What to Read, and Why
Anti-Colonial Resistance
- Judith Van Allen, "Sitting on a Man: Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women" (1972) — The foundational academic account of the Women's War and the Igbo women's political traditions it expressed. Available in African Studies Review.
- Adiele Afigbo, The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria 1891-1929 (1972) — The standard account of the colonial system the Women's War challenged.
- Obaro Ikime, The Fall of Nigeria: The British Conquest (1977) — Broad account of British conquest including Igbo resistance.
- Don Ohadike, The Ekumeku Movement: Western Igbo Resistance to the British Conquest of Nigeria, 1883-1914 (1991) — The only book-length study of the Ekumeku resistance movement.
The Biafra War
- Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012) — The most significant literary and personal account of the war. Essential.
- Frederick Forsyth, The Biafra Story (1969) — Journalist's account written during the war. Partisan for Biafra; invaluable as contemporaneous witness.
- John Stremlau, The International Politics of the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970 (1977) — Academic account of the international dimensions — British and Soviet support for the federal government, French support for Biafra.
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) — Novel; the most widely read literary account of the war and its human cost.
- Obiora Udechukwu, What the Madman Said — Poetry of the Biafra war era.
Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Niger Delta
- Ken Saro-Wiwa, A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary (1995) — Written in detention before his execution. Primary source.
- Ken Wiwa, In the Shadow of a Saint (2000) — Son's memoir of father's activism and its costs.
- Jedrzej George Frynas, Oil in Nigeria: Conflict and Litigation between Oil Companies and Village Communities (2000) — Academic account of Shell's operations and the legal battles.
- Human Rights Watch, The Ogoni Crisis (1995) — Available at hrw.org. Contemporary documentation of the Abacha government's actions.
Contemporary Struggles
- Max Siollun, Nigeria's Soldiers of Fortune: The Abacha and Obasanjo Years (2013) — The military dictatorship era and the pro-democracy resistance.
- Chukwuemeka Eze, Biafra Revisited (2006) — Contemporary Igbo perspective on the self-determination question.
- Amnesty International, ENDSARS reports (2020-2021) — Documentation of the Lekki massacre and the broader ENDSARS crackdown. Available at amnesty.org.
- Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry, Report on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters (2021) — The official finding that soldiers killed protesters at Lekki.
General Igbo Political History
- Elizabeth Isichei, A History of the Igbo People (1976) — Standard history covering resistance across all periods.
- G. N. Uzoigwe (ed.), Visions of Nationhood: Prelude to the Nigerian Civil War, 1960-1967 (2011) — The political background to Biafra.
- Nnamdi Azikiwe, My Odyssey: An Autobiography (1970) — The independence-era nationalist leader's own account.
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