When Ethnic Loyalty Dies: Biafrans Feared Biafra in the New Independence Struggle

Abstract

For almost two decades, there had emerged two new organizations furthering the agitation for Biafra's independence from Nigeria. The first is Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in 1999, while the second is the recently constituted Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in 2015.Their emergence, however, reveals some surprising realities about the Biafrans which contradict what they (Biafrans) were known for when the struggle began in the 1960s. The recent movements are characterized by internal cracks, frictions, and divisions, qualities which are unhealthy for any ethnic group agitating for its own separate space or territory. Using newly discovered primary sources, this paper examines the rationales behind the disagreements and divisions amongst Biafrans over Biafra's separation from Nigeria. It argues that those Biafrans who disagreed with these organizations, particularly IPOB, were of the belief that IPOB's struggle was ‘misplaced', unbeneficial, and perhaps, politically motivated rather than ethnicity.