Biafra - Reconciliation, Related racial and religious violence

The SE province of Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo people. Under the leadership of Colonel Ojukwu, it attempted to break away from the federation, thus precipitating the civil war of 1967–70. After the war Nigeria was reorganized into a new provincial structure in an attempt to avert continuing instability.

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(In detail)
National motto: Peace, Unity, Freedom
Official language	Igbo, English
Capital	Enugu
Largest city	Port Harcourt
Head of State	Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Chief of General Staff (VP) Philip Effiong
Area ?- Total ?- % water
Population;- Total	13,500,000 (1967)
Currency	Biafran pound (BIAP)
Created	May 30, 1967
Dissolved	January 15, 1970
National anthem	Land of the Rising Sun
Demonym	Biafran

The Republic of Biafra was a short-lived secessionist state in southeastern Nigeria.

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Reconciliation

On 29 May 2000, the Guardian of Lagos newspaper reported that President Olusegun Obasanjo commuted to retirement the dismissal of all military persons who fought for the breakaway state of Biafra during Nigeria's 1967–1970 civil war.

To date, the Igbo people of the country continue to insist they have been margainalised and agitation for Biafra's resurgence continues.

Related racial and religious violence

Since the ending of the civil war in 1970, racial and religious violence in Nigeria, the reason the civil war took place in 1967, has continued.

In July 2006, the Center for World Indigenous Studies reported that government sanctioned killings were taking place in the southeastern city of Onitsha, because of a shoot-to-kill policy directed toward Biafran loyalists, particularly members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). Emerging Genocide in Nigeria, Chronicles of brutality in Nigeria 2000-2006

Meaning of the word "Biafra" and location of Biafra

Little is known about the literal meaning of the word Biafra.

Historical maps of Biafra

Ancient maps on Africa from the 15th - 19th centuries reveal some interesting information about Biafra:

The original word used by the European travellers was not Biafra but Biafara, Biafar and sometimes also Biafares.

Maps indicating the word Biafara (sometimes also Biafares or Biafar) with corresponding year:

1662 1660 1707 1729

Maps from the 19th century indicating Biafra as the region around today's Cameroon:

1843 Additional maps from the Michigan State University Map Collection

Additional reading

Requiem Biafra by Joe O.G. Achuzia, ISBN 978-156-256-0 Surviving in Biafra: The Story of the Nigerian Civil War by Alfred Obiora Uzokwe, ISBN 0-595-26366-6 The Ship's Cat by Jock Brandis, ISBN 0-595-12997-8, a fictional account of the Oxfam Air Relief flights that penetrated the military blockade around Biafra. Biafra: A People Betrayed by Kurt Vonnegut found in Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons, ISBN 0-385-33381-1 "Killer Cessnas and Crazy Swedes" An article on Biafra, written by Gary Brecher Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf, 2006) is a novel in which life in East Nigeria for the Igbo people is juxtaposed with their life during war torn Biafra.