The Biafra Story: The Making of an African Legend

The Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s was one of the first occasions when Western consciences were awakened and deeply affronted by the level of the suffering and the scale of atrocity being played out in the African continent. This was thanks not just to advances in communication technology but to the courage and journalistic skills of correspondents such as Frederick Forsyth, who had already earned an enviable reputation for tenacity and accuracy working for Reuters and the BBC. In The Biafra Story, his first book, the Author took a strongly Biafran stance, revealing the depth of the British Government's active involvement which many would have far preferred to remain secret. Genocide is not a pretty word but there is no other way to describe General Gowon's treatment of the Biafran people, facilitated by a ready supply of British arms and advice. That Forsyth had the courage to take on The Establishment surprised none who knew him then