Talk:Biafra/Archives/2014/September

Miscellaneous

Removed from Biafra:

There have been recent efforts to recognise and restablish Biafra as an independent nation.

Of value if verifiable, including dates, names, and "efforts" that are meaningful. Mere idealistic or nationalistic bluster, otherwise in contrast, is of no interest. (--Jerzy(t) 23:53, 2004 Mar 7 (UTC) , made clarifying edit, & added retroactively sig he forgot at 11:27, 2004 Feb 15 (UTC))

Although there were a few PoV slips and proofreading failures (and tho this sort of reworking of another nation's template is probably better done on Talk and pasted in later), i think there has been a good contribution made to the stubby article. Thanks to User:Vital component for the work. --Jerzy(t) 23:53, 2004 Mar 7 (UTC)

• Additional cleanup is still required on this article. Some unsourced statements require adequate references (e.g. the likelihood that millions of Biafrans died) and effort is still required to ensure NPOV (e.g. was the picture of the starving child directly connected to Biafra?). Ajisekanla (talk) 16:39, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

• The picture is indicative of the plight of the hundreds of thousands who starved, in what has frequently (though with much dissent, amidst much controversy) been described as genocide. The starving child tells the story: Nigeria couldn't stop Biafra on the battlefield, so they blockaded it. I want to get around to working on the article at length, at some point. DBaba (talk) 03:55, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

• Some battlestatistics provide number of countries on the beligerent list. Their troop numbers. Weapons of choise. I choose to believe that some weapons give victory. On the opposite side, weapons are either of decent quality, or not up to scratch, or just a piece of shit. Even to be mentioned, what sort of PR companies were involved? Is there a such list elsewhere on wiki?

Map

The map is largely unreadable for me, outside the Biafra section, but more importantly, it bears a copyright notice (which i can't read), appears to be the one at [1]] whose conditions prohibit us, even before GFDL issues. Removed as Copyvio. --Jerzy(t) 23:53, 2004 Mar 7 (UTC)

The location map (on the top right side of the page) does not represent international borders accurately. It is meant to represent international borders during the Biafra War, then the borders of the Republics composing Soviet Union should appear on it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.103.119.89 (talk) 15:22, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Rising Sun

The Page history of Biafra discloses that the country table was begun by copying in the country table for Japan (and after that was reverted, by copying in that for Iceland). Clearly, many individual boxes within the table have had their contents replaced with Biafra info. It may be mere coincidence that the national anthem of Biafra was "Land of the Rising Sun", and that Japan's (Japanese) name means "Land of the Rising Sun". I removed that title, perceiving that other information inapplicable to Biafra survives in the table, and inferring that the anthem was actually Japan's. I see that it is not Japan's, and was Biafra's, so i erred in replacing it with the note

(to the tune of Finlandia Hymn)

--Jerzy(t) 18:10, 2004 Mar 10 (UTC)

Reversion

I am about to revert the last edit to Biafra as a whole, because

• it reversed, without offering any explanation, changes that i explained by reference to well-established WP standards,
• it was sufficiently indiscriminate to recapitulate an obvious and unarguable earlier error: I corrected the link Presidents of Iceland List of Presidents of Iceland (which appeared in a context whose obvious meaning was "other presidents of this country can be found by following this link") by substituting "Biafra" for "Iceland"; the edit i am reverting put back "Iceland", and
• the editor in question has made 12 edits on this article without a single character of summary, and without ever posting on this talk page, despite concurrent editing by others.

In the hope of encouraging this editor to engage in this editing as a responsible colleague (instead of recklessly, as described above), i intend to explain my additional edits on Biafra more thoroughly for a while.

--Jerzy(t) 18:10, 2004 Mar 10 (UTC)

March 10 edits

• I replaced the entry

Official language - unknown

by

Languages - Igbo, English, ...

which has been in turn replaced by

Official language - Igbo and English

• Besides the facts that

• my proper disambiguation of the language names is not kept, and
• following "Official language" with the names of two languages is nonsense,
• the editor's change of heart from "unknown" to two and only two languages needs explanation before going into the article

My version (implying that whatever may be the case about the official language(s), if there were any (a question of fact), both languages were surely sued used there) is accurate (partly by virtue of not making an implicit claim of completeness) and obvious in light of the history of Nigeria.

