ABSTRACT
In fictional and nonfictional accounts of war written by men, women are often peripheralized or stereotypically represented as passive spectators and victims of armed conflicts. The valiant and gallant ways they carried out old and new responsibilities occasioned by wars are often minimized or even obscured in such war narratives. In the case of the Biafra-Nigeria War, minimal attention has been paid to the role of women in the conflict and how the war affected them. Apart from a couple of fictional representations of the conflict that focus on women, Egodi Uchendu’s study remains the only historical work on women. But the scope of the study is narrow, focusing mainly on the Anioma women, a sub-Igbo ethnic group west of the Niger River. The proposed chapter will cover the experiences of Igbo women and those from other ethnicities in southeastern Nigeria, such as the Efik, the Ibibio, the Ijo and the Ogoja, who initially regarded themselves as Biafrans and downplayed their ethnic identities until the fortunes of the war turned against Biafra. It is my contention that how these Biafran women related to one another and to their counterparts from other parts of Nigeria in pre-war, war and postwar Nigeria are crucial to understanding the war and present-day Nigeria. Biafran women are presented in this chapter as active participants and survivors who demonstrated remarkable resilience, perseverance and initiative in the face of precarious war conditions. The argument here is that despite the inhospitable environment of scarcities and insecurities brought about by the war, women in Biafra persevered and waged war on all fronts as both the battle front and home front became violent terrains in order to ensure the survival of their families, communities and Biafra (which eventually collapsed in January 1970 after thirty months of hostilities). The war engendered the transformation and redefinition of gender roles and identities as women assumed increased responsibilities in their families, communities and Biafra. Relying on interviews which I conducted in southeastern Nigeria between 1991 and 2012, official reports and gazettes, private papers and memoirs, newspaper articles and different genres of secondary sources, the chapter examines wartime roles of Biafran women with a focus on their economic and social activities, involvement in military operations, and their expanded public engagements. Women’s survival strategies and coping mechanisms to complex emergencies in war-torn Biafra are also discussed. Equally included in the discussion are the impacts of the war on women, their families, culture and communities as well as the challenges of postwar transition.
