Download or read book Surviving in Biafra written by Alfred Obiora Uzokwe and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Surviving Biafra written by S. Elizabeth Bird and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1961, Rosina 'Rose' Martin married John Umelo, a young Nigerian she met on a London Tube station platform, eventually moving to Nigeria with him and their children. As Rose taught Classics in Enugu, they found themselves caught up in Nigeria's Civil War, which followed the 1967 secession of Eastern Nigeria--now named Biafra. The family fled to John's ancestral village, then moved from place to place as the war closed in. When it ended in 1970, up to 2 million had died, most from starvation. Rose ('worse off than some, better off than many') had kept notes, capturing the reality of living in Biafra--from excitement in the beginning to despair towards the end. Immediately after the war, Rose turned her notes into a narrative that described the ingenious ways Biafrans made do, still hoping for victory while their territory shrank and children starved by the thousand. Now anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird contextualizes Rose's story, providing background on the progress of the war and international reaction to it. Edited and annotated, Rose's vivid account of life as a Biafran 'Nigerwife' offers a fresh, new look at hope and survival through a brutal war.
Download or read book A History of the Republic of Biafra written by Samuel Fury Childs Daly and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-27 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Republic of Biafra lasted for less than three years, but the war over its secession would contort Nigeria for decades to come. Samuel Fury Childs Daly examines the history of the Nigerian Civil War and its aftermath from an uncommon vantage point – the courtroom. Wartime Biafra was glutted with firearms, wracked by famine, and administered by a government that buckled under the weight of the conflict. In these dangerous conditions, many people survived by engaging in fraud, extortion, and armed violence. When the fighting ended in 1970, these survival tactics endured, even though Biafra itself disappeared from the map. Based on research using an original archive of legal records and oral histories, Daly catalogues how people navigated conditions of extreme hardship on the war front, and shows how the conditions of the Nigerian Civil War paved the way for the country's long experience of crime that was to follow.
Download or read book The Asaba Massacre written by S. Elizabeth Bird and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary study of the Asaba massacre, re-examining Nigerian history and enriching the understanding of post-conflict trauma and memory construction.
Download or read book Surviving Biafra written by S. Elizabeth Bird and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1961, Rosina 'Rose' Martin married John Umelo, a young Nigerian she met on a London Tube station platform, eventually moving to Nigeria with him and their children. As Rose taught Classics in Enugu, they found themselves caught up in Nigeria's Civil War, which followed the 1967 secession of Eastern Nigeria--now named Biafra. The family fled to John's ancestral village, then moved from place to place as the war closed in. When it ended in 1970, up to 2 million had died, most from starvation. Rose ('worse off than some, better off than many') had kept notes, capturing the reality of living in Biafra--from excitement in the beginning to despair towards the end. Immediately after the war, Rose turned her notes into a narrative that described the ingenious ways Biafrans made do, still hoping for victory while their territory shrank and children starved by the thousand. Now anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird contextualizes Rose's story, providing background on the progress of the war and international reaction to it. Edited and annotated, Rose's vivid account of life as a Biafran 'Nigerwife' offers a fresh, new look at hope and survival through a brutal war.
Download or read book Biafra s War 1967 1970 written by Al J. Venter and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2016-02-19 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost half a century has passed since the Nigerian Civil War ended. But memories die hard, because a million or more people perished in that internecine struggle, the majority women and children, who were starved to death. Biafras war was modern Africas first extended conflict. It lasted almost three years and was based largely on ethnic, by inference, tribal grounds. It involved, on the one side, a largely Christian or animist southeastern quadrant of Nigeria which called itself Biafra, pitted militarily against the countrys more populous and preponderant Islamic north. These divisions almost always brutal persist. Not a week goes by without reports coming in of Christian communities or individuals persecuted by Islamic zealots. It was also a conflict that saw significant Cold War involvement: the Soviets (and Britain) siding and supplying Federal Nigeria with weapons, aircraft and expertise and several Western states Portugal, South Africa and France especially providing clandestine help to the rebel state. For that reason alone, this book is an important contribution towards understanding Nigerias ethnic divisions, which are no better today than they were then. Biafra was the first of a series of religious wars that threaten to engulf much of Africa. Similar conflicts have recently taken place in the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Southern Sudan, the Central African Republic, Senegal (Cassamance), both Congo Republics and elsewhere. As the war progressed, Biafra also attracted mercenary involvement, many of whom arriving from the Congo which had already seen much turmoil. Western pilots were hired by Lagos and they flew the first Soviet MiG-17 jet fighters to have played an active role in a Western war. Al Venter spent time covering this struggle. He left the rebel enclave in December 1969, only weeks before it ended and claims the distinction of being the only foreign correspondent to have been rocketed by both sides: first by Biafras tiny Swedish-built Minicon fighter planes while he was on a ship lying at anchor in Warri harbour and thereafter, by MiG jets flown by mercenaries. Among his colleagues inside the beleaguered territory were the celebrated Italian photographer Romano Cagnoni as well as Frederick Forsyth who originally reported for the BBC and then resigned because of the partisan, pro-Nigerian stance taken by Whitehall. He briefly shared quarters with French photographer Giles Caron who was later killed in Cambodia. Prior to that Venter had been working for John Holt in Lagos. It is interesting that his office at the time was at Ikeja International Airport (Murtala Muhammed today) where the second Nigerian army mutiny was plotted and from where it was launched. From this perspective he had a proverbial ringside seat of the tribal divisions that followed as hostilities escalated. Venter took numerous photos while on this West African assignment, both in Nigeria while he was based there and later in Biafra itself. Others come from various sources, including some from the same mercenary pilots who originally targeted him from the air.
