Before the war
Amalgamation
Britain joins its Northern and Southern Nigeria protectorates into one colony, under Frederick Lugard, for administrative convenience. Nobody asks the people.
The Women's War
Igbo women in Aba and across the east rise against colonial taxation; dozens are shot. The east's tradition of saying no is older than Nigeria.
Independence
Nigeria becomes independent as a federation of three regions, north, west and east, each dominated by one people.
First coup
Young officers, mostly Igbo, overthrow the government, killing the prime minister and the premiers of the north and west. General Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo, takes power.
First killings
Riots in northern cities after Ironsi's unification decree; hundreds of Igbo residents are killed.
Counter-coup
Northern officers kill Ironsi. Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon becomes head of state.
The pogroms
Igbo civilians are massacred across the north; estimates run from 8,000 to 30,000 dead. Over a million flee to the east.
Aburi
Nigeria's military leaders meet in Aburi, Ghana, and agree a loose confederation. The federal side does not implement it.
Twelve states
Gowon divides Nigeria into twelve states, splitting the east and cutting it off from the oil.
The war
Biafra declared
Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu proclaims the Republic of Biafra at Enugu.
War begins
Federal troops cross the northern border of Biafra in what Lagos calls a police action.
Midwest offensive
Biafran forces cross the Niger, take Benin and reach Ore, then are pushed back.
Asaba
Federal troops massacre hundreds of Igbo men and boys at Asaba after summoning the town to a welcome parade.
Enugu falls
The Biafran capital moves to Umuahia.
Recognition
Tanzania, then Gabon, Ivory Coast, Zambia and later Haiti recognise Biafra. No major power does; Britain and the Soviet Union arm Nigeria; France covertly arms Biafra.
Port Harcourt falls
The blockade is complete. The famine begins in earnest.
The world sees
Photographs of starving children reach Europe and America; the church airlift from São Tomé begins.
Owerri falls
Aba and Owerri are taken by the Third Marine Commando Division.
Umuahia falls
Three days later Biafra retakes Owerri, which becomes the last capital.
Bruce Mayrock
An American student sets himself on fire outside the United Nations in protest at the famine.
Ahiara Declaration
Ojukwu sets out Biafra's principles at Ahiara, near Owerri.
Red Cross plane shot down
Nigeria downs a Swedish Red Cross DC-7 and bans Red Cross night flights; the churches fly on.
Owerri falls again
Operation Tail-Wind splits the enclave.
The end
Ojukwu flies to Ivory Coast; Philip Effiong announces the surrender on 12 January and signs it in Lagos on the 15th. One to three million are dead.
After
No victor, no vanquished
Gowon's phrase and the three Rs: reconciliation, rehabilitation, reconstruction.
Twenty pounds
Bank accounts in the former Biafra are settled at a flat twenty Nigerian pounds each. Biafran currency is worthless.
Abandoned property
Igbo-owned houses and businesses in Port Harcourt are taken into state custody as abandoned.
Indigenisation
The Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree transfers foreign businesses to Nigerians with capital. The east has none.
Gowon overthrown
Murtala Mohammed, then Obasanjo, take power.
Ojukwu returns
Pardoned by President Shagari after twelve years in Ivory Coast.
MASSOB
Ralph Uwazuruike founds the non-violent Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra.
History dropped
Nigerian history is removed from the school curriculum; it returns only in 2022.
Radio Biafra
Nnamdi Kanu begins broadcasting from London.
Ojukwu dies
In London. His state funeral in March 2012 draws millions.
IPOB
The Indigenous People of Biafra is founded around Radio Biafra.
Kanu arrested
In Lagos, on arrival from London.
Aba
Security forces kill at least seventeen people at a gathering at a school in Aba.
Nkpor
At least sixty killed at Biafra Remembrance Day events near Onitsha. Amnesty documents 150+ killed in a year.
Bail
Kanu is released on bail.
Python Dance II
The army raids Kanu's home; IPOB is proscribed on 20 September; Kanu disappears.
Israel
Kanu resurfaces in Jerusalem.
ESN
Kanu announces the Eastern Security Network.
Rendition
Kanu is seized in Kenya and flown to Nigeria; in court in Abuja on 29 June.
Sit-at-home
The first Monday shutdown across the south-east.
United Nations
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention calls his detention unlawful.
Court of Appeal
Discharges Kanu; the government refuses to release him.
Supreme Court
Reverses the discharge and orders the trial to continue.
The election
The south-east votes overwhelmingly for an Igbo candidate; the result is disputed nationally.
Ekpa arrested
Simon Ekpa is arrested in Lahti, Finland.
Biafra Rising
My mother and I publish our book.
Life
Kanu is convicted of terrorism and sentenced to life imprisonment in Abuja.