A lively and readable account of the Biafran war, from Ojukwu's declaration of the independent State of Biafra in Enugu in 1967, the creation of a separate Biafran territory, identity and currency, and the military, diplomatic, and civil policies and struggles to defend the state. Odogwu's account contains many quotations from primary sources: court cases, interviews with intellectuals who joined the front-line, and from other parts of Nigeria and different persuasions including an interview with Wole Soyinka about the conflict. In the epilogue in 1985, the author wrote 'did not the war teach us a lesson in self-reliance, which is the spring-board of any nation aspiring to greatness...it is my hope that Nigeria is heading in the right direction of becoming a united nation within the comity of nations'. He intended to present a personal account of his experience of Biafra in the belief that Nigerians must also write Nigeria's history; and know about the past to interpret the present.