The Nigeria-Biafra war, popular culture and agitation for sovereignty of a Biafran nation
The date 6 July 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the war considered as one of the worst in recent human history, the Nigeria-Biafra war. My paper focuses on the representation of this war in popular culture – with an emphasis on film, fictional and non-fictional literature. It interrogates the role that fictional and non-fictional narration play in the collective and individual memory of Nigerians in general and the Igbos in particular. It also looks at the link between the depiction of the war in popular culture and the renewed agitation for the nationhood of Biafra, as since the 2000s, there has been renewed campaigning by young people of Igbo ethnicity for the creation of the Republic of Biafra. This research particularly concentrates on two organizations that are involved in this struggle: the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
It is my position that popular culture constitutes important material for the study and understanding of historical events and periods of time, while it also enhances our understanding of the ways in which these past events may have an influence in the present.
This paper is published in the ASCL Working Paper series as volume 138.
About the author(s) / editor(s)
'Rantimi Jays Julius-Adeoye is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, Redeemer’s University (RUN), Nigeria. He studied for his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Theatre Arts at University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and obtained his PhD from Leiden University, Netherlands. Prior to joining RUN, he was a Lecturer in film at Lagos State University School of Communication (LASUSOC), Lagos, Nigeria. While at ASCL (LeidenASA Visiting fellow), his work focused on the representation of the Nigerian-Biafran civil war in literature from Nigeria as a way of historical documentation. This in on the backdrop of the renewed agitation for the sovereignty of Biafra by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group and others.
Posted on 29 May 2017, last modified on 9 January 2018