This stunning narrative
marked the turning point in the writing career of Frederick Forsyth, who
subsequently wrote The Dogs of War and The Day of the Jackal.
Previously, Forsyth had been a journalist but his book on Biafra marked
his remarkable debut as an author. Largely forgotten today, Biafra was a
breakaway province of Nigeria and the scene of a bloody civil war in
the 1960s. Biafra’s population largely consisted of the minority Ibo
people, who were in revolt against Nigeria’s majority Hausa and Fulani
people. While the world community today looks with more favor on
secessionist regimes, in the 1960s, both East and West united against
Biafra, with only France providing assistance to the rebels.Biafra’s
defeat was followed by a series of massacres by both official and
mutinous Nigerian troops, further compounded by disease and famine. This
disturbing work has been unavailable for 20 years, but now has come
back into print when its relevance to a world of civil wars and ethnic
cleansing is greater than ever. This narrative of Third World civil
strife and Great Power duplicity is made even more compelling by the
skills of a master storyteller.