Biafra War

[SensibleLuxemburgist]

The Biafra War was an oddity in the Cold War. The Soviet Union and Great Britain ended up on the same side supporting the reactionary Yakubu Gowon regime against the equally reactionary Biafran rebels led by General Ojukwu, who did not represent any revolutionary national liberation movement but an artificially created destabilizing force born out of tribal differences a la Katanga so that the regional oil deposits may be more vulnerable to foreign interests. Meanwhile, France and other like-minded colonialists (Portugal, Rhodesia, Israel, South Africa) supported the Biafran rebels partially out of fraternal sympathy, partially out of a desire to exploit tribal divisions for the purpose of taking a part in the economic jackpot that a united Nigeria represented, and partially out of a wish to compete with the British for post-colonial influence in the West Africa region. In the end, the federal Nigerian government defeated the Biafran rebels at a great cost of human life after a bloody 3-year conflict from 1967 to 1970. What does the left generally feel for the Biafran rebels, the Yakubu Gowon regime, and/or for how the events in this relatively obscure Cold War conflict played out?

[waqob]

Actually Biafra was created because the Hausa (The ethnic group that had the most political power in Nigeria at the time) were oppressing the Igbo and there were many tensions between the Igbo and Hausa while the Yoruba just watched. Or at least , that's what I think I've read about the war.

[Hrafn]

Both sides were, obviously, quite awful. From a historical point of view, very interesting conflict. I've always found unrecognized/separatist states to be highly interesting.

[SensibleLuxemburgist]

Both sides were, obviously, quite awful. From a historical point of view, very interesting conflict. I've always found unrecognized/separatist states to be highly interesting.

Then why did the Soviet Union support the Federal Nigerian forces?

[Hrafn]

Then why did the Soviet Union support the Federal Nigerian forces?

It's the Cold War. They were obviously looking for geopolitical influence.

[SensibleLuxemburgist]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War

Three interesting aspects of this war:

1. Apparently, Tanzania and Zambia, with two notable African socialist and anti-colonial governments at the time of the war, supported the breakaway of Biafra despite the fact that Biafra was supported by colonial states like Rhodesia, France, South Africa, and Israel.

2. The Soviet Union and the United Kingdom were on the same side supporting the same people with military and political support despite the fact that they were opposing each other in other fronts (at the time the Soviet Union was supporting breakaway movements in the Arabian Peninsula from British colonial control in places like South Yemen with the Aden Emergency and Bahrain with the March Intifada).

3. Oddly, the Soviet Union in the heat of the Vietnam War is supporting a non-communist nation oppressing a weaker separatist nation much like the US was doing to North Vietnam. Perhaps social imperialism had reared a much uglier head in the past than I thought?

I'm telling ya, petroleum could really affect how nations oriented their foreign policy in the past as much as in our current global world.

Why this apparent irony?