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Biafra: A Study in National Self-Determination and Tribalism in Nigeria
Abstract
Master's Thesis, Texas Woman's University, May 1977
This specialized study of Biafra seeks to explain what Biafra is, why its people decided to separate themselves from Nigeria, and how they have reacted to what have been their task in seeking national self-determination. The proposal to disintegrate the Federation of Nigeria is not an accident of history but an inevitable consequence. This exercise of war is not a noble struggle but one of futility. In this study I explain how Biafra came into existence by briefly recounting the political history of Nigeria before the breakaway. It is necessary to understand how Nigeria was formed by Britain out of irreconciable peoples, how these peoples came to find that, following British rule, the differences among them, far from shrinking, became accentuated, and how the structure left behind the British finally was unable to explain the explosive forces confined within it. I hope that this will provide an interesting and enlightening insight into the Nigerian-Biafran conflict and that my conclusions will be helpful and meaningful.
This specialized study of Biafra seeks to explain what Biafra is, why its people decided to separate themselves from Nigeria, and how they have reacted to what have been their task in seeking national self-determination. The proposal to disintegrate the Federation of Nigeria is not an accident of history but an inevitable consequence. This exercise of war is not a noble struggle but one of futility. In this study I explain how Biafra came into existence by briefly recounting the political history of Nigeria before the breakaway. It is necessary to understand how Nigeria was formed by Britain out of irreconciable peoples, how these peoples came to find that, following British rule, the differences among them, far from shrinking, became accentuated, and how the structure left behind the British finally was unable to explain the explosive forces confined within it. I hope that this will provide an interesting and enlightening insight into the Nigerian-Biafran conflict and that my conclusions will be helpful and meaningful.
Biafran War Database.
Editor: Azuka Nzegwu.
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