• I attempted to interpret the muddled "Capital" entry by explicitly indicating one formal capital, and several de facto capitals. I'm going to wipe this out, since the same muddle has reappeared. Let's discuss on talk what you're trying to communicate, and how to express it in table.

• I previously removed "Land of the Rising Sun" from the "national anthem box", but i am editing that box to the combined entry

Land of the Rising Sun (to the tune of Finlandia Hymn)

I have made no study of WP handling of similar situations with other countries, but i note that while they are rare,

they do fit in conveniently in the format used usually for less information,

they make information that would be likely to be overlooked in the body text of the article easy to quickly locate for readers with that specific interest, and

therefore i conclude that Biafra is an example of a more general case, of a tune of the anthem of one country being a patriotic tune (earlier or later) of another, and that this is well dealt with by the text above.

• I have further thots, which i will share as soon as practical.

--Jerzy(t) 18:10, 2004 Mar 10 (UTC)

• I trust that the following edits to the table are adequately justified by their summaries:
  • 18:34, 2004 Mar 10 . . Jerzy ("(no international TLDs existed in its time)" (table))
  • 18:31, 2004 Mar 10 . . Jerzy (Wipe out garbage applicable only to Iceland re areas)

If i am mistaken in that assumption, plz ask me a question.

• I incorporated info from the [map of Biafran military history] and the former Captital box of the table, into 'graph 2.

--Jerzy(t) 19:11, 2004 Mar 10 (UTC)

• I am editing the following sentence in 'graph 1:

During its existence, it was recognised by only a few countries.

reflecting the contradictiont between it and the table info (only Turkey), by making it vaguer, to ensure its accuracy. I think we need documentation before being more specific.

--Jerzy(t) 19:28, 2004 Mar 10 (UTC)

• One of the worst sins of this horrible sentence

The secession in the country's former Eastern Region, home to most of Nigeria's 8 million Igbo (or Ibo) people, followed mass killings of Igbo migrants living in northern Nigeria (May, September 1966) after a short-lived bloody coup attempt by Igbo army officers the previous January.

is "the country's" where it could mean either Nigeria's or Biafra's. My guess is the first, but those knowing better should speak up.

The phrase

Nigeria's former Eastern Region

in the same sentence is ambiguous as to when it stopped being the E.R. - with the secession, or earlier? I assume the first, but those knowing....

That sentence also attempts to tell the story backwards, and i've recast it.

• Sounds as if
  • the "Chief of Staff" was Ojukwu,
  • the deep raids west were probes against Nigeria rather than defensive measures toward being left alone, and
  • the elephant in the living room is that Effiong and the rest of the formal apparatus of government were window dressing for Ojukwu's hope of using Biafra as a power base for ruling Nigeria, now that the Igbo officer corps had blown its chances of ruling via a coup.

That's PoV, but the contemporary and modern assessments of it should be documented.

--Jerzy(t) 20:54, 2004 Mar 10 (UTC)

March 11 edits

• I notice i failed to comment on my version of the "Independence" box, which was not new today, but does in effect revert a new version by the other major editor of Biafra. That box is special in that Biafra is a former country (at most) and the table design is aimed at independent countries. IMO the use of the table is desirable, and requires adaptations. Specifically:
  • It makes no sense to document there its becoming independent, and fail to note its loss of independence.
  • The use of the word "annexed" is outrageous:
    • Annexation is a very specific legal term, which could be documented if it occurred in the legal sense, but will not have been done by Nigeria bcz it's legal position will have been that there was no independence but only a rebellion that took 3 years to suppress -- that legally Biafra never left off being part of Nigerian territory.
    • Using "annex" in a sense other than its legal sense is inherantly confusing, and can serve no purpose except the PoV one of creating confusion, or of asserting the PoV that its reincorporation into Nigerian apparatus of governance was international aggression.
  • The discussion of international recognition in that box is not what it was intended for (since it is unsuitable for any country with more than a handful of recognitions), and just a distracting way of presenting information that is already included effectively in the intro 'graph.

