SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Book Launch: The Struggle for Modern Nigeria: The Biafran War 1966-1970

In the summer of 1968, reports of starvation in the West African secessionist Republic of Biafra transformed the Nigerian Civil War into an international media event. Using recently discovered archival records and the personal recollections of the key players, Michael Gould challenges many of the views and perceptions held of the conflict at the time. Little has been written about the war during the last forty years and as Anthony Kirk-Greene (Emeritus Fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford) states this book stands as the best analysis yet published.

About the author
Michael Gould has lived and worked in Nigeria over the last fifty years. He first met Ojukwu and Gowon when they were young army officers and he was still a student. In the mid eighties he set up an NGO in Eastern Nigeria. He is an honorary chief of the Igbo people. He had limited knowledge of the country's civil war until he wrote a short dissertation on the subject in 2000. He subsequently read for a PhD in African History at SOAS, focusing on the Biafran War. This book is the result of his research into the conflict.

“An outstanding account and analysis of the Nigerian Civil War. Its profound research is based on unique personal interviews with many of the principal participants and on archival and other primary sources, which no other author has been able to access. Gould's outstanding study concludes with important interpretations of Biafra's longevity and how far genocide was a reality or a myth, along with a notable appraisal of the history and impact of the two leaders, the whole supported by a powerful bibliography. This is a brilliant history of the Nigerian Civil War (aka Biafran War) and, forty years later, stands as the best analysis yet to be published.” - Anthony Kirk-Greene

Speakers include: Kaye Whiteman, Frederick Forsyth and Dipo Salimonou
Chair: Professor Dennis Judd