PAN-AFRICANISM IN PRAXIS: INVESTIGATING THE BIAFRAN SECESSION AND ITS LESSONS FOR POST–COLONIAL AFRICAN STATEHOOD

uuchenna ezejiofor
This research aims to examine the history of the Nigerian-Biafran civil war and the Biafran secessionist state. Current scholarship frames the Nigerian-Biafran civil war as an example of tribal conflict between the minority Igbo tribe in the southeast and predominant tribes in the north but fails to contextualize the war as an iteration of Pan-Africanism. This research utilizes interviews and national archival material in order to uncover Pan-Africanist modes of self-determination within the Biafran secessionist state. Further, this Pan-Africanist mode of self-determination could also be used as a resource to question dominant and prevailing practices of African state creation and provide a different approach through which to address the lingering socio-economic issues that afflict Nigeria (and many other African countries) today. The research will consist of interviews with 20 Igbo adults ages 21-50 that currently reside in Nigeria, coupled with visits to the National War Museum and the Historical Subterranean Office of the Government of Biafra in Umuahaia, Abia State, Nigeria to analyze and document preserved relics of the Biafran secessionist state and its subsequent war.
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Cite as: desci.ng.1308.2025
Uploaded on Dec 14, 2025, 10:08:16 PM

Notes

Current scholarship frames the Nigerian-Biafran civil war as an example of tribal conflict between the minority Igbo tribe in the southeast and predominant tribes in the north but fails to contextualize the war as an iteration of Pan-Africanism. With this is information, it is crucial to engage with the history of the Biafran secession in a critical yet reverent format that historicizes the atrocity accurately within continental de-colonial /post-colonial pursuits.