Biafra

The Biafra empire was an area in western Africa that spanned the region in modern day Camerron and stretched all the way to the Niger river in modern day Nigeria. Across the river, further west was the ancient Kingdom of Benin which sprawled all the way to Dahomey. To the north was the Yoruba kingdom, which also shared borders with Dahomey and spanned north to the land of the Hausas.

These empires and kingdoms thrived and conducted trade for thousands of years. They also had their various systems of government similar to modern day democracies.

When the first Europeans discovered Africa, they documented the areas discovered in maps dating back to the 1500s and each of them referenced Biafra in various forms; from Biafar, to Biasar, and even Biafara. The Evolution of the Map of Africa at Princeton University Library documents the period from 1554 to 1880. In the 1800s, [maps] referenced her as Biafra.

The disintegration of these structures, empires and kingdoms began after the Berlin Conference of 1844, which sought to colonize, partition and regulate Africa among fourteen European countries and the United States. Known as the Scramble for Africa, it was a period between 1885 and 1910, during which European countries were competing for control of Africa's territories and resources.

By the early 1900s, the entire face and map changed to what it looks like today; with countries and borders created by the colonialists without regard for the diverse differences in cultures, languages, religions and traditions of the indigenous peoples.

Shortly after Nigeria was created by the British, Biafra disappeared from the map of Africa. Most of the other kingdoms survived, for example Benin kingdom, Yariba (Yorubas), Ethiopia, Gold Coast (Ghana), Dahomey (Togo, Benin), Ivory Coast, etc.

The Kingdom of Biafara, map by John Speed (1676)

Map of Africa (Abraham Ortelius, 1584)

Map of West Africa (Rigobert Bonne (Royal Cartographer of France) 1770)

Map of West Africa (1839); Biafra is shown in the region of "Lower Guinea"

French map of the Gulf of Guinea from 1849

A satellite image of the former Republic of Biafra

Roundel of the Biafran Air Force.

New Nigerian newspaper page, 7 January 1970. End of the Nigerian civil war with Biafra. "Owerri is now captured. Ojukwu flees his enclave." Photographs of the military Obasanjo, Jallo, Bissalo, Gowon.

A child suffering the effects of severe hunger and malnutrition during the Nigerian blockade