--Jerzy(t) 00:40, 2004 Mar 11 (UTC)

Apartheid

The article states that South Africa recognized Biafra as a soverign nation, "however that country's support of apartheid discouraged wider recognition by other African nations that might otherwise have been sympathetic to the Biafran cause." Not being too familiar with the Biafran conflict (I was 12 years old when the civil war ended), I'm unsure whether "that" refers to South Africa (which practiced -- not supported -- apartheid), or Biafra. Can someone clarify this point? -- llywrch 03:37, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

biafra never supported apartheid

Ghadaffi came to power in 69. Could have spent his first year in power to support Biafra. Even he made no bother, and so much have I wondered how that never came around. Next question would be how the most cynical people in Africa, that being the Apartheid Governement, should say yes to Biafra. Maybe it was the attempt to tell the Nigerians "So how does it feel to be treated like bloodthirsty and bloodbathing babboons?". Indeed without actually saying it. --85.164.222.45 (talk) 23:25, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Leland Shapiro

I can't find any reference to this on the Internet other than links to this article itself. This sounds dodgy to me; I marked it with a Fact template.

-- Krolco 17:57, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Even if the Leland Shapiro guy is real, what would be it's relevance? Delete, it's vanity --dalegrett 15:20, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

The idea of Leland Shapiro is a continuation of the falsehood and propaganda for which Nigeria is noted.I wonder how all this lying Nigerians can expect the nation to make any meaningful progress?

Legacy

I have had to edit the Biafran section to remove historically incorrect propaganda especially the one claiming that the Igbo was seeking acess to the sea. Post-war politics nothwithstanding, it is common knowledge that the Ikwerre who inhabit Port-harcourt are Igbos. Before the civil-war, the Ikwerre never assumed any other identity outside their Igbo identity, thus it would be wrong for anybody to propagate such lies that acces to the sea was a factor in declaring Biafra. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ibo

The other lie is the claim that the oil wealth was a factor in declaring the war. We all know that at the time the Biafran war was fought, crude oil was not yet a factor in the economies of the different regions. The minorities were included in Biafra because they were part of the Eastern region. Contrary to the lies being peddled here, many amongst the minorities also supported Biafra, afterall Major General Phillip Effiong the vice-president and last Head of state of Biafra was from present day Akwa Ibom state.

The war has since ended. These Nigerian propagandists should please leave Biafra alone and concentrate on how to mend the failed state and sinking ship that Nigeria has become.

I wonder how anybody in their right mind can talk of Nigeria, when fellow Nigerians were killed in the North for a cartoon published in faraway Denmark. Nigeria is not sacred. It was only put together by the British as part of the ploy to make it unworkable, given its obvious contradictions. In the last few years many nations including the former Soviet union and others have disintegrated. If Nigeria does not get her acts right, her break-up will be just a matter of time. The secret is that even the Nigerian leaders do not beleive in Nigeria, that is why they have spent more time wrecking the place.Propagandists should please get a life!

A lot of the things in legacy are just 'other bad things that happened in Nigeria', mostly not even anywhere near Biafra. I think the gist of them is that the Muslims and the Christians don't get along, but I consider that a bit too tenuous. I'm going to delete them. 75.181.153.246 04:18, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Good idea, I support this action. Thee things listed really had no relation to Biafra's legacy. (By the way, welcome to Wikipedia.) Picaroon (t) 04:26, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Possible citations

Please make sure cites here are reliable sources. We are listing possible cites here so we can look at them as a group WP:SPOTLIGHT (and anyone else that wants to get involved) and try to avoid violating WP:NPOV with bad sources. —— nixeagle 03:41, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

• http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/biafra.htm
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/africabeyond/africanarts/19292.shtml (this might be good for some quotes)
• http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/biafra.htm (from American University - despite horrible web design, it's reliable)
• http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/biafra_republic_of.jsp
• http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=ANU9136.0001.001
• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844641,00.html
• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878699,00.html - from 1970 - awesome possible source
• From the NY Times - Biafra Search lists all articles in their archive.
  • http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFD71E39F937A25754C0A961948260&scp=4&sq=Biafra&st=cse
  • http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE3DD103DF932A3575BC0A961948260&scp=2&sq=Biafra&st=cse
• Surviving in Biafra, via Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=Z8I4np7E4SQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=biafra&ei=gv-kSNfQIoiQjgHk3rj7BA&sig=ACfU3U1GdT1v3HnhgMZDVW3QfkiOM6SS5Q
• http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0145-2258(1990%2F1991)19%3C201%3AAPAAFT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N
• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/64289/Biafra

