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Biafra'S War 1967-1970 - A Tribal Conflict in Nigeria That Left a Million Dead (Paperback)
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Biafra'S War 1967-1970 - A Tribal Conflict in Nigeria That Left a Million Dead (Paperback)
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Almost half a century has passed since the Nigerian Civil War
ended. But memories die hard, because a million or more people
perished in that internecine struggle, the majority women and
children, who were starved to death. Biafra's war was modern
Africa's first extended conflict. It lasted almost three years and
was based largely on ethnic, by inference, tribal grounds. It
involved, on the one side, a largely Christian or animist
south-eastern quadrant of Nigeria which called itself Biafra,
pitted militarily against the country's more populous and
preponderant Islamic north. These divisions - almost always brutal
- persist. Not a week goes by without reports coming in of
Christian communities or individuals persecuted by Islamic zealots.
It was also a conflict that saw significant Cold War involvement:
the Soviets (and Britain) siding and supplying Federal Nigeria with
weapons, aircraft and expertise and several Western states -
Portugal, South Africa and France especially - providing
clandestine help to the rebel state. For that reason alone, this
book is an important contribution towards understanding Nigeria's
ethnic divisions, which are no better today than they were then.
Biafra was the first of a series of religious wars that threaten to
engulf much of Africa. Similar conflicts have recently taken place
in the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Southern Sudan, the Central African
Republic, Senegal (Cassamance), both Congo Republics and elsewhere.
As the war progressed, Biafra also attracted mercenary involvement,
many of whom arriving from the Congo which had already seen much
turmoil. Western pilots were hired by Lagos and they flew the first
Soviet MiG-17 jet fighters to have played an active role in a
'Western' war. Al Venter spent time covering this struggle. He left
the rebel enclave in December 1969, only weeks before it ended and
claims the distinction of being the only foreign correspondent to
have been rocketed by both sides: first by Biafra's tiny
Swedish-built Minicon fighter planes while he was on a ship lying
at anchor in Warri harbour and thereafter, by MiG jets flown by
mercenaries. Among his colleagues inside the beleaguered territory
were the celebrated Italian photographer Romano Cagnoni as well as
Frederick Forsyth who originally reported for the BBC and then
resigned because of the partisan, pro-Nigerian stance taken by
Whitehall. He briefly shared quarters with French photographer
Giles Caron who was later killed in Cambodia. Prior to that Venter
had been working for John Holt in Lagos. It is interesting that his
office at the time was at Ikeja International Airport (Murtala
Muhammed today) where the second Nigerian army mutiny was plotted
and from where it was launched. From this perspective he had a
proverbial 'ringside seat' of the tribal divisions that followed as
hostilities escalated. Venter took numerous photos while on this
West African assignment, both in Nigeria while he was based there
and later in Biafra itself. Others come from various sources,
including some from the same mercenary pilots who originally
targeted him from the air.
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