The Nigerian Civil War

     The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, was the culmination of years of mounting conflict between Nigeria’s ethnic groups. These groups maintained control of three large geographic regions despite boundaries drawn by the federal government: the Yoruba people controlled the west, the Igbo people controlled the east, and the Hausa-Fulani people controlled the north. Educational and economic inequality between the groups fueled conflict, and in 1966, ethnic massacres of the Igbo people resulted in a final, unsuccessful attempt between federal and local governments to create peace (Falola).  

     The civil war began with the creation of Biafra, a successionist state that declared independence from Nigeria; this state was in the eastern region and primarily inhabited by the Igbo people. Nigeria’s federal government took this act as rebellion against the nation. Conflict between the militaries of Biafra and Nigeria lasted from May 1967 to January 1970. The region Biafra claimed shrank considerably, and eventually supplies could only be brought in by air. Starvation, disease, and violence during the war resulted in an unknown number of mortalities, but estimates range from 500,000 to 3,000,000 (“Biafra”).  

     Nnedi Okorafor’s life and identity was heavily influenced by the Biafran War. In 1969, her Igbo Nigerian parents fled to the United States, and she was born in Cincinnati, Ohio five years later. Her hybrid identity as an American-born Nigerian is a source of significant inspiration for her science-fiction and fantasy works; this inspiration is especially prevalent in Okorafor’s Akata Witch, a young adult novel about a magical Igbo Nigerian-American girl (Okorafor).