Биафра: возрождение и распространение сепаратизма

Восток. Афро-азиатские общества: история и современность. 2021. № 5. С. 180–190.

Костелянец С. В., Денисова Т. С.

The weak cohesion of African societies, predetermined by their ethnic, linguistic
and religious heterogeneity, leads to a great propensity for the spread of separatist sentiments
in Africa. The overwhelming majority of existing scholarly works note the continent’s tendency
towards separatism and irredentism. Indeed, the number of separatist movements in Africa is
constantly growing; currently there are more of them than there were in the first postcolonial
decades, although only a few of them have been “successful”.
The present paper analyzes the reasons for the revival of a secessionist movement in
southeastern Nigeria several decades after the end of the 1967–1970 Biafran War. The authors
consider activities of separatist organizations that emerged in Biafra in the 2000s–2010s, the
reaction of the government of Muhammadu Buhari, and factors hindering the establishment of
a new “sovereign state” in the region. The relevance of the present paper is determined both by
the growing threat of separatism in Africa and by the lack of research on the current situation in
Biafra in Russian-language literature.
The authors employ theoretical-analytical and systemic-historical methods to analyze the
threat of separatism in Nigeria and conclude that the creation of a new “Republic of Biafra” will
remain a utopian project for at least the next decade, yet separatist sentiments will spread and
hinder the achievement of internal political stability in the country, which is already experiencing
conflicts due to the activities of Boko Haram, tensions between farmers and pastoralists in the
Middle Belt, and militancy in the Niger Delta.

Keywords: сепаратизм, separatism, национальная безопасность, Нигерия, Nigeria, national security, Biafra, Биафра

Publication based on the results of: Anthropology of Socio-Cultural Systems: Historical Dynamics and Regional Variability (2021)