AROCHUKWU WOMEN AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS AFTER THE NIGERIA-BIAFRA WAR

Abstract

Arochukwu women and community development efforts encapsulates the experiences of Aro women in the task of developing their society. Centering on Arochukwu, this paper highlights the impact of Nigeria-Biafra war and the specific roles Aro women played in rebuilding their community. In narrating the specific case of Arochukwu women, the paper tries to connect gender with post-conflict reconstruction using primary data assembled from oral testimonies. This paper relies mainly on primary sources derived from oral information (in-depth interviews with various persons in Arochukwu, but especially women. The snowball sampling technique was used in selecting interviewees that would provide reliable and accurate information on the subject of research. The theoretical thrust for this paper is derived from the challenge and response theoretical model propounded by Arnold Toynbee in which he used the key words Challenge and Response to describe how various civilizations rose and fell over time.