Word: biafras
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There can be little doubt, however, that Biafra's leader is holding out for an airlift for other reasons, too. He knows only too well the value of an airlift as a visible symbol of the world's helping a besieged people stay alive. That, in turn...
...world finds it hard to understand why some powerful nation, particularly the U.S., cannot announce that it will send food to Biafra, and simply do it. In fact, the Administration has privately agonized over Biafra's suffering for a long time, but concluded that nothing short of military muscle would get supplies through, and it is certainly unwilling to risk that. An unauthorized airlift might endanger the lives of 5,000 Americans now living in federal Nigeria, and it would bring howls of outrage from most governments in Africa, which have served notice that they want to handle the Nigerian...
...absence of neighborly compassion among the tribes is a fact of African life. But the Nigerian government is caught in a special dilemma. If Biafra succeeds in its secession, a Nigerian federation will be doomed. On the other hand, if the Ibos are decimated and permanently embittered, the federation may be doomed in another way. Nigeria's rulers are talking unity, while at the same time conducting a form of tribal warfare that may make unity impossible at best and unnecessary at worst. By granting Ojukwu his demand for airborne relief, the Nigerians would show minimal concern for 8 million...
African Product. On the larger issue of the war, both sides have a case?as in most serious conflicts. For ordinary Africans, the fate of Biafra evokes all their own fears about tribal survival, and from the beginning they and much of Africa's press have shown concern for Biafra's cause. Moreover, Biafra is an African product, and that arouses admiration. "We are Africa's first real nationalist state," says Ojukwu. "We constitute a warning to other states that oppression of minorities cannot go unpunished." This argument has had considerable effect on the four African heads of state...
...other hand, the Organization of African Unity, which can agree on few things, has gone on record as supporting Nigerian sovereignty over Biafra. Its members, the national leaders of Black Africa, can only view the precedent of tribal breakaway with profound dismay, for each must cope with tribal divisions in his own country. "It was the Congo and Tshombe yesterday, and it is Nigeria and Ojukwu today," warns Gowon. "Who knows what African country will be the next victim...