Nigerian Civil War Collection

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 MS 321463
Held at	: School of Oriental and African Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full title	: Nigerian Civil War Collection
Date(s)	: Created 1958-1971
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 16 boxes and 10 volumes of bound publications
Name of creator(s)	: Cronje | Suzanne | fl 1972 | author

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Nigeria obtained its independence on 1 October 1960, having been formerly under British rule. In the same year a Federal Government based on the parliamentary system was created. Elections had been held in 1959, centred on a number of ruling parties including the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), which had control of the Eastern region and was led by Nnamdi Azikiwe; the Northern People's Congress (NPC), which had control of the Northern region and was led by Ahmadu Bello; and the Action Group (AG), which had control of the Western region and was led by Obafemi Awolowo. No party won a majority during the elections, and the NPC joined with the NCNC to form the government. When independence arrived in 1960, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was made Prime Minister and Nnamdi Azikiwe was made Governor General.

In 1962, part of the Action group split off to form the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), led by S. I. Akintola. In 1963, the Mid-Western Region was formed from part of the Western Region. In 1963, Nigeria became a Federal Republic with Nnamdi Azikiwe as President. A great deal of controversy followed the 1963 population census, which the NCNC felt overestimated the number of people in the Northern Region, giving them a greater representation in the federal parliament. In January 1966, a group of Igbo army officials staged a coup d'etat to overthrow the government, killing Balewa, Bello and Akintola and placing General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi in charge of the new military government. He suspended the regional constitution, dissolved all legislative bodies, banned political parties and formed a Federal Military Government that was more central in nature.

There were strong suspicions that Aguiyi-Ironsi favoured the Igbo (Ibo) over other ethnic groups, fuelled by the fact that the military government did not prosecute the army officers responsible for killing the northern leaders. Many northerners saw the coup as a plot to make the Igbo dominant in Nigeria, and there was hostility from the Muslim population. Fighting broke out between the northerners and the Igbo, and in July 1966 a group of northern army officers revolted against the government, killed General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, and appointed the army Chief of Staff, General Yakubu Gowon, as head of the new military government. In 1967, Gowon moved to split the existing 4 regions of Nigeria into 12 states. The military governor of the Eastern Region, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, refused to accept the division of the Eastern Region and declared that this region would become an independent republic, named Biafra. This led to a civil war between Biafra and the remainder of Nigeria. The war began in June 1967 and continued until Biafra surrendered on 15 January 1970. Over 1 million people died during the conflict.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

News summaries, press releases, press cuttings and publications, 1958-1971, from the period leading up to and including the Nigerian Civil War. The collection was the source material used by Suzanne Cronje for her book The world and Nigeria: the diplomatic history of the Biafran War 1967-1970 (London, 1972).

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
Material is in English, German, Italian and Dutch.

System of arrangement:

News summaries, press releases and press cuttings have been arranged in chronological order, as have publications, which are listed following the press items.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated in 1974.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds papers relating to Biafra (Ref: MS 380252), part of the Southern African Materials Project, and records of the Committee for Peace in Nigeria (Ref: MCF/CPN), part of the Movement for Colonial Freedom.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
15 May 2000