Sammanfattning Intensiva fallstudier av dagspressens representationer av humanitära aktioner Biafra 1968 och på Afrikas horn 2011 möjliggör en jämförelse i hur skildringen av det svältande Afrika förändrats över tid. Uppsatsens syfte har, med denna komparativa ansats, fokuserat på hur den utrikesjournalistiska diskursen skapar Oss och de Andra. Detta har undersökts med följande frågeställningar: Hur framställs de behövande och de som hjälper? Legitimeras humanitära aktioner? I så fall: hur? Vad har detta med utrikesjournalistikens diskursiva praktiker att göra? Hur kan detta kopplas till ideologier, maktrelationer och kulturella värderingar i den sociokulturella kontexten? Med postkolonial teori har utgångspunkten varit att undersöka hur kolonialismen som ideologi, som en del av det svenska, kollektiva minnet, inverkar på journalistiken. Den empiri som ligger till grund för analyserna består sammanlagt av fyra publikationer från Dagens Nyheter som, med sin ledande ställning, representerar dagspressen. Två artiklar från vardera fall, Biafra 1968 och Afrikas horn 2011, har analyserats med kritisk lingvistik, för den textuella nivån av den mer övergripande metoden; kritisk diskursanalys, där dess teori ger text, i snäv mening, en särskild konstituerande funktion för hur vi ser på världen. Identiteten av Oss har gått från en gemenskap byggd på svenskhet till ett mer kapitalistiskt, västligt Vi som går över nationsgränser. Bilden av de Andra står relativt stabil från 1968 till idag då den maktfulla afrikanen framställs som ett hot och de maktlösa som en stum, anpassningsbar massa. Resultatet visar också att den berättelse som den medierade diskursen, med sin rituella funktion, både då och nu använder sig av de koloniala projekten som kontext för att förklara humanitära aktioner i det svältande Afrika. Detta görs genom att Vi, genomgående för det empiriska materialet, överordnas de Andra.

International humanitarian organizations played a prominent role in the Nigeria-Biafra War, but scholars have paid little or no attention to the humanitarian crisis in the war and the global humanitarian intervention that followed it. This thesis aims to fill a gap in the historiography of international humanitarian aid in the Nigeria-Biafra War by focusing on the Joint Church Aid (JCA), a consortium of Catholic and Protestant Churches that provided relief aid for the starving civilians in Biafra. This study of the JCA is broken down into three parts: the humanitarian impulse in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, the formation of the JCA and its relief organization, and the challenges of relief operation in Biafra. The research provides a window into understanding the complex nature of international humanitarian aid in political conflicts. This dissertation argues that the JCA’s humanitarian operation, though relatively successful, had unintended consequences. While the JCA aimed to provide relief for the starving Biafran population, it was interpreted by the Nigerian government as political support for a “rebellion.” Convinced that the humanitarian organizations engaged in arms dealings with the Biafran government, the Nigerian government intensified military counter-action against the relief operation. The Nigerian government refused to separate international humanitarian aid from the political objectives of the war hence starvation came to be seen as a legitimate instrument of warfare. On the Biafran side, however, there was an effort to separate international humanitarian aid from the politics and hostilities of the war. Consequently, humanitarianism became a deeply contested issue that brought the humanitarian agencies into direct conflict with the Nigerian government. This study contributes to the scholarship on international humanitarianism and the internationalization of armed conflicts in postcolonial Africa. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis explores the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and its implications for resolving Indigenous issues. This thesis focuses on Aboriginal title issues in British Columbia and the self-determination issues in Nigeria to consider the application of UNDRIP in different political and geographic contexts. It is important to look at both jurisdictions because of the historical similarities they share as well as the distinctions between them. Each nation has a particular history and experience with British colonization that has shaped how they interact with Indigenous nations. Yet Canada and Nigeria have responded differently to their own colonial histories. Interestingly, in 1969, Canada sent aid to provide food for the Biafrans in Nigeria during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 – 1970. The incident will be discussed in-depth in this thesis. Furthermore, in this thesis, I argue that the application of UNDRIP can enable for the elimination of the aboriginal title test to which Indigenous peoples in Canada are subjected in Canadian courts. I argue that the courts should apply UNDRIP principles in resolving aboriginal title claims. I also argue that Nigeria should adopt and implement UNDRIP to enable the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to exercise their right to self-determination. UNDRIP provides a form of recognition for Indigenous nations that leaves state territorial integrity in place. As such, IPOB exercise of the right to self-determination will not threaten Nigeria’s territorial integrity in accord with article 46 of UNDRIP. / Graduate / 2023-07-25

La guerre civile du Nigéria est l'un des rares conflits en Afrique à avoir fécondé une littérature si abondante.Romanciers, poètes, dramaturges et essayistes décrivent cette guerre dans leurs écrits selon la sensibilité qui leur est propre. Parmi eux se trouvent Cyprian Ekwensi et Ken Saro-Wiwa dont le rapport à cette guerre est mise en évidence dans l'écriture de ce phénomène. Chacun d'eux utilise des procédés qui rendent bien compte du désordre et du chaos engendrés par ce drame / Civil war in Nigeria is one of the prominent conflicts in Africa which raised so much inspiration from novelits, poets,playwrights and essayists among whom we find Cyprian Ekwensi an Ken Saro-Wiwa. Both writers depict this phenomenon with a specific language which shows the disorder and the chaos generated by this trgic event

This study has examined the implications of the internet for the IPOB movement, focusing on the extent to which it has empowered the movement to engage in collective action mobilisation, enhance identity construction, framing and discourses for an independent Biafran state against multiple forms of state repressions. The thesis adopted a flexible approach that incorporated three level analysis including a macro-level analysis, which looked at the socio political and institutional environment; a meso-level, which examined the organisational infrastructure; and a micro-level exploring how the social movement made sense of their reality. The thesis addresses the debate between technology and society, and between the agency and political opportunity structures in Nigeria. It discussed the radical and agnostic democratic potential of the internet for African social movements and the dialectic between Biafra activism and the socio-political rootedness of Nigerian democracy. This approach allowed for providing analogies and new perspectives from the research and interpreting implications of human action. The thesis has found inconsistent, sometimes contradicting, data on the implication of internet technology for the IPOB movement. While there is some clear and robust evidence suggesting that new media technology has enhanced the movement's capabilities to organise, coordinate and mobilise for Biafran cause on many levels. The study reveals some severe limitations in the appropriation of internet technology in IPOB’s collective action objectives. The implication of the findings is discussed.

