Nigeria: Indeed, There Was a Starved Country

4 November 2012
analysis

There has been some mayhem over Professor Chinua Achebe's civil war memoir, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra. Achebe accused Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the war-time finance minister, of masterminding the "diabolical policy" of starvation during the hostilities in order to reduce Igbo population in his "overriding ambition for power" and the "advancement of his Yoruba people".

Let me state clearly that this is not a review of Achebe's book, so I would be commenting solely on the controversial bit on Awolowo, which is generating considerable uproar. Also, I am fully aware that I am walking into a war zone. I, therefore, neither desire nor deserve anybody's sympathy if I get hit in the crossfire.

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