Tragic Stereotypes in Biafran Civil War: Critiquing Okoye’s The War that Was and Onuoha’s Biafra: The Victims

Abstract

The Biafran Civil War is a veritable source of many literary works, with a majority coming from authors of the defunct Biafra, especially the Igbo. Their themes, since the end of the war in 1970, have remained stereotypic. The 1966 pogrom in the aftermath of the Jan 15 1966 coup; deaths of vulnerable Biafrans during the war; how Gowon’s ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’ policy was not implemented; federal government’s harsh economic policies shortly after the war, and the Igbo marginalisation in Nigeria’s polity are the stereotypes. They fail to explore the positives of the war, considering that Biafra, within the three years it existed, had breakthroughs in science and technology as well as purposeful leadership. This work observes that emerging works, which Okoye’s The War that Was and Onuoha’s Biafra: The Victims represent, toe the same trajectory. The research states that continuing with the old trends makes Biafran War literature synonymous with literature of lamentation. It therefore calls for the concentration of Biafran War literature on the positives therein. The data was collated from works rendered by scholars with divergent views. The study is foregrounded on New Historicism.