Border Communities in the Literature of the Nigeria-Biafra War

Abstract

Since the outbreak of the Nigeria-Biafra War, also known as the Nigerian Civil War, there has been a continuous publication of literature from military elite, journalists, historians, political scientists, economists, novelists, and sociologists. In spite of the increasing quantum of studies on the war, the border communities, which were most exposed to the scourge of the conflict, have been neglected. The existing literature on the war is produced mainly from the military perspective. It is therefore concentrated, even when it deals with border communities, on military operations and battles, without accounting, in any remarkable way, for the actual wartime experience of the civil populations. We must readjust and go back to the field to reclaim the civil war experience of the border communities.