Word: ibos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Nigeria went four months ago. On May 30 the Ibo tribe, which dominates Nigeria's Eastern Region, seceded from the Nigerian Federation and proclaimed the independent Republic of Biafra; and on July 7 a federal attack on Biafra plunged the country into civil war. Nervous African leaders know that no African state was better prepared for independence, and they know that no African state is immune to the problems which beat Nigeria to its knees--those of a tribal society confronting modernization. They are hoping Nigeria will stand again...
...that time, a wave of fear sent Nigerians of all tribes scuttling back to their home territories, and forced the de facto partition of Nigeria into three tribal states--Yoruba West, Hausa North, and Ibo East. The largest group of refugees were 1.8 million Ibos from the North, many badly injured. Enraged, the Ibos demanded federal compensation of the injured and homeless. To prevent a repitition of the atrocities, they also called for the de jure recognition of Nigeria's partition--in the form of a confederation of almost autonomous states. They threatened to secede if the Federal Government...
...when Biafra capituates, Gowon will have even less elbow-room. Ibo resistance has hardly pacified the Hausas. And far from convincing the Ibos they belong in Nigeria, the war seems likely to reinforce their determination to escape the Federation Despite federal precautions, there seems little hope of avoiding a massive slaughter of Ibos as Hausa troops march through Ibo villages. Last year's wounds, it appears are going to be reopened with a vengance. Nigeria cannot hope for a lasting peace until it reconstitutes its government on a non-tribal basis...
...Biafrans. For transport they commandeered everything available; groundnut wagons rolled toward the front behind big red-and-silver municipal passenger buses. But hard as the federal troops hit back, the rebels continued to hold Ore. And since the rebel forces of Oxford-educated Lieut. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu are largely Ibo tribesmen, Nigerians behind the front in Lagos retaliated by beating and killing any Ibos who were still living in their capital. "The short, surgical police action" with which Gowon promised to put down the revolt, said Nigeria's leading playwright, Wole Soyinka, "is being conducted with blunt and unsterile...
Rush to Rally. But the rout soon stopped. Major Chukwama Nzeogwu, 30, a hero of the 1966 coup that toppled Nigeria's civilian government and briefly installed Ibos in power (before a second revolt by Gowon's supporters that fueled the slaughter of Ibos), rushed to the front. "This is a war we must fight to win," he told the Biafran soldiers. "Anyone who runs away will be shot. You are better than the Northerners, all of you." To aid the Ibo regulars, more than 50,000 of the civil defense volunteers poured in from all over Biafra...