The Nigeria-Biafra War: Looking to Art to Interpret Realities

Popular and academic representations of Africa often assume violence as an integral characteristic of the continent. While the narratives surrounding Africa and Africans are still evolving, it is important that scholars who are central to the shaping of Western perceptions of Africa are aware of their contributions to the false narratives. Within the context of the Biafran War, a conflict that often goes undiscussed by political scientists despite its devastation, there has been an oversimplification of the war to the point that the actual causes of the conflict have been obfuscated. I examine the political science literature that discusses the Biafran War, noting the ways in which it falls short in explaining the roots of the conflict, the extent to which British indirect rule on the colonial and postcolonial Nigerian state impacted the war, and who the Biafran people were. I then argue that political scientists would benefit from drawing on Nigerian art and artists to understand the actual lived experiences of people during the Biafran War, and I do so by examining five pieces from four Nigerian and Biafran artists. By using art created by those who lived through the war or experienced the effects of the war's legacy on the Nigerian state, political scientists would be able to understand the conflict in a non-Western perspective while honoring the experiences of those who lived through the conflict and its legacies, and be able to understand the ways in which scholarly discussions of causes of the war and intervention within the war help perpetuate Western bias in the field.