Wole Soyinka Returns
to Biafra
           

In 1967, a renowned Nigerian writer attempted to stop civil war from breaking out in his country. He failed. Forty years later, we listen to Wole Soyinka’s Return to Biafra.
PART 1




Four decades ago, a region of Nigeria declared independence. But Biafra’s sovereignty didn’t last long. Over a million people died in the conflict, from the fighting and from famine. Images of starving Biafran children, with distended bellies from protein deficiency, horrified people around the world. Nobel Prize winning Nigerian author Wole Soyinka takes us back to Biafra, and the events that precipitated the war.
PART 2



When Wole Soyinka tried to broker peace in his native Nigeria, he was instead imprisoned for more than two years, accused of supporting the Biafran separatists. He later went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. In this documentary produced for the BBC World Service, Wole Soyinka returns to Biafra to speak to key figures on both sides of the conflict, including the man who imprisoned him.
   

 

     
   
   










THE CHANGING WORLD is the sister documentary series of PRI's The World. Each week, we offer American radio listeners two in-depth documentaries from the BBC World Service that probe issues critical to our understanding of our evolving world.
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