Surviving Biafra A Nigerwife's Story [Hardcover]

In 1961, Rosina 'Rose' Martin married John Umelo, a young Nigerian she met on a London Tube station platform, eventually moving to Nigeria with him and their children. As Rose taught Classics in Enugu, they found themselves caught up in Nigeria's Civil War, which followed the 1967 secession of Eastern Nigeria--now named Biafra. The family fled to John's ancestral village, then moved from place to place as the war closed in. When it ended in 1970, up to 2 million had died, most from starvation. Rose ('worse off than some, better off than many') had kept notes, capturing the reality of living in Biafra--from excitement in the beginning to despair towards the end.

Immediately after the war, Rose turned her notes into a narrative that described the ingenious ways Biafrans made do, still hoping for victory while their territory shrank and children starved by the thousand. Now anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird contextualizes Rose's story, providing background on the progress of the war and international reaction to it. Edited and annotated, Rose's vivid account of life as a Biafran 'Nigerwife' offers a fresh, new look at hope and survival through a brutal war.

Umelo's harrowing account does not exoticize . . . she captures the reality of living in Biafra - from the early excitement to the bitter end. Surviving Biafra takes its place in a valuable corpus of grassroots accounts . . . Putting ordinary people to the fore, it reminds us that women often pay the greatest price in war. --The Times Literary Supplement

'A captivating account of Nigeria's war. Having heard the voices of a cross-section of Igbo and Nigerian women, we welcome the voice of a woman from across the seas who lived through the tragedy with us.' -- Egodi Uchendu, Professor of History, University of Nigeria and author ofWomen and Conflictin the Nigerian Civil War

'Rosina Umelo, an English teacher married to a Biafran, lived thls