Remembering the Asaba Massacre in Nigeria

Realms of Memory

In October 1967 Nigerian federal troops slaughtered hundreds of innocent civilians in the town of Asaba. Elizabeth Bird, anthropologist and professor emerita at the University of South Florida, argues that the Asaba Massacre wasn’t just one of the many atrocities committed during the Nigerian Civil War. It was a pivotal event that prolonged a conflict that claimed over a million lives. What were the causes of the Asaba Massacre? How did it prolong the war? How did it affect the lives of the people of Asaba and how it has been remembered? Liz Bird, co-author with Fraser Ottanelli of The Asaba Massacre: Trauma, Memory, and the Nigerian Civil War, provides answers to these questions.