Word: biafras
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...difficult if not impossible for an impartial observer to support either side without reservation. Those who rejected Biafra's secession as a perilous example for the rest of Africa were nonetheless appalled by the widespread misery and starvation inflicted on its people. Those who saw Biafra's breakaway as an unexceptionable attempt to achieve self-determination found it difficult to explain why the Ijaws, Efiks, Ibibios and other minorities under Ojukwu's rule seemed so unhappy -or why Ojukwu, in the early days of the war, tried to seize territory with non-Ibo majorities. In the long...
During the chaotic days of Biafra's collapse and surrender, many nations and international organizations moved hastily in an effort to repair the damage and help the victims. In Washington, for example, President Nixon used the White House hot line twice last week to talk to Britain's Prime Minister Harold Wilson about aiding the defeated rebels. The East Bloc countries, however, withheld compassion. The Polish press insisted that Western relief activities were "gross interference in Nigeria's internal affairs...
Gowon seemed to agree. To punish those who had aided Biafra during the war, he barred any aid from several agencies and nations. "Let them keep their blood money," he declared angrily. "Let them keep their bloody relief supplies." Nigeria's chief was particularly annoyed with Pope Paul VI, who told a crowd in St. Peter's Square that "the victory of arms may carry with it the killing of numberless people. There are those who actually fear a kind of genocide." Gowon, whose tactics for three years have been designed to limit casualties, bristled at the reference...
...Ibos of control over much of the oil that was making Nigeria rich. Ojukwu, who at the time was Military Governor of the Eastern Region, defied Gowon. On May 30, 1967, at a champagne party in the Eastern capital of Enugu, he announced the creation of the state of Biafra, which drew its name from the bay off the Atlantic Ocean that cuts into the Nigerian coast. The proud Ibos composed a national anthem-"Land of the rising sun we love and cherish, beloved home, land of brave heroes"-and dug in to defend their homeland...
...Zambia-obliged him. Outside Africa, support was even harder to find. In August 1968, at Charles de Gaulle's instigation, the French government announced that "the present conflict must be resolved on the basis of the right of people to govern themselves." But France never formally recognized Biafra while supplying it for war. During the 1968 U.S. presidential campaign, Richard Nixon urged Washington to "speak out against this senseless tragedy and act to prevent the destruction of a whole people by starvation." Ojukwu looked on the speech as a sign that Nixon would reverse U.S. policy and recognize Biafra...