Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Other Side’ of the Nigeria-Biafra War: A Transnational History Luepke, Anna-Katharina Award date: 2018 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 ‘The Other Side’ of the Nigeria-Biafra War: A Transnational History Anna-Katharina Luepke supervised by: Alexander Sedlmaier Marcel Stoetzler Kachi Ozumba A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2017 Ralph Steadman, ‘Requiem for Biafra’, Scanlan’s Monthly, March 1970. Abstract During the civil war between Nigeria and the separatist south-eastern state of Biafra, a famine developed that became a global media event in the summer of 1968. Graphic images of starving children captured the public imagination and became a hallmark of the media coverage of famines and humanitarian crises to come. Biafra committees sprang up all over the world and began to support Biafra’s bid for independence and to protest the inactivity of foreign states in the face of what they believed to be a genocide. Expatriate Biafrans and Nigerians in Europe or North America lobbied governments to support their respective side and set up organisations for that very purpose. While the churches and other humanitarian agencies launched fund-raising campaigns to finance the greatest relief effort since the Second World War, most foreign governments hesitated to get involved. The humanitarian effort during the Nigeria-Biafra War became the catalyst of the development of the modern humanitarian industry as well as the breakthrough of the interventionist humanitarianism associated with the borderless movement. A growing number of studies on the global history of the Nigeria-Biafra War have begun to reconstruct the roles of various countries during the war, trace changes in the landscape of humanitarian organisations, and explore the discursive forms of engagement with Biafran suffering. This thesis adds to the existing body of knowledge by studying the transnational dimension of the war and highlighting the intersection of various agents, including the media, governmental institutions, and advocates. The overall argument is that a particular constellation of institutions and converging developments – namely the backdrop of 1960s activism, the media interest in publicising Biafran suffering, and the reluctance of governments to actively intervene to bring about peace – resulted in the rise of the modern humanitarian industry. Simultaneously, the visceral albeit simplifying narrative of human suffering turned the Biafran famine into an almost global cause célèbre and strengthened paternalistic views of the Third World as a space for continued foreign intervention. Acknowledgements Without the patience, support, and faith of my doctoral supervisor, Alexander Sedlmaier, this thesis would not have been written. My other two supervisors, Marcel Stoetzler and Kachi Ozumba, helped me with their input during discussions of various aspects of the project. The responsibility for any errors is mine alone, of course. I am indebted to all those who have helped me along this journey, especially staff in libraries and archives, who have made navigating the sources easier and pointed me to helpful collections. My family and friends were extremely supportive during what has proven to be a very difficult time. During my holidays, the home of my sister Miriam Blaschke, her husband Falk, and my two lovely nieces, Linnea and Freyja, has been a refuge and a sanctuary. My mother, Monika Schneemann and her husband Dietmar likewise deserve my gratitude. Sven Greitschus was a long-suffering companion on my Ph.D. journey, who after first being my office- and then flat-mate, has become a true friend. Dina Kafiris helped with encouraging conversations and inspiring me with her enthusiasm. I benefitted greatly from our many discussions of the writing process, the Ph.D. experience, and life more generally. Dilshara Jayasinghe has shown me the meaning of determination, commitment, and pure grit. I would also like to thank Amala Koutiaga for all the inspiration, yoga classes, and vegan recipes. Beatrice Viviane Vetter provided many much-needed pep-talks and trek bars, a semester spent with Miriam Grigorean brought back the flair of undergraduate days, and Sarah Schuhmacher helped create a garden out of an uncared-for backyard that has then given me many moments of meditative distraction from my thesis. Anastasia Schrader, ‘these clouds we're seeing, they're explosions in the sky’: without your help, everything would have been so much harder. I look forward to an opportunity to return the favour. Last but by no means least, I want to dedicate this thesis to my partner, Shashank Mishra, who patiently awaited my graduation without ever complaining about the sacrifices my Ph.D. journey entailed for both of us. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 A Brief History of the Nigeria-Biafra War............................................................................................. 3 Literature Review: The Nigeria-Biafra War in Transnational Perspective .......................................... 12 Global History, Decolonisation, and the Third World in the Global 1960s ........... 13 Imagining the Third World, Humanitarianism, and Human Rights ....................... 18 Advocacy, Propaganda, and Genocide ................................................................. 22 Distant Spectatorship and the Politics of Suffering .............................................. 30 Hypothesis and Research Questions ................................................................................................. 32 Sources .............................................................................................................................................. 33 Chapter Structure .............................................................................................................................. 35 1. The Discovery of the ‘Humanitarian Crisis’: Representations of Biafran Suffering .......................... 37 Portraying Biafran Suffering .............................................................................................................. 39 Framing Biafran Victimhood .............................................................................................................. 45 Separating the Humanitarian and the Political .................................................................................. 54 The Politics of Suffering ..................................................................................................................... 60 2. The Marketing of Secession: The Role of Public Relations and Propaganda ................................... 70 Biafran Propaganda ........................................................................................................................... 72 Public Relations ................................................................................................................................. 81 Portrayals of Markpress .................................................................................................................... 86 Missionaries, Advocacy, and Aid ....................................................................................................... 90 3. Weathering the Storm: Governmental Responses ....................................................................... 100 International Politics: Superpowers, United Nations, and OAU ...................................................... 102 United Kingdom: A Traditional Arms Supplier of Nigeria ................................................................. 107 West Germany................................................................................................................................. 114 Managing Public Concern: Humanitarian Politics ............................................................................ 122 Managing Public Opinion: Discrediting Biafran Propaganda ........................................................... 126 The Team of International Observers ................................................................ 129 4. The Other ‘1968’? Biafra Advocacy .............................................................................................. 135 The Aktion Biafra-Hilfe and Biafra Advocacy in West Germany ...................................................... 137 The ‘Biafra Lobby’: Support for Biafra in Britain .............................................................................. 144 The Role of Biafrans and Nigerians .................................................................................................