Since the last pages of this book were written in 2016, quite a lot has happened underlining the power of collective memory and indicating that Biafra has refused to die or fade away. One of such happenings is the coming to the center stage of the cerebral Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu. The IPOB has literally stolen the thunder from the more widely known and much older...

It would appear that the nonsystematic closure of the Nigerian Civil War has generated memory lapse, which has given rise to social conflicts and dissension in the socio-geographical region of the erstwhile seceding Biafra republic. These conflicts in the contemporary history of Nigeria include the persistent Niger Delta oil conflict driven by youth and recurrent struggle for the realization of a...

A good number of theoretical viewpoints have been offered in the attempts to explain both ethnicity and resource conflict in Nigeria and Africa including the five models of African polities offered by Lemarchard (1994), the theory of prebendal politics (Joseph, 1991, 1983), the resource curse notion (see Auty, 1993; Ross, 2004), the relative scarcity of resources notion (see Homer-Dixon, 1994;...

A good way of starting this chapter is to state that the essence of memory and memory studies in human existence finds expression in the popular aphorism “one can tell the present and predict the future from the past.” Memory has engaged the attention of social thinkers and philosophers since the ascendancy of Greek civilization. Even though the contemporary usage of memory in academic...

Nigeria is a typical complex and heterogeneous state made up of ethnoregional groups with different historical experiences and influences. The Nigerian state as we know it today is a product of British colonial adventure in West Africa. Prior to the colonial contact, the areas known today as Nigeria were inhabited by different peoples and groups. While some of these groups had interactions...

The colonial misadventure of arbitrarily lumping societies together as one administrative unit and the colonial administration’s reliance on divide-and-rule strategy in Africa can be seen as relevant in the examination of ethnicity in these societies. In the case of Nigeria, this divide-and-rule tendency was well displayed in the case of the Igbo ethnic group where the colonial powers...

Resource distribution in Nigeria especially in the last three decades has not been anchored on social justice and fairness. As a result, the process has not been consistent with needs facing groups in Nigeria but has been influenced by primordial considerations and hijacked by politicians and their cronies (see Azaiki, 2003; Ujomu, 2002; Ifeka, 2001). In other words, the process has been...

In appreciating the emergence of conflict in the Niger Delta region it would be important to understand that the people of the region have historically resisted any form of exploitation. However, it may be expedient to see the Ogoni struggles of the late 1980s and 1990s as the beginning of modern-day resource struggle in the Niger Delta. This modern-day resource struggle drew impetus from the...

A good understanding of why the Igbo have always revolted against tyranny and authoritarianism as well as any systematic effort to undermine the individual or group can be achieved through an appreciation of the basic sociocultural characteristics of the Igbo as a group. The Igbo worldview and sociocultural norms are anchored on the twin pillars of individualism and egalitarianism. A good...

The family just like in general socialization is seen as having a primary role in the mnemonic socialization of its members. Mnemonic socialization here is the process of remembering and interpreting the past. However, the process of mnemonic socialization goes beyond the family and often entails a process of re-interpreting our personal recollections of the past in relationship to new mnemonic...

Even though the post-Biafran process of re-engagement initiated by the federal government of Nigeria was anchored on the tripod of reconstruction, rehabilitation, and reconciliation (3Rs), the crucial elements that were missing from that process, apart from a haphazard reconciliation were truth and reparation. Soyinka (2000) saw these elements as the missing but crucial components of that...

The focus on Biafra in this book does not mean that there was no effort at reconciliation after the war, but rather Biafra is emblematic of the influence of memory on post-conflict harmony between different social and ethnic groups in heterogeneous societies in Africa. Biafra was without doubt the first major crack in the walls of nations established by colonial contact and the obvious perennial...

Abubakar, Dauda. (1997). “The Rise and Fall of the First and Second Republics of Nigeria,” in F. Okafor (ed.) New Strategies for Curbing Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Pub., 69–97.

Abdusalam Abubakar,6.32 ,

President/Leader