| P a g e - 236 International Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies Website: https://www.ijahss.in/ ISSN(Online): 2582-3647 Volume 4; Issue 1; Jan-Feb 2022; Page No. 236-245 Open Access Original Paper Minority Voices in Nigerian Civil-War Literature Peter Emuejevoke Omoko (Ph.D) Department of English, University of Africa ABSTRACT There are always divergent viewpoints in the interrogation of historical materials with regards to literary productions. This notion may derive essentially from the Urhobo proverb that „the enjoyment one gets from a great festival is often determined by the homestead one visits‟; not downplaying the purpose and expectation of the person attending the festival. Although war and other conflicts that pitched people against themselves and /or institutions may serve as a leitmotif for creative works, the portraiture of such experiences, both physical and psychological, may differ from the viewpoints of the writers especially those from either side of the war divide. The Nigerian Civil-War of 1967 to 1970, no doubt, has produced more literary works and memoirs than any other socio-political upheavals since Nigerian attainment of political independence from the British in 1960. Many of the literary expressions of the Nigerian Civil War explore various themes and horrors of the war from different perspective, some from the viewpoints of the victims (Biafran, Igbo) and others from the angle of the perceived victors (the Federal Government). Scholars of Nigerian Civil-War narratives have also examined the literary productions that derive from the war from the above perspective even though their position may only establish the universal truth that constitute the aesthetic fulcrum of the Nigerian war literature. Little attention has been paid to the minority voices whose manner of engagement is different from the body of works that derive from the established canon of the war narratives. This essay, therefore, examines the minority voices in the works of writers who, because of their ethnic affiliation in the Nigerian polity, were not active participants in the war but are caught up in the web of the conflagration that defined it. It adopts the postcolonial literary theory to describe the condition of the marginalised minorities within a supercentre of hegemonic forces. It exposes the authors‟ emotions and sympathies on the ideologies of the war and also foregrounds the inherent metaphors, traumatic images and existential appurtenances on which the minority groups in Nigeria sought out their existence in the midst of the war. Keywords: Minority Voices, Nigeria, Civil-War narratives, Nigerian Literature. Citation: Peter Emuejevoke Omoko (2022). Minority Voices in Nigerian Civil-War Literature. International Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies, 4(1), 00-00. INTRODUCTION If an artist is anything he is a human being with heightened sensibilities; he must be aware of the faintest nuances of injustice in human relations. The African writer cannot therefore be unaware of, or indifferent to, the monumental injustice which his people suffer [1] The above statement is a fitting prologue to the indices that constitute the discourse of the Nigerian civil war, 51 years after, as recreated by writers donning the gab of „minority‟ in the Nigerian creative firmament. The literature of every epoch bears testimonies to the appurtenances of that epoch. The writer, often times, source materials for his creative enterprise from the pool of events – whether major or minor as it might be – to advance his sensibilities about such periods as they concern man in a society that is always fraught with wars, oppression, exploitation, deprivation, poverty and mindless killings. Depending on the precinct from which a writer views the world or draws his inspiration, there must be an underlying goal; either to uphold artistic truth or to distort it to suit certain perceived caprices. Europe and America, for instance, produced a significant body of literature to justify their involvement in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade of the 18 th and 19 th centuries. Colonialism, that succeeded it, is another case in point. Thus, from the myriads of materials before the artist, he has the liberty to his choice; what material to use, the one to discard – the overall goal of his enterprise being the driving force of his art. This choice, Osundare [2] believes, is “intensely influenced by aspiration, [and] the social-ideological goal of the artistic reality”. Gboyega Kolawole and Sule Egya support this view when they affirm that the writer, “in spite of his/her individual assertions, understands that he/she primarily belongs to his community and his/her art is in the service of that community” (139). It goes without saying, therefore, that in all the works that may have been churned out to represent the body of Nigerian war literature, none can be said to represent the universal truth that constitute the fulcrum of the War. Hence, this literature has variously been labelled under such rubrics as “Federal Voices…”, “Biafran Voices…” [3] and now this