Product Description

In 1966, several waves of rioting in northern Nigeria culminated in the brutal massacre of thousands of easterners by their northern Nigerian counterparts. Sensing that their safety could no longer be guaranteed, the easterners fled to the eastern region and established an independent nation called Biafra.

Refusing to accept her sovereignty, Nigeria waged a thirty-month war against Biafra, targeting air assaults at civilian locations, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of children, women and the elderly. Nigeria used land and sea blockade to prevent relief food from reaching hungry masses in Biafra and thousands of children died from a form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor. At the end of it all in 1970, two million people had perished.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #398187 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

From the Author
As the Vietnam War was going on in 1967, an equally devastating civil war, occasioned by ethnic and religious intolerance was raging in the West African nation of Nigeria. By the time the war, which was fought between Nigeria and the breakaway republic of Biafra ended in 1970, two million people had perished. Surprisingly, 33-years after the war ended, religious and ethnic intolerance continues to bedevil Nigeria and some other African nations.

Surviving in Biafra was written to point out through the story of the suffering and deaths of Biafran civilians during the Nigerian civil war, the devastation that ethnic and religious intolerance could lead to. It is to serve as a reminder to nations where such intolerance still abound, that such conflicts could lead to wars and inexorably bring about their destruction while wreaking untold hardship and deaths on the people.

From the Inside Flap
Surviving in Biafra is a stunningly lucid account of the agony that Biafran civilians suffered during the Nigeria-Biafra war from 1967 to 1970. Over two million people died during the conflict. Alfred Obiora Uzokwe takes the reader on a riveting journey from the time in 1966, when his family was forced to flee from Lagos Nigeria back to their native town in Biafra, as a result of the massacre of thousands of his kinsmen in northern Nigeria, to the day when the last shots were fired. He vividly describes the day in 1970, after the collapse of Biafra, when Nigerian soldiers drove into his hometown Nnewi and thus began a military occupation that lasted for many years with attendant abuse of civil liberties.

The book chronicles several family tragedies suffered by his family during the war and recalls the air raids that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Biafran children, women and the elderly. It also highlights the tragic deaths of thousands of Biafran children from malnutrition aptly called kwashiorkor.

Surviving in Biafra drew critical acclaim from readers all over the world when excerpts were published on Alfred’s weekly news column on Nigeriaworld.com. The book is sometimes emotional, often engaging but simply riveting.

About the Author
Alfred Obiora Uzokwe holds advanced degrees in architecture and civil engineering and has authored hundreds of essays about Nigeria’s socio-political and economic situation, which were published on Nigeriaworld.com and other news magazines.

He is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and has served as editor of several technical journals as well as act as a contributory writer.

Customer Reviews

A moving story of human tragedy in Africa!
The book is a refreshing departure from the accounts of the Nigerian and Biafran Civil war commanders. For the first time, the story of what happened inside Biafra, during the war, to civilians and children, ranging from deaths from starvation and air-raids, lack of basic life necessities like clothes and soap to outright struggle for survival is told in such a fluid detail that I read the entire book in four hours without putting it down!

One could not help but feel the pain and anguish of the author as he described in very moving details, the personal losses in human lives that his family and other families in Biafra suffered as a result of the war.
This book is a must-read for all.

Very insightful
This book is a beautiful account of the Biafran war. I grew up with Nigerian refuges and their children in Cameroon and got first hand accounts of the horrors of that war. Overall, this insightful book is credible and like DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST, SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL, it gives the reader the opportunity to understand African conflicts and the pattern of genocides that have taken place or taking place in the continent. I learned a lot from this book.

Sub - title puts me off
As I saw the title of the book I was happy to see another book about Biafra; the more it is in the public eye, the more people remember what a disservice certain countries did by not coming to help Biafra in their time of need.

A great human tragedy is what happened,and only a few people came to help, we Thank God for those that did help.

The author, an Igbo man, who suffered at that time has spoiled the whole point he was trying to get across by calling it the 'Nigerian civil war'.

It was not a civil war, it was a country trying to break free from a country - made in 1914 - that has held it captive for too many years. The Igbo's and other ethnic groups, residing in Biafra never agreed to merge with the other ethnic groups (now in Nigeria) pre-1914 and to be called Niger-area or Nigeria....just ask many of them.

I am so surprised at the author for this sub-title as one who has suffered during the war and ever since....in a country that does not recognise human rights, freedom of speech or democratic voting rights...I could go on... and on....and on....

Please review your sub-title if this book goes for further editing and re-printing please ? I would say be proud and be Biafran !