Narrowed List

These are the best citations I've found (including from the list above):

• Barnaby Philips (2000-01-13). "Biafra: Thirty years on" (HTML). The BBC.
  • Pro: Covers entire event; overall relatively comprehensive
  • Con: Does not go into detail AT ALL about the coup - simply mentions that military powers "took over"; does not really discuss the cause; doesn't even mention oil.
• "Biafran Secession: Nigeria 1967-1970" (HTML). Armed Conflict Events Database. 2000-12-16.
  • Pro: Very comprehensive; there's a lot more detail than any other source I've seen.
  • Con: Make sure to note the strange order - the events are not listed chronologically - dense.

Some Things this article needs to cover

• In relation to the war:
  • The various ethnic groups
    • Why the British molded Nigeria in the manner it did
    • Why conflict broke out among the ethnic groups
  • The Aburi Agreement
  • Leaders
    • Odumegwu Ojukwu
    • Yakubu Gowon
    • Obafemi Awolowo
  • Allies
  • The accusation of genocide
  • Aftermath
• The movement to re-secede [2]
• Any important documents (was there a declaration?)
• Culture of Igbo [3]
• The short-lived economy

Further reading

Nonfiction

Articles

• Secret papers reveal Biafra intrigue. A 2000 BBC article describing the Biafran war as a power contest between Britain, France and the USSR.
• "Biafra: Killer Cessnas and Crazy Swedes,". Archived from the original on 2007-08-09. by Gary Brecher A 2004 article on the history of Biafra, including Carl Gustaf von Rosen's support for Biafra and the mass starvation that marked the end of the war.
• Hot Biafra Nights by Zach Dundas. A 2000 interview of author Andrew Vachss, who went to Biafra to serve in the relief effort in 1969.

Books

• Requiem Biafra by Joe Achuzia, ISBN 978-156-256-0. (1986)
• The Biafra Story by Frederick Forsyth, ISBN 0-85052-854-2. (1969)
• Biafra: A People Betrayed by Kurt Vonnegut, from Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons, ISBN 0-385-33381-1. (1974)
• Surviving in Biafra: The Story of the Nigerian Civil War by Alfred Obiora Uzokwe, ISBN 0-595-26366-6. (2003)
• The Banknotes of Biafra by Peter Symes [Printed privately] (2000) [4]
• Surviving the iron curtain: A microscopic view of what life was like, inside a war-torn region by Chief Uche Jim Ojiaku, ISBN-10: 1424170702; ISBN-13: 978-1424170708 (2007)
• The Last Adventurer by Rolf Steiner.
• "Chapter Nine: Tanzania Recognizes Biafra", pp. 268 - 304, in Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, Third Edition, New Africa Press, Pretoria, South Africa, 2006, ISBN 978-0980253412; "Part One: The Nigeria Civil War: Implosion of A Federal State and Its Implications for Africa Today," pp. 1 - 80, in Godfrey Mwakikagile, Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria: A Comparative Study, First Edition, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Huntington, New York, 2001; Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa and America in The Sixties: A Decade That Changed The Nation and The Destiny of A Continent, First Edition, New Africa Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0980253429.
• "Biafra, The Memory of the Music" by [Jim Malia], ISBN 978-1-906050-00-9, First Edition, Melrose Books, 2007

Fiction

• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a novel in which life in East Nigeria for the Igbo people is juxtaposed with their life during war torn Biafra. ISBN 978-0-00-720028-3. (2006)
• The Ship's Cat by Jock Brandis, a fictional account of the Oxfam Air Relief flights that penetrated the military blockade around Biafra.
• Any Human Heart by William Boyd includes a section describing Nigerian life and the collapse of the Biafran republic
• Sugar Baby by Chinua Achebe is a short story that takes place in Biafra
• Girls at War by Chinua Achebe is a short story collection about the Biafran War
• Destination Biafra by Buchi Emecheta a novel set during the Biafran War
• Estragement by Elechi Amadi a novel about the aftermath of the Biafran War
• Titi: Biafran Maid in Geneva by Chike Momah : a novel that portrays the Biafran War from the perspective of an African community in Geneva.

