The Biafran War and Postcolonial Humanitarianism : Spectacles of Suffering

The first transnational history of the Nigerian Civil War, exploring how the conflict, initially of marginal interest to much of the world, became 'Biafra', a global protest and media event, and a defining moment in the postcolonial history of humanitarianism, human rights, Holocaust memory and representation of the Third World.

In the summer of 1968, audiences around the globe were shocked when newspapers and television stations confronted them with photographs of starving children in the secessionist Republic of Biafra. This global concern fundamentally changed how the Nigerian Civil War was perceived: an African civil war that had been fought for one year without fostering any substantial interest from international publics became 'Biafra' - the epitome of humanitarian crisis. Based on archival research from North America, Western Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, this book is the first comprehensive study of the global history of the conflict. A major addition to the flourishing history of human rights and humanitarianism, it argues that the global moment 'Biafra' is closely linked to the ascendance of human rights, humanitarianism, and Holocaust memory in a postcolonial world. The conflict was a key episode for the re-structuring of the relations between the West and the Third World.