ABSTRACT
The Biafran secession crisis raised a series of profound and unanswerable questions about the nature and limits of self-determination, state sovereignty and African decolonization. A wide range of actors—both supporters and opponents of Biafra—viewed the Nigerian civil war and Biafra’s attempt to carve out a new state as an important moment in the history of self-determination as a political and legal principle. Likewise, the collapse of Biafra seemed to offer a series of lessons for movements asserting their right to self-determination, as well as for those seeking to limit its application, suggesting the open-ended and contested nature of the concept even as it was institutionalized in the fabric of international human rights law. Ultimately, however, Biafra’s failed secession attempt could only highlight the ambiguity and contested nature of sovereignty and self-determination in the international system, and the ability of groups such as the Igbos to exploit their indeterminacy in an effort to achieve their aims.
