For nearly 50 years now, Biafra have struggled for self-determination. Nnamdi Kanu currently imprisoned by Nigerian government has taken up the battle, and Biafrans are once again fighting – and dying – for the dream of their own country.

Biafra, a breakaway state in the south-east of mainly Christian Igbo people.

Using the instruments of Radio Biafra, broadcasting every night to an army of Nigerian listeners and to over 100 countries around the world. It looks like a pirate-radio station, but its agenda goes far beyond music and chat.

In the words of Nnamdi Kanu, its director, ‘We want a free and independent Biafra. Or death!’ A free and independent where? Mention Biafra today, and most Britons would probably struggle to find its place on a map, never mind its place in one of Britain’s bloodiest colonial epilogues.

In fact, finding Biafra on a map is impossible these days. It existed for just two and a half years – from 1967 to 1970. Less than a decade after Nigeria gained independence from Britain.

Angered by the massacre of tens of thousands of Igbos in the Muslim-dominated north, Biafra formed its own army, produced its own currency, and declared independence.

The Igbos, who often describe themselves as the ‘Jews of Africa’, wanted their own Israel. They got something closer to holocaust. The story continues…

Adapted from writings of Colin Freeman of The Telegraph

Categories: Igbo news