The Biafra Movement in Nigeria

[Kenneth Erwin Engelhardt]

The Biafra movement is a secessionist movement among the Igbo Tribe of Nigeria who are concentrated mainly in the Southern and Southeastern part of the country. During the period of colonization by the British, the Yoruba and later the Igbo ethnic groups were introduced to Western education and Christianity by British colonists. Authorities in the northern part of the state (which is predominately Muslim) resisted this causing this area to fall behind in education. As the economy under colonialism evolved, western education became a prerequisite for employment in the modern industrial, commercial and government sectors cntrolled by the British. The Igbo took advantage of this and gradually became dominant in critical sectors of the economy under the colonial British.
This was also true of the Igbo population in the northern part of the country which was predominately Muslim. The non-Igbo population in the north was largely left out of the modern sector and became increasingly resentful. It was not just in the north, they travelled all over the country. It was this resentment that caused most of Southern Cameroon to join with the rest of Cameroon when it became independent rather than stay with Nigeria. This resentment continued even after Nigeria became independent

In 1966 there was a pogrom against the Igbo people in the northern part of the state that led to 8000 to 30,000 Igbo and Easterners being killed in the North. Another 1 million fled the north into the eastern part of the state.

In 1967, the Biafra civil war broke out as the former Eastern Region of the Country declared independence. The governor of the Estern Region at the time was Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who was governor of the Eastern Region. The governor declared the eastern region a separate country

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chukwuemeka_Odumegwu_Ojukwu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_anti-Igbo_pogrom