Overview

This book focuses on the Biafran humanitarian crisis of 1967–1970 which generated a surge of human rights anxieties and attracted the attention of world humanitarian organizations. For the first time in recent history, different church groups and humanitarian activists around the world came together for the sole purpose of alleviating human suffering and saving lives regardless of theological differences, race, ethnic affiliation, nationality, and geographical distance. Despite their role in shaping the course and outcome of the conflict, most scholars of the Nigeria-Biafra War treat the humanitarian aspect of the war as a footnote, making it appear less important among other issues of interest in the conflict. Notable exceptions, however, include Joseph Thomson’s American Policy and African Famine, which focuses on American policy on the humanitarian aid, and Reverend Tony Byrne’s Airlift to Biafra. This study underlines that the international humanitarian aid largely contributed to the internationalization of the war. The efforts of the churches from thirty-three countries which remain virtually unexplored was not just the first of its kind in the developing world but also the largest civilian airlift in history. While the paucity of scholarship on the humanitarian aspect of the Biafra war could be attributed to the newness of this field of enquiry, the increase in conflicts in different parts of the world has just opened humanitarian aid studies as a new frontier in academic study. This book is a masterful example of scholarship in this newly emergent field.

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9781611479737

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Reviews

While the Nigeria-Biafra civil crisis has for long captivated the attention of scholars, very little attention has been paid to the role played by human rights groups and churches in the conflict. With a plethora of sources unearthed from archives and depositories in North America, Europe, and Africa, The Biafran Humanitarian Crisis, 1967-1970 offers the reader a detailed account of the humanitarian intervention that saved the secessionist enclave from annihilation. The book is a rich fare on the religious, ethnic, cultural and the international dimensions of the war. It explores religion and genocide as important propaganda themes that influenced public opinion around the world. During the war, the Biafran leaders had alleged that the Nigerian dictatorship government was perpetrating genocide against its citizens through starvation and indiscriminate bombing raids. Many individuals and groups in Europe and North America perceived the war as a struggle in which the Muslim North was out to exterminate the Christian South. This allegation led to a global humanitarian response in which the aid organizations collaborated to send relief aid to Biafra. Dr. Omaka shows that humanitarian action was controversial and had no fixed meaning. The book is a powerful contribution to the historical scholarship on culture and global humanitarian intervention in a political conflict. Readers must salute the author for his intellectual depth and social vision in treating such a sensitive subject with fairness and wisdom. -- Raphael Chijioke Njoku, Professor of African History and Chair of Global Studies and Languages, Idaho State University The Biafran Humanitarian Crisis, 1967-1970 offers a fresh approach to the Nigeria-Biafra War, the humanitarian crisis that Biafra faced, the strategies Nigerian authorities employed to reinforce hegemony and mobilize other nations and resources against the Biafra war of independence, and the contradictions inherent in war-time humanitarian efforts. -- Chima J. Korieh, Marquette University Drawing on multiple archival sources, Arua Omaka provides a refreshingly original and deeply analytical interpretative history of the humanitarian aspects of the Nigeria-Biafra War. This detailed study of the Joint Church Aid, a key international humanitarian actor in the conflict, offers new insights into one of the defining post-colonial conflicts of the twentieth century. The book marks an important contribution to modern African history and the broader scholarship on armed conflict and international humanitarianism. -- Bonny Ibhawoh, McMaster University, Canada A half century had passed since the Nigerian civil war. Until Arua Oko Omaka'sThe Biafran Humanitarian Crisis it has been difficult to explain how deeply the humanitarian crisis of starvation moved a generation of Canadians even while the war in Vietnam filled in our media. Dr. Omaka has broken new ground with his blending of archival sources in several countries and his interviews. The scholarship is admirable; the narrative compelling. The hopes for decolonization, the Commonwealth link, and church ties made the Biafran stalemate a rallying point for Church-led relief humanitarian efforts. It is dispiriting to think that reports on atrocities world-wide have increased since then. This fine book recounts atrocities, but it balances them with insights into idealism and humanitarianism in a decade packed with events brutal as well as relatively innocent. -- John Weaver, Member of the Royal Society of Canada and Distinguished University Professor teaching in the Department of History at McMaster University

Author Information

Arua Oko Omaka is lecturer at Federal University, Ndufu Alike, Ikwo, Nigeria.

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