Download or read book There Was a Country written by Chinua Achebe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the legendary author of Things Fall Apart—a long-awaited memoir of coming of age in a fragile new nation, and its destruction in a tragic civil war For more than forty years, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the events of the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967–1970, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry. Decades in the making, There Was a Country is a towering account of one of modern Africa’s most disastrous events, from a writer whose words and courage left an enduring stamp on world literature. A marriage of history and memoir, vivid firsthand observation and decades of research and reflection, There Was a Country is a work whose wisdom and compassion remind us of Chinua Achebe’s place as one of the great literary and moral voices of our age.
Download or read book Abson Company written by Stanley Alpern and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-15 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yorkshireman Lionel Abson was the longest surviving European stationed in West Africa in the eighteenth century. He reached William's Fort at Ouidah on the Slave Coast as a trader in 1767, took over the English fort in 1770, and remained in charge until his death in 1803. He avoided the 'white man's grave' for thirty-six years. Along the way he had three sons with an African woman, the eldest partly schooled in England, and a bright daughter named Sally. When Abson died, royal lackeys kidnapped his children. Sally was placed in the king's harem and pined away; her brothers vanished. That king became so unpopular as a result that the people of Dahomey disowned him. Abson also mastered the local language and became an historian. After only two years as fort chief, he was part of the king's delegation to make peace with an enemy, a unique event in centuries of Dahomean history. This singular book recounts the remarkable life of this key figure in an ignominious period of European and African history, offering a microcosm of the lives of Europeans in eighteenth-century West Africa, and their relationships with and attitudes towards those they met there.
Download or read book First Raise a Flag written by Peter Martell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When South Sudan's war began, the Beatles were playing their first hits and reaching the moon was an astronaut's dream. Half a century later, with millions massacred in Africa's longest war, the continent's biggest country split in two. It was an extraordinary, unprecedented experiment. Many have fought, but South Sudan did the impossible, and won. This is the story of an epic fight for freedom. It is also the story of a nightmare. First Raise a Flag details one of the most dramatic failures in the history of international state-building. three years after independence, South Sudan was lowest ranked in the list of failed states. War returned, worse than ever. Peter Martell has spent over a decade reporting from palaces and battlefields, meeting those who made a country like no other: warlords and spies, missionaries and mercenaries, guerrillas and gunrunners, freedom fighters and war crime fugitives, Hollywood stars and ex-slaves. Under his seasoned foreign correspondent's gaze, he weaves with passion and colour the lively history of the world's newest country. First Raise a Flag is a moving reflection on the meaning of nationalism, the power of hope and the endurance of the human spirit.
Download or read book What Will My Mother Say written by Dympna Ugwu-Oju and published by Taylor Trade Publishing. This book was released on 1995 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a Nigerian Ibo woman living in the United States & raising daughters, the author frequently finds herself in conflict between her native culture & her adoptive culture. Her attempts to resolve this conflict are the basis of a fascinating autobiography.
Download or read book Survive the Peace written by Cyprian Ekwensi and published by Heinemann Educational Publishers. This book was released on 1976 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Odugo indser hurtig, at det kræver mere mod og overvejelse at overleve freden end selve Biafran krigen.
Download or read book Where Power Stops written by David Runciman and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Theresa May, and Donald Trump: each had different motivations, methods, and paths, but they all sought the highest office. And yet when they reached their goal, they often found that the power they had imagined was illusory. Their sweeping visions of reform faltered. They faced bureaucratic obstructions, but often the biggest obstruction was their own character. However, their personalities could help them as much as hurt them. Arguably the most successful of them, LBJ showed little indication that he supported what he is best known for - the Civil Rights Act - but his grit, resolve, and brute political skill saw him bend Congress to his will. David Runciman tackles the limitations of high office and how the personal histories of those who achieved the very pinnacles of power helped to define their successes and failures in office. These portraits show what characters are most effective in these offices. Could this be a blueprint for good and effective leadership in an age lacking good leaders?
