LibGuides: War Literature & Perspectives: Nigerian Civil War

About The War

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, was a conflict between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra that lasted from 1967 to 1970. There had been tensions rising in Nigeria since Britain decolonized the country in 1963. A coup, a counter-coup, riots, and the persecution of the Igbo people contributed to the start of the war. Around 100,000 soldiers were killed, in addition to 1-2 million Biafran civilians dying of starvation during the 2.5 years the war took place. Many civilians were displaced and fled abroad.

About the Nigerian Civil War | Britannica
Learn more about the war, including causes, death toll, and the events.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Call Number: PR 9387.9 .A34354 A44 2013
ISBN: 9780307271082
Publication Date: 2013-05-14
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be Black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
Girls at War by Chinua Achebe
Call Number: PR9387.9.A3 | G57 1991
ISBN: 0385418965
Publication Date: 1991-08-01
Twelve stories by the internationally renowned novelist which recreate with energy and authenticity the major social and political issues that confront contemporary Africans on a daily basis.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
ISBN: 9780007200283
Publication Date: 2006-09-12
Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.
* This book is available at East Hartford Public Library (linked below)
Now I Am Here by Chidi Ebere
ISBN: 9781035004034
Publication Date: 2023-03-23
Chidi Ebere’s debut novel is a profound reflection on how good people can do terrible things – precipitated by circumstances and the violence of war. As he recounts the events leading to his disastrous finale, we learn how this gentle man is gradually transformed into a war criminal, committing acts he wouldn’t have thought himself capable.
* Can be requested through Interlibrary Loan (linked below)

There Was a Country by Chinua Achebe
ISBN: 9780143124030
Publication Date: 2013-09-24
For more than forty years, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the events of the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967-1970, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry. Decades in the making, "There Was a Country" is a towering account of one of modern Africa's most disastrous events, from a writer whose words and courage left an enduring stamp on world literature.
* This book is available at West Hartford Public Library (linked below)
I Am Still with You by Emmanuel Iduma
ISBN: 9781643751016
Publication Date: 2023-02-21
In inimitable, rhythmic prose, the author and winner of the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize Emmanuel Iduma tells the story of his return to Nigeria, where he grew up, after years of living in New York. He traveled home with an elusive mission: to learn the fate of his uncle Emmanuel, his namesake, who disappeared in the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s. A conflict that left so many families broken, the war remains at the margins of the history books, almost taboo to discuss. Perhaps, he realized, if he could understand how his father grieved the loss of a brother in the war, he might learn how to grieve his late father in turn.
* This book is available at New Britain Public Library (linked below)