 paper found that Biafran "women exposed to the war in their growing years exhibit reduced adult stature, increased likelihood of being overweight, earlier age at first birth, and lower educational attainment. Exposure to a primary education program mitigates impacts of war exposure on education. War exposed men marry later and have fewer children. War exposure of mothers (but not fathers) has adverse impacts on child growth, survival, and education. Impacts vary with age of exposure. For mother and child health, the largest impacts stem from adolescent exposure."
Movement to re-secede
There is no central authority coordinating the Biafran re-secession campaign. The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is one of the numerous groups advocating for a separate country for the people of south-eastern Nigeria. They accuse the state of marginalising the Igbo people. MASSOB says it is a peaceful group and advertises a 25-stage plan to achieve its goal peacefully. It has two arms of government, the Biafra Government in Exile and Biafra Shadow Government.
The Nigerian government accuses MASSOB of violence; MASSOB's leader, Ralph Uwazuruike, was arrested in 2005 and was detained on treason charges. He has since been released. In 2009, MASSOB launched an unrecognized "Biafran International Passport" in response to persistent demand by some Biafran sympathizers in the diaspora. On 16 June 2015, the Supreme Council of Elders of the Indigenous People of Biafra, another pro-Biafra organization, sued the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the right to self-determination within their region as a sovereign state.
As of 2017, a new struggle for Biafran independence is being championed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu and his London-based colleagues from where they run Radio Biafra and Biafra Television. IPOB and its sister organizations, among which are Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)'s have accused the Nigerian Army and the police of extrajudicial killings of their members.
The Nigerian Government, through its broadcasting regulators, the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigerian (BON) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has sought to clamp down on the UK-based station with limited success. On 17 November 2015, the Abia state police command seized an IPOB radio transmitter in Umuahia. Kanu was detained by the federal government and released on 24 April 2017. Meanwhile, the group, Biafra Nations Youth League (BNYL) comprising mainly members from the present Southsouth Nigeria especially the Old Cross River region (Now Bakassi, Cross River State, and Akwa Ibom State, (including Igbo members]] have organised series of grassroots congress especially in towns such as Ikom, Eket, Bakassi, Itu, Ikwerre, Obudu, Ahoada and other areas of their influence, one of their Leader, Ebuta Ogar Takon, from the Ekoi (also known as Ejagham) ethnic group in Cross River State (also a tribe in Cameroon) disclosed to Nigeria Sun Newspaper that the BNYL struggle for Biafra independence is not limited to the Igbo People cluster of South East Nigeria alone but all inhabitants of the Bight of Biafra in Nigeria. BNYL Leadership said that the neglect of Bakassi refugees and marginalization of the Igbo, Ekoi, Ibibio and other ethnic groups of South Eastern Nigeria are among reasons for Biafra agitation.
The various groups clamouring for the restoration of the independence of Biafra have often been beset with internal wranglings that have impeded its secessionist efforts. On 19 October 2015, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) disclosed that the director of Radio Biafra and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, does not belong to the movement and was sacked for indiscipline and for inciting violence among members.
BNYL have continued to distance itself from the internal wrangling between MASSOB and IPOB, although, Princewill Obuka Richard, National Leader of BNYL, as reported by the New Telegraph Nigeria announced the group withdrawal from a Coalition of Pro Biafra Groups, following the union announcement declaring the IPOB Leader Nnamdi Kanu overall Leader of the Biafran struggle, this he said was done without due consultations and consideration of other people's opinions.
There has been a renewed, intense agitation for Biafran secession. Since August 2015, protests have erupted in cities across Nigeria's south-east. Though peaceful, the protesters have been routinely attacked by the Nigerian police and army, with scores of people reportedly killed. Many others have been injured and/or arrested. On 23 December 2015, the federal government charged Nnamdi Kanu with treasonable felony in the Federal High Court in Abuja.
According to the South-East Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs), security forces under the directive of the federal government has killed 80 members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and their supporters between 30 August 2015 and 9 February 2016 in a renewed clampdown on the movement .
A report by Amnesty International also accuses the Nigerian military of killing at least 17 unarmed Biafran separatists in the city of Onitsha prior to a march on 30 May 2016 commemorating the 49th anniversary of the initial secession of Biafra.
Historical maps
Early modern maps of Africa from the 15th-19th centuries, drawn by European cartographers from accounts written by explorers and travellers, reveal some information about Biafra:
- The original word used by the European travellers was not Biafra but Biafara, Biafar and sometimes also Biafares.
- According to the maps, the European travellers used the word Biafara to describe the region of today's West Cameroon including an area around Equatorial Guinea. The German publisher Johann Heinrich Zedler, in his encyclopedia of 1731, published the exact geographical location of the capital of Biafara, namely alongside the river Rio dos Camaroes underneath 6 degrees 10 min. latitude. The words Biafara and Biafares also appear on maps from the 18th century in the area around Senegal and Gambia.
Maps indicating the word Biafara (sometimes also Biafares or Biafar) with corresponding year:
- 1584
- 1644
- 1660
- 1662
- 1707
- 1729
- 1737
- 1805
- 1858
- 1871
Maps from the 19th century indicating Biafra as the region around today's Cameroon:
- 1843
- 1880
- 1890
- Additional maps from the Michigan State University Map Collection
See also
- Ambazonia
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun
- Killing of Pro-Biafra Protesters (2015-2016)
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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