Since the publication of Destination Biafra by Buchi Emecheta in 1982, many Nigerian writers have made contributions to Biafran War literature. Thirty years on, Emecheta’s novel continues to stand out for its ambitious and distinctive approach to transforming collective memory into a fictionalized Biafra story.
In 1968, when Nigerian troops attacked the residents of Buchi Emecheta’s hometown, Igbuzor in Delta State (formerly part of the Mid-Western region), Emecheta was living in the UK, in a London council flat, and working at the British Museum. When her niece, named after her, died of starvation in a CMS refugee centre in Biafra, Emecheta likely had no idea; she received no communication from her brother over the course of the Biafran war. By 1974, Emecheta was collecting memories from friends and relatives for her fictional retelling of the Biafra War.
Emecheta was unique among the major Nigerian writers of her generation because of her long-term residence outside the country. When she wrote about Nigerians and Nigeria, she used memory—hers and others’—as a primary source. This process of research and memory farming is most evident in her 1982 novel, Destination Biafra. In the introduction to the book, Emecheta mentions a research trip to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and states that the novel is ‘guided by the memories of living and dead relatives and friends’...
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