Music

• Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner by Warren Zevon, 1978
• San Francisco punk band Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra takes his stage name from the republic

todo

Spotlight todo:

1. Cover aftermath of the war - there was an accusation of genocide, so obviously this should be covered by some sources. HOWEVER we must be sure to keep this portion within our policy of neutral point of view.
2. Culture of this country (mainly Ibo culture)
3. Another source or two is required for the economy
4. Improve/fixup legacy section

Concerns regarding a possibly unreliable source

Removed in the following diff [5].

<ref name="Omoigui2">{{cite web|title=OPERATION 'AURE': The Northern Military Counter-Rebellion of July 1966|language=English|format=HTML|url=http://www.africamasterweb.com/CounterCoup.html|author=Nowa Omoigui|work=Nigeria/Africa Masterweb}}</ref>

Source, Nowa Omoigui, seems to be a non historian (medical doctor), pro-genital mutilation Muslim, of possible north Nigeria origins. Publication, which neglects the most obvious of details (10,000-30,000 massacred Igbos)^[6] does not make me feel like he's a reliable source for this historical conflict. Jaakobou^{Chalk Talk} 19:12, 18 August 2008 (UTC) add cite 19:19, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

GA?

I was wondering if this article is good enough to go up for GAC? Spotlight did it's magic and this in much improved.  Mm40 (talk | contribs)  12:01, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Personal memory

Just a bit, and probably does not belong here. But interesting in re the very beginning of this event. I was a post-doc from U.S., at the University of Ibadan. Mid 1966, leaving Nigeria from Lagos - by taxi, to the Dahomey border. The taxi driver attached palm branches to the front of the cab. It was only later that I learned that the reason was that the route to the border went through a part of Lagos where these branches identified that cab as of one in support of the insurrection just then starting - I knew nothing of that, the time must have been in the very first days of the event. Interesting, the symbol of those in opposition to the Nigerian government. --Dumarest (talk) 12:53, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Biafra has a countrybox on top but not Kosova

How comes that a failed state like Biafra has a country box on top but not Kosova, which is recognized by the majority of the democratic world? --Tibetian (talk) 08:45, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps because nobody has got around to it yet? Why not have a go adding one yourself. Regards, Lynbarn (talk) 19:34, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Masob membership

Please, How can I IDENTIFY WITH MASOB in UK. Aham bu Chukwuetomike Iloduba,

e-mail address is iloduba@aol.com. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.85.1.21 (talk) 15:14, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Section headings

Per WP:HEAD:

"Headings should not explicitly refer to the subject of the article, or to higher-level headings, unless doing so is shorter or clearer (Early life is preferable to His early life when his refers to the subject of the article; headings can be assumed to be about the subject unless otherwise indicated)."

The headings "Location of Biafra" and "Historical maps of Biafra" do not comply with this direction. In an article about Biafra, a section with the heading "Location" is assumed to be about the location of Biafra, and not about the location of, for example, Saskatchewan, or Cheshise. The same goes for "Historical maps".

With respect to "Meaning of the word 'Biafra'", yes, 'Biafra' is a word, but "Meaning of 'Biafra'" is just as clear. Ground Zero | t 20:20, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Secession Section

It says here that the USA helped the Nigerian Government militarily. However the article cited as a source ("The Nigerian Civil War: Causes, Strategies, And Lessons Learnt". Global Security. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1992/AAA.htm. ) does not say so.

I am no expert but I thought the US was neutral in the Biafra war. — Preceding unsigned comment added by FrogTrain (talk • contribs) 20:37, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

File:Biafra coat of arms.png Nominated for Deletion

An image used in this article, File:Biafra coat of arms.png, has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests October 2011 What should I do? Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so. If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use) If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used. This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 12:26, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Map Revision

Under Biafra's French page, there is a clearer map. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Biafra_independent_state_map-fr.svg Maybe someone can place that map in the English version. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Spensky (talk • contribs) 15:29, 26 December 2011 (UTC)