This study has examined the implications of the internet for the IPOB movement, focusing on the extent to which it has empowered the movement to engage in collective action mobilisation, enhance identity construction, framing and discourses for an independent Biafran state against multiple forms of state repressions. The thesis adopted a flexible approach that incorporated three level analysis including a macro-level analysis, which looked at the socio political and institutional environment; a meso-level, which examined the organisational infrastructure; and a micro-level exploring how the social movement made sense of their reality. The thesis addresses the debate between technology and society, and between the agency and political opportunity structures in Nigeria. It discussed the radical and agnostic democratic potential of the internet for African social movements and the dialectic between Biafra activism and the socio-political rootedness of Nigerian democracy. This approach allowed for providing analogies and new perspectives from the research and interpreting implications of human action. The thesis has found inconsistent, sometimes contradicting, data on the implication of internet technology for the IPOB movement. While there is some clear and robust evidence suggesting that new media technology has enhanced the movement's capabilities to organise, coordinate and mobilise for Biafran cause on many levels. The study reveals some severe limitations in the appropriation of internet technology in IPOB’s collective action objectives. The implication of the findings is discussed.

The aim of the analysis in this essay will be divided into two cases. In the first, I will study the formation of a new State and why a geographic area of a country decides to make an secession. The focus will be on the secession of Biafra from Nigeria in 1967 and how the causes and explanations behind this secession, get in the Swedish literature as well as the international literature. In Case 2, I will use a explanation games, as a means to give pupils more understanding and to make it more clear, why a geographical area chooses to make a secession, and where I will use the secession of the Biafra from Nigeria as my example (Case 1). To more easily understand and answer  the question, why the geographical area of Biafra in south-eastern Nigeria chose to do an secession, I have chosen to study my Case 1 from a social and political context. The broader aim of this essay is, during the use of theories to search which role the ethnicity and the ethnic pattern had in the decisions of the Biafra to do an secession and create a new state. But also to explore the didactic elements and methods in history teaching, we as teachers can use, in order to more clearly describe and explain why a geographical area decides to do an secession? Results from case 1 showed that ethnicity was a motivation for me to respond to the social and political events in Nigeria and to be able to explain why Biafra chose to break away. There are other reasons, but to me it was ethnicity and ethnic pattern the main causes and it became an ethnic breakaway from the Biafra. In case 2 the explanations games, need not be the only method for the teacher to more clearly explain for example why Biafra chose to break away from Nigeria but it can be a way to understand more.

Recently new novels about the Biafra war have appeared, proving the ongoing impact of the Nigerian civil war on writers’ interest, and the importance of memory in our life. For all these reasons, I decided to write the present thesis on how memory function in a literary work. The objective is to analyse the literary representation of the Biafra war, with a special focus on individual and collective memory production through two fictional novels: Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Under the Udala Trees, by Chinelo Okparanta. In analysing the literary representations of Biafra in the light of memory studies, I have identified two levels of memory: literary characters’ memory and writers’ memory. Focusing on the level of the memory of the characters, I explored what the characters remember about the Biafra war both when the war is over and when it is still in progress, and what strategies they use to remember or to forget painful memories of the war.  What emerged through this first level of analysis is how Adichie and Okparanta have offered narratives focused not only on accounts of the war, but also on feelings and emotions. Moreover, the strategies of remembering and of forgetting represent tools of survival, and they are not in a relationship of exclusion. Focusing on the level of writers’ memory, I explored the perspectives used by Adichie and Okparanta to narrate and remember the Biafra war: a perspective from below, focused on ordinary people and on their daily lives; a female perspective which represents a novelty in a literary landscape dominated by male writers; the danger of a single story and its risk to create hegemonic narratives; the fictional perspective as a way to enrich a historical event with suggestive details fruit of writers’ imagination; the Afropolitan perspective and the greater openness of mind of the new generation of African writers.

The author makes a conceptualization of the term "cross border region" through eight structural

The aim of diploma thesis ,,Split of Sudan: Possible scenario for other African countries?" is to analyze internal and external causes of South Sudan's secession and to find out, if these causes have secessionist potential in the cases of Somaliland in Somalia and Biafra in Nigeria. Among the internal causes, we can find for example nationalism or human rights abuses, while the external causes are represented primarily by the role of international community. After South Sudan's declaration of indendence, many scholars what African countries were going to follow Sudan's scenario. For the same purpose, this thesis is aimed at analyzing the cases of Somalia and Nigeria or Somaliland and Biafra to be more precise. Somaliland has been de facto independent from Somalia since 1991 but it hasn't been recognized by any country yet. Although Biafra only exists on the paper, the local secessionist movement has been seeking an actualization of this political unit existing in the 1960s for many years now. First partial goal of this thesis is to analyze the secession of South Sudan according to set theories of secession and to create a hypothesis about suitable condiditons for other secessions. The rest of the thesis is dedicated to testing given hypothesis in the cases of Somaliland and Biafra.