Download or read book Remaking Nigeria written by and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-05 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On October 1, 2020, Nigeria celebrated its 60th year of political independence. After sixty years of independence, most Nigerians, particularly the youth, hold the view that the country has failed to work for them in a way that is satisfactory and enduring. This book seeks to give voice to young Nigerians, the critical change agents, to help the country understand and sharpen its focus on those issues that hold the key to its collective survival. Clearly, the new decade will be a defining moment for Nigeria. Sixty years after independence, fifty years after a civil war, and at the beginning of a new decade, it is important that a new generation of citizens is challenged to reposition the country. From interaction with young people and discussions on social media, there appears to be a knowledge and information gap among young Nigerians about the history and socio-political evolution of the country. Beyond the lack of understanding of history, there is also a dearth of ideas on what needs to be done and how to get Nigeria out of its current situation. This book addresses these problems. Contributors to the book are young Nigerians with fresh ideas on nationhood, democracy, and development. The book focuses on issues such as federalism, elections and democracy, constitutionalism, environmental justice, data and ICT, the economy and social inclusion, media and press freedom, youth engagement, law and human rights, education and social services, religion and multiculturalism, leadership challenge and good governance, corruption and accountability, foreign policy and regional cooperation.A quarter of a century ago, Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, posed the fundamental question: When is a nation? Based on their background, experience and research, contributors to this book reflected on this question and other important questions with the aim of helping Nigerians understand and appreciate the formula for nation building, and the strategic goals in the construction of a modern nation-state. The essays are analytical, insightful, pragmatic and offer solutions to "the trouble with Nigeria." We hope that they will inspire a new generation of Nigerians on what the country needs to do to fulfil the promise and hope of independence.A new Nigeria is possible. But it must be a Nigeria built around the motto of freedom, equality, and opportunity. It must be a Nigeria created in the image of Nigerians of the 21st century; not one created in the image of the British Empire, the Royal Niger Company, Sir Frederick Lugard, internal colonialists or the new imperialists. For young Nigerians to whom this book is directed, it is time to stop looking back or looking up, and as John F. Kennedy admonished, "...accept our own responsibility for the future.''
Download or read book The Billionaire Raj written by James Crabtree and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A colorful and revealing portrait of the rise of India’s new billionaire class in a radically unequal society India is the world’s largest democracy, with more than one billion people and an economy expanding faster than China’s. But the rewards of this growth have been far from evenly shared, and the country’s top 1% now own nearly 60% of its wealth. In megacities like Mumbai, where half the population live in slums, the extraordinary riches of India’s new dynasties echo the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers of America's Gilded Age, funneling profits from huge conglomerates into lifestyles of conspicuous consumption. James Crabtree’s The Billionaire Raj takes readers on a personal journey to meet these reclusive billionaires, fugitive tycoons, and shadowy political power brokers. From the sky terrace of the world’s most expensive home to impoverished villages and mass political rallies, Crabtree dramatizes the battle between crony capitalists and economic reformers, revealing a tense struggle between equality and privilege playing out against a combustible backdrop of aspiration, class, and caste. The Billionaire Raj is a vivid account of a divided society on the cusp of transformation—and a struggle that will shape not just India’s future, but the world’s.
Download or read book The Accidental President written by Albert J. Baime and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2017 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the atomic, earthshaking first 120 days of Harry Truman's unlikely presidency, an unprepared, small-town man had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and a secret weapon of unimaginable power--marking the most dramatic rise to greatness in American history.
Download or read book Class Ethnicity and Democracy in Nigeria written by Larry Diamond and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-12-25 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book JAY Z written by Michael Eric Dyson and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY BESTSELLER "Dyson writes with the affection of a fan but the rigor of an academic. ... Using extensive passages from Jay-Z’s lyrics, 'Made in America' examines the rapper’s role as a poet, an aesthete, an advocate for racial justice and a business, man, but devotes much of its energy to Hova the Hustler." —Allison Stewart, The Washington Post "Dyson's incisive analysis of JAY-Z's brilliance not only offers a brief history of hip-hop's critical place in American culture, but also hints at how we can best move forward." —Questlove JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson’s decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he’s sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he’s been for so long. This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z's career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he’s always weaved politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties, and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect time to take a look at JAY-Z’s career and his role in making this nation what it is today. In many ways, this is JAY-Z’s America as much as it’s Pelosi’s America, or Trump’s America, or Martin Luther King’s America. JAY-Z has given this country a language to think with and words to live by. Featuring a Foreword by Pharrell
