Biafran Radical Groups and the Quest for Biafran Sovereignty in the Nigeria Civil War, 1967-1970

In the struggle for Biafran sovereignty during the Nigerian Civil War (1967 – 1970), the Igbo provided the bulk of the leadership and waged the war on both the battlefield and in diplomatic circles. As that struggle progressed, a group of intellectuals and trade unionists of radical disposition, under the banner of the Socialist Party of Biafra (SPB), campaigned vigorously for Biafran sovereignty. Prompted by their radical disposition, their dispatches to foreign governments, especially of the Communist bloc, expressed their views on the significance of the Biafran struggle to Africa. In so doing, they sought Biafran recognition, as it was a nation waging a “people’s war.” Many accounts of the Nigerian Civil War have been written, but subsequent mention of the SPB as a group or examination of their dispatches for historical documentation have been ignored by scholars. The attempt by Ikenna Nzimiro, one of the members of this group, to explore a similar event in his work, Nigerian Civil War: A Study in Class Conflict (1984), suffered such neglect because it failed to examine these documents and instead dwelt on generalizations. This essay, through an analytical perspective, hopes to fill this gap. Consequently, it will also deepen our understanding of the role of Igbo radical groups in employing diplomacy to prosecute the war in Nigeria.