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Surviving Biafra: A Nigerwife's Story
In 1961, Rosina 'Rose' Martin married John Umelo, a young Nigerian she met on a London Tube station platform, eventually moving to Nigeria with him and their children. As Rose taught Classics in Enugu, they found themselves caught up in Nigeria's Civil War, which followed the 1967 secession of Eastern Nigeria--now named Biafra. The family fled to John's ancestral village, then moved from place to place as the war closed in. When it ended in 1970, up to 2 million had died, most from starvation. Rose ('worse off than some, better off than many') had kept notes, capturing the reality of living in Biafra--from excitement in the beginning to despair towards the end.
Immediately after the war, Rose turned her notes into a narrative that described the ingenious ways Biafrans made do, still hoping for victory while their territory shrank and children starved by the thousand. Now anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird contextualizes Rose's story, providing background on the progress of the war and international reaction to it. Edited and annotated, Rose's vivid account of life as a Biafran 'Nigerwife' offers a fresh, new look at hope and survival through a brutal war.
Immediately after the war, Rose turned her notes into a narrative that described the ingenious ways Biafrans made do, still hoping for victory while their territory shrank and children starved by the thousand. Now anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird contextualizes Rose's story, providing background on the progress of the war and international reaction to it. Edited and annotated, Rose's vivid account of life as a Biafran 'Nigerwife' offers a fresh, new look at hope and survival through a brutal war.
255 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2018
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About the author
S. Elizabeth Bird
8 books1 followerS.E. (Elizabeth) Bird is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 1, 2019
I loved reading Surviving Biafra: A Nigerwife's Story. I am also a Nigerwife and I was in Biafra, though I left 15 months into the war. Rose Umelo is a hero and a trooper! She exhibited strength and loyalty throughout. Her ability to make the best of each situation was amazing. And her determination to help others as much as possible was admirable. I will try to get in touch with her. I know Liz Bird who wrote the surrounding material brilliantly. A great read for those interested in wartime survival, grit and determination, and living in unusual circumstances!
December 23, 2022
4.5🌟
If you could only read one book on the Biafran war then let it be this one.
Before reading, I had assumed that this memoir covers the 1967 Asaba massacre because the author was described as a ‘Niger’ wife, which I understood to mean the wife of a Niger Deltan, but eventually came to understand as the term for describing foreign nationals who are married to Nigerian men. In Rosina’s case, her husband was Igbo, and she discussed her experience within the confines of some towns that can be found in present day Anambra and Enugu states.
Between Elizabeth’s articulate summary of the events leading up to the war and Rosina’s colorful and extremely detailed prose, there’s so much to appreciate about this book. Especially as someone whose most memorable stories about the Biafran war were primarily derived from works of fiction such as CNA’s Half Of A Yellow Sun and Chukwuemeka Ike’s Sunset In Biafra, reading this certainly helped to put a lot of things into perspective.
Speaking of fiction, Rosina’s Memoir also made me think a lot about Take What You Can Carry by Giar Sardar, which I recently finished as well. Even though it is fictional, it is very similar to this on the grounds that it follows a female foreign National who follows her lover to his home country and gets caught in the crossfire of political unrest, yet chooses to stay when she could have fled.
If you could only read one book on the Biafran war then let it be this one.
Before reading, I had assumed that this memoir covers the 1967 Asaba massacre because the author was described as a ‘Niger’ wife, which I understood to mean the wife of a Niger Deltan, but eventually came to understand as the term for describing foreign nationals who are married to Nigerian men. In Rosina’s case, her husband was Igbo, and she discussed her experience within the confines of some towns that can be found in present day Anambra and Enugu states.
Between Elizabeth’s articulate summary of the events leading up to the war and Rosina’s colorful and extremely detailed prose, there’s so much to appreciate about this book. Especially as someone whose most memorable stories about the Biafran war were primarily derived from works of fiction such as CNA’s Half Of A Yellow Sun and Chukwuemeka Ike’s Sunset In Biafra, reading this certainly helped to put a lot of things into perspective.
Speaking of fiction, Rosina’s Memoir also made me think a lot about Take What You Can Carry by Giar Sardar, which I recently finished as well. Even though it is fictional, it is very similar to this on the grounds that it follows a female foreign National who follows her lover to his home country and gets caught in the crossfire of political unrest, yet chooses to stay when she could have fled.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews