Chinua Achebe's Biafran Story

Abstract

Chinua Achebe has been the most celebrated of all African writers. In Achebe criticism, however, there has always been a sore thumb: the place and meaning of Biafra for him and his work. With the emergence of his Biafran war memoir 'There Was a Country' more than forty years after the end of the conflict, the significance of that cataclysmic experience for Achebe can now be finally evaluated. This essay provides that assessment by exploring the memoir alongside two little-recognised pieces of writing produced by Achebe during the conflict itself, including Biafra's defining political manifesto, 'The Ahiara Declaration' for which Achebe has revealed he was the lead author. In this sense the article breaks significant new ground in terms of the understanding of Achebe as a thinker and writer.