Neo-Imperial Cold War? : Biafra's Franco-African Arms Triangle

Wyss, Marco (2024) Neo-Imperial Cold War? : Biafra's Franco-African Arms Triangle. The Journal of African History, 65 (1). pp. 47-65. ISSN 0021-8537

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Abstract

During the Nigerian Civil War, France became the main supplier of military assistance to the secessionist Biafra. In a neo-imperial pursuit to weaken the potential regional hegemon Nigeria, it secretly provided arms and ammunition to the Biafrans in collusion with Côte d'Ivoire and Gabon. Yet the driving force behind this Franco-African arms triangle was not the Elysée, but the Ivorian president Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Newly unearthed documentary evidence from French archives enables this article to break new historiographical ground: firstly, to show the Elysée's sheer reluctance to militarily assist Biafra and lack of a coherent policy in doing so; secondly, to confirm Houphouët-Boigny as the “mastermind” behind the arming of Biafra, as well as to identify his Cold War motivations; thirdly, to uncover Gabonese president Omar Bongo's increasing agency and influence in the scheme; fourthly, to demonstrate that it was the Ivorian and Gabonese presidents who transformed the arms triangle into a square by bringing the Rhodesians and, especially, the South Africans in; and, finally, to retrace the emergence and functioning of the “African-French” military assistance to Biafra at the policy level not only from Paris's, but also Abidjan's and Libreville's perspectives.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
The Journal of African History
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1202
Subjects:
?? côte d'ivoiregabonnigeriasouth africawest africazimbabwecivil warsimperialismmilitarypostcolonialhistory ??
ID Code:
224180
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
23 Sep 2024 14:35
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
11 Oct 2024 09:50