A History of the Republic of Biafra

The Republic of Biafra lasted for less than three years but the war over itssecession would contort Nigeria for decades to come. Samuel Fury ChildsDaly examines the history of the Nigerian Civil War and its aftermath froman uncommon vantage point - the courtroom. Wartime Biafra was gluttedwith firearms wracked by famine and administered by a government thatbuckled under the weight of the conflict. In these dangerous conditionsmany people survived by engaging in fraud extortion and armed violence.When the fighting ended in 1970 these survival tactics endured eventhough Biafra itself disappeared from the map. Based on research usingan original archive of legal records and oral histories Daly catalogues howpeople navigated conditions of extreme hardship on the war front andshows how the conditions of the Nigerian Civil War paved the way for thelong experience of crime that followed.